Emancipation Podcast Station

2.3 Continuation of Secondwave Civilizations

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600 BCE - 600 CE Early Americas:

  1. Skylar - The Mayan Civilization is one of the longest lasting civilizations in world history. It is believed that the Mayan Civilization began as early as 2000 BCE . The first city-states started as soon as 750 BCE. These city-states not only had a political leader but also a spiritual leader. In the north there was the Yucatan Peninsula and to the south  the Sierra Madre Mountain range. The Mayan civilization was where modern-day southeast Mexico is. The calendar the Mayans came up with was actually more accurate than the calendar Julius Caesar came up with.
  • Ella - Around 250 in the common era, there was a time known as the classical period. Around this period a lot of big cities came into place like Tikal and Calakmul. We believe that these cities had around 50,000 to 100,000 people at their best. Supposedly they were not one empire, but it was more separate like the greek city states, but still the bigger cities might have influenced some of the smaller states decisions.
  •  Gabe - Back to the calendar so the Mayan calendar actually said the earth started on August 11, 3114 bc and ended on december 22, 2012 and since we are now in 2018 it obviously didn't end and it didn't end because it was like a odometer so it rolls over from 000000 to 999999 and then back to 000000 so most people thought the world was going to end december 22, 2012 because that's when the Mayan calendar ended but it didn't end on August 11, 3114 bc the calendar was set at 000000 and on december 22, 2012 it changed back to 000000 so instead of ending it just reset
  • Emma - Between 300 and 600 AD a huge and extremely complex city called Teotihuacan existed northeast of what is now Mexico City. The name Teotihuacan was given to it by the Aztecs when the discovered it long after its fall. We actually have to written records or art from the city itself though through other archeological methods historians were able to determine that it likely was inhabited by around 200,000 people. People believe that it held direct power over the surrounding 10,000 square miles and used armies to colonize as far as 600 miles away.

    • 5.Hunter- The Maya, group of people who lived in Mesoamerica after the Olmec, lived in what is now southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, and El Salvador. Large Mayan cities started to rise throughout these areas, the local lords struggled for power and access to trade routes and goods.

    1. Audrey - Something that is different about the America’s from other civilizations is that in western South America now where Peru is wasn’t based around a river. Instead they had the humble current and the water had a bunch of nutrients so there were lots of fish for the people to eat and they could grow food.
  • Ben - The Nazca civilization was also a very interesting part of western america, around southwest peru. The nazca are famous for drawing things in the ground around a third of a kilometer in size (or over nine hundred fifty feet), these things were named the “Nazca Lines”. This was around 200 BCE.
  • Ethan - The early Andes were based around modern day Peru and Bolivia. Their society faced problems including that the mountain-based structure of the Andes was.

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    600 BCE - 600 CE Empires in India:

    1.Ella - The Maurya Empire was one of the greatest empires of world history. It emerged because a man by the name of Chandragupta Maurya conquered the nanda empire, many territories formerly conquered by Alexander the Great, and a large amount of land from the Greeks. Chandragupta eventually left his empire in the hands of his son bindusara.    

    2.Skylar - I’m going to talk about the Gupta dynasty. The gupta dynasty was started by Sri Gupta around 240. But didn’t become i guess you could say popular until about 320 when Chandragupta the first took over. Chandragupta was given some of the Gupta dynasty to control because he married princess Kumaradevi.

    (if someone has anything more to add on please do, didn’t want to take all the info)

    1. Gabe - I'm going to continue on the Maurya Empire bindusara ruled from 297 bc to 272 bc when he died this led to war bindusara's sons both wanted to be king Ashoka one of bindusara's sons won taking the empire and later on becoming the most successful and powerful ruler of the Maurya dynasty      
  • Emma - The Mauryans had a huge army consisting of 600,000 infantry, 30,000 Calvary, and 9,000 war elephants. This was the largest and strongest military force in the world in its time. This army was a great recourse for the Mauryan Empire And was a big factor in their ability to expand their territory and defend themselves from those who tried to attack.
  • Audrey - Unlike many other empires the Gupta Empire’s big thing wasn’t that they conquered a bunch of land it was because they could conquer and obtain that territory they had the power to sponsor a culture with art. This was called the Golden Age of India.
  • Ben - A few different important historical figures of the Maurya empire are Kalidasa and Aryabhata. I’ll start with Kalidasa, he was a incredibly skilled writer of the time and was mostly known for being the best writer that ever used Sanskrit. (the language they used) And Aryabhata was one of the first scientists that was able to calculate 5 digits of pi. He also knew that the earth rotated on an axis based on how he saw the sky move every day. He predicted how the moon reflected light from the sun.
  • Hunter- The large army was made possible slightly through the intricate web of administration. One of Chandragupta’s advisors instituted some detailed procedures which Ashoka inherited. Ashoka started a capital at the walled city of Pataliputra, which served as a centralized hub for the empire. Officials made decisions about how to collect taxes for the central treasury, which funded the military and other government jobs   

