History essay

Between 2200 - 2150 BCE, climate change and environmental degradation led to the collapse of the early river basin societies. A powerful warming and drying trend in the weather blanketed most of Africa, Europe and Asia (abbreviated as Afro-Eurasia). Rainfall became scarce and the river basins did not receive enough rain to experience their regular flood patterns. In Egypt and Mesopotamia, crops withered and dried up, and the exhausted soil was not being redeposited by flooding like usual. The monsoons did not produce enough rain to irrigate the Indus River Valley in Pakistan, and Harappan civilization experienced the same type of drought.

While the original civilizations collapsed, after periods of political and social turmoil others rose to take their place. These new civilizations were significantly affected by nomads, people whose lifestyle involved moving around instead of settling permanently in one place. While nomadic societies can be either hunting and gathering groups or pastoralists, it was the animal herding pastoralist nomads that left the most impact on the civilizations of Afro-Eurasia.

Some people tend to assume that most great technological advances in history came from settled civilizations, but the pastoralist nomads of the Eurasian steppes invented a vehicle whose spread and use changed the world. The steppes are a large area of grassland that stretches across Eastern Europe and Asia.

Eurasian steppes

Beginning around 2000 BCE, pastoral nomads attached horses with bits and harnesses to a chariot. Originally chariots were heavy, with solid wood wheels that shattered easily on bumps and rocks. But innovations to the original chariot, including wheels with spokes reinforced with metal (bronze or iron) for strength, wheel covers, axles, and bearings, made them light, strong, and maneuverable. The chariot became a h orse-drawn vehicle with two wheels that revolutionized warfare.

Hyksos war chariot

East Asian war chariot

Conquest by chariot led to societies that blended cultural traits from both conquerors and the conquered.

Although the Old Kingdom of Egypt fell to chaos caused by climate change, a new Egyptian civilization, called the Middle Kingdom arose between 2055-1650 BCE. Egypt was one of several new territorial states that emerged and was deeply affected by the migrations of various pastoralist nomad groups. A territorial state is a kingdom occupying a unified area of land led by the centralized rule of a charismatic ruler supported by a large bureaucracy, legal codes, and military expansion.

Egypt

Egypt on map of Africa

Life was good in the territorial state of Egypt until around 1640 BCE, when it was invaded by the Hyksos. The Hyksos were c hariot-driving, axe-wielding warriors, whose name meant “Rulers of Foreign Lands.” The Egyptian army only had foot soldiers and were quickly overpowered. The Hyksos d id not destroy Egypt, however. Instead, they placed their own government at the top, but then a dopted and reinforced Egyptian cultural ways. The Hyksos paid special attention to the Egyptian army. Since that army was now under control of the Hyksos, they wanted to improve it so that it could defeat any future invaders, and not crumble in front of new enemies like it fell before the Hyksos. The Hyksos t ransformed the Egyptian military to match the chariot skills of the Hyksos, and for a hundred years Hyksos-ruled Egypt remained safe from outside invaders. The Hyksos failed to anticipate a revolt from inside Egypt though. A n Egyptian from the south led an invasion into northern Hyksos-ruled Egypt using war chariots, bows, and bronze axes. The Egyptians won their independence using the same military technology that they had been conquered with.

Just like in Egypt, the original Mesopotamian civilization was altered by climate change but a new Mesopotamian territorial state arose in the same place after in-migration by a nomadic group.

Middle East on World Map

Mesopotamia on Middle East close-up map.

The Middle East experienced a period of desertification when temperatures grew hotter and deserts spread outward taking over land that had formerly been grasslands. The expanding desert forced nomadic peoples closer to settled civilizations. Because of its placement between two rivers, Mesopotamia became an attractive location for the nomadic Amorites. The name Amorites means “Westerners.” They were nomadic pastoralists who began to migrate into Mesopotamian cities. They and their allies eventually took over rulership of Mesopotamia.

Desert expansion near Mesopotamia (circled)

Unlike the Hyksos in Egypt who maintained most Egyptian institutions, the Amorite kings of Mesopotamia changed the organization of the territorial state and promoted a distinctive culture. The powerful Amorite Mesopotamian kings expanded their territory and forced conquered peoples to pay tribute in luxury goods, raw materials, and manpower in return for the protection of the king. The most famous Amorite Mesopotamian king was Hammurapi (also spelled Hammurabi). The king was struggling with powerful neighbors so he sought to consolidate his control over Mesopotamia by centralizing authority. As part of this process, what we now call Hammurapi’s Code was developed. It was a body of laws that divided society into free, dependent, and slaves classes, each with distinct rights & responsibilities. It also stipulated crimes and punishments, the most famous of which is probably "an eye for an eye." (Hammurapi's words: " If a man has destroyed the eye of a man of the gentleman class, they shall destroy his eye ....") Hammurapi's Code is the world's oldest set of codified (written) laws.

