The document outlines the development and organization of classical empires from 600 BCE to 600 CE, highlighting key states such as the Persian, Roman, and Han empires, and their political systems, trade practices, and social hierarchies. It discusses the administrative methods used by these empires and examines their economic and social dimensions, including labor systems and family structures. The document also analyzes the factors leading to the decline and transformation of these empires, including environmental issues and social inequality.

1. Development of States and
Empires
AP World History
Key Concept 2.2
Organization and Reorganization
of Human Societies
600 BCE to 600 CE

2. What were the common
characteristics among the
Classical Empires?

3. 2.2.I Key States and Empires
Where were the key states and empires in the
Classical Period?
● Southwest Asia:
Persian Empires
● East Asia: Qin and Han
Empire
● South Asia: Maurya
and Gupta Empires
● Mediterranean region:
Phoenicia and its colonies,
Greek city-states and
colonies, and Hellenistic
and Roman Empires
● Mesoamerica:
Teotihuacan, Maya city-
states
● Andean South America:
Moche

4. How did the Classical empires compare
in number and size?
Make notes about the
size, boundaries, and
location of each
classical empire.

10. 2.2.II Imperial Organization (Political)
How did states develop new ways of governing
the people and the land?
● Centralized governments
● Legal systems
● Bureaucracies
● Diplomacy
● Supply lines
● Roads, walls, fortifications
● Local military
● Currency
Examples
Make notes
about
illustrative
examples,
those specific
things, events,
people,
developments,
etc. that define
turns in history.
Persia
Greece
Rome
Han

11. Persia: Cyrus 580-529 BCE
• Tolerant ruler
• Allowed conquered peoples
to keep their institutions
• Greeks called him a “Law-
Giver” and the Hebrews
called him “Anointed of the
Lord”
• Allowed more than 40,000
Jews to return to Palestine

12. Cyrus’s Cylinder
• Found in Babylon
• Tells how Cyrus helped the people he
incorporated into the Persian Empire

13. Persia: Darius 526-485 BCE
• Established a tax-collecting system
• Divided the empire into districts called
SATRAPIES
• Built the great Royal Road system and also
created a standard monetary system adopted
by the Lydians
• Established a complex postal system.
• Created a network of spies called “the King’s
eyes and ears”

14. Persian Law
To seek the
promotion of
Persian Law, the
High Priests sought
to welcome the elite
of conquered lands
into secret societies
who were then
granted oversight
as "viziers" to the
Persian overlord.

15. Roman Law: The 12 Tables
• Roman law is the legal system
of ancient Rome, and the legal
developments spanning over a
thousand years of
jurisprudence, from the 12
Tables (c. 449 BC), to the
• Corpus Juris Civilis (AD 529)
ordered by Eastern Roman
emperorJustinian I.
• The historical importance of
Roman law is reflected by the
continued use of Latin legal
terminology in legal systems
influenced by it.

16. The Han Restore Unity
It’s the same old story.
• Liu Bang, the first Han
emperor, establishes
political and social stability
• After Liu Bang dies, his wife
seizes power from their
son through a palace plot
• Wudi continues Lui Bang’s
centralized policies and
expands the empire
through war
hausa.cri.cn

17. Highly Structured Government
• Han emperors use
bureaucracy to run the
empire
• Civil service job applicants are
tested on their knowledge of
Confucianism
• Top-down rule – each level of
bureaucracy has authority
over the level below flennoy10.wikis.birmingham.k12.mi.us

19. What new political methods were created in order to
rule the larger empires in the Classical Era?
• Administrative institutions
– centralized governments, elaborate legal systems,
and bureaucracies

20. How did imperial governments let their population
know that the government was “in charge?”
• Diplomacy; developing supply lines; building
fortifications, defensive walls, and roads
• Drawing new groups of military officers and
soldiers from the local populations or
conquered peoples
• Well trained and extensive military
– Military presence on Roman roads was so
extensive,
– Travel and trade were safer, much faster

21. Royal Road

24. What role did trade play in creating
and maintaining empires?
• Promotion of trade
and economic
integration by
– Building and
maintaining roads
and
– Issuing currencies.
– Colonies and
maritime trade

