Page 90 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

tfw-30 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

DISTRIBUTION of
AGRICULTURE by 500 BCE
Arctic Circle

EUROPE
ASIA NORTH
AMERICA
Atlantic
Pacific Ocean
Ocean
AFRICA
MESO-
AMERICA
Equator
SOUTH
AMERICA
Indian
Ocean AUSTRALIA N

Direction of spread
0 3,000 mi
0 3,000 km

contact than ever before, binding the whole of Eurasia Even more successful was Islam, founded in southwest-
into the largest system of exchange on Earth. ern Asia during the seventh century. Islam spread into
The increased reach of political, commercial, and intel- north Africa, central Asia, India, and southeastern Asia,
lectual exchange networks may explain another impor- carried first by armies of conquest and later by the Mus-
tant development during this era: the emergence of lim missionaries and holy men known as “sufis.”
religious traditions that also extended over huge areas— The same forces that gave rise to the first world reli-
the first world religions. Whereas earlier religious tradi- gions may also have spurred some of the first attempts at
tions usually claimed the allegiance of particular com- universal generalizations about reality in embryonic
munities or regions, world religions claimed to express forms of philosophy and science. Although normally
universal truths and to represent universal gods—reflec- associated with the philosophical and scientific traditions
tions, perhaps, of the increasing scale of imperial states. of classical Greece, such ideas can also be found within
The first world religion was probably Zoroastrianism, the astronomical and mathematical traditions of
a religion whose founder may have come from central Mesopotamia and the philosophical traditions of north-
Asia during the sixth century BCE, at about the time when ern India and China.
Cyrus I founded the Achaemenid empire. Buddhism was
founded soon after in northern India during a period of The Americas
rapid urbanization and state expansion. Its great period In the Americas, too, political systems expanded in size,
of expansion came early during the first millennium CE, in military power, and in cultural and commercial reach.
when it began to spread in central Asia, China, and During the first millennium CE complex systems of city-
southeastern Asia.The influence of Christianity expanded states and early empires emerged in Mesoamerica. At
within the Roman empire until, during the fourth century its height the great city of Teotihuacan in Mexico had
CE, it became the official religion of the state. Both Bud- a population of more than 100,000 people and con-
dhism and Christianity spread into central Asia and trolled trade networks reaching across much of Meso-
eventually reached China, although of the two only Bud- america. However, we cannot be certain that it had
dhism made a significant impact on Chinese civilization. direct control of any other cities or states. Farther south,