Strayer, Chapter 7 (1e)

Large portions of this PPT are borrowed from Mr. Duez of Atascocita High School.

Link to his site: http://whap.mrduez.com

Classical Variations: Africa and the Americas

NOTE: This PowerPoint is not organized by Key Concept in order to follow the text. The KCs will cover a broad range of 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3 – all based in Africa and the Americas.

Civilizations of Mesoamerica (p. 292)

• The Maya

• Teotihuacan

Civilizations of the Andes (p. 297)

• Chavin

• Moche

North America in the Classical Era (p. 301)

• Ancetral Pueblo (Chaco)

• Mound Builders (Cahokia)

The African Northeast (p. 283)

• Meroë

• Axum

Along the Niger River (p. 288)

• Jenne-Jeno

South of the Equator, Bantu Africa (p. 290)

• Bantu: culture, society, religion

Africa

The

Americas

The Pyramids at Meroë

The Mounds at Cahokia

“Dark Continent Comes Into the Light”➢ What we know about the early history of Africa evolves almost every

few years.

➢ A 30 year-old textbook would not contain information that sub-Saharan Africans had any knowledge of ironworking technology before European contact—the contrast to Strayer is obvious.

➢ Similarly, the recent discovery of book caches in Timbuktu promises to transform our understanding of medieval West Africa.

➢ This is very similar to what we discussed in the first chapter. Hence, this is the “variation” that Strayer discusses in comparison to the Romans, Han China, Persians, Greeks, Mauryan India, etc. of the Classical Era.

➢ When societies have almost no written record it is very difficult to get to the truth. However, technology, motivated researchers, and the endless curiosity of humanity have made incredible breakthroughs.

Classical Africa

The African Northeast: Meroë

• Nubian civilization: almost as old as Egyptian civilization• Constant interaction – remained distinct but influenced each other

• With decline of Egypt, Nubian civilization came to focus with Meroë• Evidence of own religion: Apedemek (non-Egyptian god followed in Nubia

– important as it shows a separation from Egyptian influence)

• City of Meroë had craft specialization, with prominent ironworking

• Rural areas: combination of herding/farming• Paid tribute to the ruler

• Farming based on rainfall, not irrigation

• Population less concentrated on the Nile, less directly controlled by the capital

• Major long-distance trade: source of wealth/military power

The African Northeast: Axum

• Present-day Eritrea/Ethiopia

• Economic foundation: highly productive agriculture

• Substantial state emerged by 50 CE

• Capital city: Axum was the center of monument building – huge stone obelisks or stelae (pl, “stele”) –(royal graves?)

• Christianity arrived 4th century CE• Coptic Church in Egypt

• 4th-6th Centuries CE: imperial expansion into Meroë and Yemen

• Both Meroë and Axum paralleled Eurasian developments and interacted with Europe/Asia

Ethiopia (Axum): Early center of Christianity in Africa• Began following a polytheistic faith – later converted to Christianity under Ezana II (reigned ca. 320 – 360 CE)

• Later: emergence of Coptic Christianity: They do not separate Jesus the man with Jesus the God

• Contributed to monumental architecture including a palace known as Ta’akha Maryam and a cathedral, Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion

• Both traded extensively with neighboring civilizations.

• Meroë’s wealth and military power were in part derived from this trade.

• The formation of a substantial state in Axum was at least in part stimulated by Axum’s participation in Red Sea and Indian Ocean commerce and the taxes that flowed from this commerce.

• Both developed their own distinct writing scripts.

• A Meroitic script eventually took the place of Egyptian-style writing,

• Axum’s script, Geez, was derived from South Arabian models.

• Axum adopted Christianity from the Roman world in the 4th century C.E., primarily through Egyptian influence,

• Meroë also adopted Christianity in the 340s C.E. following Meroë’sdecline.

How did the history of Meroë and Axum reflect interaction

with neighboring civilizations?

Niger River Valley Civilizations• Major urbanization along the stretch of the Niger River, 300 BCE – 900 CE

• Jenne-jeno (today: Djenné) – example of a city on Niger River – Cities like Jenne-jeno were clusters of economically specialized settlements

• Large-scale states emerge in second millennium CE

• Early empire: Empire of Ghana, later this region is home to the Mali Empire and the Songhai Empire (Pd. 3)

• Beginnings of Trans-Sahara Trade Route – major trade good: gold

How does the experience of the Niger Valley

challenge conventional notions of “civilization”?• The Niger River region witnessed the creation

of large cities with the apparent absence of a corresponding state structure. These cities were not like the city-states of ancient Mesopotamia.

• Instead, they were close to the early cities of the Indus Valley civilization, where complex urban centers also apparently operated without the coercive authority of a centralized state.

Trans-Sahara Trade Routes (KC 2.3)

Bantu Africa: Migration, Culture, and Society • The Bantu migrants did NOT set out with the expressed intention of

conquering their neighbors. Migration took thousands of years –remember: they are an agricultural people

• Bantu advantages:

• Numbers

• Disease – brought new diseases to people with little immunity

• Iron

• Gathering/hunting peoples displaced/ignored/eliminated

• Religion: focused on ancestors/spirits (animism, KC 2.1)

• People left West Africa for less populated areas

• Settled all across southern and western Africa

• Called the Bantu Migrations because - descendants of the people that migrated shared elements of a language known as BantuBantu languages became dominant south of the Sahara

• Linguists have teased out evidence of cultural change, especially from the many strands of Bantu

The Americas: The Maya• Classical phase: 250 – 900 CE

• Mathematical system

• Elaborate calendars

• Creation of the most elaborate writing system in the Americas

• Large amount of monumental architecture

• Economy: agriculture played a large role with a complex social structure including artisans and elites

• Political system of city-states and regional kingdoms – highly fragmented – no city-state created a unified empire

• Not one unified empire → instead, a patchwork of city-states & kingdoms• But all city-states shared common language,

culture, and so on

• Like: Ancient Mesopotamia and Greece!

