The Second Wave of Civilizations



The second wave of civilization came from the increase in numbers from the first civilization. From villages to states and empires means an increase in people. The second wave from the Roman, Persian, Indian and Chinese empires simply outnumbered the first civilizations from Mesopotamia and Egypt.  This new growth in numbers mainly came from Eurasia, Middle East, China and India.  between 500 B.C.E. and 500 C.E. Many of these empires did not cross each others paths because each civilization was building their own empire under political systems, cultural values, and organizing society. The largest of them was the Persian Empire as the Achaemenid dynasty. The Persian Empire conquered much of the land surrounding them and grew to be about 35 to 50 million people. This empire ruled under a monarch (kingship) and used elaborate rituals for the royalty. The Greek civilization known as the Hellenes, was similar to the Persian Empire because they were also very diverse with many different cultures and languages in their empire based on the areas they took control over. The Greek were known for extracting metals like silver, lead, copper, bronze and iron which used a lot of wood. This left some of their land to deforestation and soil erosion. Eventually these two civilizations went to war with each other a couple times known as the Greco-Persian Wars between 490- 480 B.C.E..

The Roman Empire was ruled by a King at first. But he was overthrown and the people put in place a republic of wealthy rich men, known as patricians, that ruled. They even had a Senate, a group of men known as the patrician assembly,  that advised the executive authority, made up of  two men or consuls. Poorer classes known as plebeians would fight for change in the Roman politics. They had values and morals based on their type of political system that everyone had a voice even if they were in different social classes. China had three dynasties: Xia, Shang, and Zhou. Shortly after the Han dynasty also rose. The difference with them was their adoption of Confucianism in place of a legal system. This began the mixing of religion and politics.

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