ancient civilization

Introduction

The term civilization basically means the level of development at which people live together
peacefully in communities. Ancient civilization refers specifically to the first settled and
stable communities that became the basis for later states, nations, and empires.

The study of ancient civilization is concerned with the earliest segments of the much broader
subject called ancient history. The span of ancient history began with the invention of writing
in about 3100 BC and lasted for more than 35 centuries. Humankind existed long before the
written word, but writing made the keeping of a historical record possible (see human
origins).

The first ancient societies arose in Mesopotamia and Egypt in the Middle East, in the Indus
Valley region of what are now Pakistan and India, in the Huang He (Yellow River) valley of
China, on the island of Crete in the Aegean Sea, and in Central America. All of these
civilizations had certain features in common. They built cities, invented forms of writing,
learned to make pottery and use metals, domesticated animals, and created fairly complex
social structures with class systems.

Apart from written records and carved inscriptions, the knowledge about ancient peoples is
derived from the work of archaeologists. Most of the significant archaeological findings have
been made in the past 200 years. The Sumerian culture of Mesopotamia was discovered in the
1890s, and some of the most important archaeological digs in China were made after the late
1970s.

AgricultureThe Basis of Civilization

The single, decisive factor that made it possible for humankind to settle in permanent
communities was agriculture. After farming was developed in the Middle East in about 6500
BC, people living in tribes or family units did not have to be on the move continually
searching for food or herding their animals. Once people could control the production of food
and be assured of a reliable annual supply of it, their lives changed completely.

People began to found permanent communities in fertile river valleys. Settlers learned to use
the water supply to irrigate the land. Being settled in one place made it possible to
domesticate animals in order to provide other sources of food and clothing.

Farming was a revolutionary discovery. It not only made settlements possibleand ultimately
the building of citiesbut it also made available a reliable food supply. With more food
available, more people could be fed. Populations therefore increased. The growing number of
people available for more kinds of work led to the development of more complex social
structures. With a food surplus, a community could support a variety of workers who were not
farmers.
Farming the world over has always relied upon a dependable water supply. For the earliest
societies this meant rivers and streams or regular rainfall. The first great civilizations grew up
along rivers. Later communities were able to develop by taking advantage of the rainy
seasons.

All of the ancient civilizations probably developed in much the same way, in spite of regional
and climatic differences. As villages grew, the accumulation of more numerous and
substantial goods became possible. Heavier pottery replaced animal-skin gourds as containers
for food and liquids. Cloth could be woven from wool and flax. Permanent structures made of
wood, brick, and stone could be erected.

The science of mathematics was an early outgrowth of agriculture. People studied the
movements of the Moon, Sun, and planets to calculate seasons. In so doing they created the
first calendars. With a calendar it was possible to calculate the arrival of each growing season.
Measurement of land areas was necessary if property was to be divided accurately.
Measurements of amountsfor example, of seeds or grainswas also a factor in farming and
housekeeping. Later came measures of value as commodity and money exchange became
common.

The use of various ways of measuring led naturally to record keeping, and for this some form
of writing was necessary. The earliest civilizations all seem to have used picture-writing
pictures representing both sounds and objects to the reader. The best known of the ancient
writing systems is probably Egyptian hieroglyphics, a term meaning sacred carvings, since
many of the earliest writings were inscribed on stone.

All of the major ancient civilizationsin Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, and China
emerged in the 4th millennium BC. Historians still debate over which one emerged first. It
may well have been in the Middle East, in an area called the Fertile Crescent. This area
stretches from the Nile River in Egypt northward along the coast of the historical region of
Palestine, then eastward into Asia to include Mesopotamia. In this area people settled along
the riverbanks and practiced field agriculture. This kind of farming depended on the
reproduction of seed, normally from grain crops.

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia (from a Greek term meaning between rivers) lies between the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers, a region that is today part of Iraq. By about 5000 BC, small tribes of farmers
had made their way to the river valleys. On the floodplains they raised wheat, barley, and
peas. They cut through the riverbanks so that water for their crops could flow to lower lying
soil.

These early irrigation systems were more fully developed by the Sumerians in Mesopotamia,
who drained marshes and dug canals, dikes, and ditches. The need for cooperation on these
large irrigation projects led to the growth of government and law. The Sumerians are thus
credited with forming the earliest of the ancient civilizations.
The land of the Sumerians was called Sumer (Shinar in the Bible). Their origins are shrouded
in the past. They were not Semites, like most of the peoples of the region; they spoke a
language unrelated to other known tongues. They may have come to southern Mesopotamia
from Persia before 4000 BC.