25. Greek & Phoenician
Colonization: 750-500 BCE

26. Trade Routes

27. Phoenicians
• Eastern Mediterranean
Canaanites (Greeks called them
Phoenicians)
• Manufacture and seaborne
commerce
• Purple dye from the murex snail
• Writing system – symbols for
sounds
• Conflict over territory and
resources with Greeks in the West

28. Port of Athens

29. Trade grew in Han period
• Agriculture basis of economy
• Growth of trade increased prosperity
• Led to contact between China, other
civilizations
Production of silk
• Most prized Chinese product
• Secret method for making silk
• Revealing secret punishable by death
Han products
• Ironworkers made iron armor, swords
• Artisans made pottery, jade and
bronze objects, lacquerware
Major industry
• Raised silkworms, unwound threads of
cocoons
• Dyed threads, wove into fabric
• Fabric beautiful, soft, strong
• Clothing costly, in high demand
Trade

30. Delian League
• By 479 BC, Greeks defeated Persians on land in
Asia Minor and stopped their advance.
• Athens emerged from the war as the most
powerful city-state in Greece.
• To continue the struggle against Persia, it
organized the Delian League, an alliance with
the other Greek city states.
• Athens dominated the Delian League and used
its wealth to create an Athenian empire.

31. What techniques did Classical empires use
to administer their territories?
• What new political methods were created in
order to rule the larger empires in the Classical
Era?
• How did imperial governments let their
population know that the government was “in
charge?”
• What role did trade play in creating and
maintaining empires?
Summarize

32. 2.2.III Economic and Social
How did social and economic dimensions
develop in the Classical Period?
● Role of Cities
● Social hierarchies
● Labor management
(production of food)
● Rewards to elites
● Patriarchy
Examples
Persepolis
Athens
Rome
Chang’an
Corvee
Slavery

33. What function did imperial cities
perform?
• centers of trade, public
performance of
religious rituals, and
political administration
for states and empires
Rome (video next slide)
Athens
Chang’an (China)
Persepolis (Persian
ceremonial city)

35. The Rise of the Greek Polis
Athens
Naxos Corinth
Syracuse
Larissa
Eboea

36. Athens
The City Pericles Built
❑ Direct Democracy – Citizen assembly
voted directly on laws
❑ Huge construction projects – Acropolis
and Parthenon rebuilt
❑ Emphasis on arts, architecture,
philosophy and medicine

37. What social classes & occupations were
common in empires?
• empires displayed hierarchies that included
cultivators, laborers, slaves, artisans,
merchants, elites and caste groups.
• range of labor systems to maintain the
production of food and provide rewards for
the loyalty of the elites including corvée,
slavery, rents and tributes, peasant
communities and family and household
production

39. Other Classes
• Third class composed of artisans, made useful items, luxury goods
• Merchants occupied fourth class, trade not valued by Confucianism
• Slaves at bottom of society
• Military not an official class, but part of government and offered way to rise in
status
Social Structure
• Han society highly structured, clearly defined social classes
• Emperor at top, ruled with mandate from heaven
• Upper class of palace court, nobles, government officials, scholars
• Second largest class consisted of peasants, who grew empire’s food
Han Society

40. Social Classes under the Han
Emperor
Governors
and Kings
Nobles, Scholars,
and State Officials
Peasants (Farmers)
Artisans and Merchants
Soldiers
Slaves

41. The Poor
• Custom dictates that family land
is divided equally among the
male heirs
• If men cannot buy more land, the
shares become smaller
throughout the generations
• Small plots are hard to feed
families
• Small farmers go into debt

42. The Rich
• Large landowners were not
required to pay taxes
• The more land they
acquired, the more the tax
base decreased
• Poor are taxed more
• Gap between rich and poor
increases
trocadero.com

43. What labor systems provided the
workers for Classical Empires?
• Rome
– Wide spread use of slave labor from conquered
territories
– Slave labor forced small farmers out of business.
Led to mass unemployment and poverty.

