Period 2:
Organization and Reorganization of Human Societies
c. 600 B.C.E. to c. 600 C.E.
Key Concept 2.2: The development of states and empires
- The number and size of key states and empires grew dramatically by imposing political unity on areas where previously there had been competing states.
- Empires and states developed new techniques of imperial administration based, in part, on the success of earlier political forms.
- Unique social and economic dimensions developed in imperial societies in Afro-Eurasia and the Americas.
- The Roman, Han, Persian, Mauryan, and Gupta empires created political, cultural, and administrative difficulties that they could not manage, which eventually led to their decline, collapse, and transformation into successor empires or states.