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    600 BCE - 600 CE Early Hinduism:

    1. Gabe - Hinduism was a polytheistic belief which is where they believed in more than one god a few hindu gods were agni indra shiva brahma vishnu and ganesha which these are regarded as the most important gods shiva is seen as the god of destruction and vishnu the god who creates stuff from shiva's destruction
  • Emma - Historically speaking, Hinduism is different from many other religions because there is no clear origin or originator of the practice of the religion. We do know that it started kooas a tradition in the upper class of the Aryan empire, which made it difficulta to access for the lower classes. However it was made more accessible and popular over time.
  • Ella - there was a civilization called the Indus Valley Civilization and it eventually collapsed for an unknown reason. It may have been a change in the weather that they couldn’t handle, or drying up of there water source that they relied on. Other possibilities are natural disasters or influence from surrounding civilizations.
  • Audrey - Hinduism is one of the oldest religions beginning about 5000 years ago. It shows some of the elements practice in the Indus Valley civilization and is still a practiced religion today.

    • 5.Hunter- During the Gupta empire from about 320 to 550 CE emperors used hinduism as a linking religion to link the nations together, in which also helped popularise it by creating hindu educational systems; they also gave land to the brahmins. The Gupta emperors helped make Hinduism one of the most popular religions in the indian subcontinent.  

    1. Ben - There are a lot of connections between languages that formed english and sanskrit. A lot of english words can be traced back to the ancient sanskrit language.

     

    600 BCE - 600 CE Early Buddhism:

    1.  Gabe - Siddhartha Gautama the founder of buddhism was born 563 bce into a wealthy family he rejected his life of riches and embraced a lifestyle of asceticism, or extreme self discipline after 49 days of consecutive meditation he became the enlightened one which is the buddha he made this announcement in public got some people to train as buddha monks and taught his teachings throughout the world   
  • Emma - Buddhism was based around a group of guiding principles called the four noble truths. They were as follows; “there is suffering in life”, “the cause of suffering is desire”, “ending desire means ending suffering”, and “following a  controlled and moderate lifestyle will end desire”. A strong component of this religion was that everyone was responsible for their own happiness.
  • Audrey - Buddhism and Hinduism were founded it on similar things. One of the things Buddhism was founded on was something that Siddhartha (or Buddha) said, and that was to pretty much stay in the middle ground to not go with either extreme of so much physical self-pleasure or mistreating yourself.
  • Ella - Buddha, or Siddhartha Gautama, was born in Ludini. His aunt took care of him because his mother died not long after he was born. His father was a chieftain and he was able to give Gautama a good protected childhood away from all the bad things of the world like sickness and poverty. He eventually got married and had a kid.

    • 5.Hunter-Buddhism also also gained support from the state. In 260 BCE, king Ashoka adopted Buddhism after war against the feudal of Kalinga. He wanted to renounce violence and publicity so he turned to Buddhism to achieve this. He may have also turned to Buddhism as a unitive religion.

    1. Ben - At the age of 29 Siddhartha was actually allowed to leave the land of the wealthy and once he left he saw sickness and poverty that he’d never seen before at any point in his life. So he leaves and goes into the woods for six years, leaving everything he had behind him. He eventually travels to Gaya and meditates under a sacred fig tree for seven whole days before he eventually reaches enlightenment. He then disappeared for 49 days, and later went to spread his knowledge with the world

     