Sumerian towns and cities included Eridu, Nippur, Lagash, Kish, and Ur. The cities differed
from primitive farming settlements. They were not composed of family-owned farms, but
were ringed by large tracts of land. These tracts were thought to be owned by a local god. A
priest organized work groups of farmers to tend the land and provide barley, beans, wheat,
olives, grapes, and flax for the community.

These early cities, which existed by 3500 BC, were called temple towns because they were
built around the temple of the local god. The temples were eventually built up on towers
called ziggurats (holy mountains), which had ramps or staircases winding up around the
exterior. Public buildings and marketplaces were built around these shrines.

The temple towns grew into city-states, which are considered the basis of the first true
civilizations. At a time when only the most rudimentary forms of transportation and
communication were available, the city-state was the most governable type of human
settlement. City-states were ruled by leaders, called ensis, who were probably authorized to
control the local irrigation systems. The food surplus provided by the farmers supported these
leaders, as well as priests, artists, craftsmen, and others.

The Sumerians contributed to the development of metalworking, wheeled carts, and potter's
wheels. They may have invented the first form of writing. They engraved pictures on clay
tablets in a form of writing known as cuneiform (wedge-shaped). The tablets were used to
keep the accounts of the temple food storehouses. By about 2500 BC these picture-signs were
being refined into an alphabet.

The Sumerians developed the first calendar, which they adjusted to the phases of the Moon.
The lunar calendar was adopted by the Semites, Egyptians, and Greeks. An increase in trade
between Sumerian cities and between Sumeria and other, more distant regions led to the
growth of a merchant class.

The Sumerians organized a complex mythology based on the relationships among the various
local gods of the temple towns. In Sumerian religion, the most important gods were seen as
human forms of natural forcessky, Sun, earth, water, and storm. These gods, each originally
associated with a particular city, were worshiped not only in the great temples but also in
small shrines in family homes.

Warfare between cities eventually led to the rise of kings, called lugals, whose authority
replaced that of city-state rulers. Sumeria became a more unified state, with a common culture
and a centralized government. This led to the establishment of a bureaucracy and an army. By
2375 BC, most of Sumer was united under one king, Lugalzaggisi of Umma.
Babylon

The Sumerians were conquered by their Semitic neighbors. But their civilization was carried
on by their successorsthe Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Chaldeans.

The Babylonians made distinct contributions to the growth of civilization. They added to the
knowledge of astronomy, advanced the knowledge of mathematics, and built the first great
capital city, Babylon. The Babylonian King Hammurabi set forth the Code of Hammurabi in
about 1800 BC. This was the most complete compilation of Babylonian law and one of the
first great law codes in the world.

Egypt

Egyptian farmers had settled in the long and narrow valley of the Nile River by 5000 BC.
Within 2,000 years they had invented writing, built massive irrigation works, and established
a culture that bequeathed the pyramids and other magnificent monuments to posterity. The
primitive farming settlements of Egypt were concerned with the raising of vegetables, grains,
and animals. These settlements slowly gave way to larger groupings of people. Probably the
need to control the Nile floodwaters through dams and canals eventually led to the rise of
government in the region.

By the end of the prehistoric period before 3100 BC, Egypt was divided into two kingdoms.
Lower Egypt had its capital at Buto, while Upper Egypt was centered at Hierakonpolis. In this
period travelers brought in ideas from Sumeria, including the concepts of writing and the
pottery wheel.

Egyptian civilization began with the unification in 3100 BC of the upper and lower regions by
King Menes. He established a new capital at Memphis. In this era the Egyptians developed
the first 365-day calendar, invented the plow, made use of copper, developed hieroglyphic
writing, and began to build with stone. Trade and exploration flourished.

The Egyptians were ruled by kings known as pharaohs who claimed to be descended from the
god Horus. These kings, supported by a priestly class, lived in splendor, and they saw to it
that after their deaths they would be buried in splendor. The tombs built for them were
designed as storehouses to hold all the things that the kings would need in the afterlife.

The earliest royal tombs foreshadowed the later great monuments, the pyramids. By about
2700 BC the first pyramid was built, in Saqqara. The three great pyramids still standing near
Cairo were built between 2650 and 2500 BC.

