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THE FOUNDATIONS OF WESTERN
CIVILIZATION
IN THE ANCIENT WORLD |
| An Overview: 8000 B.C. to 476 A.D. |
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| BIRTH OF CIVILIZATION |
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Humans first began to live in settled AGRICULTURAL
VILLAGES about 8000 B.C.In the valley of the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers (Mesopotamia) and the valley of the Nile in Egypt, these agricultural
societies made another shift to a more advanced form of organization called CIVILIZATION.
Here are the steps involved in the process:
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Irrigation
Food
Surplus
Writing
Arts Sciences
Literature
Religion |
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 | IRRIGATION
increased agricultural productivity and population growth.
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| A FOOD
SURPLUS supported non-farming specialists – artisans, merchants, priests,
and soldiers – and made possible the earliest cities.
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| The
need to organize these activities and to keep records led to the invention of WRITING.
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were great advances in the ARTS & SCIENCES, in LITERATURE,
and in the development of COMPLEX RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND ORGANIZATION.
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EARLIEST
CIVILIZATIONS |
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The earliest civilizations had powerful CENTRALIZED
GOVERNMENTS dominated by kings
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Centralized
Governments |
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The king's power, supported by RELIGIOUS
AUTHORITY, rested on CONTROL OF THE ECONOMY and the ABILITY
TO COLLECT TAXES.
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Mesopotamia, kings were considered to be representatives of the gods; in Egypt they were
considered to be DIVINE.
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| Their
control over the economy permitted them to RAISE, TRAIN, AND SUPPORT ARMIES.
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| Social Classes |
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concentration of political, military, economic, and religious power resulted in societies
that were divided into rigid SOCIAL CLASSES: slaves, free
commoners, priests, and aristocrats, as well as the divine or semi-divine monarchs.
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mobility and individual freedom were strictly limited.
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| Only a
handful of people took part in government.
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| PHOENICIANS |
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The cities of PHOENICIA,
in what is now Lebanon, produced great sailors and traders who came into early and
frequent contact with the Greeks.
| Through the Phoenicians, the Greeks learned the art of writing and were
influenced by the art, technology, and mythology of the earlier cultures.
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| Transmitted by the Greeks, the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt became
indirectly part of the Western heritage.
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| ISRAELITES |
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Neighbors of the
Phoenicians, called Hebrews or ISRAELITES, would have a direct influence
on the civilization of the West.
| They conceived a religion based on the belief in a single all-powerful God
who ruled over all peoples and the entire universe and made strong ethical demands on
human beings.
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| The religion of the Jews (the name comes from one of their kingdoms, Judah)
became the basis for two later religions of great importance: Christianity and
Islam.
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GREEK
CIVILIZATION |
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GREEK CIVILIZATION arose
after the destruction of the Bronze Age cultures on Crete and the Greek mainland before
1000 B.C. |
| Poleis |
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| Based on the independent existence of hundreds of city-states called POLEIS,
it developed a sharply different pattern than its predecessors in Egypt and western Asia.
| The poleis retained their autonomy for hundreds of
years before being incorporated into large units.
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| Consequently, they attained a degree of SELF-GOVERNMENT, BROAD
POLITICAL PARTICIPATION, and INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM unknown
elsewhere.
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New Way
of Thinking
Science
Philosophy
Literature |
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| The
Greeks also introduced a NEW WAY OF THINKING, looking on the world as the
product of natural forces that could be understood through the senses and HUMAN
REASON, rather than as the product of supernatural forces.
| The result was the invention of SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY.
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| Greek LITERATURE, focusing on humanity, had a great
variety of literary genres -- epic, lyric, and dramatic poetry, history, philosophy,
rhetoric, and fiction..
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| The Greeks' way of thinking, their forms of art and literature, and their
commitment to self-government and political freedom remain central to Western
civilization.
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ROMAN
CIVILIZATION
Republican
Constitution
Military
Discipline
Ingenious
Conquerers
Engineers and
Road Builders |
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The ROMANS were originally
tough farmers who inhabited a small town on the Tiber River in west-central Italy.
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deposing their king in about 500 B.C., they invented a REPUBLICAN CONSTITUTION
and a code of law that provided a solid foundation for a stable and effective political
order.
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| Constantly
at war with their neighbors, the Romans achieved MILITARY DISCIPLINE and
skills that allowed them to fight off attacks and to gain control of most of Italy by
about 270 B.C.
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| They
developed an INGENIOUS way of organizing the lands they conquered that
made the peoples of those lands allies and even
fellow citizens rather than subjects.
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| The
Romans were fine ENGINEERS AND ROAD BUILDERS, but in art, literature, and
philosophy, they had barely made a start when they came into contact with the advanced
Greek civilization of the Hellenistic world.
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GERMANIC
TRIBES
Byzantine
Empire
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Pressure from barbarian tribes on the
frontier, economic troubles at home, weak and incompetent emperors, and civil wars all
strained Rome's human and material resources.
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fifth century A.D., the Roman Empire in the west had collapsed and was taken over by
various GERMANIC TRIBES.
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| The
eastern portion of the empire, known as the BYZANTINE EMPIRE, with its
capital at Constantinople, was to survive for a thousand years more.
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| CHRISTIANITY |
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Before Rome's fall, the empire had
abandoned paganism and had adopted CHRISTIANITY as its official religion.
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CULTURAL
TRADITIONS |
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HERITAGE OF THE ANCIENT WORLD:
The heritage that the ancient world passed on to its medieval successor in western Europe
was a combination of cultural traditions, including those coming from Egypt, Mesopotamia,
Israel, Greece, Rome, and the German tribes that destroyed the Roman Empire.
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POWERPOINT
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| FOR
YOUR CONSIDERATION
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ONLINE
RESOURCES |
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:For more information on this topic, see
the following online resources:
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DISCUSSION
QUESTIONS |
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| How did
agriculture change the lifestyle of primitive man? Was the change from a hunting and
gathering society to an agricultural society completely advantageous?
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| Why did
the earliest civilizations have centralized governments? How was centralization
achieved?
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| How did
the the political organization of Greece differ from that of its predecessors in Egypt and
Mesopotamia? How do you account for these differences?
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| To what
extent was Greece's "New Way of Thinking" attributable to geographic factors? To
political and social factors?
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| Greece's
achievements were in the areas of art, literature, and philosophy while Rome's were in the
areas of law, military conquest, and engineering. How do you account for these
differences?
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| What
contribution did Christianity make to the Ancient World?
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