East ancient civilization. Ancient eastern civilization

The Sumerians managed to displace the swamps and create regional irrigation systems, which became the economic basis of highly developed agriculture. Politically, there were many city-states in Sumer, due to the lack of need for a single irrigation network.

The unification occurred after the rise of the city in Northern Mesopotamia - Akkad. Its ruler Sargon (2316 - 2261 BC), having created the most powerful army for that time, managed to subjugate all Sumerian cities to his power, and then expanded the borders of his country from the Persian Gulf to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The first in history arose world empire.

The territory of Mesopotamia was very often subject to invasions by numerous warlike nomadic tribes, who lived in large numbers on its borders. This is how the Akkadian kingdom perished.

In the protracted struggle of individual city-states, the leading role passes to Babylon (XIX - XVI centuries BC). King Hammurabi (1792 - 1750 BC), a talented ruler and creator of the legislative code, gained particular fame.

From that time on, Babylon became for 2 thousand years one of the greatest cities in the world with a population of one million, a “wonder of the world.”

Ancient Egypt

This very soon led to political centralization. Quite quickly, small nomes united into two large states: Upper (Southern) and Lower (Northern) Egypt. At the very end of the 4th millennium BC. Pharaoh Narmer of Upper Egypt managed to subjugate the entire country. After this, Egypt is almost constantly a centralized state.

A unified irrigation system was created, which became the basis for the prosperity of Egypt for three millennia.

The geographical environment predetermined not only the unity of Egypt, but also its isolation from other countries - wide deserts stretch on both sides of the Nile Valley. Nevertheless, Egypt repeatedly had to repel the raids of nomads. Sometimes nomadic tribes seized power over the country for a while (Hyksos, Libyans). However, more often the Egyptians themselves made trips to neighboring Nubia, Sinai, Palestine, and Libya.

Egypt reached the pinnacle of political power in the 16th - 14th centuries. BC. The Egyptian pharaohs subjugate almost the entire eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, reaching the Euphrates.

From the 8th century BC. Egypt's power is weakening. The country was captured successively by the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans. Nevertheless, in world history there are few countries whose stable development has spanned more than 3 thousand years.

Indo-Europeans

In the 3rd millennium BC. Indo-Europeans are mastering agriculture and cattle breeding, but they have not yet formed a state. The Indo-Europeans domesticated the horse and actively used it. This was one of the reasons for their mobility. For several thousand years they have been colonizing vast territories from the Atlantic to China, from the Siberian taiga to Indian Ocean.

The Indo-Europeans became one of the nomadic peoples who, starting from the turn of the 3rd - 2nd millennium BC. in search of prey, they attacked the borders of ancient civilizations.

Hittites

At this time, the Hittite power had a noticeable influence on all Middle Eastern politics. The Hittites owed this to their victorious army. The military successes of the Hittites are largely due to the use of military innovations: riding horses and iron weapons.

The Hittites strengthened their power so much that one of their kings managed to capture Babylon and completely plundered it (1595 BC).

In the struggle for the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, the Hittites clashed with Egypt. One of the most epic battles of antiquity near the city of Kadesh (1296 BC) did not give an advantage to either side. The Egyptian pharaoh was forced to sign peace and call the Hittite ruler his “brother.”

In the 13th century BC. The Hittite power fell under the blow of the “Sea Peoples”, who attacked the Eastern Mediterranean. The history of the Hittite state, their language and culture were soon forgotten.

Ancient Phenicia and Israel

At the end of the 2nd - beginning of the 1st millennium BC. The city-states of Phenicia are entering their heyday. The Phoenicians were talented sailors and, for trading purposes, sailed throughout the Mediterranean Sea, went out into the Atlantic Ocean, sailed for tin to Britain, and went around Africa. At this time they practically monopolized all Mediterranean trade. For example, even Egypt conducted all external maritime trade only through the Phoenicians.

Phoenician sailors were the first to establish colonies on the distant shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The most famous of them was Carthage, founded in the 9th century. BC.

In the 13th century BC. On the territory of modern Palestine, ancient Jewish tribes appear and begin to conquer the local lands. At the beginning of the 10th century. BC. they captured Jerusalem, which became the capital of their emerging state - Judea. It reached its greatest prosperity under King Solomon (about 965 - 935 BC), famous for his wisdom and the construction of the famous Jerusalem Temple in honor of the god Yahweh. However, by the end of his reign, part of the Hebrew tribes separated from Judea and formed another state - Israel.

The period of relative prosperity ended when powerful neighbors became interested in the territories of Judea, Israel, and Phenicia. These territories successively came under the rule of Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, and Persia. For strategic purposes, the conquerors resettled the ancient Jewish population deep into their own territory several times. The most famous was the “Babylonian captivity” (587 - 539 BC).

Assyria

The Assyrians managed to capture almost all of Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, Phenicia, and Israel. However, the state quickly created on the basis of military force and fear disintegrated even faster. Within a few years it was destroyed by former conquered peoples united against it. In 612 BC. the capital of the country, Nineveh, was taken and the Assyrians faced the same fate former victims.

Persia

In the VIII - VII centuries. BC. in the area of ​​​​ancient Near Eastern civilizations, warlike nomadic tribes from the north, mainly from the areas of modern Ukrainian and southern Russian steppes - Medes, Cimmerians, Scythians, etc., invade, causing horror. They also spoke dialects of the Iranian language group.

From the end of the 8th century. BC. in the south of modern Iran the region of Parsa (Persia) begins to strengthen. In 558 BC. Cyrus from the Achaemenid dynasty became king of the Persians. His active conquests began, and after 20 years all of Mesopotamia submitted to Cyrus. His successors expanded the borders from Egypt and Asia Minor to India and the Amu Darya.

The empire collapsed as a result of the campaign of Alexander the Great (330 BC).

Indus civilization

Information about this civilization is limited to archaeological sources, since the Indian writing system has not yet been deciphered.

Agriculture and crafts reached a high level. Large ports indicate developed trade. Luxurious palaces and temples were built in populous fortified cities, indicating an advanced process of social differentiation.