Early Egyptian history is divided into three major eras: the Old Kingdom (27002200 BC),
the Middle Kingdom (20501800 BC), and the New Kingdom (15701090 BC). By the dawn
of the Old Kingdom, the characteristics of Egyptian civilization had already been firmly
established. The periods not accounted for by the dates are believed to be times of decline
known as the Intermediate Periods.
India

The valley of the Indus River is considered to be the birthplace of Indian civilization. Located
on the Indian subcontinent, largely in what is now Pakistan, the Indus civilization was not
discovered by archaeologists until 1924. The ancient history of this region is obscured by
legend. It appears, however, that by 4000 BC primitive farmers were raising vegetables,
grains, and animals along the riverbank. By 2700 BC two major cities, Harappa and Mohenjo-
daro, and numerous smaller towns had emerged.

There is some evidence that Mesopotamian traders reached the early people of the Indus
Valley by sailing there from Sumeria. While the Indus Valley people shared some
developmentssuch as complex irrigation and drainage systems and the art of writingwith
the people of Sumeria, they also developed a unique cultural style of their own.

What little is known of the Indus civilization suggests that it had large cities that were well
laid out and well fortified. There were public buildings, palaces, baths, and large granaries to
hold agricultural produce. The many artifacts and artworks found by archaeologists indicate
that the residents of the Indus had reached a fairly high level of culture before their
civilization was destroyed.

According to the Rigveda, the ancient Hindu scriptures written after about 1500 BC, Vedic
people conquered the earliest Indian civilization (though some modern scholars believe that
the Vedic people may have migrated to the area more peacefully). The Vedic people
(Aryans), who were nomads from the Eurasian steppes, introduced a caste system, which
persists to the present day in Hindu law. The caste system, which divides all people into social
classes with differing rights and obligations, was a formal expression of the interdependent
labor division seen in all civilizations. By the 6th century BC at least 16 states had been
established on the Indian subcontinent.

Crete

By about 2500 BC a civilization had emerged on the island of Crete in the Aegean Sea.
Excavations in 1900 at the site of Knossos revealed the existence of a culture named by
archaeologists as Minoan after a mythical king, Minos. Minoans probably settled in Crete
before 3000 BC.

There is evidence of outside influence in Crete; apparently Egyptian traders reached the
Aegean Sea soon after the Minoans did. Nevertheless, Minoan civilization developed its own
unique features, and by about 2000 BC, great cities with elaborate and luxurious palaces were
built, and sea trade was flourishing.

The Minoans had a picture-writing system, as had other ancient peoples. The Minoan religion
seems to have centered on a mother goddess and on the figures of the bull and the snake. The
Minoans are known for their beautiful and colorful wall paintings and their fine pottery. In
about 1400 BC Minoan civilization began to decline. The end was hastened by invasions from
mainland Greece.

China

The Chinese had settled in the Huang He, or Yellow River, valley of northern China by 3000
BC. By then they had pottery, wheels, farms, and silk, but they had not yet discovered writing
or the uses of metals.

The Shang Dynasty (1600?1046 BC) is the first documented era of ancient China. The
highly developed hierarchy consisted of a king, nobles, commoners, and slaves. The capital
city was Anyang, in what is now north Henan Province. Some scholars have suggested that
travelers from Mesopotamia and from Southeast Asia brought agricultural methods to China,
which stimulated the growth of ancient Chinese civilization. The Shang peoples were known
for their use of jade, bronze, horse-drawn chariots, ancestor worship, and highly organized
armies.

Like other ancient peoples, the Chinese developed unique attributes. Their form of writing,
probably developed by 2000 BC, was a complex system that used characters that stood for
words or parts of words. Such early forms of Chinese became known through the discovery
by archaeologists of oracle bones, which were bones with writings inscribed on them. They
were used for fortune-telling and record keeping in ancient China.

The Zhou Dynasty (1046256 BC) saw the full flowering of ancient civilization in China.
During this period the empire was unified, a middle class arose, and iron was introduced. The
sage Confucius (551479 BC) developed the code of ethics that dominated Chinese thought
and culture for the next 25 centuries.

Meso-America and South America

Meso-America is the term used to describe the ancient settlements of Mexico and Central
America. The earliest elaborate civilization known in the Americas is that of the Olmec of
central Mexico. The Olmec lived in the lowlands of what are now Veracruz and Tabasco
states from about 1200 BC. They left artifacts ranging from tiny jade carvings to huge
monuments such as the volcanic rock statues at San Lorenzo. These monuments suggest the
existence of an organized and diverse society with leaders who could command the work of
artisans and laborers. Among the many other complex pre-Columbian civilizations in Central
and South America were the Chavn, Nazca, Moche, and Inca of Peru, the Chibcha and
Tairona of Colombia, the Marajoara and Tapaj of Brazil, the Maya of the Yucatn Peninsula,
and the Aztec of Mexico. (See also American Indians; Middle American Indians; Central
American and Northern Andean Indians; Central Andean Indians; Rainforest Indians; South
American Nomadic Indians.)