Parallels between Maya & Classic Greece:• Monumental Architecture/City-States• Maya: Great city-states, like Tikal• Greeks: Athens• Advanced Mathematics/Astronomy• Both the Greeks & Maya had developed

astronomical principles.• Maya concept of zero: unique & advanced

Classical Era Africa & Americas Compared to

Eurasia

Mayan Script: only fully-developed American writing sys.

The Maya CivilizationMesoamerican civilization was noted for its urban characteristics. Unlike in Eurasia where large land mammals grazed, the landscape was only agricultural (based on maize); like Eurasia, italso included multiple large urban centers.

Strayer’s Take on Maya Political Demise:Explaining this remarkable demise has long kept scholars guessing. It seems clear that neither foreign invasion nor internal rebellion played a major role, as they had in the collapse of the Roman & Chinese empires.

One recent account focuses on ecological & political factors.

Extremely rapid population growth after 600 C.E. pushed total Maya numbers to perhaps 5 million+ & soon outstripped available resources, resulting in deforestationand the erosion of hillsides.

Under such conditions, climate change in the form of prolonged droughts in the 800s may well have triggered the collapse, while political disunity & endemic rivalries prevented a coordinated & effective response to the emerging catastrophe. Maya warfare in fact became more frequent as competition for increasingly scarce land for cultivation became sharper. Whatever the precise explanation, the Maya collapse, like that of the Romans and others, illustrates the fragility of civilizations, whether they are embodied in large empires or organized in a more decentralized fashion.

Classical Era Africa & Americas Compared to Eurasia

The Americas did not create any classical-era empire on the same size & scale compared to Eurasia.

But it did produce areas of broad cultural hegemony that can be, perhaps compared favorably to classical age Greece.

They share a sense of city-state creation in ceremonial or ritual centers.

Eurasia was home to 80% of the world’s population at the time. Africa: 11%The Americas: 6 %

Largest city of pre-Columbian America, with a pop. between 100,000 & 200,000; built to plan in Valley of Mexico, flourished between 300 & 600 c.e., it governed/influenced much of surrounding region.

Teotihuacán Aztec term = “city of the gods.” (pron. teh-o-tee-WAH-kahn)

The Americas: Teotihuacan (“America’s Greatest City”)

• Teotihuacan = northeast of present-day Mexico City• Had about 200,000 people at its peak• City laid out on a grid• Found in excavations = 600 pyramids, 2000 apartment compounds, 500 workshop areas, and

a huge marketplace

The Americas: Teotihuacan (“America’s Greatest City”)

• A village known as Chavin de Huantar became the focus of a religious movement that spread throughout the Andes region• Major deities: represented jaguars, crocodiles, and snakes• Shamans (priests) = used hallucinogenic cactus to connect to the supernatural world• Gives historians/archaeologists a way to trace a common cultural idea – useful with a lack

of written sources

Civilizations of the Andes: Chavin Religion

• Dominated a 250-mile stretch of Peru’s coast• Incorporated 13 river valleys• Grew maize, beans, squash, and cotton• Fishermen harvested anchovies from the

Pacific• Governed by warrior-priests

• Human sacrifice – also seen in other groups like the Nazca

• Also included mummification/notable ritual burial (see Marr, HOTW)

Civilizations of the Andes: Moche

The Americas: Hunter-Gatherers (North America)

Gathering & Hunting peoples:• Arctic & subarctic cultures; • Bison hunters of Great Plains;• Complex & settled communities of Pacific coast:

Chumash (Ch 1);• Nomadic bands living in arid regions of South

America.

• Permanent village life emerged in the Southwestern US ca. 600 – 800 CE. • Larger settlements were needed due to the environment and difficulty of farming

– when maize was grown it was done so in a concentrated effort and led to several larger communities developing

• Chaco Canyon – Pueblo Bonito• Small population, ~5,000 • Evidence of sophisticated astronomy, artisan work, and trade with Mesoamerica

North America: The Ancestral Pueblo

• An independent Agricultural Revolution occurred in the Eastern US as early as 2000 BCE

• Most elaborate mound-builder culture: Hopewell Culture of Ohio• Center was Cahokia, near present-day St. Louis, Missouri

• Stratified, clear elite• Center of widespread trading network

• Corn-based agriculture flourished – spreading from Mesoamerica

North America: Mound-builders

• Ancestral Pueblo & mound-building societies of Northern America & regional civilizations (Moche of S. America) more closely resemble Neolithic villages & 1st Civs of Eurasia than they do their classical counterparts. (Think Catalhuyuk)

North America: Did NOT generate large urban centers or inclusive empires.• These peoples lived beyond the direct reach of the

major civilizations also made their own histories, changing in response to their unique environments, their interactions with outsiders, & their own visions of the world.

Classical Era Africa & Americas Compared to Eurasia

Anasazi (SouthWest US) Ancestral Pueblo. Built "Pit Houses" & "Great Houses"

Along with mound-building cultures of eastern woodlands provide 2 illustrations from North America during the classical era.