The five steps to civilization model occur in the following order: sedentary farmers, surplus of food and technology, division of labor, urbanization (the only necessary requirement for a group of people to become a civilization, and culture.
The Persian Empire was one of the first major empires in the ancient world. This empire spanned from Egypt in the west to Turkey in the north, and through Mesopotamia to the Indus River in the east. It was established by Cyrus the Great in the 6th century BC.
Sedentary Farmers: The Persians originated as agrarian villagers, nomadic horse and sheep breeders during the Bronze Age in central Asia south of the Ural Mountains and settled the Fertile Crescent. They depended on rain fed agriculture. The crops that the Persians grew include wheat, barely, chickpea, garden pea, cantaloupe, pomegranates, onions, spinach, pistachio
…show more content…
An example of technology used in agriculture is the sakia. This device was used in irrigation. The sakia or The Persian Wheel was a mechanical device used to raise water from wells or pits. It consists of buckets fastened to a rope belt about the wheel. Draught animals such as bullocks, buffaloes or camels operated this device. The Persians also had qanats, which are slanted, underground canals that transfer water by using gravity.
Division of Labor: There were different positions in the Persian Empire. This includes positions such as priests, rulers, and soldiers. The Persians differed from other empires due to not having any slaves. Slavery was banned within the empire. There were also farmers, laborers, merchants, and landlords.
Urbanization: An example of urbanization in the Persian Empire is Persepolis. The city was also known as Parsa. The construction of Persepolis began at the site in 518 BCE under the rule of King Darius the Great. Darius made Parsa the new capital of the Persian
The empire decided that to get their culture, or religion, around to all of the people they would only have one god. It’s a lot easier to spread the word of one god than multiple, such as ancient Egypt. To maintain the order of their empire and stop chaos, they went by something known as ‘free will’. “And when their punishment shall come to these sinners,Then, 0 Wise One, shall thy Dominion, with the Good Mind, Be granted to those who have delivered Evil into the hands of Righteousness, 0 Lord!”. Free will gives the people the right to live the way they want, and to be able to believe in or practice whatever religion best suits them. Because they were able to live this way, it made the people of Persia quite happy with their empire. Most people liked the idea of free will, which meant that they had a more positive outlook on life. This meant that they believed that there was an afterlife. They believed in good, evil, heaven, and
As we are introduced to the Great Persian Empire, we find that Amy Chua’s thesis talks about how tolerance was critical in allowing the Persians to not only establish and prosper their world dominant empire, but to maintain it for over two centuries. The thesis of the book, Day of Empire by Amy Chua, is about the “study of colossal power and the conditions needed to maintain it”. Not only this, but it discusses “the contest between ethnic “purity” and ethnic pluralism”. Amy Chua argues that The Achaemenid Persian Empire was “one of the first hyper powers in world history, governing a territory larger than all the ancient empires, including even Rome’s.” (Day of Empire pg. 4) Along with this, she argues that the Persian Empire was “one of the most culturally diverse and religiously open empires in history.” (Day of Empire pg. 4) Therefore, the author argues that The Persian Empire is relevant when discussing large powerful world authorities with a large size, long period of ruling, and ethnic tolerance it
From 1567 to 330 B.C. humanity experienced many subsequent development as well as decline in its civilizations. Among these events emerged three colossal empires that had shaken the world and forever changed the course of human history. The Egyptian, Assyrian, and Persian Empires have been instrumental in influencing technology, religion, and ideas throughout the world. Various factors have contributed to the success and downfall of these giants. Each of the “World Powers” have similarities as well as distinctions in its government form and organization, religion, and economy that contributed to their triumph.
There are many reasons in which the Persian empire is considered one of the greatest civilizations ever in human history and this can mostly be attributed to the stupendous leadership of the one and only Cyrus the great. One of the best kings that the world has ever seen and was the most dominant man in his era. He was brilliant and extremely powerful as he was smart and strong enough to conquer almost every single land within his area and put them all together into one persian empire. The legacy that Cyrus left behind him was one that every king after him tried to follow. For example, emperor Darius I still continued the expansion of the persian empire and reigned control over it as well. After Cyrus died there was a time in which there was nothing but trash rulers and then Darius I came into power. As I stated earlier Darius wanted to follow in the steps of Cyrus and be even greater than him so Darius builded on what Cyrus achieved and split the persian empire into multiple provinces to control the government a little easier. Another thing that made persia so successful was the fact that they tolerated non-Persian folks to live in their empire. There were many different types of people all across persia and the government did not force anything upon these non-Persian residents and let them live their lives how they had before arriving and they only had to pay taxes. Due to this the
The Persian Empire is considered one of the most successful empires at its time. What made the Persian Empire so unique and successful, was because of how sophisticated there government was. Like other empires the Persian Empire had a religion. This made the people of Persia freely think about their ruler and help the empire out in any way. The Persian empire compared to preceding empires, (such as the Assyrian Empire etc) were relatively less oppressive and abusive to their people. This prevented the empire from collapsing that easily. Which is one reason why they advanced their rule for another 200 years (1,429 years in Dynasty rule (1979)).