Only four ancient civilizationsMesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley, and Chinaprovided
the basis for continuous cultural developments in the same location. After the Minoan society
on Crete was destroyed, its cultural traditions and legends passed into the life of mainland
Greece (see ancient Greece). As for Meso-America and South America, their cultures were
submerged by the Spanish conquerors of the 16th century.

Aegean civilization

Introduction

The earliest civilization in Europe appeared on the coasts and islands of the Aegean Sea. This
body of water is a branch of the Mediterranean Sea. It is bounded by the Greek mainland on
the west, Asia Minor (now Turkey) on the east, and the island of Crete on the south. Here,
while the rest of Europe was still in the Stone Age, the Minoan-Mycenaean peoples achieved
a highly organized Bronze Age culture.

Two different civilizations flourished in this region from about 3000 BC to 1000 BC. The
earliest is known as Minoan, because its center at Knossos (also spelled Cnossus) on the
island of Crete was the legendary home of King Minos, who was (according to mythology)
the son of the god Zeus and Europa, a Phoenician princess. The later culture is called
Mycenaean, after Mycenae, a city on the Greek peninsula named the Peloponnesus. Mycenae
was the capital of the region ruled by King Agamemnon, the Achaean leader in the Trojan
War (see Agamemnon).

The Mycenaeans, or Achaeans, had invaded the Greek mainland between 1900 BC and 1600
BC, and the term Achaeans was sometimes used to refer to all Greeks of this period. The
center of their culture was Mycenae, which flourished from about 1500 to 1100 BC. Before
1400 BC the Mycenaeans conquered the Minoans. The war against Troy took place in the
13th or early 12th century BC (see Trojan War).

The Minoan Civilization

The origin of the Minoans is unknown, but by 1600 BC they dominated the Aegean region.
They lived on Crete from about 2500 BC to 1400 BC, when they were conquered by
Mycenaeans from the Greek mainland. Their prosperity depended upon seafaring and trade,
especially with the Middle East and with Egypt.

In 1900 the British archaeologist Arthur Evans began excavations at Knossos that eventually
revealed a great palace that covered 5.5 acres (2.2 hectares). There were no surrounding walls
at Knossos, as in the Mycenaean cities. The palace and the city had been protected by a
powerful navy. Evans found storerooms with huge oil jars still in place, elaborate bathrooms,
ventilation and drainage systems, and waste disposal chutes. The pottery was as fine as
porcelain. Paintings on walls and pottery showed the dress of the women, with puffed sleeves
and flounced skirts. The palace of Knossos was destroyed during the 14th century BC.
The Minoans worshiped a mother goddess, whose symbol was the double-bladed ax, called a
labrys. The name of the symbol and the maze of rooms in the palace recall the story of the
labyrinth. According to Greek mythology, Daedalus built a labyrinth for Minos to house the
man-eating Minotaur, half man and half bull (see Theseus). Painted on the palace walls are
pictures of acrobats vaulting over the backs of bulls. This sport may have given rise to the
myth. After the Greeks conquered the Minoans they absorbed such stories into their
mythology.

Mycenae and Other Achaean Cities

In 1876 Heinrich Schliemann began excavating Mycenae (see Schliemann). Still visible today
is the acropolis, with its broken stone walls and Lion Gate. Within the walls Schliemann
uncovered the graves of bodies covered with gold masks, breastplates, armbands, and girdles.
In the graves of the women were golden diadems, golden laurel leaves, and exquisite
ornaments shaped like animals, flowers, butterflies, and cuttlefish.

Schliemann thought he had found the burial place of Agamemnon and his followers. Later
study proved the bodies belonged to a period 400 years earlier than the Trojan War. Rulers of
another dynasty were buried outside the walls in strange beehive tombs.

Other great cities of the same period were Pylos, the legendary capital of King Nestor, and
Tiryns. It is not known to what extent Mycenae controlled other centers of the Achaean
civilization. It is known that Mycenaean trade extended to Sicily, Egypt, Palestine, Troy,
Cyprus, and Macedonia.

Scholars once believed that the Mycenaeans had no written language. The evidences of
culture in their massive walled cities, their fine goldwork, pottery, and vases were attributed
to the influence of the Minoans, who established settlements on the mainland in about 1600
BC.

