Mediterranean Cultural Change Essay

Mediterranean Cultural Change (200 - 1000 CE)

During the period of 200 CE and 1000 CE, there had been changes all around the world. The region of Mecca between 570-632 CE, Muhammad was the Arab prophet and founder of the Islam religion as he began to spread the religion. There were also the formation of the caliphates, Umayyad and Abbasid, of the Muslim dynasties in Mecca. Kievan Russia was founded in 880 CE in Ukraine by scandinavian adventurers asserting authority over slavic population. The Holy Roman Empire is founded in 962 CE. Between 581 and 618 CE, the Sui dynasty had unified China and achieved economical advances from building the Grand Canal, as they were followed by the Tang dynasty. The Tang (618-907 CE) used Mahayana Buddhism as their religious doctrines as they also excelled in trade, but eventually decline and were followed by the Song dynasty in 960 CE. Around 963 CE, Vietnam adopts the Chinese culture of Tang and Song. In 600 CE - 900 CE the Mesoamerican civilization made advances in astronomy and mathematics. Teotihuacan was at it’s peak in 600 CE as the largest city in Americas and they had built many religious architecture and practiced human sacrifice. Maya civilization was during the dominance of Teotihuacan, as the Mayans developed the Mesoamerican calendar. Between 320 - 550 CE, the Gupta Empire in northern India followed the footsteps of the Mauryan Empire before, and they developed the theater-state to persuade others. The changes and continuities in the Mediterranean

region between 200 CE - 1000CE came from the appearance of romanization, the third century crisis and the spread of Christianity.
The bureaucracy in the Roman Empire was the Roman Principate, which had central authority. The Roman Principate focused to support the equity class to gain more power. The Principate was founded by Augustus. The government helped improve the Roman Empire with improved towns and architecture.
The emergence of romanization came from the rise of the Roman Empire. As the population grew, romanization spread the Latin language and the Roman way of life to others. The indigenous people began to romanize as the Roman empire was governed through a network of towns and cities and during the pax romana, where commerce was enhanced. From 235 to 284 CE, the political, economic, and military troubles had nearly destroyed the Roman Empire. The Roman treasury began to run out of money because they bought the loyalty of the army and paid people to defend their frontiers. The economy declined because of inflation so the emperors began to use the barter system again. It caused to population to begin to shift to the countryside to seek employment and protection of the government. There was also a frequent change of rulers. The spread of Christianity had made it the primary religion of the Roman Empire as Constantine was the ruler. Christianity had caused religious transformation because its doctrines were different from the pagans, who continued to follow the old customs. Constantine had eventually moved his empire from Rome to Byzantium and he studded his empire with churches.
The Roman government didn’t try to seek to Romanize the subject peoples, however, the indigenous people in the Empire decided to Romanize because it brought economic and political success. The result of Romanization was to be granted Roman citizenship by the emperors. The Roman citizenship gave people privileges, legal protections and exemptions from some types of taxation. The Roman emperors granted citizenship to individuals for their good service. The third century crisis had resulted in economic decline of the Roman empire. Many of the rulers in during the time only ruled or a few months or years before being overthrown or killed by its troops or rivals. Germanic tribes had took advantage of the decline of the Roman empire to raid deep into the empire. Eventually, Roman cities had to build walls for protection. The decline in trade during the crisis had declined the wealth that came from manufacture and commerce. People began to evade their civic duties and fled. The spread of Christianity resulted in a split of the Roman Empire. People who supported Christianity in the Eastern half of the Roman Empire had more success and wealth. Individuals had supported Christianity because of the promising of a blessed afterlife to the followers and the other beneficial elements of converting to a Christian, along with the support of the government. Christianity, in the Eastern half, had a more unified Empire than the Western side and followed the tradition of giving the emperor complete authority. The Eastern portion focused on the Christian Orthodox church, and the Western portion followed the Roman Catholic church. The east portion of the empire was the Byzantine empire, which had the success with the belief Christianity. On the other hand, the Western Roman Empire had declined under the rule of the Germanic rulers. The Western Roman empire had began to lose its political importance.
The transformations of the Roman empire had come from the success of the Empire to the downfall of the empire from political, economic, and military issues.

Romanization had supported the success of the Roman empire as people were rewarded for their good service in the empire. The belief in Christianity had caused a religious transformation throughout the empire as people believed in different teachings of the church. These changes had created turmoil around the Roman

empire.