1st LESSON: From the origins to the "polis"

I. TIMELINE

(* Note: The dates in red are the only compulsory).

Origin of the Earth

4.6 billion years (approximately):    Formation of the Earth.

2.0 billion             “       “      “ :  Earliest plant species.

570 million years (approximately): First vertebrates.

300           “       “      “         “   :  Reptiles appear.

230           “       “      “         “   :   First mammals.

150           “       “      “         “   :  Birds.

65             “       “      “         “   :   Primates.

4               “       “      “         “   :   First hominids.

The appearance of Man.

4 million years ago: First remains of Australopithecus afarensis.

2,500,000  “     “  : Australopithecus africanus.

2,000,000  “     “  : Homo habilis.

1,000,000  “     “  : Homo erectus.

500,000                      “ : Archaic Homo sapiens.

150,000                      “ : Neanderthal (extinct approx. 32,000 years ago).

125,000                      “ : First remains of Homo sapiens sapiens.

30,000            “ : Cro-Magnon man.

Prehistory

20,000 years:     First figurative representations:

10,000             “ : The first races exhibit their features.

9,000-5,000    “ : Mesolithic.

8,000               “ : First signs of agriculture.

4,500               “ : Beginning of the Neolithic.

2,500               “ : Beginning of the Bronze Age.

1,000               “ : Beginning of the Iron Age.

The Great Near Eastern Civilizations

INDUS VALLEY

2500-1500 BC     Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro civilizations

1700-1100 The Rig Veda is written..

563-483 BC         The life of the Buddha.

1000 AD              The Vedas are recorded. 

EGYPT

          

3200 BC          The appearance of hieroglyphic writings.

2770-2400      The Old Kingdom

                        2600 First Pyramid of Giza.

1800                Israelites arrive to Palestine

1785-1570      The Middle Kingdom

                       1770  Hammurabi Code

                        1750 Hittite Invasion.

1570-1070      New Kingdom (Golden Age)

                        1550 The Egyptian Empire extends to the Euphrates.

                        1390  The Temple at Luxor’s age of splendor.

                        1372 Amenhotep IV (1289-1235) undertakes religious reform (Akhenaten).

1298 Reign of Ramses II ( 1289-1235); successful campaigns against the Hittites  and construction of Abu-Simbel.

                        1250 Moses lead the jews out of Egypt

1070-332        Period of decline

                       975-935   Solomon king of Israel

                        700 Assyrian invasion (until 650 BC).

                        525 Beginning of Persian rule (until 340 BC).

332-30            Hellenistic Egypt (Founding of Alexandria by Alexander

                      

305  Ptolemy, one of the Diadochi, becomes the first Hellenistic King of Egypt.   (Ptolemaic Dynasty).

47  Beginning of Cleopatra’s reign. (47-30 BC).

30 Egypt as a Roman province.

MESOPOTAMIA

3100 BC          Appearance of cuneiform writing.

2900-2500      Rise of the Sumerian cities (dynastic period).

2400                Akkadian Empire (King Sargon)

2100-600        Sumer under the domination of the Assyrians, Babylonians and Hittites.

            1770    Code of Hammurabi, King of Babylon.

            605-562 Reign of Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon.

558-528                     Reign of Cyrus the Great of Persia.

529-323          The Persian Empire reaches its greatest dimensions.

                        485-465 Reign of Xerxes I (Thermopylae, 480) . 

CHINA

3000                Beginning of Neolithic period.

2200-1766      Hsia Dynasty.

            2000 First pictographic writing.

1700-1122      Shang Dynasty (major advanced in bronze work techniques).

1000-256        Chou Dynasty.

                                   600                  First emperor of Japan.

                        605-520  Life of Lao-Tse, the founder of Taoism.

                        551-479 Life of Confucius.

223-206           Hegemony of the Tsin princes (from whom “China” takes its name).

214                  The Great Wall is finished.

Greece

PRE-HELLENIC CULTURES

3200                Beginnings of Cycladic culture.

2000                First cities in Crete.

1750-1500      Height of Minoan civilization.

1580-1400      Supremacy of Knossos (Minoan) Crete.

1500-1200      Mycenaean civilization.

                        1230  Conquest and destruction of Troy.

1200                The Dorian (Indo-Europeans). 

HELLENIC STAGE       

        

776                  Foundation of the Olympic Games.

750                  First Greek colonies outside Greece.

            750-675 Colonization of Sicily Sicilia (Magna Graecia).

            650 Foundation of Byzantium by the Greeks of Megara.

            600 The Phocian Greeks found Massalia (Marseille).

            560  The Greeks reach Egypt (foundation of Naucratis).

            535  The Battle of Alalia (Corsica).

¿720?               Writing of the Homeric poems.