Ancient India

Highest flourishing Ancient India reached during the reign of Ashoka from the Maurya dynasty, who united all of Northern India in the middle of the 3rd century. BC. Advances in agriculture in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. and high rice yields contributed to the dramatic population growth. To strengthen the state, Ashoka actively relied on Buddhism. However, soon after his death, a period of fragmentation and civil strife begins again.

Ancient China

In the 8th century BC. The Zhou state breaks up into several kingdoms, which enter into a fierce internecine struggle among themselves. However, this did not prevent the process of forming ideas about the unity of the Chinese ethnic group.

The unification of China occurs in 221 BC. under the rule of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. His power was a striking example of a centralized state. However, his personal qualities as a tyrant contributed to the demise of the dynasty a few years after his death.

The country was led by the Han Dynasty, under which Ancient China enters the period of its highest power. Advances in agriculture and economics led to population growth to 60 million people. The Han Dynasty wages numerous wars of conquest. The territory of the empire increases three to four times. Korea, Vietnam and other countries fall under its influence. The Great Silk Road connected China with India, the Middle East and even Europe.

However, the wars undermined the country's strength and the Han dynasty was overthrown by a popular uprising in the 2nd century. AD

By the 3rd millennium BC. e. The first centers of civilization arose in the Ancient East. Some scientists call ancient civilizations primary in order to emphasize that they grew directly from primitiveness and did not rely on a previous civilizational tradition. One of characteristic features primary civilizations is that they contain a significant element of primitive beliefs, traditions and forms of social interaction.

Primary civilizations arose under similar climatic conditions. Scientists note that their the zone covered an area with a tropical, subtropical and partly temperate climate, the average annual temperature was quite high - about + 20° C. Only a few thousand years later, the zone of civilization began to spread to the north, where nature was more severe. This means that for the emergence of civilization, certain favorable natural conditions are needed.

Historians also point out that the birthplaces of primary civilizations, as a rule, are river valleys. In the 3rd millennium BC. e. civilization arose in the Nile River valley in Egypt, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia. Somewhat later - in the III-II millennium BC. e. Indian civilization arose in the Indus River valley in the 2nd millennium BC. e. in the valley of the Yellow River - Chinese.

Of course, not all ancient civilizations were riverine. Thus, Phenicia, Greece and Rome developed in a special geographical situation. This is the type coastal civilizations. The peculiarity of coastal conditions left a special imprint on the character economic activity, and this, in turn, stimulated the formation of a special type of social and political relations, special traditions. This is how another type of civilization was formed - Western. Thus, already in the Ancient world, two global and parallel types of civilization began to take shape - eastern and western.

The spiritual life of Eastern man was dominated by religious-mythological ideas and canonized styles of thinking. In terms of worldview, in Eastern civilizations there is no division of the world into the world of nature and society, natural and supernatural. Therefore, the perception of the world an oriental person a syncretic approach is inherent, expressed in the formulas “all in one” or “all in all”. From the point of view of religious life, Eastern culture is characterized by a moral and volitional orientation toward contemplation, serenity, and mystical unity with natural and supernatural forces. In Eastern worldview systems, a person is absolutely not free; he is predetermined in his actions and fate by cosmic law. The most common symbol of Eastern culture is “a man in a boat without oars.” It testifies to the fact that a person’s life is determined by the flow of the river, i.e. nature, society, the state - therefore a person does not need oars.

Eastern civilizations have amazing stability. A. Macedonian conquered the entire Middle East and built a huge empire. But one day everything returned to normal - to its eternal order. Eastern civilization is focused primarily on the reproduction of established social structures, stabilization of the established way of life that had prevailed for many centuries. A characteristic feature of Eastern civilization is traditionalism. Traditional patterns of behavior and activity, accumulating the experience of ancestors, were considered an important value and were reproduced as stable stereotypes.

The social life of Eastern civilizations is built on the principles collectivism. Personality is not developed. Personal interests are subordinated to general ones: communal, state. The community collective determined and controlled all aspects of human life: moral standards, spiritual priorities, principles of social justice, the form and nature of work.

The political organization of life in Eastern civilizations received the name in history despotism. Let us consider in more detail what eastern despotism was.

An important sign of eastern despotism is coercion policy, and even terrorism. Characteristic of Eastern despotism public-state property(primarily to the ground). According to religious and moral teachings, land, water, air and other natural resources were given to all humanity. Socially, the structural basis of Eastern despotism was egalitarianism, the complete absence or extremely insignificant role of class differences and horizontal connections in general.

The next global type of civilization that emerged in ancient times was Western type of civilization. It began to appear on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and highest development reached in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, societies that are commonly called the ancient world in the period from the IX-VIII centuries. BC e. until IV-V centuries. n. e. Therefore, the Western type of civilization with with good reason can be called the Mediterranean or ancient type of civilization.

Ancient civilization went through a long path of development. In the south of the Balkan Peninsula due to various reasons early class societies and states arose at least three times: in the 2nd half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. (destroyed by the Achaeans); in the XVII-XIII centuries. BC e. (destroyed by the Dorians); in the IX-VI centuries. BC e. the last attempt was a success - an ancient society arose.

Ancient civilization, like eastern civilization, is a primary civilization. It grew directly from primitiveness and could not benefit from the fruits of the previous civilization. Therefore, in ancient civilization, by analogy with Eastern civilization, the influence of primitiveness is significant in the minds of people and in the life of society. The dominant position is occupied religious and mythological worldview. However, this worldview has significant features. Ancient worldview cosmological. In Greek, space is not only the world. The Universe, but also order, the world whole, opposing Chaos with its proportionality and beauty. This ordering is based on measure and harmony. Thus, in ancient culture, on the basis of ideological models, one of the important elements Western culture - rationality.

Civilization of Ancient Greece. The originality of Greek civilization lies in the emergence of such a political structure as "polis" - "city-state", covering the city itself and the surrounding area. Polis were the first republics in the history of all mankind.

Numerous Greek cities were founded along the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, as well as on the islands of Cyprus and Sicily. In the VIII-VII centuries. BC e. A large stream of Greek settlers rushed to the coast of southern Italy; the formation of large policies in this territory was so significant that it was called “Great Greece.”

