World's history (part 4): "The Wrestler", anOlmecera statuette, 1200 – 800 BCE. Over the following millennia, civilizations would develop across the world.Tradewould increasingly become a source of power as states with access to important resources or controlling important trade routes would rise to dominance. In c. 2500 BCE, the Kingdom of Kerma developed inSudan, south of Egypt. In modern Turkey theHittitescontrolled a large empire and by 1600 BCE, Mycenaean Greecebegan to develop.[48][49]In India this era was the Vedic period, which laid the foundations ofHinduismand other cultural aspects of early Indian society, and ended in the 6th century BCE. From around 550 BCE, many independent kingdoms and republics known as the Mahajanapadaswere established across the country. As complex civilizations arose in the Eastern Hemisphere, most indigenous societies inthe Americas remained relatively simple for some time, fragmented into diverse regional cultures. During the Formative stageinMesoamerica, (about 1500 BCE to 500 CE), more complex and centralized civilizations began to develop, mostly in what is now Mexico, Central America, and Peru. They include civilizations such as the Olmec,Maya,Zapotec,Moche, andNazca. They developed agriculture as well, growing maize and other crops unique to the Americas, and creating a distinct culture and religion. These ancient indigenous societies would be greatly affected by European contact during the early modern period. Axial Age[edit] Main article:Axial age Main articles:History of philosophy,Timeline of religion, andHistory of religion Beginning in the 8th century BCE, the so-called"Axial Age"saw a set of transformative religious and philosophical ideas develop, mostly independently, in many different locations. During the 6th century BCE, Chinese Confucianism,[50][51]IndianBuddhismandJainism, and JewishMonotheismall developed. (Karl Jaspers'Axial Age theory also includesPersianZoroastrianismon this list, but other scholars dispute Jaspers'timeline for Zoroastrianism.) In the 5th century BCE SocratesandPlatomade significant advances in the development of Ancient Greek philosophy. In the east, three schools of thought were to dominateChinesethinking until the modern day. These wereTaoism,[52]Legalism[53]and Confucianism.[54]The Confucian tradition, which would attain dominance, looked forpoliticalmoralitynot to the force of law but to the power and example of tradition. Confucianism would later spread into the Korean peninsulaand towardJapan. In the west, theGreekphilosophical tradition, represented bySocrates,[55]Plato,[56]andAristotle,[57][58]was diffused throughoutEurope and theMiddle Eastin the 4th century BCE by the conquests of Alexander III of Macedon, more commonly known asAlexander the Great .[59][60][61] Regional empires[edit] Main articles:CivilizationandEmpire The millennium from 500 BCE to 500 CE saw a series of empires of unprecedented size develop. Well-trained professional armies, unifying ideologies, and advanced bureaucracies created the possibility for emperors to rule over large domains, whose populations could attain numbers upwards of tens of millions of subjects. The great empiresdepended onmilitaryannexationof territory and on the formation of defended settlements to become agricultural centres. [62]The relative peace that the empires brought encouragedinternational trade, most notably the massive trade routes in the Mediterranean, and theSilk Road. In southern Europe, theGreeks(and later theRomans) established cultures whose practices, laws, and customs are considered the foundation of contemporary western civilization. Major regional empires of this period include: TheMedian Empire, from 678 BCE, centered in present-dayIran, but extending west to present-dayTurkeyand east to present-day Pakistan. The Median Empire gave way to successiveIranianempires of the period, up to theSassanid Empire(224-651 CE). Parthenonepitomizes sophisticated culture of Ancient Greece. TheDelian League(from 478 BCE) and the succeeding Athenian Empire (454-404 BCE), centered in present-day Greece. Alexander the Great(356-323 BCE), ofMacedon, founded an empire of conquest, extending from present-day Greece to present-day Pakistan. The empire divided shortly after his death, but the influence of his Hellenisticsuccessors made for an extendedHellenistic period (323 – 30 BCE) throughout the region.
