The fourth century was a period of cultural and economic changes. This period saw momentous developments in religious life; with the rise of Christianity and Islam. Emperor Diocletian (284-305) started to abandon territories with little strategic or economic value. He fortified the frontiers, reorganized provincial boundaries and separated civilian from military functions. Military commanders were given greater autonomy. Constantine consolidated some of these changes and added his own changes. His main innovation was in the monetary sphere. He introduced a new denomination, the solidus. The solidus was a coin of 4.5 gm of pure gold. His other innovation was the creation of a second capital at Constantinople.

Monetary stability and expanding population stimulated economic growth. All these developments resulted in strong urban prosperity. It was marked by new forms of architecture and an exaggerated sense of luxury.

The Great Wall is a massive stone barrier that stretches for roughly 13,171 miles across northern China. They don't call it the Great Wall without reason. But who built it, and why? At first, this seems obvious: people built it to keep other people out of China. While that's true, the history is actually a little more complex.

The two causes of urbanisation are natural population increase and rural to urban migration. Urbanisation affects all sizes of settlements from small villages to towns to cities, leading up to the growth of mega-cities which have more than ten million people. Causes of urbanization include: Industrial Growth: The explosion of industrialization and manufacturing enterprises within a certain urban area gives rise to more employment opportunities — which is another factor of urbanization. Employment: Rural areas commonly are agricultural.

(i) The first Mesopotamian tablets, written around 3200 BCE, contained picture-like signs and numbers. These were about 5,000 lists of oxen, fish, bread loaves, etc. - lists of goods that were brought into or distributed from the temples of Uruk, a city in the south.

Clearly, writing began when society needed to keep records of transactions -because in city life transactions occurred at different times, and involved many people and a involved many people and a variety of goods.

(ii) Mesopotamians wrote on tablets of clay. A scribe would wet clay and pat it into a size he could hold comfortably in one hand. He would carefully smoothen its surfaces.

With the sharp end of a reed cut obliquely, he would press wedge-shaped (‘cuneiform) signs on to the smoothened surface while it was still moist. Once dried in the sun, the clay would harden and tablets would be almost as indestructible as pottery. When a written record of, say, the delivery of pieces of metal had ceased to be relevant, the tablet was thrown away.

(iii) Once the surface dried, signs could not be pressed onto a tablet : so each transaction, however minor, required a separate written tablet.

This is why tablets occur by the hundreds at Mesopotamian sites. And it is because of this wealth of sources that we know so much more about Mesopotamia than we do about contemporary India.

(iv) By 2600 BCE or so, the letters became cuneiform, and the language was Sumerian. Writing was now used not only for keeping records, but also for making dictionaries, giving legal validity to land transfers, narrating the deeds of kings, and announcing the changes a king had made in the customary laws of the land.

Sumerian, the earliest known language of Mesopotamia, was gradually replaced after 2400 BCE by the Akkadian language. Cuneiform writing in the Akkadian language continued in use until the first century CE, that is, for more than 2,000 years.

Rates of casual literacy varied in different parts of the empire. Casual literacy was widespread in Pompeii. Literacy was higher among solders, army officers and estate managers in Egypt. Aramaic was the dominant language group in the Near East, Coptic was spoken in Egypt, Punic and Berber in North Africa, Celtic in Spain and the northwest. Spread of Latin displaced many languages with the passage of time.

Why did Britain sign the Anglo-Japanese treaty of 1902? What was the importance of this treaty for Japan?

Britain signed the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902 to check Russian influence in China. By signing this treaty, Japan was also recognised as an imperialist power.

Britain signed the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902 to check Russian influence in China. By signing this treaty, Japan was also recognised as an imperialist power.

Over time, the need for writing changed and the signs developed into a script we call cuneiform. Over thousands of years,Mesopotamian scribes recorded daily events, trade, astronomy, and literature on clay tablets. Cuneiform was used by people throughout the ancient Near East to write several different languages.

Factors that indicate that only a few’ Mesopotamia’s could read and write are:

1. 300 signs were available to read and write. It was a very lengthy procedure.
2. Reading and writing of these signs were very complicated.

The boundaries of the Roman empire were surrounded by two great rivers, the Rhine and the Danube.

The First World War which began in 1914 was different from all the other previous wars. It was fought by several nations and affected almost all countries. New methods of defence and destruction were used in it. Because of the extent of the spread of the war, damages caused by it and the total impact of the war was till now unprecedented in history, it came to be known as the First World War.

Civilization comes from the Latin word 'civis' meaning someone who lives in a town. When people are civilised, they live in large well-organised groups like town, not in small  tirbes or isolated family groups. In civilisations, people live together in communities and grow crops. 

On a bright sunny day four people interlinked with each other’s fortune meet unexpectedly.

Apisi is a kind man like his tribe and is very welcoming.

Kagiso is an African Slave and works of his German Master.

Joe King is a wealthy German who has come in Gold Rush and is Master of Kagiso.

Le Wei is a Chinese labourer.

Apisi to Le Wei, when both of them were collection wood.

Apisi: Look who is coming, A German Man with his slave and a dog.

Le Wei: Better we run.