Citizens of the policies had the right to own land, were obliged to take part in state affairs in one form or another, and in case of war, a civil militia was formed from them. In Hellenic policies, in addition to the citizens of the city, a free population usually lived personally, but deprived civil rights; Often these were immigrants from other Greek cities. At the bottom rung of the social ladder of the ancient world there were completely powerless slaves.

The product of the highest culture of antiquity is the Hellenistic civilization, which began with the conquest of Alexander the Great in 334-328. BC e. The Persian power, which covered Egypt and a large part of the Middle East to the Indus and Central Asia. The Hellenistic period lasted three centuries. In this wide space, new forms of political organization and social relations peoples and their cultures - the Hellenistic civilization.

The characteristic features of the Hellenistic civilization include: a specific form of socio-political organization - the Hellenistic monarchy with elements of eastern despotism and polis structure; the growth of food production and trade in them, the development of trade routes, the expansion of money circulation, including the appearance of gold coins; a stable combination of local traditions with the culture brought by the conquerors and settlers of the Greeks and other peoples.

Civilization Ancient Rome compared to Greece was a more complex phenomenon. According to ancient legend, the city of Rome was founded in 753 BC. e. on the left bank of the Tiber, the validity of which was confirmed by archaeological excavations of the present century. Initially, the population of Rome consisted of three hundred clans, the elders of which formed the Senate; At the head of the community was a king (in Latin - reve). The king was the supreme military leader and priest. Later, the Latin communities living in Latium, annexed to Rome, received the name plebeians (plebs-people), and the descendants of the old Roman families, who then made up the aristocratic layer of the population, received the name patricians.

In the VI century. BC e. Rome became a fairly significant city and was dependent on the Etruscans, who lived northwest of Rome.

At the end of the 6th century. BC e. With the liberation from the Etruscans, the Roman Republic was formed, which lasted for about five centuries. The Roman Republic was initially a small state in area, less than 1000 square meters. km. The first centuries of the republic were a time of persistent struggle of the plebeians for their equal political rights with the patricians, for equal rights to public land. As a result, the territory of the Roman state gradually expanded. At the beginning of the 4th century. BC e. it has already more than doubled the original size of the republic. At this time, Rome was captured by the Gauls, who had previously settled in the Po Valley. However, the Gallic invasion did not play a significant role in the further development of the Roman state. II and I centuries. BC e. were times of great conquests, which gave Rome all the countries adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea, Europe to the Rhine and Danube, as well as Britain, Asia Minor, Syria and almost the entire coast North Africa. Countries conquered by the Romans outside Italy were called provinces.

In the first centuries of Roman civilization, slavery in Rome was poorly developed. From the 2nd century BC e. the number of slaves increased due to successful wars. The situation in the republic gradually worsened. In the 1st century BC e. the war of the disenfranchised Italians against Rome and the slave uprising led by Spartacus shocked all of Italy. It all ended with the establishment in Rome in 30 BC. e. the sole power of the emperor, who relied on armed force.

Many civilizations were born in river valleys. Rivers played such a huge role in their lives that these civilizations are called river. These are mainly the civilizations of the East.

The civilizations of the Ancient East were formed on the banks of the great rivers: the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates, Indus and Ganges, Yangtze and Yellow River. It was in the valleys of large rivers in a mild subtropical climate that the Better conditions for agriculture. River floods constantly fertilized the soft soil; it was easy to cultivate with the most primitive tools - wooden and copper; the harvest was harvested two or three times a year.

Over time, their boundaries have expanded significantly. For example, in the 4th millennium BC. there were several dozen small states in the Nile Valley. Then one of the kings conquered the entire north of Egypt - the Nile Delta, and the other conquered the entire south - its valley. Around the 3rd millennium BC. the king of the Southern Kingdom managed to subjugate the Northern Kingdom. Thus a powerful state was formed that united all of Egypt - from the rapids on the Nile to the Mediterranean Sea. Then its borders were repeatedly expanded (as it evolved from the early to the ancient and further to the middle, new and late kingdoms) both in connection with conquests in Ethiopia, Syria, Palestine, Nubia, and thanks to special expeditions equipped for exploration of adjacent territories . The inscription on the famous terraced temple of Queen Hatshepsut tells in detail about the great sea voyage that was undertaken on her orders in the 15th century. BC. to the country of Punt in the south of the Red Sea (Somalia, Yemen). A special fleet was built for this expedition. In addition, the Egyptians carried out campaigns in the Libyan Desert, and in the Mediterranean Sea they reached the island of Crete. During the New Kingdom, under Pharaoh Thutmose III (15th century BC), the Egyptian state extended from the fourth Nile cataracts to Northern Syria. Thus, the territorial basis Ancient Egypt consisted of the Nile valley and delta.

The ancient peoples of Mesopotamia acted in much the same way. It is believed that the Sumerians back in the 3rd millennium BC. knew Syria in the west and Anatolia in the north. They also sailed along the Persian Gulf to Bahrain, and then to the mouth of the Indus. Apparently, they should be considered the discoverers of the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Oman and the southwestern coast of Asia. And yet, the main means of “knowledge of the world” in those days remained the aggressive campaigns of the Hittite, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian powers. ., and reached the period of greatest power in the VIII-VII centuries. BC. Perhaps this was the first state that tried to unite the entire Middle East under its rule. Thanks to the conquests of the Assyrian kings Tiglath-pileser, Sargon, Esarhaddon, their power expanded to such limits that no state in the world had previously reached. Under King Ashurbanipal, Assyria extended from the mountains of Armenia and Iran to the Nile Delta. It was much larger than the Egyptian kingdom under Thutmose III; it is no coincidence that it is sometimes called the first “world power” in history.

In the 7th century BC. Soon after the fall of the Assyrian Empire, the Neo-Babylonian kingdom, led by Nebuchadnezzar II, became such a “world power.” Lydia, Media, Urartu, Colchis, Iberia (Georgia), the so-called Happy Arabia (present-day Yemen) and some other states were smaller in size.