¿690?               Birth of Hesiod.

638-558          Life of Solon Athenian lawgiver.

561                  The Athenian tyrant Pisistratus (also in 556 and 542).

508                  Cleisthenes founds a democratic regime in Athens.

490                   First Medic War (Marathon).

480                  Start of the Second Medic War (Thermopylae).

479                   Greek naval victory over the Persians at Salamis.

          

461-429          Government of Pericles (495-429) in Athens.

                        460-451 First Peloponnesian War.

                                   457      Hegemony of Athens in central Greece.

                                   448      Foundation of the Athenian Empire.

                                   446      Signing of the Thirty Years’ Peace between Athens and

SPARTA

431-404  Second Peloponnesian War

                                   427-347   Life of Plato

                                   429      Death of Pericles.

          

405                  Decisive Spartan naval victory at Aigos Potamós.

                                   404      Surrender of Athens.  End of the Peloponnesian Wars.

401                  Anabasis, or The March of the 10,000 (Xenophon).

          

HELLENISTIC STAGE

399                  Trial and execution of Socrates.

384-322           Life of Aristotle

371                  Sparta is defeated by Thebes (Battle of Leuctra).

359-336          Reign of Philip of Macedon.

                                   338 All Greece brought under the king of Macedonia.

          

336-323          Reign of Alexander the Great.

                                   334 Annexation of Ionia.

                                   333 Incorporation of Phoenicia.

                                   332 Conquest of Syria and Egypt.  Founding of Alexandria.

                                   331 Alexander the Great enters Babylon (decline of the Persian Empire).

                                   329 Annexation of Eastern Iran.

                                   327-325 Macedonian campaign in India.

                                   323 Alexander the Great dies at age 33.

          

323-279                     Clashes between the Diadochi (Seleucos, Ptolemy, Antigonus).

149-148          Rome annexes Greece.

The origins of Carthage

1550                First apogee of Tyre.

1300                           Appearance of the 22-letter alphabet, adopted by the peoples of the Western Mediterranean, replacing cuneiform script.

1100                Invasion of the Sea Peoples Tyre becomes independent of Egypt.

814                  Founding of Carthage by the Tyrians.

573                  After the capture of Tyre by the Babylonians, Carthage becomes

                       independent.

264-241          First Punic War

228                  Foundation of Cartago Nova

The origins of Rome

753                  Foundation of Rome by Romulus an Remus according to tradition

509                  Beginning of Roman Republic (Servius Tullius)

Pre-Roman Spain

30.000 BC       Altamira caves

5000-3000 BC  Neolithic Revolution

2500                Bronce culture (Los Millares)

1000                Arrival of Proto-Indo-Europeans

800                Foundation of Cadiz by the Phoenicians (I-Saphan)

654                Carthaginians in Ibiza.

630-560          Argantonio’s reign. Height of Tartessian culture.

620                  Foundation of greek colony Hemeroskopeion (Denia)

575                  Foundation of Ampurias (Emporion). Esperia/Iberia

227                 Foundation of Cartago Nova (Cartagena)

226               Treaty of Ebro between Rome and Carthage

II. SOME WORDS

Prehistory

Neolithic revolution

Theocracy

Meritocracy

Mandarins

Gens

Phratry

Tribe

Polis

Synoecism

Panathenea

Aeropagus

Cleisthenes

Ostracism

Hesperia

Iberia

Hispania

Barcelona

Cartagena

III. SOME QUESTIONS:

1)     For what practical reason the power of the pharaohs was established in Ancient Egypt?

2) What was the political philosophy of Confucius?

3) In what Western Indo-European societies differ from the Great Oriental Civilizations as far as social and political structure are concerned?
4) How did Pericles consolidate democracy in Greece?
5) Why the Greek polis as state model was not a success?
6) What was the ethnical base of Spanish inhabitants in the second half of the first millennium BC?
7) Why did oriental navigators (Phenicians and Greeks) came to Spain?
8) When Carthaginians arrived to Spain for the first time and why did they establish themselves solidly?
 9) According to Strabo: why the Turdetanians were ranked as the wisest of the Iberians?
10)  Why Habis according to legend civilized the south of Iberia? Give concrete arguments taken from the text.
11) Where there any polis in Pre-Roman Spain? 