Apisi: No, Lets welcome him that is what we do that is what our Hopi Tribe culture is.

Apisi and Le Wei Welcomes Joe King and Kagiso, they rest for a while and soon and slowly indulge in discussion.

Apisi: Europeans exploited us looted us, they became greedy, hunted animals.

Joe King: This is part of trade and business.

Le Wei: We have come here to work, we build tracks, dig lands, work very hard yet we are paid very low.

Kagiso: I was a free man in my country, I use to roam in my rice field and herd by sheep’s until one day I was enslaved.

Joe King: Kagiso, I gave a good price for you, We Europeans gave you blankets, vessels, guns and alcohol.

Apisi: And you in greed, sold the fish and furs in Europe to gain profits. Because of your impatience to get Fur you slaughtered hundreds of animals and we now fear that the animals will take revenge for this destruction.

Kagiso: Let me go Mr King.

Joe King : We have to travel far now ,Mr Apisi and Mr Wei if you wish you may join, I would give something to you in return for your help.

<i>*A bell rings.</i>

Apisi: It’s our prayer time. I should be going.

Le Wei: Good bye Mr King and Kagiso.

Apisi: May you find your gold Mr King.

Joe King: Sure, I will……

And they all departed and went to their respective works

Martin Luther was the leader of the Protestant Reformation Movement. Its chief gospels were the following.

• A person is not required to be priest in order to establish contact with God.
• It is faith that guides people to the right path and entry into Heaven that is salvation.

Martin Luther was the leader of the Protestant Reformation Movement. Its chief gospels were the following.

• A person is not required to be priest in order to establish contact with God.
• It is faith that guides people to the right path and entry into Heaven that is salvation.

Public baths were a striking feature of Roman urban life (when one Iranian ruler tried to introduce then into Iran, he encountered the wrath of the clergy there! Water was a sacred element and to use it for public bathing may have seemed a desecration to them), and urban populations also enjoyed a much higher level of entertainment.

For example, one calendar tells us that spectacular (shows) filled no less than 176 days of the year!

The Mesopotamian society was patriarchal in nature; hence, the father enjoyed special privileges. The rights of women though were protected. Boys were brought up in strict discipline and were sent to schools in order to study writing, reading and arithmetic. Girls were trained in dance and music.

Abbey’ is derived from the Syriac abba, meaning father. An abbey was governed by an abbot or an abbess.

• The ancient Roman empire which was spread across the three continents namely – Europe, Asia and Africa.
• To the North, the boundaries of the empire were formed by two great rivers – the Rhine and the Danube.

S

Sources: There is a rich collection of sources to study Roman history, like – texts, documents and material remains. 

1. Archaeological : a) Amphitheater, b) Amphorae, c) Colosseum, d) Statues, e) Aqueducts

2. (Literary) Written : (A) Texts –  Histories written by Contemporary Historians (B) Documents

3. Aerial Photographs

Documentary sources include mainly inscriptions and papyri. Inscriptions were usually cuton stone, so a large number survive, in both Greek and Latin.

The ‘papyrus’ was a reed-like plant that grew along the banks of the Nile in Egypt and was processed to produce a writing material that was very widely used in everyday life.

Thousands of contracts, accounts, letters and official documents survive ‘on papyrus’ and have been published by scholars who are called ‘papyrologists.

Roman Slaves: Slavery was an institution deeply rooted in the ancient world, both in the Mediterranean and in the Near East, and not even Christianity when it emerged and triumphed as the state religion (in the fourth century) seriously challenged this institution. It does not follow that the bulk of the labour in the Roman economy was performed by slaves.

That may have been true of large parts of Itlay in the Republican period (under Augustus there were still 3 million slaves in a total Italian population of 7.5 million) but it was no longer true of the empire as a whole.

Slaves were an investment, and at least one Roman agricultural writer advised landowners against using them in contexts where too many might be required (for example, for harvests) or where their health could be damaged (for example, by malaria).

These considerations were not based on any sympathy for the slaves but on hard economic calculation. On the other hand, if the Roman upper classes were often brutal towards their slaves, ordinary people did sometimes show much more compassion.

French Serfs: Serfs cultivated plots of land, but these belonged to the lord. Much of the produce from this had to be given to the lord. They also had to work on the land which belonged exclusively to the lord. They received no wages and could not leave the estate without the lord’s permission.


The lord claimed a number of monopolies at the expense of his serfs. Serfs could use only their lord’s mill to grind their flour, his oven to bake their bread, and his winepresses to distil wine and beer.


The lord could decide whom a serf should marry, or might give his blessing to the serf’s choice but on payment of a fee.

Temples overtime developed huge structures, built in shape of step pyramids. But early temple were much like house. They were small shrines made of unbaked bricks except that had outer walls going in and out at regular intervals unlike ordinary building. Early temples were like a house because:
(i) The temple symbolize the community as a whole and was the nucleus around which the city developed.
(ii) It was here that the processing of produce- grain grinding, spinning, weaving was done as in household.
(iii) The rulers of early Mesopotamia's cities were priests.They lived and administered from there. Since temples were used for residential purposes they looked like houses.
(iv) The complex was not only a place of rituals and worship but contained warehouses, workshops and living quarters of artisans.