Origins of Western Society · Medes (from Persia) destroyed the Assyrian Empire. As rulers of Mesopotamia, the Chaldeans founded the Neo-Babylonian empire. The Persians under Cyrus

Origins of Western Society

Associate Professor Amporn Tamronglak, Ph.D.Faculty of Political Science

Thammasat University

Timeline

1. From stone age to the agricultural age2. Early civilization

1) Mesopotamia and Egypt2) Greek civilization3) Persian4) Roman civilization

3. Middle Ages (A.D. 476-1453)4. The Renaissance5. The Development of Modern Economics

and Political Institutions

Early Civilization Timelines

1. From stone age to the agricultural age

• The bow and arrow• Agricultural age, about

11,000 years ago, human beings learned to control over land (through cultivation by hoe) and animals (through domestication of carrying, riding, pulling, and the systematic practice of egg gathering and milking) and the creation of permanent communities, changing the habits of moving around to live in a fixed community.

2. Early civilization (4,000 B.C.)

Issues:Issues: The need for sanitation and the problem of constant fightingMesopotamia (modern-day Iraq)

and EgyptGreek civilizationPersianRoman civilization

Mesopotamia and Egypt• Developed in Middle

East, run by the Sumerians

• Better methods of cultivation, creating surplus of food and improved sanitation conditions

• The cities developed with the purposes of administration, commerce, and entertainment

Mesopotamia is Greek for ‘a land between two rivers’ given the region by Alexander the Great. It has been called a “cradle of civilization.”

• Development of basic political institution, one (small group) provide protection, stability to those who were members in the units. The member needed to pay a certain percentage of their farm output to the leaders in return of their services and administration.

• As the size of the cities increased, the leader became the king, identified divinity, as god, who appointed the priests, the beginning of religious institutions.

The King-God

The Priests

peasants

Law & Order

• The Code of Hammurabi, by King Hammurabi was set up to govern the kingdom: An eye for an eye.

• The kingdom was overthrown by the Semites, less civilized and more warlike.

• The culture remained to the Sumerian, while another culture was flourishing in Egypt.

Before its unification, there were…

• Established by the Sumerians about 3500 B.C. on the Persian Gulf.

• About 2400 B.C. the Akkadians, who had settled in middle Mesopotamia, conquered both Sumer and Assyria.

• The Akkadian empire was destroyed two centuries later by a people known as the Guti.

• Babylonia, was founded in the lower valley by the Amorites, who adopted and preserved much of Sumerian-Akkadian culture. About 1790 B.C. Hammurabi, sixth monarch of the Babylonian dynasty, unified all Mesopotamia.

• Hittite raids in the 17th century B.C. ended Babylonian control. The Kassites moved into the lower valley and ruled the southern region for more than 400 years. Eventually a native people, the Chaldeans, gained control of Babylonia, but they were conquered in 729 B.C. by the Assyrians.

• In 689 B.C., Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, crushed a Chaldean revolt and sacked the city of Babylon. In 612 B.C. the allied Chaldeans and Medes (from Persia) destroyed the Assyrian Empire. As rulers of Mesopotamia, the Chaldeans founded the Neo-Babylonian empire. The Persians under Cyrus the Great defeated the Chaldeans in 539 B.C. and made Mesopotamia a part of their empire.

• Alexander the Great added Mesopotamia to his empire in 331 B.C. From 115 A.D. to 615 there was a constant struggle for northern Mesopotamia between the Persian and Roman (later Eastern Roman, or Byzantine) empires. The victorious Persians were in turn conquered by Arabian Muslims in 639–40. Thereafter Mesopotamian history merges with that of Persia, until Mesopotamia was annexed by the Ottoman Empire in 1638. The empire was dissolved after being defeated in World War I, and the country of Iraq was created in 1920.

Greek civilization• 700-500 B.C.• The Greek polis, a political

community, was originally an agricultural village, living politically independent: Sparta and Athens.

• With the economic development, trade, industry and colonization, the merchants class became wealthy and important.

• Conflicts between the ruling aristocracy and the tyrant.

What are the legacy of Greek civilization today?

Greek Legacy

Athens1.City state in

Ancient Greece 2.Valued education

and arts 3.Valued individual

expression4.Government was

a democracy

Sparta

1. City State in Ancient Greece

2. Valued obedience and military service

3. Valued the group4. Government was

an oligarchy

Persian Empire

• Developed in lower Mesopotamia by the Macedonians.

• Ruled by a king, with no polis, the Macedonians, led by Alexander the Great went on to win over Athens and other Greek city-states, including Egypt.

• After the Great King died of the unknown disease, the empire also collapsed, while Greek culture remained the legacy to modern society.