  

IV. TEXTS

a) The origin of structured societies

1.1. Pharaonic Egypt

“The case of Egypt is the most interesting in terms of the history of social structures because of its uniqueness. Unlike the Indus Valley civilization, Ancient Egypt was not urban. The villages which emerged along the shores of the Nile, circa 4000 BC, had not evolved into cities a thousand years later, despite their spectacular demographic growth. This is why it was relatively simple to unify Egypt under the theocratic power of a pharaoh,  who was called upon to assure the economic survival of his people, which depended on the organization of the cultivation system exploiting the Nile’s annual flooding. To this end the pharaoh governed through “divinely-inspired decisions” which assured the cohesion of Egyptian society.

The pharaoh based the legitimacy of his wielding of supreme power upon his role as the representative of the Divine. Egypt was a “theocracy.” It is telling that during the era of Egyptian civilization’s greatest splendor, that of the New Kingdom (1570-1070 BC), the capital Thebes (present day Luxor) arose around the Karnak Temple Complex, dedicated to the God Amun, located on the shore opposite that where the royal necropolis (the Valley of the Kings) was excavated”.

1.2 Confucius and the origins of State in China

“Confucius is important when considering political history due to the way he sought to mitigate the negative effects of the spread of feudalism during his era. At the time of his birth China was dominated by powerful rulers at war with one another.  In order to rectify this situation Confucius endorsed the idea of a single empire headed by a sole sovereign. It is interesting to note that Confucius did not base the social structure he envisioned on any divinity. China was not a theocracy, as its religion consisted  essentially of the veneration of one’s ancestors and a morality according to which rulers were to be accepted by the people because they were virtuous, not because they had imposed themselves upon them by military force.   According to Confucius, government should be based not on force, but on the encouragement of just and good conduct. From a practical point of view he defended a centralized model of governmental organization, presided over by an emperor who would administer and govern the State through a bureaucratic class. Confucius, however, argued that these bureaucrats should be selected based on merit, and not simply drawn from the hereditary nobility. Thus appeared the famous “mandarins,” who obtained their posts only after passing very difficult tests requiring years of study”.

1.3 Family and power in the West:

“Today the family is a restricted human group which, essentially,   features people linked by blood ties who relate to each other during their lifetimes, that is, progenitors and their progeny (parents-children, grandparents-grandchildren) and their closest collateral relatives (brothers, uncles and cousins).  Formerly, however, the family was conceived in a broader sense which transcended the temporal dimension of people’s lives. A family was understood to include all those who shared a common ancestor, who they generally  venerated.  This family structure in the broad sense is an essential characteristic of the first societies established and structured by the Indo-Europeans.

The family was understood as a group of people sharing a common ancestor,  usually designated in ancient sources by the Latin term gens (genos in Greek), from which comes the Castilian term gentilicio, a synonym of the word apellido (last name).  Thus, all those bearing the same gentilicio, or surname, belonged to the same gens.

In Indo-European society the gens formed the basis of society. Thus, there came a time when a certain number of families joined to form a group called the “phratry,” from the Greek phratria, or the “curia,” from the Latin. Emerging united by their common veneration of an ancestor, the phratries and curiae eventually became structured social groups with their own leaders and  assemblies, which deliberated and were able to make decisions binding upon all.  It is worth observing that during the era of republican Rome there were still comitia curiata, one of the assemblies making up the city of Rome’s political structure.  The process by which the gens were grouped did not cease, and several phratries or curiae  ended up forming tribes, which also had their own rite, with their own leader (tribuno), assemblies (comitia tributa) and tribunals. Vestiges of this tribe-based organization are still visible in the political and legal institutions of the ancient Greek cities.  In Athens, for example, there were ten tribes, which each chose 50 members forming part of the Council of 500. There was also a magistrate for each tribe, and it was within them that citizens were chosen to serve in judicial capacities.  In republican Rome, along with the aforementioned assemblies, consisting of curiae, there were those formed by tribes (comitia tributa).

The integration process continued, gathering momentum, with the tribes ultimately grouping into cities when different ones came to live in one place: the urbe.  Over time cities’ social and legal organization became increasingly structured.  The first “urban” model to develop was the city-state, the Greek polis standing as the quintessential example.  In fact, it was then when the word politics appeared in the history of Western society”.

1.4 Synoecism as the basis of the polis

“The formation of the polis was initially a result of the economic transformation which Greek society underwent as agriculture took precedence over livestock and metallurgy with iron expanded, triggering an increase in trade with the East that allowed the Greeks to move beyond autarchy.

Economic growth led to a phenomenon of concentrated settlement whereby small communities gradually integrated into larger cities.  This was synoecism. Thanks to it, the Homeric kingdoms’ lack of structure would gradually give way to a model of judicial/public organization in which power resided in three specific social bodies: the popular assembly, bringing together all the citizens; a restricted council,  dominated by the landowning aristocracy; and, finally, a group of magistrates  who, after gradually shedding their traditional religious role, came to exercise increasingly "political" power.