In 1952 great light was thrown on the Mycenaean civilization by the deciphering of an ancient
writing on clay tablets, known as Linear Script B. Michael Ventris, a young English architect,
accomplished the task on which scholars had labored for 50 years. These tablets were among
some 2,000 uncovered at Knossos on Crete by Evans. With them were tablets in an older
writing, which Evans called Linear Script A, and some still older hieroglyphics. Linear
Scripts A and B are forms of writing in which symbols are used to represent syllables (see
writing). In 1939 about 600 more tablets 0n Linear Script B were found at Pylos, on the Greek
mainland, and in 1952 and 1953 some were discovered at Mycenae.

Ventris found that Linear Script B is an archaic Greek dialect. It is the oldest Indo-European
system of writing yet discovered (see language, Related Languages). The language is at a
stage 700 years older than the earliest classical Greek. The tablets appeared at Knossos
because the Mycenaeans had earlier conquered the Minoans.

The tablets are only inventories of palace storerooms and arsenals; however, they reveal a
great deal about the Mycenaeans. They engaged in agriculture, industry, commerce, and war.
A king headed the society. Under him was a leader of the people, perhaps an army
commander. There were landowners, tenant farmers, servants and slaves, priests and
priestesses. There were many trades and professions. The Mycenaeans worshiped Zeus, Hera,
Poseidon, Ares, Artemis, and Athena and the other gods of Mount Olympus (see mythology,
Greek Mythology).

The language of Linear Script A has not yet been deciphered. It was in use on Crete from
about 1700 BC to 1600 BC as a replacement for an earlier hieroglyphic writing system
possibly adopted from the Egyptians (see hieroglyphics).

In about 1100 BC Greece was overrun by an invasion of barbaric tribes from the north. The
Dorians and, later, the Ionians occupied the areas where the Minoan-Mycenaean cultures had
flourished. Greece was not to be so rich and powerful again until the golden age of Athens
under Pericles in the 5th century BC. (See also Greece, ancient; Pericles.)

Ancient Greece

The glory that was Greece, in the words of Edgar Allan Poe, was short-lived and confined
to a very small geographic area. Yet it has influenced the growth of Western civilization far
out of proportion to its size and duration. The Greece that Poe praised was primarily Athens
during its golden age in the 5th century BC. Strictly speaking, the state was Attica; Athens
was its heart. The English poet John Milton called Athens the eye of Greece, mother of arts
and eloquence. Athens was the city-state in which the arts, philosophy, and democracy
flourished. At least it was the city that attracted those who wanted to work, speak, and think in
an environment of freedom. In the rarefied atmosphere of Athens were born ideas about
human nature and political society that are fundamental to the Western world today.

Athens was not all of Greece, however. Sparta, Corinth, Thebes, and Thessalonica were but a
few of the many other city-states that existed on the rocky and mountainous peninsula at the
southern end of the Balkans. Each city-state was an independent political unit, and each vied
with the others for power and wealth. These city-states planted Greek colonies in Asia Minor,
on many islands in the Aegean Sea, and in southern Italy and Sicily.

The Beginnings of Ancient Greece

The story of ancient Greece began between 1900 and 1600 BC. At that time the Greeksor
Hellenes, as they called themselveswere simple nomadic herdsmen. Their language shows
that they were a branch of the Indo-Europeanspeaking peoples. They came from the
grasslands east of the Caspian Sea, driving their flocks and herds before them. They entered
the peninsula from the north, one small group after another.

The first invaders were the fair-haired Achaeans of whom Homer wrote. The Dorians came
perhaps three or four centuries later and subjugated their Achaean kinsmen. Other tribes, the
Aeolians and the Ionians, found homes chiefly on the islands in the Aegean Sea and on the
coast of Asia Minor.
The land that these tribes invadedthe Aegean Basinwas the site of a well-developed
civilization. The people who lived there had cities and palaces. They used gold and bronze
and made pottery and paintings.

The Greek invaders were still in the barbarian stage. They plundered and destroyed the
Aegean cities. Gradually, as they settled and intermarried with the people they conquered,
they absorbed some of the Aegean culture.

Life of the Early Wanderers

Little is known of the earliest stages of Greek settlement. The invaders probably moved
southward from their pasturelands along the Danube, bringing their families and primitive
goods in rough oxcarts. Along the way they grazed their herds. In the spring they stopped
long enough to plant and harvest a single crop. Gradually they settled down to form
communities ruled by kings and elders.

The background of the two great Greek epicsthe Iliad and the Odysseyis the background
of the Age of Kings (see Homeric legend). These epics depict the simple, warlike life of the
early Greeks. The Achaeans had excellent weapons and sang stirring songs. Such luxuries as
they possessed, howevergorgeous robes, jewelry, elaborate metalworkthey bought from
the Phoenician traders.

