The second part in our textbooks begins with the introduction to second wave civilizations. Immediately we are shown a graph of the human race and its population at the time. From 3000 BCE to 1500 CE, the population grew to a maximum of around four hundred million.
The third chapter begins by asking the question, "Are we Rome?" I immediately think, of course not. How could we be Rome? Then after a thought or two, I begin to wonder, if the Romans had one of the biggest empires in history, then I guess today the United States would be an example of that. While the Romans did eventually fall, we haven't fallen just yet. Sure, it seems like this country is slowly falling apart with crisis looming around every corner, but it is definitely not as drastic as the Roman Empire's demise. So I guess in a way, the past really is part of the present as well.
The first Empire we take a close look at is the Persian Empire. At their best, the Persians were the biggest Empire in the world and dominated everything around them. They placed governor-like people in power in each of their provinces.
Next were the Greeks. They appeared at around 750 BCE. For being such an iconic ancient civilization, the Greeks had a smaller population compared to the Persian Empire. Their population estimated at around two and a half million. Unlike Persia, the Greeks had hundreds of small city-states. They were particularly smaller in size in comparison to the provinces of the Persian Empire. These city-states would often have many conflicts with one another. I personally believe that this seems like they had small fights over things people in this day and age wouldn't put much thought into. After all, they did believe in the same Gods and spoke the same language. It intrigues me and I still wonder why they used to bicker at one another all the time.
However, this bickering would stop every four years. This was all thanks to the Olympic Games. The Olympic Games first emerged in 776 BCE. As we all know, these games had a huge impact on the world, since we still have different cities host the event every four years. Unfortunately, some city-states were too big to give up their fighting. I think they felt as if they had a sense of power, or position above every other city-state. These included Athens, Sparta, and Corinth.
Perhaps the most astonishing thing that we have discovered about the ancient Greeks, is the fact that people were granted citizenship. Along with citizenship, gave, in a way, a right to vote and have a voice politically. Maybe they didn't vote like we do in this day and age, but they could make decisions for themselves.
The next empire that came along was the Chinese Empire. Unlike a sense of unification, like the Greeks, the Chinese Empire emerged as a result of waring states in the Chinese regions. Qin Shihuangdi (means first emperor) was a leader of a state and had set up a very promising government. His mission was clear, he was going to wage one last giant war against the other states in order to unify China. What amazes me is that he accomplished his goal in just ten years.
The final major empire mentioned in the chapter is India. It first emerged as a small collection of towns and cities. However, as time went on they had one of the strongest militaries around. With a population of approximately fifty million, it's not hard to understand why.
Overall, I think each civilization had a pretty good run, unfortunately some empires, like the Indian Empire, weren't given the opportunity to last longer than they really did.
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