Volume 1 Introduction x Unit One The Ancient World 1 Themes: The artificial existence of civilization The biology of civilization The geography of civilization The climate of civilization The relationship between belief and action Chapter 1: Biology and World History Civilization and Nomads 5 Climate 12 The Geography of Cultivation 14 The Domestication of Animals 20 Urban Development 24 The Nomads 27 Disease History 28 Suggested Reading 31 Chapter 2: Mesopotamia The Land between the Rivers 33 A Temple Economy 34 The Causes of Trade 35 Kings, War, and Ecocide 37 The Art of Writing and Hammurabi s Code 39 The General Matrix of Civilization 41 The Dawn of Religion: Creation Myths 42 Iron and Mesopotamia 44 The Hebrews 47 The Emergence of Monotheism 48 Suggested Readings 51 Chapter 3: Pre-Islamic Africa Egyptian, Nilotic, and Sub-Saharan Africa 52 Egypt, the Gift of the Nile 52 The Archaic Period (ca. 3100 2700 bce) and the Pyramid Age of the Old Kingdom (ca. 2700 2200 bce) 57 The First Intermediate Period (ca. 2200 2000 bce) and the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2000 1786 bce) 59 The Hyksos and Second Intermediate Period (ca. 1786 1575 bce) and the New Kingdom (ca. 1575 1050 bce) 60 special topic: The Distant but Powerful Link between Pacific Currents and Egyptian Floods 61 Egypt and the Iron Age 65 Nilotic Africa 66 Sub-Saharan Africa 70 Iron 73 Suggested Reading 75 Chapter 4: India From the Indus to the Ganges 76 Iron, Rice, and India 80 Indian Religions 83 Religious Opposition 87 The Maturation of India s Faiths 89 Suggested Reading 90 Chapter 5: China The Yellow River Civilization 91 The Land and the People 91 Mythological China 93 The Bronze Age: The Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynsties 94 The Iron Age: Economic, Military, and Commercial Revolutions 97 The Golden Age of Classical Chinese Philosophy 98 China s First Empire: The Qin and Han Dynasties 102 Centers of Power within and beyond the Han Empire 107 special topic: Lady Lu: Empress Dowager 108 Suggested Reading 110 Chapter 6: The Nomads trade and the Great Migrations 111 The First Wave of Mass Migrations: The Wheel, the Chariot, and Nomads 112 A Second Wave of Migrations: The Iron Age 118 Cavalry: The Third Wave of Migrations 123 Suggested Reading 126 Chapter 7: Greece The Rainfall Zone 127 Network Cities and the Special Case of Athens 128 The Role of Coins in Athenian History 131 The Limits of Democracy 133 Sparta 134 The Failure of Greek Politics 135 Philip of Macedon, Alexander the Great, and the Hellenistic World 136 Greek Philosophy 138 Physics 139 Math and Logic: Metaphysics 140 Socrates and his Followers 141 Drama 143 The Origins of History 145 Suggested Reading 146 Chapter 8: The Hellenistic East and Persia A Cultural Bridge 147 The Hellenistic East 147 Diffusion of Hellenism to the East 149 Kings, Cities, and Soldiers 151 Hellenistic Philosophy 154 The Stoics 157 One God, One Lord 158 The Persians 160 The Persian Sassanian Empire (224 651 ce) 164 Khusro I and the Height of the Sassanian Empire 168 Suggested Reading 169 Chapter 9: Rome From Citizenship to Imperial Rule 170 Part One: The Republic 170 Part Two: The Empire 176 Roman Society 179 Roman Philosophy 181 Christianity 183 Suggested Reading 188 Chapter 10: Origins of Native American Cultures Geographic Isolation 189 Origins of the Americas First Cities 192 Mesoamerica 193 Teotihuacan 195 The Maya 196 South America 198 Elsewhere in the Americas 200 Suggested Reading 201 Chapter 11: The Fall of the Ancient Eurasian World Rome, Han China, and Gupta India 203 Trade, Disease, and Religious Ideas 204 special topic: Manichaeism 207 Internal Decay: The Roman Story 207 special topic: Malaria 210 special topic: Smallpox 211 The Han Dynasty, 206 bce 220 ce 214 Chaos and Religion: Buddhism and Daoism 219 The Last Days of the Han 221 Gupta India: The Great Exception 222 The Nomads 224 Suggested Reading 227 Unit two The Middle Years 229 Themes: Culture Learned Shared Symbolic Integrated Chapter 12: The Rise of Islam The Ancient Near East Becomes the Middle East 233 The Prophecy 233 The Pillars of Islam 235 The Umma 239 The Caliphs 240 Suggested Reading 245 Chapter 13: China in an Era of Recovery and Cultures on the fringe Korea, Japan, and the Mongols 246 China s Second Empire: Sui and Tang Dynasties 247 The Tang Dynasty, 618 907 248 The Song Dynasty, 960 1127 254 The Yuan Dynasty, 1279 1368: The Mongol Conquest of China 259 Sinicization: The Influence of Chinese Culture on Korea, Japan, and Mongolia 262 Korea 263 Japan 266 The Mongols: The End of Nomadism 275 Suggested Reading 279 Chapter 14: India and Islam An Era of Political Chaos 280 Internal Fragmentation 282 The Arrival of Islam 285 Hindu Revival 287 Delhi Sultanate 289 Dhimmis, Being Cared for by the Faithful 290 Suggested Reading 293 Chapter 15: The European Middle Ages The Failure of Tradition 294 Part One: The Early Middle Ages, 500 1000 295 Part Two: The Byzantine Empire 300 Part Three: Europe and the High Middle Ages, 1000 1300 303 special topic: The Magna Carta 311 Part Four: The Late Middle Ages, 1300 1450 319 special topic: The Bubonic Plague 321 special topic: Joan of Arc 325 Part Five: The Renaissance 328 Suggested Reading 337 Chapter 16: Islamic Africa A Complex Pattern of Cultures 339 Corporate Lineage and State Formation after 500 340 Muslim Africa 341 special topic: Abu Abdullah Mohammed Battuta 343 South Africa 352 Suggested Reading 353 Chapter 17: The Americas A Time of Trouble 355 The Toltecs 357 The Aztecs 359 special topic: Ixiptla: An Aztec God-Representative 362 The Incas 363 North America 366 The Unmistakable Influence of Isolation 370 Suggested Reading 370 Credits C-1 Index I-1 MAPS Original Agricultural Sites 4 The World from 200 BCE 200 CE 32 The World from 200 CE 500 CE 202 The World from the Death of Mohammed, 632 750 CE 232 World Civilizations and Empires (circa 1500 CE) 354