The Greeks were so aware that synoecism was the basis of their prosperity that Athens’ most important festival was its Panathenaea, which celebrated the union of all the villages of Attica into the great polis protected by the goddess Pallas Athena – so crucial that it was depicted on the frieze of nothing less than the Parthenon itself, the most emblematic building of Athens’ Acropolis, holding the  city’s treasure”.

1.5  Pericles’ Athens

“Through the application of ostracism the people expelled the leaders of the different parties, bringing an end to the fighting and allowing the Athenian polis, between 487 and 461 BC, to enjoy an era of political stability.  This paved the way for Athens’ greatest era. In 461, the Areopagus, the council in which the old aristocracy remained ensconced, was stripped of its remaining prerogatives, and in that same year Pericles would appear on the political scene, to be re-elected as general (strategos) continuously for a period of 30 years,  a period during which he consolidated democracy by allowing all, even the poorest, access to public office by paying their compensation from public coffers, thereby ending the wealthy’s domination of political offices. The three decades of Pericles mark the pinnacle of Athenian classicism, whose quintessential expressions include the most famous monuments on the Acropolis (the Parthenon, Erechtheion, Propylaea) and the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, timeless symbols of Ancient Greece”. 

1.6 The drawbacks of the polis model

“The polis as the first model of a “state” society in Western history was not, however, a perfect one.  In fact, it was saddled by a major geographical disadvantage, as it was only able to govern and administrate the relatively small area of the city.

The Greek polises never managed to consolidate an organized model accounting for territorial expansion.  When a population increase rendered the economic survival of its inhabitants impossible, the polis organized expeditions to found colonies elsewhere.  This settlement, however, did not form part of the founding polis, but became an independent city-state.

Coalitions of polises were forged, of course, though these were of an ad-hoc nature.  Thus did the Greeks unite against the threat of the Persian invasion (the Persian Wars).  After the victory against the Persians, however, each polis went back to defending its own interests.

Pericles died in 429 BC, but not before delivering his famous Funeral Oration for the first victims of the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC). In this clash between Greeks, two leagues of cities, led by Athens and Sparta, squared off.  Sparta would ultimately win the war, as Athens surrendered in 404 BC. This represented, ephemerally, the end of democracy and the provisional restoration of the oligarchic regime (The Tyranny of the Thirty) after Alcibiades’ victory.

Athens was subjugated by the Spartans until they, in turn, were defeated at the battle of Leuctra (371) by the army of the city-state Thebes, led by two great generals (strategos): Epaminondas and Pelopidas.  The battle featured a decisive role played by the famous "Sacred Band of Thebes" composed of elite 300 hoplites. It was their strategy upon which Alexander the Great would model his invincible Macedonian phalanx.  Although Theban hegemony would last only 10 years (until the death of Epaminondas in 362), Sparta would never again be a major power, after the Romans occupied the city in 146 BC”

b) Pre-Roman Spain

1.7 The Iberian Peninsula in pre-Roman Times (up to 218 BC) : Iberians : Celts : Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians.

In prehistoric times parts of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal) were occupied by Stone Age inhabitants whose legacies to posterity are remarkable cave paintings of animals. The most notable surviving example of their art is in the cave paintings of Altamira (west of Santander in northern Spain).

Around 3000 B.C. tribes of dark-skinned Iberians from Africa began to settle in the peninsula - hence the name Iberia. A long time later - after 1000 B.C. - successive waves of Celtic (Proto-Indo-Europeans) tribes infiltrated across the Pyrenees. By about 600-400 B.C. the Celts dominated northern Spain and Portugal, and then spread throughout the peninsula, ruling and mixing with the Iberians to form the "Celtiberian" culture.

Oriental colonization: During the same period, from about 900 B.C. onwards, peoples from the eastern Mediterranean came to Iberia in search of trade, mainly interested in the mineral wealth of the country - silver, iron and copper. The first to come were the Phoenicians, who brought with then the technique of writing. Their most important settlement was Gadir (modern Cadiz). They were followed, from about the 7th century B.C., by Greek traders and colonists. The Greeks introduced the vine and the olive into Spain. Their main trading post was Ampurias, in Catalonia.

In the 6th century B.C. the Phoenicians of Gadir called in their compatriots from the Phoenician colony of Carthage in North Africa to help repel attacks by the native tribes. (Carthaginians were present in Ibiza since 654). Now the Carthaginians stayed on in the peninsula, which they called Span or Spania, meaning "land of rabbits". At first they confined them-selves to trade and the exploitation of the silver mines; but later they saw in Spain, with its tough tribesmen whom they engaged as mercenaries, a source of power and a base for operations against their great rival, Rome.