The oldest of Indian civilizations - the pre-Aryan Harappan civilization - arose in the 3rd millennium BC. in the lower reaches of the Indus. From here the Harappans advanced into the Punjab and Deccan Plateau, as well as along the coast of the Arabian Sea. In the II and especially in the I millennium BC. the development of the Indian subcontinent continued by newcomers from the north-west - the Indo-Aryans, whose civilization arose in the middle reaches of the Ganges. Gradually they populated the entire Deccan, colonized the island of Taprobana (Sri Lanka), penetrated China and Kashgaria through the Himalayas, and on their ships explored the Bay of Bengal, Malacca and discovered the Malay Archipelago.

Of the non-river civilizations, the greatest contribution to the expansion of the ecumene of that time was made by the Persian state, which arose in the 6th century. BC. This expansion was achieved mainly through campaigns of conquest, which were first directed to the east and south, and then to the west. Over time, the entire coastal strip from Trebizond in Asia Minor to the Gulf of Sirte in Africa passed to the Persians.

The Iranian (Persian) kingdom, or the Achaemenid power, arose in the 6th century. BC. The conquests of the Persians, begun by King Cyrus II and continued by his son Cambyses, and then Darius I and Xerxes, led to the creation of a state that occupied the highlands of Iran, a significant part of Central Asia, part of Hindustan, all of Asia Minor and Asia Minor and Egypt , they conquered the kingdoms of the Assyrians, Hittites, Babylonians, Urartians, Elamites, Medes, Phoenicians, and Egyptians. Persian speech was heard throughout the Middle East at that time.

In South Asia, after the decline of civilization in the Indus basin and the movement of its center to the Ganges basin, here, in the interfluve of the Jumna and Sutlej, the first state of the ancient Indian Aryan tribe called Bharatavarshi arose; this is where modern things come from official name Republic of India in Hindi language - Bharat. Then, as a result of constant internecine wars, the state of Magadha was formed, which especially expanded under the Mauryan dynasty. His influence first spread to the North, and later, under King Ashoka, to all of India, with the exception of the extreme south. It was the first slave-holding power on an all-Indian scale in the history of the country. Large sizes reached and arose here already in the 4th century. AD Gupta state.

Chinese river civilization began in the 2nd millennium BC. in the lower reaches of the Yellow River basin. From here, the ancient Chinese advanced to the east - to the Yellow Sea, to the south - to the Yangtze, to the west - to the Loess Plateau, and also to the north. Then, already in the 1st millennium BC. they expanded their borders, mastering Southern China and part of Indochina. Even at the end of this millennium, the Chinese were convinced that their country was the center of the civilized world, outside of which only nomadic herders lived: the name “Zhong Guo” - “Middle State” is connected with this. Only after campaigns in Central Asia and voyages to the shores of Japan, India, and the Malay Archipelago did their geographical horizons expand significantly.

In the era under review, several large slave-holding states were replaced on the territory of China. The first of them occupied mainly only the northern part of modern China, the Great Chinese Plain. But already in the era of the Qin Empire, in the 3rd century. BC, managed to unite almost all of the then Chinese lands. The Han Empire that replaced it also arose in Northern China, in the Yellow River basin. However, during the existence of this empire, its borders expanded very widely. It extended from the Pacific Ocean to Central Asia and from Manchuria to Indochina. From Guangzhou and the ports of the Gulf of Tonkin, sea routes led to the shores of Cambodia, Java, Sumatra, and India. The first political union in neighboring Korea (Joseon, or “Land of Morning Freshness”) was formed in the 4th century. BC.

One of the areas of ancient civilization based on irrigated agriculture was also Central Asia. Local farmers dug the first irrigation canals back in the 4th millennium BC. Then, step by step, the valleys of the Amu Darya, Syr Darya, Kashkadarya, Zeravshan and other rivers were developed and cultivated.

In Central Asia in the 1st millennium BC. states such as Sogdiana, Bactria, Fergana, and Khorezm already existed. At the turn of the old and new eras, they entered the vast Kushan kingdom, which during its heyday also included a significant part of the territory of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Northern India.

Important Feature the first states of the time under review - their instability and instability. First of all, this applies to the world's largest "powers", which arose as a result of conquest and were not very strong conglomerates of various tribes and peoples. Such, for example, is the Persian state of the Achaemenids, within which Herodotus counted more than 70 nations and which was conquered by Alexander the Great. The Assyrian power also eventually could not withstand the onslaught of the Medes and Babylonians. In turn, Babylonia was conquered by the Persians. The Parthian kingdom and the Sassanid state appeared in Western and Central Asia, but then disappeared. The Kushan kingdom was also relatively short-lived, stretching from the shores of the Caspian and Aral seas to the Indus and Ganges. The same can be said about the Mauryan and Gupta states in South Asia. The Han Empire in China, having existed for four hundred years, fell under the blows of the popular “Yellow Turban” movement. And only Egypt “lasted” for more than three thousand years, although it was eventually conquered first by the Persians and then by the Romans.

In terms of the form of government, most states of the Ancient East were varieties of oriental despotism with an exceptionally high centralization of power in the hands of the supreme ruler. A striking example of this kind is Egypt, where the king or pharaoh had enormous wealth and practically unlimited, absolute power. The Egyptians believed that a double of God lived in the king, that he was the son of the main god, the sun god Ra, and that after death he would join the gods. However, the almighty pharaohs had one strong rival - the priestly caste.

Another example is the Babylonian and Neo-Babylonian kingdoms, whose kings - Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar II - called themselves “kings of kings.” The Persian kings of the Achaemenid dynasty, who believed that the whole world was subject to them, called themselves the same. China was also a strong centralized state during the Qin and Han dynasties.

Typically, such centralized states had a clear administrative-territorial division. Thus, Egypt was divided into noms, each of which had its own political and religious center, army and was controlled by a ruler - nomarch. By the time the unified Egyptian state was formed, there were more than forty such nomes. The Persian Empire under Darius I was divided into administrative and tax districts called satrapies, headed by the king's governors - satraps. Initially there were 20 such satrapies, but then their number increased. In China, the emperor Qin Shi Huang (“the first emperor of the Qin dynasty”), who put an end to the power of appanage rulers, divided his power into regions, and those in turn into counties. Then the administrative-territorial division of China was repeatedly improved. During the reign of Ashoka, the Mauryan Empire was divided into 5 governorates, ruled by members of the royal house.