Roman civilization• Developed in the area,

called Italy nowadays, as late as 1,000 B.C. ago

• Governed by the elected king or Caesar.

• The ruler derived from the Senate with extraordinary power to run the empire.

• Class distinction based on wealth, contacts, and birth.

• Christianity became the state religion.

Roman influence today• Overran Greek civilization and incorporated it

into their own, including:-– The dominance of family– Political patronage– The network system of contacts for social and

professional advancement– The lure of city life– Engineering, law, political administration– Etc.

• Empire was later attacked from both the north and the south

GREEK and ROMAN

Middle Ages

Modern Age

The linking point between the old and the modern era

Associate Professor Amporn W. Tamronglak, Ph.D. 26

3. Middle Ages (A.D. 476-1453) Tribes from the Roman Empire wandered

around northern and the central Europe and the Roman culture spread the North, the technological, social, religious, and political structures.

Muslim culture also spread across North Africa, controlling the Mediterranean Sea and Europe’ s contacts with the Orient.

Europe was in isolation, leading to the settlement of the agricultural activity.


Administrative structure Feudal estate, ruled by a lord, worked

by serfs/peasants who were bound to a particular manor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCPp7XWZfHo&feature=related

Christianity continued to flourish. Struggle for power and wealth among

the local lords, the kings, and the church


With the influence of France and Germany on the administrative system with the representations from various classes (lords, church, peasants, and the townspeople), the manor concept declined.

The development of technological improvements in agriculture, the towns grew as well as the economies.

The decline of manor, the development of nation-state with separate countries, defined border, the same language and interests, etc.


Ancient World and Middle Ages Linkages

Ancient World Middle Ages

LatinCatholic Church


The End of Middle Ages


The fights for wealth and power continued between the English and the French, called the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453)

Along came the Black Death or bubonic plague, a disease transmitted by rats in the 1290s-1350, from country to country by commercial routes.

Quarrels within the church, who should set the policy? The church broken. Then came new ideas, Muslims


The discovery of the New World greatly expanded the boundaries of European expansion.

New technologies, such as the importation of gunpowder from China, and improvements to ship building, changed the face of warfare.

The solidification of national monarchies led to the development of international relations on a state level.


The New Beginning

Associate Professor Amporn W. Tamronglak, Ph.D.

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44. The Renaissance. The Renaissance• The new beginning or rebirth• Encouraging critical thinking, no

longer accepted the dictates of the church elders.

• The Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther challenged the pope’s absolute authority.


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55. Modern civilization. Modern civilization• The power of the lords decreased

as the king joined merchants to acquire more income from trade.

• Feudal system still existed, but not significant.

• The market economy, mercantilism, emerged. The merchants became powerful in the economy.


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NationNation--StatesStates• Growing of individual states and

trade, voyage to Africa (in search of gold) and India (in search of spices)

• Numbers of wars: French Wars of Religion, the Thirty Years’ War, etc.


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Industrial and political Industrial and political revolutionsrevolutions

• The Age of Revolutions: enormous economic and political changes

• Industrial revolutions: the invention of machine and the end of capitalism

• The American Revolution 1776, becoming United States of America

• The French Revolution 1789: the people took control

• WW I (1914-1918)• WW II (1939-1945):


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Industrial revolutionsIndustrial revolutions• Before the Industrial Revolution in

the 1800s, countries like Britain and the United States had true capitalist economies.

• With industrialization, came sweat shops, social protest and resulting government intervention in the form of fair labor laws.

• Real capitalism ended.


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What is capitalism?What is capitalism?• Capitalism rejects all government

intervention in economic matters.

• Believe in individualism that each human being is individually unique and valuable in pursuing self-interested goals.

• Today, it’s called mixed economies --they incorporate certain aspects of capitalism and certain aspects of planned economies



Homework on “Industrialization”

Work in a group of 5-6 persons. Find information and facts about Women,

Children, Factory Workers, Mine Workers and Factory Owners during the Industrial Revolution.

Make a list of five or six important facts about Women, Children, Factory Workers, Mine Workers and Factory Owners IN COMPLETE SENTENCES and do not copy.

Put your findings in a table.


Example of a table

Women

Children

Factory WorkersFactory OwnersMine Workers


Cautions!!!

Do not forget to put names, ID Nos. and Seat Nos.!!!!

If not provided, scores will not be rewarded. Due next Thursday.

Documents

Origins of Western Society · Medes (from Persia) destroyed the Assyrian Empire. As rulers of Mesopotamia, the Chaldeans founded the Neo-Babylonian empire. The Persians under Cyrus