Compared to Egypt and Mesopotamia, territorial states emerged more slowly in the Indus River Valley, Pakistan, and in northern India.

Indus River Valley, Pakistan (red) and India (green) on world map

It wasn't until around 1500 BCE that a group of nomadic peoples moved out of the steppes of Eastern Eurasia and into the Indus River Valley. Once they arrived, these pastoral nomads did not immediately establish a large territorial state. They arrived with their large flocks of cattle and horses, some of which they sacrificed to give thanks. They sang hymns called Vedas and have come to be known as Vedic peoples. The Vedic peoples eventually used the Indus River Valley as a staging area for their migrations into northern India. These migrations always caused violent conflict, but the Vedic peoples learned new technologies from each group they conquered and transitioned from a lifestyle of nomadic pastoralism to settled agriculture.

Map of the migration of the Vedic Peoples from the steppes to India

China on World Map

The first territorial state in China was the Shang dynasty. Like the Vedic peoples, Shang society was focused on ritual and religion. The earliest form of religion in China centered around ancestor worship. The name is a bit misleading. The ancestors were not worshipped like gods, instead they were respected and revered. Like the Egyptian pharaohs, m ale elites in Shang China were buried with their wives, consorts, servants, wealth, weapons, horses, and chariots so they had everything they needed in the afterlife as ancestors.

Elite burial from Shang China with horses and a chariot

Communities looked to the ancestors for wisdom and guidance. One way this was done was through the use of oracle bones. Oracle bones were r itual tools made of animal bone or turtle shell that were inscribed, heated, and interpreted by Shang priests to determine the will of the ancestors. The markings on the bones later became the basis for the Chinese written language.

Oracle bone

Turtle shell oracle

Not all of the world was developing territorial states. In two key locations, microsocieties prevailed. Microsocieties are s mall-scale, fragmented communities that had little interaction with others. These types of societies were the norm among the islanders in the Pacific Ocean and the Aegean Sea.

Between 2500 BCE - 400 CE, the many islands throughout the South Pacific were colonized by sailing peoples from Asia.

Woo hoo! The map of the Pacific Islands is only for your information. It is not one that you need to know for this course!

Map of the Pacific Island migrations

Although we do not know which group was first to do so, we do know that Pacific Islanders explored the Pacific Ocean using double-outrigger canoes. These large, sturdy vessels could cover 120 miles per day in good weather.

Double-outrigger canoe

The societies that developed on the different islands traded or made war with neighboring islands, but for the most part, these Pacific microsocieties had little to do with the emerging territorial state civilizations on the mainland.

Between 2000-1200 BCE, microsocieties developed in the Aegean Sea region.

Aegean Sea region on the world map

Aegean Sea region on Afro-Eurasian regional map

The two primary Aegean microsocieties: the Minoans & Mycenaeans

We do not have a lot of information about the Minoans on the island of Crete, although there is a famous myth about the Minoan King Minos. Minos was in competition with his brothers to rule Crete, so Minos prayed to the god Poseidon to send him a snow-white bull as a sign of support. Minos was then supposed to sacrifice the bull to Poseidon, but the king kept it for himself because of its beauty. To punish King Minos, Poseidon made Minos' wife fall in love with the bull. Minos' wife had a hollow wooden cow built, and she climbed inside in order to mate with the white bull. She gave birth to a half man, half bull son, called the Minotaur. The Minotaur was a predator who ate people, so King Minos had a gigantic labyrinth (maze) built to hold the Minotaur. Only a few foolish humans went in and never came back out.

Minautaur, National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece

Myceanaen culture is known for its shaft graves.

Mycenaean shaft graves

A vertical hole was dug and lined with rocks to form the shaft. A second rectangular hole was dug at the bottom and also lined with rocks (the grave). The body was placed on a layer of pebbles at the bottom and covered with a roof made of thin stone slabs supported by wooden beams. After the funeral meal, all the garbage, bones, and dishes were thrown down the shaft on top of the roof of the grave. The shaft was then filled in and mounded over with dirt. Shaft graves were often reused. The Mycenaeans dug out the same shaft, opened the grave, and placed the next person inside and filled it up again. Among the grave goods archaeologists have found in these shaft graves are gold masks and other treasure.