The Greek City-States and Their Colonies

The Iliad tells how Greeks from many city-statesamong them, Sparta, Athens, Thebes, and
Argosjoined forces to fight their common foe Troy in Asia Minor (see Trojan War). In
historical times the Greek city-states were again able to combine when the power of Persia
threatened them. However, ancient Greece never became a nation. The only patriotism the
ancient Greek knew was loyalty to his city. This seems particularly strange today, as the cities
were very small. Athens was probably the only Greek city-state with more than 20,000
citizens.

Just as Europe, unlike North America, is divided into many small nations rather than a few
large political units, so ancient Greece was divided into many small city-states. Sometimes the
Greek city-states were separated by mountain ranges. Often, however, a single plain contained
several city-states, each surrounding its acropolis, or citadel. These flattopped, inaccessible
rocks or mounds are characteristic of Greece and were first used as places of refuge. From the
Corinthian isthmus rose the lofty acrocorinthus, from Attica the Acropolis of Athens, from the
plain of Argolis the mound of Tiryns, and, loftier still, the Larissa of Argos. On these rocks
the Greek cities built their temples and their king's palace, and their houses clustered about the
base. Only in a few cases did a city-state push its holdings beyond very narrow limits. Athens
held the whole plain of Attica, and most of the Attic villagers were Athenian citizens. Argos
conquered the plain of Argolis. Sparta made a conquest of Laconia and part of the fertile plain
of Messenia. The conquered people were subjects, not citizens. Thebes attempted to be the
ruling city of Boeotia but never quite succeeded.
Similar city-states were found all over the Greek world, which had early flung its outposts
throughout the Aegean Basin and even beyond. There were Greeks in all the islands of the
Aegean. Among these islands was Thasos, famous for its gold mines. Samothrace, Imbros,
and Lemnos were long occupied by Athenian colonists. Other Aegean islands colonized by
Greeks included Lesbos, the home of the poet Sappho; Scyros, the island of Achilles; and
Chios, Samos, and Rhodes. Also settled by Greeks were the nearer-lying Cycladesso called
(from the Greek word for circle) because they encircled the sacred island of Delosand the
southern island of Crete.

The western shores of Asia Minor were fringed with Greek colonies, reaching out past the
Propontis (Sea of Marmara) and the Bosporus to the northern and southern shores of the
Euxine, or Black, Sea. In Africa there were, among others, the colony of Cyrene, now the site
of a town in Libya, and the trading post of Naucratis in Egypt. Sicily too was colonized by the
Greeks, and there and in southern Italy so many colonies were planted that this region came to
be known as Magna Graecia (Great Greece). Pressing farther still, the Greeks founded the city
of Massilia, now Marseilles, France.

Separated by barriers of sea and mountain, by local pride and jealousy, the various
independent city-states never conceived the idea of uniting the Greek-speaking world into a
single political unit. They formed alliances only when some powerful city-state embarked on
a career of conquest and attempted to make itself mistress of the rest. Many influences made
for unitya common language, a common religion, a common literature, similar customs, the
religious leagues and festivals, the Olympic Gamesbut even in time of foreign invasion it
was difficult to induce the cities to act together.

Various Types of Government

The government of many city-states, notably Athens, passed through four stages from the
time of Homer to historical times. During the 8th and 7th centuries BC the kings disappeared.
Monarchy gave way to oligarchythat is, rule by a few. The oligarchic successors of the
kings were the wealthy landowning nobles, the eupatridae, or wellborn. However, the
rivalry among these nobles and the discontent of the oppressed masses was so great that soon
a third stage appeared.

The third type of government was known as tyranny. Some eupatrid would seize absolute
power, usually by promising the people to right the wrongs inflicted upon them by the other
landholding eupatridae. He was known as a tyrant. Among the Greeks this was not a term
of reproach but merely meant one who had seized kingly power without the qualification of
royal descent. The tyrants of the 7th century were a stepping-stone to democracy, or the rule
of the people, which was established nearly everywhere in the 6th and 5th centuries. It was
the tyrants who taught the people their rights and power.

By the beginning of the 5th century BC, Athens had gone through these stages and emerged
as the first democracy in the history of the world. Between two and three centuries before this,
the Athenian kings had made way for officials called archons, elected by the nobles. Thus
an aristocratic form of government was established.

