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World History 1

<OpenstaxParagraph>
	The initial spur to Buddhism’s migration across Asia occurred with the rise of the <OpenstaxTerm>Mauryan Empire</OpenstaxTerm> (326–184 BCE). This entity grew out of the smaller Indian kingdom of <OpenstaxTerm>Magahda</OpenstaxTerm> once its ruler, Chandragupta <OpenstaxTerm>Maurya</OpenstaxTerm>, managed to unify much of north India from a capital near the city of Patna and pass it on to his descendants, founding the Maurya dynasty. A Greek historian named <OpenstaxTerm>Megasthenes</OpenstaxTerm> visited the seat of Chandragupta’s power around the end of the fourth century BCE, marveling at its palaces replete with grottoes, bathing pools, and gardens filled with jasmine, hibiscus, and lotus.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Ruling over a population nearing fifty million, Chandragupta’s successors conquered all but the southern tip of the subcontinent in a series of military campaigns. The Mauryan Empire’s political structure employed a large and well-run army, administered by a war office with branches for a navy and for raising horses and elephants for cavalry warfare. A civilian bureaucracy ran the ministries overseeing industries such as weaving, mining, and shipbuilding as well as organizing irrigation, road construction, and tax collection. The Mauryan rulers lived in constant fear of assassination and intrigue against their rule, however, which forced them to rely on an elaborate network of spies to monitor officials throughout the empire.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	The high point of Mauryan greatness came with the ascension of Emperor <OpenstaxTerm>Ashoka</OpenstaxTerm> in approximately 268 BCE, opening a period of monumental architecture that left its mark on the ancient world. Ashoka’s personal grandeur came from the story of his transformation from a ruthless warrior general to a devout man of peace with a universal mission (<a href="#fig-00003">Figure 5.22</a>). As the head of the Mauryan army laying siege to the kingdom of <OpenstaxTerm>Kalinga</OpenstaxTerm>, he won a great battle that caused an estimated 100,000 deaths. The carnage brought an awakening that led Ashoka to <OpenstaxTerm>Buddhism</OpenstaxTerm> and to reforms intended to promote harmony and compassionate rule throughout India. To that end, he supported missionary efforts to spread Buddhism to Burma and Sri Lanka. His new law code gave protections to the vulnerable—the ill and diseased, the poor and powerless, and travelers making their way across the empire. His ministers put their sovereign’s will into action by building hospitals, digging wells, setting up rest-houses along India’s roads, and sending out traveling magistrates to resolve disputes and bring justice to remote areas.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00003" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/e58ca86dbfa72b50603ae8af7c5b3b67defba9ca" alt="A worn carving is shown on a stone. In the image, a figure is in the middle, bare chested except for a large hanging necklace, large round hat on his head and worn facial features, standing in a decorated chariot pulled by at least two horses with decorated reins. The figure is surrounded on both sides by other figures with worn faces, necklaces hanging around their necks, and tall hats on their heads. In the background, decorative items are carved on the stones. Across the bottom of the image, a grated carving is shown." mediaType="image/jpg" width="901" height="861" />
<OpenstaxFigureText width="901">
	<strong>Figure 5.22</strong> This stone representation of the Mauryan ruler Ashoka visiting a Buddhist pilgrimage site with his entourage is from a large commemorative monument begun in his lifetime to house relics of Buddha. It illustrates the many strategies he adopted to magnify his rule. (credit: modification of work &quot;King Asoka visits Ramagrama&quot; by Anandajoti Bhikkhu/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)
</OpenstaxFigureText>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Ashoka also had a lasting influence on the world of art. He decreed that his sayings and teachings on morality be inscribed on stone pillars erected throughout India (<a href="#fig-00004">Figure 5.23</a>). The <OpenstaxTerm>Pillars of Ashoka</OpenstaxTerm> demonstrate the Indian empire’s character as a spiritual and political system. Through Buddhism, patronage of the arts, and monumental architecture, the Mauryans wished to demonstrate morality and benevolence to their subjects and exercise less direct rule. Leaders such as Ashoka hoped the people’s loyalty and duty in turn would be motivated by admiration of their achievements, if not by the money and other gifts given to reward the virtuous and charm supporters. The Pillars of Ashoka also demonstrate the flexibility of the Mauryan system of rule. Those closest to the capital were inscribed with detailed summaries of the Mauryan codes for behavior and an orderly society. Farther away, in newly won territories, the pillars promoted very simple teachings, a mark of the ruler’s intent to allow room for local autonomy and customs to prevail as long as his subjects met certain universal norms and tax obligations.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00004" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/95028dc8567b509770cf3922a073e1cc6a1e1348" alt="A sepia colored image is shown of a tall, thin spire on a layered, square pedestal. The top of the spire shows a vertical lined conical top, with a round circle above it and a carved object resting at the top. Trees line the background and a chain fence attached to stone pedestals shows in the forefront. A figure in white clothing stands looking at the spire wearing a white hat." mediaType="image/jpg" width="651" height="824" />
<OpenstaxFigureText width="651">
	<strong>Figure 5.23</strong> The incised stoned pillars with Ashoka’s decrees about morality were erected throughout the Mauryan Empire and demonstrate how his message and role as sovereign were conditioned by local customs. (credit: “Asoka’s Pillar, Monolith in Fort, Allahabad” by Thomas A. Rust/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)
</OpenstaxFigureText>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	At the end of Ashoka’s reign, the Mauryans left a legacy for future generations of Indian rulers to try to emulate so as to rule a diverse society. When the <OpenstaxTerm>Mauryan Empire</OpenstaxTerm> finally collapsed in 185 BCE, India entered another period of fragmentation and rule by small competing states and autonomous cities and villages. By the early centuries of the common era, it was a multitude of smaller regional kingdoms that shared with each other a common culture linked by <OpenstaxTerm>Hinduism</OpenstaxTerm>, <OpenstaxTerm>Buddhism</OpenstaxTerm>, a canon of <OpenstaxTerm>Sanskrit</OpenstaxTerm> texts, and the <OpenstaxTerm>caste system</OpenstaxTerm>.
</OpenstaxParagraph>

