The Decline of Classical Civilizations - Term Paper Example

?[Your full full April 15, Decline ical Civilizations Having discussed the environmental, economic, and socio-political attributes of Persia, Roman Civilization, India, and China and comparing them in order to highlight similarities and differences which impacted on their development in human history, we will now discuss the decline of these famous civilizations in order to get a better understanding of the causes of their decline. An Overview of Classical Civilizations The earliest civilizations had emerged in the major river deltas of the world, taking advantage of the plentiful resources and building historic cities which did not depend on nomadic hunter-gatherer culture. The people of these cities focused on agriculture. This reflects the emphasis of people on stability and the accumulation of material wealth using sophisticated technologies and through widespread trading links. The Persians were located in a mid-point between the technologically advanced Greco-Roman world and the exotic trading world of the Chinese. The Chinese civilization not only gave start to the paper currency but also started making use of silk products, which were much required to trade goods all across the major axial age civilizations. It means that China was well placed to soak up the ideas which passed back and forth with the traders of that time. The Roman civilization was altogether focussed towards war. Their military personnel were extremely sure that they could make use of a wide network of populated lands in order to develop their main cities. In India, the caste system was deeply integrated in the culture, which emerged as a way to determine levels of the people. The law books in the Indian civilization focused more on a strictly hierarchical division of the people, which provided the basis for the Hindu way of life that still prevails not only in India but also in some other parts of the subcontinent up to some extent. What Caused Fall of Classical Civilization Some of the major reasons, which caused decline to the classical civilizations, include new forms of governments, expanded borders, mediocre successors, economic and social imbalance, disintegration of large empires, and division between the people based on race. Let us now discuss the factors in detail, which led to the decline of four major classical civilizations of the world. Decline of Rome The most complex of all civilizations’ declines was the decline of the Roman Civilization. “The primary reason for the fall of the Roman Empire was the differences between the communal and patriarchal forces” (Martin). Some other factors behind decline of the Roman civilization were the differences between upper and lower classes of the people and expansion of borders. As Roman Empire started to expand, it required more troops and weapons to cope with the situation. Giving salaries to all troops and buying more weapons was impossible without cooperation of the local people. Therefore, the government of that time imposed various taxes on the lower class of Rome in order to collect money. The government did not impose the taxes on the upper class of Rome. Upper class used to live luxurious lifestyle whereas lower class started to struggle in order to fulfill their necessities of life. Upper class not only enjoyed their lifestyle but also they did not pay any attention to their social and political responsibilities. People, other than upper class, started to view life as a meaningless and hollow thing. Complexities in their lives deviated away their attention from the arts and culture. It is a fact that when a country or a civilization states neglecting the importance of its culture and traditions, it cannot move with the pace of the world for a long time and eventually faces collapse or fall down. It also happened with the Roman civilization where people started to ignore their culture, arts, social and political norms resulting in the decline of whole civilization. These reasons resulted in weakening the social, political, and economic structures of the Roman Empire, which made it easy for the German invaders to invade the Roman Empire. After invasion, local people, which included lower class people, farmers, and laborers surrendered to the Germans and started to seek protection from them instead of the Roman government. Decentralization of powers, which started to occur in the Roman Empire after German invasion, acted as the last step towards collapse of the Roman civilization. Byzantine Empire was the only portion of Rome, which survived the invasion of Germans but that portion was not strong enough culturally to sustain the integrity of the Roman classical civilization. Decline of India Indian classical age is divided into two major halves. One half belongs to Asoka whereas the second half belongs to Gupta. The decline of Indian classical civilization started with the death of Asoka. Asoka had formed a very strong society which was not only strong financially but also integrated all elements of the Indian culture. The economic and financial policies of Asoka rose Indian civilization to its heights. The Mauryan dynasty, which was under the influence of Asoka, became very weak financially and politically with the death of Asoka, which gave way to the invasion by the Bactrian empire, a southwest Asian country. The empire of Bactria destabilized the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent making it easier for the Greek speaking empire to invade India and take control of the political and social matters of the region. Although Mauyran dynasty collapsed after the death of Asoka, a new group came into existence in the region under the command of Gupta. Gupta Empire (320 CE to 500 CE) and the Roman Empire belong almost to the same age. The regional family of Gupta took steps to unite all regions of the subcontinent. The empire of Gupta gave political powers to the local regions of the subcontinent in order to let the people belonging to those regions make their own laws regarding their regions. The main drawback of the Gupta’s decentralized policy was that it made it easier for the Chinese to invade the local regions and take control of their political affairs. The social structure of India was intact as compared to other major civilizations and that is the reason why the culture of India remained intact even after a variety of invasions by different invaders. Hinduism was the only major religion during the classical age of Indian civilization. Different invaders came to the subcontinent but none of them made a strong impact on the religion of the people belonging to the subcontinent. It was only Islamic Mughal dynasty, which influenced a large number of people and spread Islam in a large part of the subcontinent. Decline of China The major reasons behind the decline of Chinese classical civilization were corrupt bureaucracy, illogical division of powers, and the Yellow Turban revolutionary movement. Bureaucracy of any country is one of the main strongholds related to the economy of the country. When the bureaucrats become corrupt and dishonest, it shakes the foundations of the whole nation. Same case happened with the civilization of China where corruption of the bureaucrats resulted in weakening the power of the central government. Although there was central government in China, but the weakened political structure was unable to form a strong government. The decline in the power of the central government resulted in strengthening the local landlords in China (The Decline and fall of classical civilizations). The movement of Yellow Turban was the result of political and social imbalance in China. The property owners had a significant influence on the local people of China, particularly, on the peasants. They made the peasants pay heavy taxes, which mad the lives of the peasants very difficult. The internal turmoil caused due to political and social unrest of the Chinese people gave way to the violent tribes, known as Huns, to invade China and take control of the local people. The Hun invasion of China adversely destroyed the foundations of the Chinese civilization ending one of the most famous classical civilizations. Decline of Greek Some of the main reasons behind decline of the classical civilization of Greece were military and economic changes, chronic warfare, spread of Greek civilization, the Peloponnesian war, and the disability of the Greek people to unite. The dilemma with the ancient Greece was that there was no unity among the people of Greece, which gave the way to the invaders to come and destroy the civilization of Greece. The culture of Greece was also not very appreciable in which males used to look for the sexual pleasure outside instead of their own wives. The Peloponnesian war was also a setback to the great classical civilization of Greece. The war with the Persians and then the Peloponnesian war put an adverse affect on the overall Greek civilization. One of the major impacts was on the overall quality of life of the Greek people, which was affected badly due to warfare. Although the war with the Persians united the citizens of Greece, yet the overall political and social structure of Greece was not able to meet the standards of the Peloponnesian war and it led to the decline of the Greek ancient civilization. Works Cited Martin, Kum. “Fall of Rome - Decline of the Roman Empire.” Ezinearticles.com, 26 Jan. 2010. Web. 15 Apr. 2011. . n.p. “The Decline and fall of classical civilizations.” Historyhaven.com, n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2011. . Read More