About 621 BC an important step in the direction of democracy was taken, when the first
written laws in Greece were compiled from the existing traditional laws. This reform was
forced by the peasants to relieve them from the oppression of the nobles. The new code was
so severe that the adjective draconic, derived from the name of its compiler, Draco, is still a
synonym for harsh. Unfortunately, Draco's code did not give the peasants sufficient relief.
A revolution was averted only by the wise reforms of Solon, about a generation later. Solon's
reforms only delayed the overthrow of the aristocracy, and about 561 BC Pisistratus,
supported by the discontented populace, made himself tyrant. With two interruptions,
Pisistratus ruled for more than 30 years, fostering commerce, agriculture, and the arts and
laying the foundation for much of Athens' future greatness. His sons Hippias and Hipparchus
attempted to continue their father's power. One of them was slain by two youths, Harmodius
and Aristogiton, who lived on in Greek tradition as themes for sculptors and poets. By the
reforms of Clisthenes, about 509 BC, the rule of the people was firmly established.

Very different was the course of events in Sparta, which by this time had established itself as
the most powerful military state in Greece. Under the strict laws of Lycurgus it had
maintained its primitive monarchical form of government with little change. Nearly the whole
of the Peloponnesus had been brought under its iron heel, and it was now jealously eyeing the
rising power of its democratic rival in central Greece.

During this period the intellectual and artistic culture of the Greeks centered among the
Ionions of Asia Minor. Thales, called the first Greek philosopher, was a citizen of Miletus.
He became famous for predicting an eclipse of the sun in 585 BC.

Suddenly there loomed in the east a power that threatened to sweep away the whole promising
structure of the new European civilization. Persia, the great Asian empire of the day, had been
awakened to the existence of the free peoples of Greece by the aid which the Athenians had
sent to their oppressed kinsmen in Asia Minor. The Persian empire mobilized its gigantic
resources in an effort to conquer the Greek city-states. The scanty forces of the Greeks
succeeded in driving out the invaders (see Persian Wars).

Athens' Rise to Power

From this momentous conflict Athens emerged a blackened ruin yet the richest and most
powerful state in Greece. It owed this position chiefly to the shrewd policies of the statesman
Themistocles, who had seen that naval strength, not land strength, would in the future be the
key to power. Whoso can hold the sea has command of the situation, he said. He persuaded
his fellow Athenians to build a strong fleetlarger than the combined fleets of all the rest of
Greeceand to fortify the harbor at Piraeus.

The Athenian fleet became the instrument by which the Persians were finally defeated, at the
battle of Salamis in 480 BC. The fleet also enabled Athens to dominate the Aegean area.
Within three years after Salamis, Athens had united the Greek cities of the Asian coast and of
the Aegean islands into a confederacy (called the Delian League because the treasury was at
first on the island of Delos) for defense against Persia. In another generation this confederacy
became an Athenian empire.

Almost at a stride Athens was transformed from a provincial city into an imperial capital.
Wealth beyond the dreams of any other Greek state flowed into its cofferstribute from
subject and allied states, customs duties on the flood of commerce that poured through
Piraeus, and revenues from the Attic silver mines. The population increased fourfold or more,
as foreigners streamed in to share in the prosperity. The learning that had been the creation of
a few wise men throughout the Greek world now became fashionable. Painters and
sculptors vied in beautifying Athens with the works of their genius. Even today, battered and
defaced by time and man, these art treasures remain among the greatest surviving
achievements of human skill. The period in which Athens flourished, one of the most
remarkable and brilliant in the world's history, reached its culmination in the age of Pericles,
460430 BC. Under the stimulus of wealth and power, with abundant leisure and free
institutions, the citizen body of Athens attained a higher average of intellectual interests than
any other society before or since.

Slavery in Ancient Greece

It must be remembered, however, that a very large part of the population was not free, that the
Athenian state rested on a foundation of slavery. Two fifths (some authorities say four fifths)
of the population were slaves. Slave labor produced much of the wealth that gave the citizens
of Athens time and money to pursue art and learning and to serve the state.

Slavery in Greece was a peculiar institution. When a city was conquered, its inhabitants were
often sold as slaves. Kidnapping boys and men in barbarian, or non-Greek, lands and even
in other Greek states was another steady source of supply. If a slave was well educated or
could be trained to a craft, he was in great demand.

An Athenian slave often had a chance to obtain his freedom, for quite frequently he was paid
for his work, and this gave him a chance to save money. After he had bought his freedom or
had been set free by a grateful master, he became a metica resident alien. Many of the
slaves, however, had a miserable lot. They were sent in gangs to the silver mines at Laurium,
working in narrow underground corridors by the dim light of little lamps.

