The number and size of key states and empires grew dramatically by:
Imposing political unity.
What are the 6 key states/empires and their locations?
Southwest Asia: Persian Empire
East Asia: Qin and Han Empires
South Asia: Mauryan and Gupta Empires
Mediterranean: Phoenecia, Greek City-states, Hellenistic and Roman empires
Mesoamerica: Teotihuacan, Maya
Andean South America: Moche
What did the rulers of empires create to organize their subjects?
Administrative institutions
Two important elements of imperial administrations are:
1. Centralized government
2. Elaborate legal systems & bureaucracies
What regions hosted the most famous administrative institutions?
China, Persia, Rome, & South Asia
Name 4 ways in which imperial governments projected military power over large areas.
1. Diplomacy
2. Developing supply lines
3. Building fortifications
4. Defensive walls and roads
5. Drawing new groups of military officers and soldiers from the local populations or conquered peoples
What function did cities play in Afro-Eurasia and the Americas?
1. Centers of trade
2. Public performance of religious rituals
3. Political administration for states and empires
Name 2 important early imperial cities.
Rome & Teotihuacan
What did the social structures of early empires display? What groups were typically included?
Hierarchies / Included cultivators, laborers, slaves, artisans, merchants, elites, or caste groups
How did imperial societies maintain food production?
Relied on a range of methods such as peasant communities and slavery.
An important reason to produce surplus in imperial societies was:
To provide rewards for the loyalty of elites.
___________ continued to shape gender and family relations in imperial societies.
Patriarchy
What specific empires created difficulties they could not manage?
Roman, Han, Persian, Mauryan, and Gupta
What types of difficulties did Empires create that often led to their collapse/decline/transformation?
Political, cultural, and administrative
How did empire create environmental issues and what did these issues lead to?
Successive mobilization of resources led to environmental damage which resulted in social tensions and economic difficulties by concentrating too much wealth in the hands of elites.
What sorts of external problems did empires face?
Issues along the frontier such as threat of invasions.
What are 2 important examples of empires' external problem?
Rome: Problems with northern and eastern neighbors
Gupta: White Huns
