World
History: Bronze Age and Iron Age
The agricultural settlements had until
this time been almost completely dependent on stone tools. In Eurasia,
copper and bronze tools, decorations, and weapons began to become
commonplace around 3000 BC. After bronze the Eastern Mediterranean
region, Middle East and China saw the introduction of iron tools
and weapons. The Americas may not have had metal tools until the
Chavin horizon in 900 BC, we also know the Moche had metal armor
and knives and tableware, and even the metal poor Inca had metal
tipped plows, at least after the conquest of Chimor. However very
little archaeological research has been done in Peru so far and all
the books were burned in the Spanish conquest of Peru. Whole cities
were still being discovered in 2004. There are now some digs that
indicate they discovered steel long before western civilization.
Ironworking Technology
The diffusion of ironworking technology was at least partially
responsible for the collapse of the Minoan, Mycenaean and Hittite
civilizations around 1200 BC, as these advanced peoples lost
their technological lead to their barbarian neighbors. These
collapses inaugurated a period of confusion, after which two
competing civilizations emerged in the west, the Greeks and Persians.
Chinese civilization too began to assume its familiar aspect
during the 1st millennium BC. The Zhou Dynasty produced a vast
peasant workforce as well as a nobility in charge of organizing
government and conducting the worship of its ancestors.
Cultural Development: Introduction of Philosophy and Religion
A duly noted cultural development was the introduction of philosophy
and religion in both east and west. Over time a great variety
of religions developed around the world with Hinduism and Buddhism
in India, Zoroastrianism in Persia being some of the earliest
major faiths. In the east, three schools of thoughts were to
dominate Chinese thinking until the modern day. These were Daoism,
Legalism and Confucianism. The Confucian tradition, which would
attain predominance, looked not to the force of law, but to the
power and example of tradition for political morality. In the
west, the Greek philosophical tradition, represented by the works
of Plato and Aristotle, were diffused throughout Europe and the
Middle East by the conquests of Alexander of Macedon in the 4th
century BC. At Alexandria, it mixed with Jewish culture to create
the essential context for the appearance and early development
of Christianity.
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