The Persian Empire was ruled by Darius I. He was building the administrative systems, meaning he was reorganized the empire. He started twenty
The Persian empire was more fair towards their people. The workers got paid for their work. There was freedom of believing in what they wanted and thinking of what they wanted. They also did ban slavery. When Persia conquered other empires, they would allow them to keep their own religious beliefs and languages. The Persian empire also had conquered more land than the Roman empire. Persia had reached about eight million km of land while Rome, only had 6.5 million km of land.
There were four great multicultural Empires in our world’s history Ancient Greece, The Roman Empire, Persia and China. I am going to focus on Ancient Greece and the Persian Empire, what geographical features did each region offer to help the people build these great empires, what were some of the cultures of this empires, and what changes did they have over time? Going further into details on the Persian Empire, who were two of the leaders and what contributions did they make to Persia, what methods did they use to expand the region and gain power? How did the political system change over time?
Persian people, or “people of Arya”, settled south of Iran in the plains of Pars. These plains were very fertile. This fertility allowed the Persian’s to grow and expand on sea and land. (Acrobatic, 2014)
According to Document 7 which shows the Persian Empire, the capital city, and the Royal Road you can see how the Persian Empire was surrounded by many bodies of water and nice land. The Persians took advantage of the bodies of water and land which eventually led to cultural diffusion. The map that
Document 2, the empire stretched from Greece in the west to India in the east. Persian
The impact of expansion on the core Persian Empire was generally looked at and received in a positive manner. Increasing populations created more cities and more job opportunities allowed many Persians the luxury of making more money as the empire grew. The bulk of the empire was still mostly farmers, however. One of the largest influences on the core empire was Zoroastrianism. This was advocated by both Cyrus and Darius, Darius used it in order to claim divine right to kingship. This new religion spread very quickly through high-ranking Persians (Bentley and Ziegler, 174). Zoroastrianism preached for people to enjoy this life but to live well for the afterlife (Stearns, Zoroastrianism: The Major Persian Religion, 43-45). This allowed people to have fun in this life and still be able to have eternal bliss; when people are having fun and happy they are less likely to challenge their rulers.
Similar to the Roman Empire the Persian Empire stretched across vast lands without any serious rivalry. At the height of the empire it stretched across, not only, Asia, from the Aegean to the Indus River, but also included part of the continent of Africa. We get the word, Persia, from the Greek word Parsa meaning, “Above reproach”. The Persians unlike most other Empires would be ruled under a benevolent ruler. This would bring a large amount of cultural diffusion to the Empire. The empires history is separated into three historical periods: Old Persia (600-300 B.C.E), Middle Persia (300-800 B.C.E.) and modern Persia (800-Present). The height or the Empire was reached around 500 B.C.E. (Ancient and Medieval History
Through the archeological discoveries, we can infer some details into the lives of the people who originated in the cities of Mesopotamia. The root word of Mesopotamia refers to ‘between rivers’, this infers to the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, figure 1. Because the environment influenced people to settle, we can see a change in their political, social, and economic structure as they begin to form a complex society. This is the period where we see a complex engineering system as people started to develop canals and other technologies for a more efficient agricultural development. An early culture to settle in the lowlands of Mesopotamia were the Hassuna culture, their civilization were characterized by “small settlements with a few hundred inhabitants, who lived in rectangular houses with several rooms” (Feuerbach, 2015). Another culture to settle in this area were the Samarran culture; even
The army was highly equipped with thick leather pants, felt boots, mountain ponies, and ancestry arrows. Cyrus was a great ruler in terms of his ability to create the Persian Empire, made up of various groups of people with a variety of different languages, cultures, and religions. The success of Persia to hold a different form of people together, in a huge empire was largely; due to the independence given to each province, along with tolerance of other cultures and races. The diversity of Persian culture was rich with art, architecture, and their religion, Zoroastrianism, which is still practiced by some of people today. Zoroastrianism has been known to have a significant influence on early Greek philosophy and on other religions, such as, Judaism and Christianity.