45. Describe the gender and family
structures of Classical Era empires.
• Patriarchy continued to shape gender and
family relations in all imperial societies of this
period.
Paterfamilias

47. Han Gender Issues
• Confucian teachings place
women at home taking care of
their families
• Some women (upper class)
broke away from this
• Daoist and Buddhist nuns were
able to gain education and lead
lives away from their families
lukeduggleby.com

48. Roles of Women under the Han
Traditional Roles
• Confucianism limited
women to the home
and to subservience to
men (fathers, husbands,
sons)
• Women worked hard
for their families with
little reward
Women with Power
• Some women wielded
political power because
of court alliances
• e.g., Empress Lu
• Nuns
• Educated
• Lived apart from
families
• Medicine practitioners
• Shop managers
• Writers
Paradox?
• Ban Zhao
• Helped finish her
father’s History of the
Former Han Dynasty
• Wrote Lessons for
Women
• Urged women to
obey the Confucian
social order
• Also encouraged
women to be
industrious
• Went against
convention by
writing
professionally

49. • Athens
• Government:
• Limited democracy (only male
citizens could participate), Council
of 500 which made the laws, voting
Assembly.
• Soldiers:
• Citizen soldiers – only during
wartime
• Slaves:
• No political rights or freedoms.
Owned by individuals
• Women:
• Cared for the home, limited
political rights.
• Education:
• Upper class boys only. Military
training and preparation for
government involvement.
Knowledge was important for a
democratic government.
• Sparta
• Government:
• Two kings (military generals) and a
council of elders. Citizens were
male, native born, over 30.
• Soldiers:
• Military society, all males prepared
to be soldiers from birth. Soldiers
from age 7 – 30.
• Slaves
• Owned by the State
• Women:
• Prepared physically for fighting,
right to inherit property, must
obey men.
• Education:
• Boys only. Military based training
from age 7. Taught to fight.
Prohibition against trade, travel
and mixing with other city-states.

50. What unique social and economic
characteristics existed in empires?
• What function did imperial cities perform?
• What social classes & occupations were
common in empires?
• What labor systems provided the workers for
Classical Empires?
• Describe the gender and family structures of
Classical Era empires.
Summarize

51. 2.2.IV Transformation of Empires
How did empires decline, collapse, and
transform into successor empires or states?
● Environmental
damage
● Concentration of
wealth
● Frontier conflicts
Examples
Han, Rome, Gupta
Deforestation
Han and Xiongnu
Gupta and Huns
Romans and
northern neighborsDeforestation in Roman Empire Slides

52. Causes: Creating Demand
• Building supplies
• Wood for fuel
• Clearing land for agriculture
• Grazing destroyed ability of trees for
reproduce
• Julius Caesar ordered troops to cut
down trees to avoid sneak attacks
• Ship-building was of economic and
military significance
• Expansion of urban areas

53. Deforestation in Cyprus
Copper ores in Cyprus
heavily exploited in Roman
times, but mines
functioned for about a
millenium. Estimated that
5-6 M tons of charcoal
(from coppice) used to fuel
smelting activities. Heavy
SO2
pollution may also
have killed trees.

54. Reasons for the Decline of the Roman Empire
Economic:
● Dependence on foreign products
● Traditional work ethic declined
● Decline of cities’ infrastructure
● Trade deficit
● The high cost of military, welfare and government
● Class economic warfare between rich and poor
● Unequal taxation
● The small farm disappears

55. Reasons for the Decline of the Roman Empire
Social:
● Invasions from Germanic tribes
● The expansion of slavery
● Decline in Roman civic duty
● Moral decay
● The decline of patriotism

56. Reasons for the Decline of the Roman Empire
Political:
● Problems of succession (the next emperor)
● Empire became too large for the government,
and reform came too little and too late
● Government became dominated by the rich and
military elites
● Citizens lost their interest in the government
● The military lost its prestige

57. Reasons for the Decline of the Han Empire
● Social:
○ Landholding elite held all of the power
○ Disease
● Political:
○ Political fighting between eunuchs, Confucian scholars
and nobles
○ Government corruption and bribery
○ Power in the hands of local landholders and governors
(decentralization)
○ Because of no centralized power, China was vulnerable
● Political and Social:
○ Only wealthy elite could gain political position

58. Reasons for the Decline of the Han Empire
● Cultural
○ Challenged by arrival of Buddhism
● Economic:
○ Crop failure, flooding
• -9 million die
○ Failure to implement land reform

59. Comparative Practice
For each …
1. List one similarity and one difference.
2. Provide three two examples for each item
(6 total).
How were the decline of the Roman Empire
and the Han Dynasty similar and different?

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