Exam 3: Nomads,territorial States,and Microsocieties 2000-1200 Bce

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The territorial state represented a new political form.Generally,it was larger in scale than the urban city-states and alliances that preceded it.It centralized power,usually around a charismatic ruler,and exerted power and control over distant hinterlands.In order to preserve their rule,kings and other rulers devised rituals and other means of consolidating power and passing it on from one generation to the next.This further centralized power in the hands of the few,but it also stabilized political systems.This stabilization found expression in fixed,identifiable borders,unlike the more amorphous city-states that came before.These new kings based their authority in widespread bureaucracies; elaborate legal codes; and large,expanding territories.The people who lived within these states felt allegiance to larger territories,rulers,and broad linguistic and ethnic communities. Climate change-particularly long droughts-forced the migration of pastoral nomads into the old riverine societies.Their arrival destabilized economic and political systems and enabled the emergence of new forms of power.The technologies that these migrants brought,particularly the war chariot,radically shifted the way that rulers utilized military technology.Finally,the eventual emergence of well-balanced military kingdoms prompted a shift to statecraft and international diplomacy.

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Both Minoan society in the Mediterranean and Polynesian society in the South Pacific settled on maritime islands,the relative isolation of which led to decentralization and fragmentation.The vast distances between islands in the Pacific created even greater barriers between groups than between Mediterranean settlements.Both Minoans and Polynesians were influenced by mainland societies and were linked to them by active trade networks,but the distances from the mainland meant that the Polynesians were relatively immune to invasion,while the Minoans were eventually overwhelmed by the Mycenaeans.While both Polynesians and Minoans were politically decentralized,both maintained cultural unity across their respective island populations.In the South Pacific,Polynesians shared a common culture,language group,technology and seafaring skills,and carried with them a common pool of domesticated plants and animals.The Minoans were also united culturally-by a common language (and writing system,unlike the Polynesians),by artistic styles and motifs,and by distinctive religious traditions focusing on a female deity.Because of their proximity to Southwest Asia,the Minoans were subject to more outside influences,including the construction of large-scale palace centers on Crete,than were the Polynesians.