Roots of the Modern World

700 BCE to 1333

New Glimpses of Equality

As the egalitarian traditions of nomadic life were replaced by the hierarchical divisions of early civilizations, the belief in human equality had diminished.  Then 2,700 years ago, the Greeks of Athens introduced a system of democracy in which the rulers were subject to the will of the citizens.  Rome subsequently granted citizenship to all its free inhabitants, and Christianity introduced the idea that all Christians are equal before God. 

Non-Christians however were not necessarily equal and at the beginning of the second millennium the Pope sanctified the crusades against unbelievers.  As many adherents of Islam also believed it was a duty to kill the infidel, Eurasia was torn apart by centuries of war.  The calamities of the 14th century signalled a radical change in the established order.

Greek Democracy

700 BCE

The center of civilization shifted from the Near East to the Mediterranean with the ascendancy of the Greeks.  In the city of Athens they set up the Polis, a city-state whose rulers were subject to the will of its citizens.  Although citizens included only men and not women, foreigners, or slaves the democratic principle that rulers should not have unbridled power and should serve the people was for the first time put into limited practice.

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Buddha and Confucius

500 BCE

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Roman Empire

27 BCE

Rome was occupied by shepherds around 800 BC.  It was a powerful republic by 500 BC, and in 27 BCE Augustus became the first emperor of a pragmatic empire.  At its height the Roman empire covered most of Europe and North Africa, characterized by military might and innovative engineering achievements in creating roads, bridges, plumbing and architecture.

Gifted administrators, the Romans were tolerant of those local customs and beliefs which did not challenge their authority.  Their Pax Romana enabled different peoples to live together in prosperity and in 212 AD all free inhabitants of the empire were granted citizenship.

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Birth of Christianity

33

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Barbarians Sack Rome

410

Weakened by internal power struggles Rome was repeatedly attacked by Goths, Vandals and Visigoths.  In 410 the Visigoths broke through the city defences and after almost 1000 years, Rome's hegemony collapsed.  With the loss of Roman authority, nomadic invaders swept cross western Europe

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Byzantium

527

Constantinople was dedicated as one of the two capitals of the Roman Empire in 330.  When the last emperor in Rome was deposed an emperor in Constantinople ruled over the eastern half of Christendom, maintaining the myth of a "Roman" Empire.  After 527 this became Byzantium, a Greek, even oriental empire which resisted attacks from the East for several centuries, until 1453, when Moslem Turks of the Ottoman Empire sacked Constantinople and renamed it Istanbul.               

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Islam

622

Muhammad was born in Mecca about 570, and grew up an orphan in a Bedouin tribe.  He was a visionary, and in 622 his followers began to preserve his word in what is now the Koran, the sacred book of the religion of Islam.  Its creed is one of submission to God's  will, regular prayer, and the brotherhood of believers in a society in which, according to some believers, women should be subject to men.

The Grand Vizier's Palace, Marrakesh, Morrocco. 

From its humble beginnings the highly monotheistic Islam developed one of the most sophisticated, scholarly and artistic cultures the world has known.

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Charlemagne

800

In 771 Charlemagne, a Frankish warrior, was the first ruler since the Romans to unite western Europe.  He converted to Roman Christianity, and aggressively defended papal lands against barbarian attack.  He was crowned Roman Emperor by the pope in 800.  Charlemagne was a loved and charismatic leader who valued learning and art, and his residence in Aachen became an intellectual focal point for the West.  Many today still look to him as the father of Europe.

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The Crusades

1099

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Europe's High Middle Ages

1200

There is a period of about 400 years at the beginning of the second millennium called the High Middle Ages when Europe was developing as a prosperous, energetic society.  At the time, things may not have seemed to be changing much.  The Church was the supreme spiritual authority, monasteries, almost the sole reservoirs of learning in a largely illiterate society, owned vast tracts of land and exercised great political influence.  Yet changes were occurring that would eventually undermine this settled order.

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Black Death

1333

The bubonic plague began in the Far East in 1333 and, carried by fleas and rats along trade routes, arrived in Europe in 1347.  After 5 years, 25 million people, one-third of Europe's population, had died.  The disease returned in small deadly episodes for centuries.  The plague undermined two bulwarks of medieval society - land based wealth and the authority of the Church.  Labor shortages led to peasant revolts, class conflict and the destabilizing of the feudal system.  The teaching of the Church began to be questioned and greater self-belief and independence in the population began to weaken ecclesiastical authority.

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© Copyright  T. H. Sissons "All of Time Online" 2004-2006 all rights reserved

The title background picture is of the ruins of a Roman Fort, Hardknott Pass, Cumbria, England, photograph by P.L. Sissons

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