Western Civilization

A Brief History

Paul R. Waibel

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781119160717
• eBook ISBN: 9781119160786
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Popular Culture
• Index: Social Sciences

A comprehensive yet concise introduction to Western Civilization, designed to interest and engage contemporary students

Western Civilization: A Brief History is a concise one-volume survey that covers the subject's ancient origins through to the early 21^st century. Stressing social and intellectual history, rather than merely listing names and dates, this stimulating resource offers a more consistent and reader-friendly narrative than traditional textbooks. The author, with 40 years' experience teaching college-level Western Civilization and World History courses, emphasizes topics that stimulate student interest and encourage classroom participation.

A mixture of Judeo-Christian, Greco-Roman, Germanic traditions, Western Civilization first appeared in Europe following the fall of the Roman Empire in the West. The text explores key events, figures, themes, and characteristics in the history of Western Civilization. Grouped into six parts, chapters include brief chronologies of events, maps, and illustrations. Topics include Europe in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and Reformation, the rise of medieval Christianity, Darwin and the Theory of Evolution, the Industrial Revolution, imperialism, the World Wars of the 20^th century, the Cold War, and many others. Written with the needs of today's students in mind, this textbook:

• Offers accessible and straightforward coverage of the history of Western Civilization
• Provides a consistent style of writing and organizational theme
• Includes chronological overviews of ancient Greece, Rome, and the Near East

Western Civilization: A Brief History is an ideal introductory textbook for both traditional and non-traditional programs and Western Civilization courses at universities and colleges, as well as for those in dual enrollment and home school settings.

Part I
Ancient and Classical Civilization: An Overview

The story of Western Civilization begins around 3500 bc in the area referred to by historians as the Fertile Crescent, a quarter‐moon shaped area that stretches from the Nile River valley, along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and the river valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to the Persian Gulf. It was in that area of fertile soil that people learned to farm and irrigate their fields with water from the rivers. Settled farming required organization, which gave birth to the first cities. It was also there that people first learned to write. Organized agriculture and urban life gave rise to a class structure, in which most of the people performed certain tasks, producing the means of livelihood, while a few had the time to contemplate the meaning and purpose of life. Writing made it possible to record not only the mundane affairs of day‐to‐day life, but also what may be described as philosophical and religious speculation.

If one thinks of an axis around which civilization develops and radiates outward, that axis moved from the Fertile Crescent north‐westward to the area of the Aegean Sea, as civilizations appeared along the rim of the Aegean Sea on the island of Crete, the coast of Asia Minor, and the Greek mainland. The Minoan Civilization on Crete and the Mycenaean Civilization on the Greek mainland contributed to the development of classical Greek civilization after 800 bc. With the conquest of the Middle East by Alexander the Great (d. 323 bc) and his successors, the Greek language and humanistic civilization of classical Greece spread throughout the Middle East and Egypt.

The Romans imposed political and, to a degree, cultural unity on the whole Mediterranean world by the end of the second century ad. But, though the Romans conquered the Hellenistic world, they were in turn conquered culturally by the Greeks, thus spreading the Greek language and culture to the western Mediterranean. The axis of civilization shifted westward to the Italian peninsula. It was during the centuries‐long rule of Rome, that the religious thought of the ancient Hebrews and early Christians blended with the classical humanism of Greek civilization.

1
The Cradle of Civilization

Chronology

c. 8000–5000 BC

Neolithic Age

c. 3500 BC

First Cities Appear in Sumer

c. 3300–3100 BC

First Writing Appears in Sumer

c. 3100 BC

Civilization Appears in Nile River Valley

c. 2500 BC

Civilization Appears in Indus River Valley

c. 2150 BC

Epic of Gilgamesh is Written Down

c. 2100–2050 BC

Code of Ur‐Nammu, Oldest Known Law Code

c. 1900 BC

Abram (Abraham) Leads Hebrews From Ur to Canaan

c. 1754 BC

Law Code of Hammurabi

c. 1500 BC

Civilization Appears in Yellow River Valley

c. 1446 BC

One Possible Date for Hebrew Exodus from Egypt

c. 1393 BC

Birth of Moses

c. 1270 BC

One Possible Date for Hebrew Exodus from Egypt

c. 1024–930 BC

United Kingdom of Israel

722 BC

Assyria Conquers northern Kingdom of Israel

587 BC

Babylonians Capture Jerusalem, Fall of Kingdom of Judah

The story of Western Civilization began during the Neolithic Age (c. 8000 BC–5000 BC), before the appearance of civilization. Humans ceased being hunters and gatherers and began to domesticate animals and cultivate crops. Agriculture enabled human beings to take control of their environment rather than be controlled by it. A technological revolution followed. New tools to cultivate the land and clear forests appeared, along with methods of collecting, storing, and using water from the nearby rivers to irrigate fields. Agricultural centers, or villages, appeared consisting of a group of individuals living together, mutually dependent on one another. As agriculture spread, trade in surplus crops and necessary tools and resources followed.

