A Complete History of the World Part 6: Greece 1100-500 BC, China 2100-480 BC, Japan 13,000- 300 BC, Meso America 1000 BC

We need to keep this ball rolling, because we're getting to some very lengthy and important periods in the development of everything, so we're going to leap to the next phase in Greek development.


So after the terrible Trojan War, which took up quite a few years after 1100 BC the Greeks moved into a period known as the Greek Dark Ages. The reason for the name is less because of some kind of loss of quality in Greek living, but rather because we simply have extremely little record of what precisely they were doing. So we'll skip the next few hundred years and go to the Archaic period roughly 800 BC to 480 BC.

During this innovative time the Greeks began to build small kingdoms around large towns, the most prominent feature of which was a spot called the Acropolis. The acropolis in Greek city design was a large hill centered in the heart of a city, surrounded by walls, rather a lot like later castle designs. Funny thing about this period is that Kingship was not passed from father to son, but rather from father to son-in-law. Thus disputes and lineage focused on the Queens of these towns. As the Archaic period ended the Kings were deposed by tyrants, another Greek invention. At this time a tyrant was an elected leader (the Greeks invented democracy as a means of bettering their fledgling 'city states') who had absolute authority to run the city as they saw fit, until the next election.

During the next few hundred years the Greek city states we are all familiar with become more defined, and of course wars break out between them. Such as the Messenian War in which Sparta, upset after the raping of some virgins, attacked Messenia, Messenia on the other hand swore that the virgins were soldiers, and that Sparta was simply being rude. This was promptly followed by a second Messenian War, because if Sparta ain't figthin' Sparta ain't livin'.


This sadly pretty much wraps up Greece until we jump up to everything after 500 BC.



Anyway, because Greece is done we can leap over to another part of the world ASIA! Starting with China in 2,100 BC. This was the time of the Xia dynasty, which could have ruled all the way to 1600 BC, but then again NOBODY KNOWS! Because although there are some records of the Xia dynasty existing and a few artifacts, there's no concrete history to speak of, so we'll jump ahead to the Shang Dynasty which ran from1600 BC to 1046 BC. During the Shang period the Chinese worshiped a pantheon of Gods all under a single supreme God Shang-Ti, as well as their ancestors, who after death ascended to a state of God hood as well. The Chinese also started using divination and the reading of bones to predict the future. Leadership at this time was dictated by the 'Mandate of Heaven' which was the will of the greater whole of the universe, if you were leading the country and everything was all right then you possessed the mandate, if however there were natural disasters and the people were unhappy then the mandate was no longer with you and you were fair pickin's for removal. After the Shang gave way a new Dynasty was founded titled the Zhou, which ruled China from 1046 to 221 BC. This transition was actually achieved after the Shang dynasties vassals in the West, the people of Zhou, turned on their masters and declared that they possessed the Mandate of Heaven, and were thus the new rulers of China. Incidentally the constant declarations of possessing the Mandate of heaven will be extremely common in dynastic cycles from here on out pretty much, but then again you knew that already if you happened to play any games made by Koei.


After a fashion the Zhou rulers lost control over the various feudal lords in China and by 480 BC hundreds of small kingdoms all vied for power while claiming loyalty to the Zhou. During the lead up to this there was also the beginning of large migrations of Chinese from the North to the South. In the background to the upheavels of the period Confucianism and Taoism both spring up and become dominant religious doctrines of the period. In recognition of this I'll give them each an opportunity to offer some advice. First of lets chat with Confucius...


Fascinating, thanks for that...all right, let us ask Lao Tzu, founder of Taoism a question, Lao Tzu! What's the purpose of life?



Outstanding, I have made a mockery of these two sacred traditions.

Anywho, lets move to Japan and see what they're up to between 13,000 BC to 300 BC


Stupendous, you venerate that bear carcass! We'll check back in with Japan in a few hundred years.

So where else can we visit? Let's see, in Central and South America the Olmec Civilization appears, along with the Mayans, this taking place around 1000 BC. The Olmec were known primarily for their art work, most notably their giant stone heads.


Exactly like you! Though eventually the Olmec were destroyed by violent insurrections...and by popular Nickelodeon game shows.


The Maya on the other hand would reach prominence a little later, so we'll need to be patient with them. Europe was wearing furs and eating meat nearly raw at this point, so picture early civilization with snow.

Under These circumstances it appears that we've managed to cover history all the way up to 500 BC, so be prepared, because this is where things start getting complicated.