Second Wave Civilizations….

The Agricultural Revolution began an ongoing cycle for the development of larger communities, cities, states and eventually what we in modern terms would consider empires. The term 'empire'  refers to 'aggressive states that conquer, rule and extract resources from other states and people' (pg 118).  An empire is a large area under the direction and rule of a single governing body.  In the case of the early  empire, the Greek civilization  was considered the first democratic society where the 'people' (of a certain definition) were represented in the government. During the same time the empires of Persia and China who were ruled by a single ruler/dynasty. Although Empires ruled over vast areas and cultures they were a very important aspect of human development allowing for the sharing of ideas, technologies and values.

These empires did not last forever and eventually they became too big and overextend to govern effectively. It became difficult to sustain resources and larger families who owned larger estates in the empires began to avoid paying taxes, convert smaller free farmers into tenant farmers and ultimately diminish the authority of the central government.

Many changes come from oppression, and in China this was the case. Initially a 'legalist' society the rules and punishments were very harsh. On the surface, this would seem like a reasonable way to keep order in a community but ultimately it pushes people into rebellion. In China, Confucius, who was well educated and born to an upper middle class family wanted to help solve China's problem of disorder. Although he never became a man of power in his lifetime he left many writings and teachings which were gathered after his death. Scholars would take his writings and comment on the ideas which ultimately created 'Confucianism'. His teachings were based on respect between the unequal relationships of people, that of the superior (male authoritarian) and the lesser people such as children, wife or servant. He had very clear guidelines for the place of women and how they should act towards the family and husband, as well as how leaders should treat their followers.