5.4.4 The Mauryan Empire

1 Understanding the Past

1.1 Developing a Global Perspective

1.1.1 World History as Preparation for Life after College

1.1.2 World History and Global Citizenship

1.1.3 Features of This Textbook

1.2 Primary Sources

1.2.1 Learning to Evaluate Documents and Images

1.2.2 Documentary Sources: Competing Narratives

1.2.3 Textual Sources: The Importance of Language

1.2.4 Hidden in History

1.3 Causation and Interpretation in History

1.3.1 Levels of Causation

1.3.2 Interpretation in History

2 Early Humans

2.1 Early Human Evolution and Migration

2.1.1 Human Evolution

2.1.2 Why Did Humans Move and Where Did They Go?

2.1.3 Early Human Technologies

2.2 People in the Paleolithic Age

2.2.1 Ice, Ice, and More Ice

2.2.2 Life in the Paleolithic Age

2.2.3 Diverse Paleolithic Peoples

2.3 The Neolithic Revolution

2.3.1 The Development of Agriculture

2.3.2 How Farming Changed the Human Experience

2.3.3 Neolithic Peoples

3 Early Civilizations and Urban Societies

3.1 Early Civilizations

3.1.1 Attributes of Early Civilizations

3.1.2 The First Urban Societies

3.2 Ancient Mesopotamia

3.2.1 The Rise and Eclipse of Sumer

3.2.2 The Rise of the World’s First Empire

3.2.3 Later Empires in Mesopotamia

3.2.4 Society and Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia

3.3 Ancient Egypt

3.3.1 The Origins of Ancient Egypt

3.3.2 The Age of Pyramid Building

3.3.3 A Second Age of Egyptian Greatness

3.4 The Indus Valley Civilization

3.4.1 The Origins of the Indus Valley Civilization

3.4.2 Trade, Writing, and Religion

3.4.3 The Era of Decline

4 The Near East

4.1 From Old Babylon to the Medes

4.1.1 Power Politics in the Near East

4.1.2 Foreign Affairs and Trade

4.1.3 Daily Life and the Family in the Near East

4.2 Egypt’s New Kingdom

4.2.1 The Hyksos in Egypt

4.2.2 The Pharaohs of the New Kingdom

4.2.3 Egypt’s Foreign Policy

4.3 The Persian Empire

4.3.1 The Rise of Persia

4.3.2 Darius I and the Reorganization of the Empire

4.3.3 Persian Culture and Daily Life

4.4 The Hebrews

4.4.1 The History of the Hebrews

4.4.2 The Culture of the Hebrews

5 Asia in Ancient Times

5.1 Ancient China

5.1.1 Prehistoric China

5.1.2 Early Dynastic China

5.1.3 The Zhou Dynasty

5.1.4 The Warring States Era and Qin Unification

5.2 The Steppes

5.2.1 The Nomadic Culture of the Steppes

5.2.2 Tribes, Confederations, and Settled Neighbors

5.3 Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia

5.3.1 Ancient Korea

5.3.2 Ancient Japan

5.4 Vedic India to the Fall of the Maurya Empire

5.4.1 Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro

5.4.2 The Aryans and Brahmanism

5.4.3 Buddhism

5.4.5 The Gupta Dynasty

6 Mediterranean Peoples

6.1 Early Mediterranean Peoples

6.1.1 The Late Bronze Age World

6.1.2 Phoenicians, Greeks, and Etruscans

6.2 Ancient Greece

6.2.1 Archaic Greece

6.2.2 Sparta and Athens

6.2.3 Classical Greece

6.3 The Hellenistic Era

6.3.1 The Kingdom of Macedon

6.3.2 Hellenistic Culture

6.4 The Roman Republic

6.4.1 The Foundation and Function of the Roman Republic

6.4.2 The Expansion of the Roman Republic

6.5 The Age of Augustus

6.5.1 The First Triumvirate

6.5.2 From Republic to Principate

7 Experiencing the Roman Empire

7.1 The Daily Life of a Roman Family

7.1.1 The Structure of Roman Families

7.1.2 A Day in the Life of a Roman Family

7.1.3 What Family Meant in Rome

7.2 Slavery in the Roman Empire