The main occupation of the population in the states of the East was irrigated agriculture. Here, already in the Neolithic, an economic and cultural type of settled irrigated agriculture developed, based on the cultivation of a number of crops and the breeding of domestic animals. Its emergence was facilitated by a warm climate, fertile lands in river valleys, and the presence of easily cultivable soils. At the same time, significant advances have already been made in irrigation technology.

The Egyptians mastered the basin irrigation system, in which in the winter season the fields were fenced with earthen dams, and when the Nile began to flood, they were filled with its waters, turning into artificial pools. The inhabitants of Sumer and Babylonia also learned to “pacify” the spring floods of the Tigris and Euphrates by draining swamps, creating canals, dams, reservoirs and other hydraulic structures. Irrigated agriculture reached a high level in China, where the fight against the Yellow River floods began long before the new era.

The most important condition agriculture in these areas was the regulation of river regimes, i.e. storing water in special reservoirs for use during drought, flood prevention, land reclamation. This required constant collective labor, forced them to settle in large groups - communities and work together. The role of the community in the countries of the Ancient East (Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China) was exceptionally great (and in many ways remains so to this day). However social work was necessary only for irrigation work, construction of dams, canals, etc. The cultivation of the land itself was available to each individual family. Therefore, the communal land began to be divided into land plots, and the community from the clan (as it was in primitive society) became a neighboring one.

The inequality of land plots led to the gradual enrichment of individual families. Surplus grain was stored, creating reserves, ensuring stability for the family.

In the countries of the Ancient East, the main agricultural crops everywhere were grains: the main crop in the west (Egypt, Mesopotamia) was barley, and in the east (India, China) was rice. Along with them, root crops, vegetables, melons, horticultural crops. The economy was supplemented by settled cattle breeding and fishing.

Regional specialization has also emerged. In Egypt, even during the Old Kingdom, a division of labor developed between the northern and southern parts of the country. Upper Egypt was famous as a grain region, the breadbasket of the country, where wheat was grown, as well as barley (including for the production of beer). Southern Egypt specialized mainly in grapes and papyrus. Root vegetables, onions, garlic, cucumbers, lettuce, date palm. An even wider range of crops was typical for the countries of the Fertile Crescent. In Happy Arabia, from ancient times, there were plantations of plants that produced fragrant resins, from which myrrh, incense, and incense were obtained. Even during the Harappan civilization, the ancient Indians knew wheat, barley, melon, sesame, and possibly rice. In a later period, rice, legumes, sugarcane, cotton, and sesame became field crops in India, along with wheat and barley. The ancient Chinese cultivated millet, sorghum, wheat, barley, and they were the first to breed silkworms. Later, rice and tea spread, which largely determine the agricultural profile of China today.

The ancient civilizations of the East achieved significant success in cattle breeding. Apparently, the Egyptians were the first to domesticate the antelope, gazelle, ibex, the inhabitants of Arabia - the camel, the Harappans - the elephant, zebu, water buffalo, the Chinese - the pig. However, in areas of irrigated agriculture, cattle breeding has never played (and does not play) a big role; here, mainly only draft animals were used. But for nomadic tribes and peoples, breeding sheep, goats, and cattle became the main occupation.

The appearance of the first tools made land work easier and freed up many workers. Some community members began to engage only in crafts; their level increased and required special skills. The first social division of labor occurs: the separation of craft from Agriculture. Great advances in craft production have been achieved in the manufacture of bronze and especially iron products. Metal utensils, weapons, tools for cultivating soil, and various jewelry made of gold and silver appeared. Pottery and textile crafts advanced. Shipbuilding continued to develop, especially in Egypt, where there was a transition from the crescent-shaped sailing boat with oars or trapezoidal sails to ships with a wooden hull. Military equipment began to improve - siege weapons and war chariots appeared. To raise water to the fields, the Egyptians invented the shaduf (“crane”), and the Chinese invented a water pump. The Egyptians began to use papyrus as a writing material, and the Chinese began producing paper. The Egyptians also became famous for their glassmaking and brewing. Winemaking also developed widely.

We were free from household worries younger sons in many families. Young people unite in detachments with a chosen leader and raid neighboring lands, and if the community is threatened, they defend it. The booty became an additional source of enrichment for the families of warriors, family nobility and, especially, priests. The prisoners were killed or taken into the community. Later, with the growth of labor productivity, it became profitable to leave them to live on condition of working for the master - this is how slavery appeared, which played an important, although not decisive, role in the Ancient East. Sometimes ruined community members were reduced to the status of slaves.

Three stable categories of people are emerging, traditionally called classes - the ruling strata (priests, rich landowners, traders, officials), small free producers (community workers, artisans) and slaves. To protect against attacks and facilitate the exchange of goods between different regions, special fortifications are erected where merchants and artisans settle - cities. The prerequisites for the creation of a state arise.

Main function state power in the Ancient East - the organization of irrigation and farming systems. Therefore, the unification of communities along the river banks into a single state occurs early and arbitrarily, and the supreme power arises in the form of an unlimited monarchy with a huge role for the priesthood. The influence of the priests was based on inherited and carefully preserved knowledge of astronomy, meteorology, etc., which made it possible to predict the behavior of rivers and manage land works. The task of the royal power was to carry out irrigation work throughout the state, suppress the resistance of slaves, obtain new slaves in campaigns of conquest, maintain an army and - what is very important - deliver stone for the construction of dams, canals, pyramids. In the states of the Ancient East there was no stone; it was brought from remote mountainous areas, and this required a huge number of people and was accompanied by battles with mountain peoples.

All work necessary for the state was carried out by the tsar through an extensive bureaucratic apparatus, which was also in charge of collecting taxes and legal proceedings. The unlimited power of the king led to the gradual deification of his personality, especially pronounced in Ancient Egypt.

The material culture of the Ancient East can be judged not only from descriptions, but also from numerous monuments of construction, architecture, decorative and applied arts, remains of civil, religious, hydraulic, defense and other structures that have survived to this day.

An example of a hydraulic structure of this kind is the canal drawn by the Egyptians from one of the branches of the Nile to the El-Fayum oasis lying on the edge of the desert, which as a result became the richest and most grain-producing region in the country. To build the canal, it was necessary to widen the narrow gorge.

