Final Project

The Political Change in the Different Time Periods of Egypt

Period: 2680 BCE to 1150 BCE

The changes in practices and beliefs between the kingdoms give a good understanding of the impact politics can have.
Politics were not at large in the Old Kingdom, but society was mainly based around agriculture. The kings gained more political power during the Middle Kingdom and started to extract wealth from surrounding kingdoms. The New Kingdom was more of a bureaucratic ruling kingdom compared to the previous ones.

The Political Impact of the Iron Age

1100 BCE

The Iron Age helped to form new units of the economy and politics to help it grow and expand. The growth of trade during this age helped to expand politics in the Middle East as communication was now faster and easier. Many new societies and states emerged during the Iron age that changed many of the past political beliefs.The creation of Iron tools helped agriculture and military weapons. This provided safety and a growth in the economy with the combined growth in agriculture and trade.

The Political Impact of Hoplites

800 BCE

The Hoplites demanded for better political representation, as they proved themselves on the battlefield. This impacted Greek politics as a whole. Hoplites forced aristocrats to share political power that was not seen before. Hoplites refused to fight in battles, making Athens weak to attacks. The switch in power impacted Athenian politics as political power began to be distributed more evenly.

Athenian Politics

600 BCE

Athens was the first to experiment with a democracy type of government. Democracy is commonly used today, and Athens shows the early beliefs found within the governing style. Athens was rich and populous, and because of their size they held a lot of political power. Athens was unfair to social classes though, as many merchants and farmers could afford to buy arms but because of their social class they were cut from political decision making. This led to a large impact on Athenian politics.

The Persian Government

522 BCE

The Persian empire was very large, and was continuing to expand. To help keep order within the kingdom, Persia came up with a few ideas. They treated those they conquered with lenience to help boost their political power by gaining more loyal subjects. They also introduced a new governing style that divided the empire into twenty Satrapies. These had individual Satraps that held all of the political power for that Satrapy. This helped to distribute power more equally over larger land.

Class Struggle in Rome

500 BCE

Rome struggled with their class systems as the rich gained more and more power. Power and wealth impacted politics, as your political opinion only mattered if you had money. The class struggle seen within Rome is very similar to that we saw in Athens. The Plebeians in Rome refused to battle for them leaving Rome defenseless as they demanded more political power. They were granted power but class struggle was still a remaining problem in Rome.

The Feudal System

500 BCE

Feudalism was the sense of "you mess with me you mess with all of us". Europe was very split at the time, so there were many different governing clans with their own leaders. Conflict was at large. Feudalism pushed people away from a unified government, impacting the economy and trade. Feudalism had a negative but large impact on politics in Western Civilization

Pericles Political Impact

495 BCE

Pericles was a big voice in Athenian politics even though he never seized true power. He instituted the idea of paying public servants which helped to decrease the possibility of corruption. He also began to offer public service jobs for the poorer population. This helped to increase the general wealth of the Athenian economy.

Politics in the Renaissance

1450

Monarchs were gaining more political power when strong states started to emerge. The Renaissance influenced many different governing types. The Renaissance helped the growth of strong central states, and an economy based on commerce instead of agriculture. This trend is seen to follow for much of surrounding Europe later on. The Renaissance also helped to influence new lifestyles to people, and when people relax, so do politics.

New World Wealth

1545

Spain found vast amounts of wealth in the Americas after their discovery of the land. This control over America put them politically above others. They found large deposits of silver. They treated the miners poorly, and brought over many diseases from Europe. They killed off much of the natives on the land, giving them the freedom to do what they please. Spain became politically superior to the surrounding countries and citizens living in the Americas.