Chapter 3 State and Empire 9/24
What exactly is an empire? In the book it stated that they are statles, with political systems that exercise coercive power. Also, it is a variety of people and cultures within a single political systems. The empires stood out because they were so big, armies and tax collectors were hard to avoid, economic and artistic development, and cultural mixing. These empires defined masculinity. In this chapter, I read about certain city states. The first ones I read about were the Persians and Greeks.
The Persians were under the Achaemedid Dynasty, around 553-330 B.C.E. They constructed an imperial system. They were under Cyrus and Darius. The Persian governors were called Satraps. It had 23 provinces. They created the Royal Road. The Persians had an irrigation system, which leaded to a rich agricultutal economy. Their empire had imperial centers reflected wealth and power of their empire.
The Greeks, in contrast, their participiation in political life occured within it's city states. The Greeks were Into-European people around 750 B.C.E. They called themselves Hellenes, and the population ranged around 2-3 million, and a fraction of them were part of Persian empire. The area they lived in was divided by steep mountains and valleys. The Greek people established settlement all around the Mediterranean basin and the rim of the black sea. The lower class were small scale farmers had rights, which was good to read.
Next, Rome went from city-state to empire. It began on the western side of Italy. It originally ruled by a king, then Roman aristocrats threw off the monochary and established a republic where men of a wealthy class called "patricians", took over. The low-class were known as "plebeians" , and the law actually offered them some protection from abuse, which I found very interesting. Their growth of the empire represented opporunity. The center location in the Mediterranean basin provided a convenient launching pad for the empire. Overall the empire provided security and relative prosperity.
I learned some things about China. Their political philosophy was legalism, which referred to clear rules and harsh punishments.
The Roman and China empire were both interested in public works- roads, bridges, canals, protective walls, etc.. all used commerically and militarily. They both absorbed a foreign religious tradition- The Romans were Christian, and the Chinese practiced Buddhism.
They also had differences like Rome's beginning was a small city state, where the Chinese empire grew big and expanded more. Chinese represented words or ideas more than sounds, and the Romans had a few languages- Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian.
The Persians were under the Achaemedid Dynasty, around 553-330 B.C.E. They constructed an imperial system. They were under Cyrus and Darius. The Persian governors were called Satraps. It had 23 provinces. They created the Royal Road. The Persians had an irrigation system, which leaded to a rich agricultutal economy. Their empire had imperial centers reflected wealth and power of their empire.
The Greeks, in contrast, their participiation in political life occured within it's city states. The Greeks were Into-European people around 750 B.C.E. They called themselves Hellenes, and the population ranged around 2-3 million, and a fraction of them were part of Persian empire. The area they lived in was divided by steep mountains and valleys. The Greek people established settlement all around the Mediterranean basin and the rim of the black sea. The lower class were small scale farmers had rights, which was good to read.
Next, Rome went from city-state to empire. It began on the western side of Italy. It originally ruled by a king, then Roman aristocrats threw off the monochary and established a republic where men of a wealthy class called "patricians", took over. The low-class were known as "plebeians" , and the law actually offered them some protection from abuse, which I found very interesting. Their growth of the empire represented opporunity. The center location in the Mediterranean basin provided a convenient launching pad for the empire. Overall the empire provided security and relative prosperity.
I learned some things about China. Their political philosophy was legalism, which referred to clear rules and harsh punishments.
The Roman and China empire were both interested in public works- roads, bridges, canals, protective walls, etc.. all used commerically and militarily. They both absorbed a foreign religious tradition- The Romans were Christian, and the Chinese practiced Buddhism.
They also had differences like Rome's beginning was a small city state, where the Chinese empire grew big and expanded more. Chinese represented words or ideas more than sounds, and the Romans had a few languages- Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian.
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