After the defeat of Carthage in the First Punic War with Rome (264-241 B.C.) the Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca built up in Spain a powerful state and formidable army. (Barcelona, founded in the 3rd century B.C., is thought to have been named after Hamilcar Barca).  His son-in-law and successor, Hasdrubal, founded a capital city New Carthage (Cartago Nova Cartagena) and continued Hamilcar's work. Rome, apprehensive of this growth of Carthaginian strength in Spain, concluded a treaty with Hasdrubal under which the Carthaginians were to remain south of the Ebro and were not to molest Saguntum, an independent town (originally settled by Greek colonists) south of the river, friendly to Rome.

Hasdrubal was assassinated in 221 B.C., and was succeeded as Carthaginian Commander-in-chief in Spain by Hannibal, the 26 year old son of Hamilcar, and greatest of the Barca family. To pick a quarrel with Rose Hannibal attacked Saguntum in 219 B.C. (capturing it after an eight months siege) and started the Second Punic War with Rome (218-201 B.C.). The Carthaginians under Hannibal marched through southern Gaul and crossed the Alps into Italy. Here, Hannibal campaigned successfully for fourteen years, but was unable to capture Rome. Meanwhile the Roman general Scipio evicted the Carthaginians from Spain, and after Hannibal had been recalled to Carthage he was defeated by Scipio at the decisive Battle of Zama in 202 B.C. Carthage gave up her overseas possessions, and in Iberia the Romans set about the subjugation of the fiercely independent Celtiberian tribes.

 The early Phoenicians, the Greeks, and the Carthaginians had made no lasting impression on the peoples of the Iberian Peninsula.

From H.A.L.Fisher's “History of Europe”, W.L.Langer's “Encyclopaedia of World History”, and the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

http://aero-comlab.stanford.edu/jameson/world_history/A_Short_History_of_Spain_and_Portugal.pdf

 (Last retrieved September 11, 2013)

1.8  The most advanced Iberian civilization:

 "The Turdetanians are ranked as the wisest of the Iberians; and they make use of an alphabet, and possess records of their ancient history, poems, and laws written in verse that are six thousand years old, as they assert."

Strabo, Geography, book 3, chapter 1, section 6

1.9 The Myth of Gargoris and Habis“.

“Iustinus (Trogi Pompei historiarum philippicarum epitoma" XLIV, 4, 1) takes note of this story of Gargoris and Habis: The Curetes lived in the forests of Tartessos after the Titans' fight against the gods. Gargoris is the name of the oldest king to which has been attributed the art of making honey. He ordered to abandon the son of his daughter in the wilds with the intention that the wild animals killed him but the sea retumed him breastfed by a hint. Finally, Gargoris recognized him as his heir and called him Habis. He was a civilizing hero that made the first laws, taught how to cultivate the land with a plough pulled by oxen, forbade the nobles to work and distributed the masses in seven cities. Strabo III, 1, 6 tells that the south of Iberia had very antique writings, poems and laws in verse that were believed to have 6.000 years of antiquity. This legend has points in common with the legend of Romulus and Remus, breastfed by a female wolf; with the one of Cyrus raise by shepherds; with the one of Moses saved from the waters; and with the one of Semiramis abandoned in the wilds.  The legislative work of Habis is similar to Theseus work in Attica. Habis is also similar to Triptolemos that taught his people how to cultivate the land with a plough pulled by oxen. Habis, as Romulus, divided the population in tribes. The legend of Habis The legend of Habis has been interpreted by some researchers as a legend of the Hellenistic period, but the majority believes that this is a myth of the end of the Bronze Age”.

BLÁZQUEZ MARTÍNEZ, José María “The Greek Colonization in the Black Sea Litoral and Iberia: Similarities and differences” In Murielle Faudot – Arlette Fraysse – Evelyne Geny (eds.), Pont-Euxin et commerce. Actes du IXe. Symposium de Vani (1999), Paris 2002, 15-21.

VI. JOURNALISTIC SOURCES

Some topics to be examined:

- The Syrian conflict and diplomacy;

- Gibraltar’s conflict;

- The Diada and Catalan nationalism

- The Edward Snowden case

- Julian Paul Assange and the wiki leaks case

- The Barcenas Case: how legally the Popular Party could destroy evidence (hard disks, and agendas)?

- The Arab Spring

- Spanish Democracy in danger: the debate over primary elections and open lists