ACHAEMENID PERSIAN EMPIRE The Achaemenid Empire existed from 559 BC to 330 BC, and was considered the world’s most culturally diverse and religiously open empire in history. The author’s thesis of this chapter is mainly about how tolerance is pivotal in the rise and eventual fall of an empire. She argues that the willingness of the leaders to accept each culture led to great things, like fewer rebellions, but it also caused the lack of each group to have a common language, religion, or interest to respect and worship. The empires success is mainly attributed to tolerance. For example, as each leader took over more territory and civilizations it let the people go about their lives normally and keep there same religions and traditions. Also, the multiple rulers had vast naval armies and always had a strong military. One ruler, King Darius, was always an exceptional administrator and would ensure the empire was one of the most sophisticated civilizations in history by overseeing contraction sites, introducing a standard currency, providing a royal mail service, and so on. The “glue” that kept the civilization together was the tolerance throughout the empire, without it civilians would have resented the leaders and riots would have occurred. However, the empires tolerance began to decline as leaders brutally crushed rebellions by tearing down significant religious structures, killing priests, and enslaving subjects in the process. The rebellions led to servitude, which
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
The rise and fall of different civilizations and empires is caused by various social, political, and cultural factors that affect its societies. One of the most important concepts seen in empires are the creation of its culture and its relation to the beliefs of its society. Religion plays an enormous role in understanding the purpose behind the actions of the people in a civilization. Religion and culture are dependent of each other as it reflects the ideas and values that society has agreed upon. As a new urban civilization during 2500 B.C, The Indus Valley Civilization created a sociopolitical system that
This paper will compare and contrast these two civilizations concerning two of the major elements of society: government and religion. These two areas are important when examining the impact of a particular civilization, because they provide two different perspectives on a particular culture. While the examination of politics allows the power and influence of culture to be understood, the analysis of religion allows the cultural influence of people to be traced. In this paper, the similarities and differences between the governments and religions of Ancient Greece and Rome will be examined, as well as the impact that these civilizations had on one another. Finally, this paper will discuss the impact that these civilizations have had on
Throughout the ancient world, the aspects to which a successful society thrive under have been skewed, except for that of religion. Although a universal religion has never been adopted, most empires tend to follow a basic outline similar to one another. In relation to Greeks and Romans, this ideology still holds true. Religion between these two societies have had their differences, but for the most part they have kept the same values held high. Women and their impact on Greek and Roman religion is what shaped these regions to flourish and is what held the empires together through all war and turmoil that came their way.
The past centuries saw a clear distinction between the Western civilization and the non-western culture. The western civilization composed of Greece, Romans, Byzantine Empire, and the European while the non-western civilizations included East Asia, Egypt, Persian Empire, Sassanid Empire, African Societies and Kingdoms, Incas, Mayans, Aztecs, and Mongols. For a long period, the western civilizations prevailed around the world. They influenced, lead and controlled others in various sectors such as medicine, clothing, business orientations, religion, and government. In this paper, I will be affirming my conviction that the western civilizations had unique attributes that made them more powerful than the non-western civilizations. I will also show how the western cultures were influenced by the spread of Christianity, and how the western cultures have maintained their great influence and power over the other societies even in the modern era.
Persia and Greece were beautiful and prosperous empires and where the most influential of their time. In this essay I will talk about the two main empires’ political structures and their economy and I will also state similarities and differences between the two empires. The two empires’ political structures might have varied greatly but their economies were very similar. Even though they had differences and had major battles they were still the ideal empires of their time.
An interesting question to ask oneself about ancient civilizations is “How did the various governments keep their respective populations under control?” By taking a look at some of the literature and forms of art, one can get an idea of the crafty techniques used by leaders to control the populace. The concept of social control has been around as long as civilizations have been. This can be seen in the Roman stoic ideals portrayed in the Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius, the Four Noble Truth’s teachings in India, and the emphasis on harmony in China with the Chinese Bronze Bell. It’s interesting to see the ways works of art and even religious texts were used to control the common people.
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?
I have spent the last two years studying world history with an emphasis on western civilization, and I will attempt to give a conspectus of what I have learned during that time. I have learned about a myriad of topics ranging from early Sumerian agricultural techniques to the U.S. intervention in Kosovo, therefore I will focus my efforts on an abbreviated overview of my studies. I will primarily focus on the governments of the major civilizations
Documents 3, 4, and 5 all show that their cultures incorporated their values into their respective laws, governments, and methods of exerting political power. Clearly, all of these documents incorporated their respective cultures’ values into their governments and methods for asserting their political power. Despite this common trait, these documents can be grouped by their cultures’ differences in government. Documents 2, 5, and 6 show that their cultures had very liberal governments while documents 3 and 4 show that their cultures had strict governments. The Greeks had a very lenient form of government, a democracy, while the Confucian Chinese believed that humans were naturally inclined towards being good. Finally, the Romans had a liberal government which allowed almost anyone to become citizens, even people who weren’t Romans. In contrast with these lenient governments, the Legalist Chinese and the Indians under King Ashoka’s rule had strict laws which firmly controlled the citizens. The Legalists believed their ruler should govern his people by giving out strict punishments or rewards while King Ashoka passed strict edicts which firmly controlled the people through officials who reported back to the
The governing legal, moral and religious codes of ancient civilizations were written and enforced by a minority that exercised power and authority over the majority. This minority consisted of priests, rulers and elites with established power and influence in society. In these codes of early civilizations, there was an overarching emphasis on maintenance of structure and order in society. Simply put, while these codes reflect the conditions, needs and values of the times in which they were formulated, they also unveil the authors’ agendas to preserve their power by maintaining the status quo. Therefore, these codes acknowledge and uphold the prevailing social, gender and racial inequalities as natural conditions of human existence and reveal the manifold biases present in early civilizations.
Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia present a valuable area of historical research. They are of great importance mostly because of their ethnic kinship (Watson, 2017). In such case, comparison and contrast essay is very promising as causal relationships can be formed based on a mutual starting point. This comparison-contrast essay focuses on differences and similarities in these societies’ economic, political and cultural life in order to make further implications regarding the circumstances the peoples of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia faced.
Greece and Persia’s religion is one factor that makes both of these empires so diverse from each other. During the Achaemenid Period, the main religion of Persia at the time was Zoroastrianism, which the Iranian prophet and reformer Zoroaster founded in the 6th century B.C.E. At the time the royal family brought in Zoroastrianism to Persia, and since the royal family believed in it, most of the people of the Persian Empire choose to believe in it too. Greece on the other hand, did not have a religion until 146 B.C.E when Christianity entered the empire. Before Christianity had entered Greece, they believed in their mythological stories. Each myth or story had a lesson to be learned by the reader.
The foundations of an ancient empire are shaped by many characteristics originating in a civilization’s social, philosophical, and theological values. Collectively these will bring about an empire that has aspects which will classify them in distinctive ways. The aspects that will be compared between Persia and Rome are the motives for expansion, methods of expansion, the administration, the impact on those conquered and the original empire, and the reasons for the decline of each empire. When combined, these aspects predispose the individual overall shape of ancient Rome and Persia. Both empires began with conquering larger rulers and creating vast empires which had never been seen
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.