A classic example of a defensive structure is the Great Wall of China, built in the 3rd century. BC, during the Qin Empire, to protect the country from the Xiongnu nomads. And although it generally did not fulfill this task, the Great Wall of China, stretching for more than 4 thousand km, remains to this day a grandiose monument of architecture of that distant era.

Of the religious buildings of the East, the Egyptian pyramids are still the most famous; the ancient Greeks considered them the number one wonder of the world. These pyramids indicate a high level of stone construction in the era of the III (pyramid of Djoser) and IV (pyramids of Cheops, Khafre and Mikerin) dynasties of the Old Kingdom. But at the same time, they also personify the hard labor of millions of subjects of these pharaohs. Herodotus already came to this conclusion when he visited the Egyptian “houses of eternity” in the 5th century. BC. On a scale with Egyptian pyramids The tombs of some Chinese emperors may well compete.

And yet, the most numerous and varied architectural monuments are associated with the cities of the Ancient East, primarily the capital cities. Even three millennia before the new era, the Egyptians built large dwellings of stone and brick for their gods and earthly leaders, covered their walls with bright drawings, and carved figures of gods and people from stone. In Mesopotamia, where there was no hard rock, they built mainly from clay and brick, so their structures turned out to be much less durable. The Indians and Chinese preferred wood, brick, and stone.

During the period of the Old Kingdom, in the XXVIII-XXIII centuries. BC. The capital of Egypt was Memphis, located slightly south of modern Cairo. This city has not survived to this day, and only the ruins of the temple of the god Ptah (Ptah), the colossal granite statue of Ramses II lying on the ground and the figure of the sphinx indicate its former location. However, the necropolises in Saqqara and the pyramids of the pharaohs in Giza are associated with Memphis.

During the era of the Middle and New Kingdoms, Thebes became the capital of Egypt (Thebes, like Memphis, is a Greek name). For a thousand years this city served as a capital. At the same time, huge palace and temple complexes were built here. Now on the site of ancient Thebes there is a small Egyptian city of Luxor, famous for the ruins of a temple in honor of the god Amun-Ra, the temple complex of Karnak, and the tombs of the Valley of the Kings.

In the XIV century. BC. Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, the reformer of the Egyptian religion, moved his capital from Thebes to a specially built for this purpose new town Akhetaten (“Horizon of Aten”). But after his death, the old deities were restored, and the city of Akhetaten was abandoned. Now its ruins can be seen near El Amarna.

The first cities in human history, which arose back in the 5th millennium BC. on the territory of ancient Sumer and Akkad in southern Mesopotamia, have not survived to this day. Typically, each of them had a temple complex in the form of a high stepped ziggurat, a ruler's palace, and adobe residential buildings. This can be judged by the ruins of one of these cities - Ur, located near the Persian Gulf.

Most of the capitals of the Assyrian, Babylonian and other powers of Western Asia were located in the middle reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates, at the convergence of these rivers. On the Tigris were the first capital of Assyria - Ashur, from which the name of the entire country came, its second capital Nimrud and its third capital - Nineveh. In the 4th century. BC. Seleucia arose on the right bank of the Tigris - the capital of the Seleucid state, one of the largest cities of the Ancient East. Somewhat later, the Parthian kings made Ctesiphon, located on the Tigris opposite Seleucia, the capital of Mesopotamia. Then it becomes the capital of the Sassanid state and turns into one of the largest cities in Western Asia.

And yet, the most famous of the cities of Mesopotamia and indeed the entire Ancient East, of course, was Babylon, located on the Euphrates River. For 2 thousand years it was the capital of first the Babylonian and later the Neo-Babylonian kingdom. As the most important urban center of the Ancient East, it seemed to justify its name, which comes from the word “Bab-Ilu” - “Gate of God”. This city was amazing in its size. Its fortress wall with copper gates stretched for many kilometers, and several horse-drawn carts could ride along its top in a row. The city had a clear layout. It was especially decorated with blue glazed north gate, dedicated to the goddess Ishtar, the road from which led to the temple of the god Marduk with the famous 90-meter stepped tower, known as the Tower of Babel, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, considered one of the wonders of the world.

The fate of all these cities was typical for that time: not one of them, figuratively speaking, died a natural death. Nineveh was destroyed to the ground by the Babylonians and Medes, Seleucia by the Romans, Ctesiphon by the Arabs. Babylon in the 7th century. BC. was literally razed to the ground by the Assyrians, then rebuilt again, but later abandoned. Today, all these dead cities are located in Iraq; they have been discovered and excavated by archaeologists mainly during the last century.

To some extent, the fate of the cities of the Persian Empire, whose capitals for centuries were Pasargadae, Susa, Ekibatana, and Persepolis, was also similar. The Achaemenids erected buildings in them that reflected the power and greatness of the rulers of the world power. But then these cities were either abandoned or burned, like Persepolis by Alexander the Great, and are now also among the dead. Unlike them modern city Yerevan remains.

In the Indus basin, on the territory of modern Pakistan, cities of the Harappan Central Asian civilization were discovered - Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, built in the 3rd-2nd millennia BC. They were big and beautiful cities with straight streets, brick houses, citadels, temples, granaries, ablution pools, its own water supply system and even sewerage. Then they died and were covered with sand and river silt, and the surviving ruins turned into quarries, where building material was mined.

The fate of such ancient cities of India as Indraprastha and Pataliputra was different. The ruins of the first of them can still be seen in the vicinity of Delhi, the “ancestor” of which it is rightfully considered. And on the site of the second, which was once the capital of the Magadha Empire and the Gupta state, is now the city of Patna, the capital of the state of Bihar. On the territory of Bihar and neighboring states, numerous monuments of material culture associated with the activities of the ruler Ashoka have also been preserved: stupas - memorial buildings dedicated to Buddha, the famous Ashoka Column.

The ancient capitals of China were Sanyang, Luoyang, Chang'an (which later became known as Xi'an). Luoyang and Xi'an still remain major cities. Getting to know them is interesting from the standpoint of studying ancient Chinese urban planning, which even then used the principles of regular planning with a square plan and strict symmetry architectural forms and gardening ensembles began to be created, organically connected with the environment.