    600 BCE - 600 CE Syncretism:

    1.  Gabe - Syncretism is where so the merchants travel and trade goods but they also trade beliefs and religions and faiths so as you catch word of christianity and buddhism and both kind of morph together in a town you get syncretism which is why there is a christian grave in central asia with a chinese zodiac on it
  • Audrey - There were these “great thinkers” of the Hindu ascetic tradition, that Alexander the Great actually brought philosophers to meet with, called Gymnosophists. The word Gymnosophists means “the naked thinkers”, and they were called this because they were so devoted to the study of philosophy that they fasted and wore little to no clothing because they felt it got in the way on their pursuit to knowledge and wisdom.
  • Ella - The Christians at the time took advantage of the trade routes that were being made. Preachers and missionaries could spread these messages beyond the mediterranean region they lived in. They were successful because in the eleventh century one third of the worlds christians lived in Asia.
  • Ben - The Nestorian Stele was a big tablet of rock and stone that was buried at an estimated year of 845 (but it was thought to be made in 781).  It had written on it a kind of early depiction of christianity in china. It was discovered in 1623.

    • 5.Hunter- Early christians managed to turn the roman infrastructure to their advantage: missionaries used the vast land and roads to preach the good news of god further outside of the mediterranean region. By the eleventh century CE, fully one-third of the world’s christians lived in Asia.

    1. Emma - The open practice of Christianity was not actually legal in Rome until the fourth century. At this time the current emperor, Constantine the first, said that he had a religious vision and made it legal. Near the end of the century, the emperor Theodosius made Christianity the official religion of Imperial Rome.

     

    600 BCE - 600 CE Women and families:

    1.  Gabe - in the classical era of 600 bc to 600 ce many systems and institutions were hard of Women and families Women didn't have all the rights men did this was true but there freedoms varied on the empire  
  • Audrey - During the civil war in Rome, that occured after the Ides of March when Julius Caesar was assassinated, the triumvirs decided to tax 1400 of the wealthiest women to fund the war. One of these women, Hortensia, wrote a speech on how unfair this was and she pretty much said, why should the women pay taxes when they don’t get a share in things like the government.
  • Ella - In most societies, woman raised kids and managed households. How the woman carried out these things depended on the woman's kinship, or a word for family relationships, religion, and marriage. For example, in Han China a woman's power was based off her relationship with her husband.  
  • Ben - Life for women varied depending on what religion the area was most dedicated to. For example, Confucianism had women in a place of submissiveness and didn’t allow them to do nearly anything outside their home. On the other hand Daoism the gentleness and humbleness of women was respected and seen as a positive thing. In Daoism, women could even be a teacher or a priest.

    • 5.Hunter- In many societies, women’s lives was mainly about motherhood and managing a household. While women in different places and different times had this in common, there were significant differences on how women performed these roles depending on kinship relationships. skip me i realize i didn’t read right

    1. Emma - In Han China, kinship was a part of a girl or woman’s life from the beginning. When she was young, her status and role were dependant on that of her father’s. At the time she got married, it was dependant on her husband. After her husband’s death, it was dependant on her oldest son.

     

    600 BCE - 600 CE The Silk Road:

    1.  Gabe - the Silk Road was a trade route connecting eurasia and north africa but is was called the Silk Road because Silk was transported a lot through this route
  • Audrey - For trading you obviously have to give something in return so, some of the items China would get for their silk were horses, which were good not only for transport, being human or goods, but also for wars. They would get gold from Europe, cotton from India, and the list goes on.
  • Ella -  Trade routes would carrie things like food, materials, beliefs and customs but also diseases.  Two of the most significant diseases were measles and smallpox. Both of these were believed to have come from asia and the middle east.
  • Ben - But as people were moving from place to place, culture was also “traded” as christianity and buddhism spread very quickly. They did this through missionaries and trading. Later on in the first century CE silk had become a problem, it was becoming thinner and wearing out, eventually becoming so thin and transparent that in 14 CE they banned people from wearing it.

    • 5.Hunter-One cause of expandable trade was because of the growth in imperial power. Near the end of the second century BCE, Emperor Wu of Han mounted multiple campaigns against the nomadic Xiongnu people, because of Xiongnu horse riders raided chinese settlements along the northern border for many years.  

    1. Emma - Silk was not the only item that was traded, at least in the minds of those people, too much. Ferghana horses, or heavenly horses as they were known, were strongly desired in China. They imported so many of them that the Dayuan people who owned the Ferghana valley refused to sell any more of them. This caused the War of the Heavenly Horses which lasted three years.

    That’s all the time we have for today. THank for joining us outside of the box that is learning.

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