Discoveries of certain of the Neolithic communities by archeologists are very revealing. Jericho, located in the Jordan valley, was first settled sometime between 10 000 and 9 000 BC. By around 9 400 BC Jericho occupied about 10 acres (4 ha). There were more than 70 circular dwellings made of sun‐dried brick measuring about 15 ft. (4.6 m) across. Estimates of the size of the population vary anywhere from 200 to 300 upward to 2000 or 3000. The village was surrounded by a stone wall more than 12 ft. (3.7 m) high and nearly 6 ft. (1.8 m) wide at the base. Inside the wall stood a stone tower more than 12 ft. (3.7 m) tall with an internal stone staircase. Outside the stone wall was a moat approximately 10 ft. (3.8 m) deep.

The wall served as a defense against potential enemies. The purpose of the tower remains shrouded in mystery. Two archeologists from Tel Aviv University, Roy Liran and Ran Barkai, after studying how the setting sun on the summer solstice interacted with the tower and the surrounding landscape suggest that “the tower was built not just as a marker or a time‐keeping device, but as a guardian against the dangers present in the darkness cast by a dying sun's last rays of light” (Sutherland 2018). The dead were buried within the village, often under the floor of the dwelling in which the deceased is assumed to have lived. The skulls were covered in plaster, painted, and placed in the walls. The practice may be evidence of some sort of ancestor worship, but like so much else, that explanation is speculation.

Even more interesting is the Neolithic settlement located in southern Anatolia (modern Turkey) called Çatalhöyük (sometimes spelled Çatal Höyük or Çatal Hüyük), which existed from approximately 7500 to 5700 BC. The site was discovered in the late 1950s and first excavated between 1961 and 1965. Excavations and research by an international team of archeologists began in 1993 and are ongoing.

With a population that ranged between 3000 and 8000, Çatalhöyük was much larger than Jericho. It consisted of about 32 acres (approximately 13 ha) of mud‐brick dwellings closely packed together without streets or alleyways. Access to the individual dwellings was through holes in the roofs. The life of the community took place largely on the roofs of what must have resembled a large beehive‐like structure. Each dwelling had an oven and furniture that consisted of mud‐brick platforms under which deceased family members were buried. The floors were covered in reeds. The walls were covered in bright white plaster, often decorated with colorful frescos. Paintings of bulls on the walls, plastered skulls of oxen embedded in the walls, and the presence of bull horns suggest some sort of religion centered on the worship of bulls, like the religion that appeared later in Minoan Crete (see Chapter 2). One scene painted on a wall depicts a village with a mountain, perhaps Mount Hasan, an inactive volcano. Some art historians regard the painting as the first painted landscape in history.

Most importantly, the people of the Neolithic villages like Jericho and Çatalhöyük did not possess the ability to read and write. Hence, there is no evidence of religious or philosophical thought, no recorded attempts to wrestle with those perennial questions of meaning and purpose. Writing is the defining characteristic of civilization, and so, as impressive as their technologic achievements were, most scholars regard these Neolithic villages as proto‐civilizations. To locate the birthplace of civilization, and at the same time, provide some explanation of the difference between a Neolithic village and a civilization, we must look to the fertile land that lies between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, an area known as Mesopotamia, or the “land between the rivers.”

Figure 1.1 Map of the ancient Near East: The Birth of Civilization.

Birth of Civilization

The cradle of civilization lay in the southern most area of Mesopotamia known as Sumer where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers empty into the Persian Gulf. The Sumerians called themselves “the black‐headed people” and their home “the land of the black‐headed people,” or simply “the land.” It was in Sumer around 3500 BC that the first cities appeared, and most important, it was in Sumer sometime between 3300 BC and 3100 BC that people first learned to write.¹

Writing was a byproduct of urbanization. Trade between the cities of Sumer required the ability to communicate. Using a reed with the end cut off, scribes made wedge‐shaped marks in small clay tablets that were then allowed to dry in the sun. At first, they made marks that represented objects (pictographs), and then marks that represented sounds (phonograms). This style of writing is known as “cuneiform,” meaning “wedge‐shaped.”

Scribes were trained in schools that taught not only the art of writing and reading, but law, medicine, and astrology. Literature appeared as scribes began to write down stories about the gods and heroic figures. The Epic of Gilgamesh, considered by many to be the first great work of literature in history, was written down sometime around 2150 BC. It tells the story of Gilgamesh (“Bilgamesh” in Sumerian), king of Uruk, and his companion Enkidu.

In the first half of the epic tale, Gilgamesh and Enkidu go on a series of adventures including a journey to the Cedar Forest, the dwelling place of the gods. There, they defeat the giant monster Humbaba (“Huwawa” in Sumerian), guardian of the ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Part I: Ancient and Classical Civilization: An Overview
• Part II: Europe in the Middle Ages: An Overview
• Part III: Birth of Modern Europe: An Overview
• Part IV: Nineteenth Century: An Overview
• Part V: The Crisis of Western Civilization: An Overview
• Part VI: The End of Europe: An Overview
• Index
• End User License Agreement