It is also important for studying the material culture of that era - ancient settlements and burials, pagodas, palaces and temples. Urban construction took on a particularly large scale under Emperor Qin Shi Huang. First of all, this applies to the capital of the empire, Sanyang. The main capital's palace with a protected park became a real wonder of the world: according to legend, 700 thousand slaves worked on its construction.

Samarkand is considered one of the oldest cities in Central Asia. Already in the 4th century. BC. in its place there was a city called Marakanda and was the capital of Sogdiana. In 329 BC. it was destroyed by Alexander the Great, but then reborn again.

Almost all the peoples of the Ancient East created their own writing, the origins of which go back to the 4th-3rd millennia BC.

Apparently, at this time, Egyptian writing appeared, which was first ideographic and rebus (verbal-syllabic), and then became hieroglyphic, with cursive varieties. Hieroglyphs were carved on stone and wood, but the main writing material was papyrus. The language and writing of the ancient Egyptians were subsequently forgotten.

Even earlier than the Egyptian writing, the writing of the ancient Sumerians arose, who wrote their letters on flat clay tablets using special cutters. Not very necessary records could then be erased, and tablets with important documents were then burned on fire and became hard as stone. Historians call Sumerian writing cuneiform. From the Sumerians, cuneiform was also adopted by the Babylonians, who significantly improved it. After ancient Babylon became the world center of culture, the Babylonian language spread throughout Western Asia. At the same time, cuneiform was also adopted in Assyria.

The Harappan civilization created its own morphemic-syllabic writing. Then the Vedic period began, associated with the appearance of the ancient Aryans in the Indus basin. It is called Vedic because it was during this era (1500-600 BC) that the Vedas (Sanskrit. veda- "knowledge") - ancient monuments Indian writing, which were collections of hymns, chants, spells, sacrificial formulas, which contain extensive information about many aspects of life in Ancient India. Of the four Vedas that have come down to us, the most famous and revered is the most ancient - the Rig Veda, containing 1028 hymns addressed to various deities. Later Sanskrit appears (Sanskrit. sanskrita- “artificial”), which soon spread throughout the country and began to play the role of an interethnic language, and international communication. Sanskrit writing and literature reached its peak during the period of the Gupta state, when such works of ancient Indian epic as the Mahabharata were created. Great War descendants of Bharata") and "Ramayana" ("The Tale of Rama"). Both these poems contain important information not only about the struggle of the Pandavas and Kauravas and the exploits of Prince Rama, but also about Ancient India in general. That is why they are often called the encyclopedia of Ancient India (Mahabharata includes 100 thousand verses).

Chinese writing also arose at a very distant time. In any case, already in the 15th century. BC. the hieroglyphic writing system was relatively developed and included up to 2 thousand hieroglyphs. Along with it, there was also a picture (pictographic) letter. A special flourishing of Chinese writing and literature, as well as the entire culture, was observed during the era of the Han Empire. Instead of a pointed stick, which served for writing with varnish on bamboo and wooden plates, ink and a hair brush, and then paper, were introduced into use. Typically, books were in the form of scrolls, which were placed in special cases. The number of hieroglyphs also increased greatly, although among them, as in modern Chinese, several thousand of the most common ones stood out. The Chinese script formed the basis of the national script of Korea and Japan.

The invention of writing stimulated the development of the education system. For example, in Egypt the first schools appeared during the Old Kingdom; these were religious schools at temples and schools of scribes. During the Middle Kingdom, secondary schools appeared. They studied mathematics, astronomy, medicine, religion, language, literature, history, geography, as well as office work, land management, and construction.

It can be argued that the greatest successes were achieved in mathematics. Both in Egypt and Mesopotamia there was a number system in use that involved multiplying by b or 60. The Sumerians had already divided the circle of the zodiac into 360 parts, then transferring the sexagesimal system to the Babylonians. From ancient Babylon to the present day, the division of hours into 60 minutes, and minutes into 60 seconds has come down. The ancient Indians, independently of other peoples, back in the 3rd millennium BC. created a decimal number system. They proposed their own system of numbers, which was then borrowed by the peoples of Western Asia, and from them by Europeans. These are the same numbers that are used today, only Europeans call them Arabic, and the peoples of Western Asia more correctly call them Indian. Mathematical knowledge also developed in Ancient China.

Achievements in the field of astronomy were closely related to the successes of mathematics. Already the ancient Egyptians, based on studying the movements of stars, compiled the first star maps and created a calendar. The Sumerians also developed their own calendar. The Egyptians, Sumerians, and Babylonians divided the year into 12 months. The Babylonians, in addition, introduced a seven-day week, which was then introduced among all European nations. Ancient Indian astronomers also divided the solar year into 12 months of 30 days each, with a thirteenth month added every five years.

The Chinese divided the ordinary year into 12 months, and the leap year into 13 months. In turn, they divided each month into decades - ten days. The ancient Chinese learned to combine solar and lunar rhythms in their calendar, calculate the paths of the heavenly bodies, and predict lunar eclipses.

We can also talk about the first rudiments of geography, although in general the geographical ideas of the people of the Ancient East were still very primitive. This is evidenced by the ideas about the world of the Egyptians and Babylonians. The same applies to China, where in ancient times the concept of “Round Sky and Square Earth” was formed, which had a significant impact on the development of geography in this country. Traces of that era have reached us in many geographical names.

Other sciences also developed: anatomy (embalming) among the Egyptians, medicine and philology among the Chinese. It is known that Ancient India is also the birthplace of chess.

Ancient eastern civilization

By the 3rd millennium BC. e. The first centers of civilization arose in the Ancient East. Some scientists call ancient civilizations primary in order to emphasize that they grew directly from primitiveness and did not rely on a previous civilizational tradition. One of the characteristic features of primary civilizations is that they contain a significant element of primitive beliefs, traditions and forms of social interaction.

Primary civilizations arose under similar climatic conditions. Scientists note that their the zone covered an area with a tropical, subtropical and partly temperate climate, the average annual temperature was quite high - about + 20° C. Only a few thousand years later, the zone of civilization began to spread to the north, where nature was more severe. This means that for the emergence of civilization, certain favorable natural conditions are needed.

