The+Classical+Period+Directions,+diversities,+and+Declines+by+500C.E



1) **Declines of China, India, and Rome**


 * **China** || **India** || **Rome** ||
 * -Decline began mostly in **100 C.E.**

-The central government began to diminish, and bureaucrats began to become more corrupt.

-Land lords began to rule their neighborhoods according to their own wishes.

-Peasants already suffering from high taxes, recieved new taxes and services to do for their land lords.

-Some Peasants sold their children into service

-Daoist led a revolutionary effort to attempt to stabilize China.

-The **Sui and Tang** dynasties, managed to keep China alive, however the marks of chaos didn't vanish, and China continued to have troubles.

- The structures of China couldn't be overturned.

-The **Huns** eventually conqured China || -By the 5th century, the Gupta Emperors, couldn't control the local princes anymore.

-Around **500 C.E** the Huns, began to attack northern parts of India.

-As time passed, the invaders entered more into central India and collapsed it from the inside.

-**Buddhism** began to decline and Hinduism began to sprout around as Huns converted to it.

-Islamic people fighting for Allah, entered into India around **600 C.E**. This new religion, brought forth religious disputes between the Hinduist people of India.

-**Islam** arriving in India brought forth new language, and **Sanskirt**, began to disappear as a major writing

-Arab traders soon dominated the markets over Indian traders.

-Classical traditions did survive such as **Hinduism**, and
 * caste system**. || - Rome began to decay around 180 C.E.

-Disease plagued Rome, and the population dropped from around 1 million, to 250,00.

-Roman emperors, began to abuse their power and became tyrannical, trying to seize all the power they could.

- The army intervening in the selection of emperors, contributed to the decay of the Roman Empire, by complicating affairs.

- Economic life became more severe, as recruitment for the army, was not extremely high, therefore the emperor needed to hire Germanic soldiers to guard their borders.

-Culture began to decay as Rome approached its falling period

-Birth rates began to decay in the upper class as children were seem as an unsatisfying way of life.

-Some emperors such as Constantine, tried to prolong Rome, by establishing a second capital in the east, and promoted a second emperor to help rule the eastern half of the empire.

-When Germanic invasions began, the army had dwindled to an extremely low point, so the attacks were unreversable. ||

2) Religion Influence


 * ===Christianity=== || ===Buddhism=== ||
 * -Began to spread more as Rome continued to fall apart.

-Christianity focused more on structure and organizations differing from Buddhist ways

-Stressed the possibility of an afterlife after death

-Christianity believed that **Jesus of Nazareth** was God's son sent to Earth in order toredeem human sins and start a radical movement

-Jesus traveled around with his disciples spreading the teachings of God stressing that Christianity had only one supreme God who loved human kind despite past sins.

-The last supper promoted the holy bread and wine usage in Christianity

-The size of the Roman Empire allowed Christianity to spread far

-The writings of several disiples created the New Testament of the Christian Bible

-Roman emperor Constantine helped promote Christianity in the Roman Empire

-Even after the collapse of Rome, Christianity had a strict structure, which allowed it to survive

-Christianity was sucessful because of its many appeals || -Political stability decline helped spread it in China.

-Buddhism was spread by traveling monks outside of India's borders.

-In east Asian Buddhism was called **Mahayana**

-Promoted new artistic ideas in China and later in Japan

-The bodhisttavas resided in a heaven like place when they died, in order to help answer prayers of people

-Buddhism's principles were changed some what in China to appeal to it's social structure

-Women were believed to be able to bring in salavation

-Confucianist leaders disliked Buddhism because it conflicted with a majority of their beliefs.

-Some thought Buddhism would distract people and take away their loyalty to their emperor

-Buddhism had a greater influence on Vietnam, Korea, and Japan.

-Chinese villigers practiced Buddhism in small religious groups

-Buddhism was still shunned in China, however it did still dominate most of East Asia. ||