World History

Steven Wallech is the senior Professor of World History at Long Beach City College. He developed the world history program there, and integrated the world history curriculum with community colleges and universities throughout California.Craig Hendricks is Emeritus Professor of History at Long Beach City College. He has written on Latin America for history journals and edited four books of American social history readings.Touraj Daryaee is theHoward C. Baskerville Professor of Iran and the Persianate World and the Associate Director of the Dr. Samuel Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture at the University of California, Irvine. He is editor of the Name-ye-Iran-e Bastan: The International Journal of Ancient Iranian Studies and the creator of Sasanika: The Late Antique Near East Project.Anne Lynne Negus received her Ph.D. in Ancient Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, specializing in Egyptology. Currently she is Professor of History at Fullerton College and Co-Coordinator of the Honors Program.Peter P. Wan received his B.A. from East China Normal University and taught American literature in China until he came to the United States on a Harvard-Yanching fellowship. He received his Ph.D. in the History of American Civilization from Harvard University. His major interests are American history, East Asian history, and U.S.-China relations.Gordon Morris Bakken earned his degrees at the University of Wisconsin and joined the faculty of California State University, Fullerton, in 1969. He teaches courses on American legal history, women in American history, westward movement, and American military heritage.

• Introduction xUnit One The Ancient World 1THEMES: The artificial existence of civilizationThe biology of civilizationThe geography of civilizationThe climate of civilizationThe relationship between belief and actionChapter 1 Biology and World History 5Civilization and NomadsClimate 12The Geography of Cultivation 14The Domestication of Animals 20Urban Development 24The Nomads 27Disease History 28Suggested Reading 31Chapter 2 Mesopotamia 33The Land between the RiversA Temple Economy 34The Causes of Trade 35Kings, War, and Ecocide 37The Art of Writing and Hammurabi’s Code 39The General Matrix of Civilization 41The Dawn of Religion: Creation Myths 42Iron and Mesopotamia 44The Hebrews 47The Emergence of Monotheism 48Suggested Reading s 51Chapter 3 Pre-Islamic Africa 52Egyptian, Nilotic, and Sub-Saharan AfricaEgypt, the Gift of the Nile 52The Archaic Period (ca. 3100–2700 BCE) and the Pyramid Age of the Old Kingdom (ca. 2700–2200 BCE) 57The First Intermediate Period (ca. 2200–2000 BCE) and the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2000–1786 BCE) 59The Hyksos and Second Intermediate Period (ca. 1786–1575 BCE) and the New Kingdom (ca. 1575–1050 BCE) 60Special Topic: The Distant but Powerful Link between Pacific Currents and Egyptian Floods 61Egypt and the Iron Age 65Nilotic Africa 66Sub-Saharan Africa 70Iron 73Suggested Reading 75Chapter 4 India 76From the Indus to the GangesIron, Rice, and India 80Indian Religions 83Religious Opposition 87The Maturation of India’s Faiths 89Suggested Reading 90Chapter 5 China 91The Yellow River CivilizationThe Land and the People 91Mythological China 93The Bronze Age: The Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynsties 94The Iron Age: Economic, Military, and Commercial Revolutions 97The Golden Age of Classical Chinese Philosophy 98China’s First Empire: The Qin and Han Dynasties 102Centers of Power within and beyond the Han Empire 107Special Topic: Lady Lu: Empress Dowager 108Suggested Reading 110Chapter 6 The Nomads’ Trade 111and the Great MigrationsThe First Wave of Mass Migrations: The Wheel, the Chariot, and Nomads 112A Second Wave of Migrations: The Iron Age 118Cavalry: The Third Wave of Migrations 123Suggested Reading 126Chapter 7 Greece 127The Rainfall ZoneNetwork Cities and the Special Case of Athens 128The Role of Coins in Athenian History 131The Limits of Democracy 133Sparta 134The Failure of Greek Politics 135Philip of Macedon, Alexander the Great, and the Hellenistic World 136Greek Philosophy 138Physics 139Math and Logic: Metaphysics 140Socrates and his Followers 141Drama 143The Origins of History 145Suggested Reading 146Chapter 8 The Hellenistic East and Persia 147A Cultural BridgeThe Hellenistic East 147Diffusion of Hellenism to the East 149Kings, Cities, and Soldiers 151Hellenistic Philosophy 154The Stoics 157One God, One Lord 158The Persians 160The Persian Sassanian Empire (224–651 CE) 164Khusro I and the Height of the Sassanian Empire 168Suggested Reading 169Chapter 9 Rome 170From Citizenship to Imperial RulePart One: The Republic 170Part Two: The Empire 176Roman Society 179Roman Philosophy 181Christianity 183Suggested Reading 188Chapter 10 Origins of Native American Cultures 189Geographic IsolationOrigins of the Americas’ First Cities 192Mesoamerica 193Teotihuacán 195The Maya 196South America 198Elsewhere in the Americas 200Suggested Reading 201Chapter 11 The Fall of The Ancient Eurasian World 203Rome, Han China, and Gupta IndiaTrade, Disease, and Religious Ideas 204Special Topic: Manichaeism 207Internal Decay: The Roman Story 207Special Topic: Malaria 210Special Topic: Smallpox 211The Han Dynasty, 206 BCE–220 CE 214Chaos and Religion: Buddhism and Daoism 219The Last Days of the Han 221Gupta India: The Great Exception 222The Nomads 224Suggested Reading 227Unit Two The Middle Years 229THEMES: CultureLearnedSharedSymbolicIntegratedChapter 12 The Rise of Islam 233The Ancient Near East Becomes the Middle EastThe Prophecy 233The Pillars of Islam 235The Umma 239The Caliphs 240Suggested Reading 245Chapter 13 China in an Era of Recovery and Cultures on the Fringe 246Korea, Japan, and the MongolsChina’s Second Empire: Sui and Tang Dynasties 247The Tang Dynasty, 618–907 248The Song Dynasty, 960–1127 254The Yuan Dynasty, 1279–1368: The Mongol Conquest of China 259Sinicization: The Influence of Chinese Culture on Korea, Japan, and Mongolia 262Korea 263Japan 266The Mongols: The End of Nomadism 275Suggested Reading 279Chapter 14 India and Islam 280An Era of Political ChaosInternal Fragmentation 282The Arrival of Islam 285Hindu Revival 287Delhi Sultanate 289Dhimmis, Being Cared for by the Faithful 290Suggested Reading 293Chapter 15 The European Middle Ages 294The Failure of TraditionPart One: The Early Middle Ages, 500–1000 295Part Two: The Byzantine Empire 300Part Three: Europe and the High Middle Ages, 1000–1300 303Special Topic: The Magna Carta 311Part Four: The Late Middle Ages, 1300–1450 319Special Topic: The Bubonic Plague 321Special Topic: Joan of Arc 325Part Five: The Renaissance 328Suggested Reading 337Chapter 16 Islamic Africa 339A Complex Pattern of CulturesCorporate Lineage and State Formation after 500 340Muslim Africa 341Special Topic: Abu Abdullah Mohammed Battuta 343South Africa 352Suggested Reading 353Chapter 17 The Americas 355A Time of TroubleThe Toltecs 357The Aztecs 359Special Topic: Ixiptla: An Aztec God-Representative 362The Incas 363North America 366The Unmistakable Influence of Isolation 370Suggested Reading 370Credits C-1Index I-1