After
the first civilizations were established into the Ancient world, not much
changed in the rise and fall of power between countries. All regions were left alone to their own
Monarchies, the rich were still wealthy, the poor maintained their poverty,
slavery was still enforced, and women in most regions were still regarded as
secondary to the primary males. However,
with the successful civilizations optimizing their resources and minimizing
threats from their hostile environments, the biggest change seen within this
period were the increasing numbers in populations. As Strayer introduces us to the different
realms, we will witness how each civilization refine their individualities with
politics, religion, and other identifiable traits that define their
culture. The next major influences
within this next big movement are the exchanges of trades and goods between the
neighboring countries. With the regions
willingness to collaborate with each other in the trades, they began to develop
each other’s efficiency with techniques to enhance the others with technologies
and religions, but unfortunately some detrimental diseases as well.
In
Chapter 3, Strayer focuses on the Empires of Eurasia and North Africa. He describes the functions of Empires in
general by being “larger and more aggressive states, those that conquer, rule,
and extract resources from other states and peoples. Thus empires have generally encompassed a
considerable variety of peoples and cultures within a single political system,
and they have often been associated with political or cultural oppression” (p.
118). The beginning of this
“second-wave” era describes the dominant colonies of people that sought out to
best the neighboring communities for their resources and man power. For some colonies like the Persian and Roman
Empire, the conquests for territorial expansion took several centuries when
compared to the progress of the Chinese Empire.
For both the Roman and Chinese empires however, they succumbed to the
eventual collapse of their regimes.
Strayer’s research exemplifies these detriments by showing examples of
the negative results of expansion. The
empires had stretched themselves so far and vast that they began to encounter
financial problems, they lacked the technology to sufficiently maintain the
resources, and they eventually lost power of authority within the central
governments. Diseases also crippled both
empires, and rivalries within the surviving elitists also weakened the
suffering authorities—the empires were facing deteriorations both internally
and externally; however, within the Chinese regime they were able to retain
their political structures and disciplines like an inherited tradition, where
the Romans were not successful in rebuilding their fallen empire.
Not all
empires suffered the collapse of expansion.
In contrast to the invasive actions of the earlier empires, India
favored the values and moral teachings of Hinduism, which allowed for
creativity and encouraged diversity in science, mathematics, art, literature,
etc. toward anybody that resided within the community. Most of
the admirable policies didn’t last after the death of Emperor Ashoka, however,
in today’s India as well as the peaceful activists, they continue to model the
philosophy of Emperor Ashoka to promote cultural tolerance and
nonviolence. China continues to implement
their strong faith in dominance with a strong government, and control their citizens
with tight boundaries. While the Roman
Empire never recovered from their fall, it is heavily believed that the current
United States of America adopted similar idealisms; like the Romans, the beginning
of America had the similar interests of growth and expansion in “unclaimed”
territory. This provided opportunity for
the soldiers and lower class to work hard in attempts to bring themselves out
of poverty, while the upper class had access to acquire desirable land as well
as self-appointing the pivotal political roles.
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the Roman Empire had also
created vulnerabilities when they were expanding to different regions—this could
also be compared to the modern American involvements and inefficacies of Viet
Nam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and potentially Syria. With the rising power that America has in
regard to the rest of the world, Strayer questions the reader if Americans have
become the new Romans.
This
chapter was extremely difficult for me to get through due to the dynamics of
the different empires, and how they grew from specialization into established
governments of ruling people with laws.
It is interesting to note the diversity in which the cultures created
their written laws and code of ethics—to believe in strict control of their
people and the hunger for resources in certain regions, to the liberal practices
that one could reside in another group.
While I can marvel and appreciate the distinguishable edifices and
technologies that helped to create these diverse cultures, I also lament for
the conquered citizens that became the slaves of these powerful empires. Without them, it would have been too
expensive to create the Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Wall of China, and even
the United States Railroad system. I also
felt that Strayer’s thoughts on America becoming the next Roman Empire to be
accurate with my own beliefs. When
learning about the Roman Empire in my elementary years, I had remembered
learning their rise to power had created complacency, which had led them to
their eventual downfall; I ponder if America will suffer the same fate of
letting our dominance cloud the judgments of stability and homeostasis. With more and more citizens losing the respect
of their political leaders, and without any positive discernible changes between
the populations both in and out of congress, it only forebodes my apprehensions
of a struggling America. Hopefully our
history will not suffer the same fate as the Romans have with their removal of
future existence.
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