Historians also point out that the birthplaces of primary civilizations, as a rule, are river valleys. In the 3rd millennium BC. e. civilization arose in the Nile River valley in Egypt, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia. Somewhat later - in the III-II millennium BC. e. Indian civilization arose in the Indus River valley in the 2nd millennium BC. e. in the valley of the Yellow River - Chinese.

Of course, not all ancient civilizations were riverine. Thus, Phenicia, Greece and Rome developed in a special geographical situation. This is the type coastal civilizations. The peculiarity of coastal conditions left a special imprint on the nature of economic activity, and this, in turn, stimulated the formation of a special type of social and political relations and special traditions. This is how another type of civilization was formed - Western. Thus, already in the Ancient world, two global and parallel types of civilization began to take shape - eastern and western.

The emergence of the world's oldest center of civilization occurred in the southern Mesopotamia - the valley of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Residents of Mesopotamia sowed wheat, barley, flax, raised goats, sheep and cows, erected irrigation structures - canals, reservoirs, with the help of which fields were irrigated. Here in the middle of the 4th millennium BC. e. The first supra-communal political structures appear in the form of city-states. These city states for a long time fought with each other. But in the 24th century. BC e. The ruler of the city of Akkad, Sargon, united all the cities and created a large Sumerian state. In the 19th century BC. e. Sumer was captured by Semitic tribes - the Amorites, and a new eastern state was created on the ruins of ancient Sumer - Babylon. At the head of this state was the king. The personality of the king was deified. He was simultaneously the head of state, the supreme commander and the high priest.

In the ancient Babylonian state, society was socially heterogeneous. It included clan and military nobility, priests, officials, merchants, artisans, free community peasants and slaves. All these social groups were located in a strict hierarchical order in the form of a pyramid. Each group occupied a strictly defined place and differed from others in its social significance, as well as responsibilities, rights and privileges. The state form of land ownership was dominant in Babylon.

The inhabitants of Ancient Mesopotamia made a huge contribution to world culture. This is, firstly, the Sumerian hieroglyphic letter, which was transformed in the mass documentation of the royal-temple households into a simplified cuneiform script, which played decisive role in the subsequent emergence of the alphabetic system. Secondly, this is a constantly developing calendar accounting system and elementary mathematics through the efforts of the priests. That alphabet, that information about the calendar and the starry sky with its zodiac signs, that decimal counting system that we still use today, goes back precisely to the Ancient Mesopotamia. To this we can add the developed art, first geographic Maps And much more.

By the 3rd millennium BC. e. The first centers of civilization arose in the Ancient East. Some scientists call ancient civilizations primary in order to emphasize that they grew directly from primitiveness and did not rely on a previous civilizational tradition. One of the characteristic features of primary civilizations is that they contain a significant element of primitive beliefs, traditions and forms of social interaction.

Primary civilizations arose under similar climatic conditions. Scientists note that their the zone covered an area with a tropical, subtropical and partly temperate climate, the average annual temperature was quite high - about + 20° C. Only a few thousand years later, the zone of civilization began to spread to the north, where nature was more severe. This means that for the emergence of civilization, certain favorable natural conditions are needed.

Historians also point out that the birthplaces of primary civilizations, as a rule, are river valleys. In the 3rd millennium BC. e. civilization arose in the Nile River valley in Egypt, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia. Somewhat later - in the III-II millennium BC. e. Indian civilization arose in the Indus River valley in the 2nd millennium BC. e. in the valley of the Yellow River - Chinese.

Of course, not all ancient civilizations were riverine. Thus, Phenicia, Greece and Rome developed in a special geographical situation. This is the type coastal civilizations. The peculiarity of coastal conditions left a special imprint on the nature of economic activity, and this, in turn, stimulated the formation of a special type of social and political relations and special traditions. This is how another type of civilization was formed - Western. Thus, already in the Ancient world, two global and parallel types of civilization began to take shape - eastern and western.

The emergence of the world's oldest center of civilization occurred in the southern Mesopotamia - the valley of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Residents of Mesopotamia sowed wheat, barley, flax, raised goats, sheep and cows, erected irrigation structures - canals, reservoirs, with the help of which fields were irrigated. Here in the middle of the 4th millennium BC. e. The first supra-communal political structures appear in the form of city-states. These city-states fought with each other for a long time. But in the 24th century. BC e. The ruler of the city of Akkad, Sargon, united all the cities and created a large Sumerian state. In the 19th century BC. e. Sumer was captured by Semitic tribes - the Amorites, and a new eastern state was created on the ruins of ancient Sumer - Babylon. At the head of this state was the king. The personality of the king was deified. He was simultaneously the head of state, the supreme commander and the high priest.

In the ancient Babylonian state, society was socially heterogeneous. It included clan and military nobility, priests, officials, merchants, artisans, free community peasants and slaves. All these social groups were located in a strict hierarchical order in the form of a pyramid. Each group occupied a strictly defined place and differed from others in its social significance, as well as responsibilities, rights and privileges. The state form of land ownership was dominant in Babylon.

The inhabitants of Ancient Mesopotamia made a huge contribution to world culture. This is, firstly, the Sumerian hieroglyphic script, which was transformed in the mass documentation of the royal-temple households into a simplified cuneiform script, which played a decisive role in the subsequent emergence of the alphabetic system. Secondly, this is a constantly developing calendar accounting system and elementary mathematics through the efforts of the priests. That alphabet, that information about the calendar and the starry sky with its zodiac signs, that decimal counting system that we still use today, goes back precisely to the Ancient Mesopotamia. To this we can add developed fine arts, the first geographical maps and much more.

In a word, the Sumerians and Babylonians were the first to follow the path of establishing statehood. Their version of the development of the economy and forms of ownership in many respects was a standard for those who followed them.

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a) From accelerating economic development to restructuring social relations Since the mid-80s. begins new stage in public life

Domestic policy
The collapse of the Soviet Union prompted a “parade of sovereignties” of the former autonomous republics and even autonomous regions in Russia. In the fall of 1991, everyone autonomous republics declared themselves

Foreign policy of modern Russia
After the collapse of the USSR, a new stage began in the establishment of Russian foreign policy as the policy of a sovereign great power, the legal successor of the Soviet Union. As of January 19