Daily Life in the Age of Pericles

Although slavery freed the Athenians from drudgery, they led simple lives. They ate two
meals a day, usually consisting of bread, vegetable broth, fruit, and wine. Olives, olive oil,
and honey were common foods. Cheese was often eaten in place of meat. Fish was a delicacy.
The two-story houses of the Athenians were made of sun-dried brick and stood on narrow,
winding streets. Even in the cold months the houses were heated only with a brazier, or dish,
of burning charcoal. The houses had no chimneys, only a hole in the roof to let out the smoke
from the stove in the tiny kitchen. There were no windows on the first floor, but in the center
of the house was a broad, open court, such as is found in Spanish and Chinese homes today.
Clustered about the court were the men's apartment, the women's apartment, and tiny
bedrooms. There was no plumbing. Refuse was thrown in the streets.

The real life of the city went on outdoors. The men spent their time talking politics and
philosophy in the agora, or marketplace. They exercised in the athletic fields, performed
military duty, and took part in state festivals. Some sat in the Assembly or the Council of 500
or served on juries. There were 6,000 jurors on call at all times in Athens, for the allied cities
were forced to bring cases to Athens for trial. Daily salaries were paid for jury service and
service on the Council. These made up a considerable part of the income of the poorer
citizens.

The women stayed at home, spinning and weaving and doing household chores. They never
acted as hostesses when their husbands had parties and were seen in public only at the
theaterwhere they might attend tragedy but not comedyand at certain religious festivals.

The Peloponnesian War (431404 BC)

The growth of Athenian power aroused the jealousy of Sparta and other independent Greek
states and the discontent of Athens' subject states. The result was a war that put an end to the
power of Athens. The long struggle, called the Peloponnesian War, began in 431 BC. It was a
contest between a great sea power, Athens and its empire, and a great land power, Sparta and
the Peloponnesian League.

The plan of Pericles in the beginning was not to fight at all, but to let Corinth and Sparta
spend their money and energies while Athens conserved both. He had all the inhabitants of
Attica come inside the walls of Athens and let their enemies ravage the plain year after year,
while Athens, without losses, harried their lands by sea. However, the bubonic plague broke
out in besieged and overcrowded Athens. It killed one fourth of the population, including
Pericles, and left the rest without spirit and without a leader. The first phase of the
Peloponnesian War ended with the outcome undecided.

Almost before they knew it, the Athenians were whirled by the unscrupulous demagogue
Alcibiades, a nephew of Pericles, into the second phase of the war (414404 BC). Wishing for
a brilliant military career, Alcibiades persuaded Athens to undertake a large-scale expedition
against Syracuse, a Corinthian colony in Sicily. The Athenian armada was destroyed in 413
BC, and the captives were sold into slavery.

This disaster sealed the fate of Athens. The allied Aegean cities that had remained faithful
now deserted to Sparta, and the Spartan armies laid Athens under siege. In 405 BC the whole
remaining Athenian fleet of 180 triremes was captured in the Hellespont at the battle of
Aegospotami. Besieged by land and powerless by sea, Athens could neither raise grain nor
import it, and in 404 BC its empire came to an end. The fortifications and long walls
connecting Athens with Piraeus were destroyed, and Athens became a vassal of triumphant
Sparta.

The End of the Greek City-States

Sparta tried to maintain its supremacy by keeping garrisons in many of the Greek cities. This
custom, together with Sparta's hatred of democracy, made its domination unpopular. At the
battle of Leuctra, in 371 BC, the Thebans under their gifted commander Epaminondas put an
end to the power of Sparta. Theban leadership was short-lived, however, for it depended on
the skill of Epaminondas. When he was killed in the battle of Mantinea, in 362 BC, Thebes
had really suffered a defeat in spite of its apparent victory. The age of the powerful city-states
was at an end, and a prostrated Greece had become easy prey for a would-be conqueror.

Such a conqueror was found in the young and strong country of Macedon, which lay just to
the north of classical Greece. Its King Philip, who came into power in 360 BC, had had a
Greek education. Seeing the weakness of the disunited cities, he made up his mind to take
possession of the Greek world. Demosthenes saw the danger that threatened and by a series of
fiery speeches against Philip sought to unite the Greeks as they had once been united against
Persia.

The military might of Philip proved too strong for the disunited city-states, and at the battle of
Chaeronea (338 BC) he established his leadership over Greece. Before he could carry his
conquests to Asia Minor, however, he was killed and his power fell to his son Alexander, then
not quite 20 years old. Alexander firmly entrenched his rule throughout Greece and then
overthrew the vast power of Persia, building up an empire that embraced nearly the entire
known world.

The Hellenistic Age and Roman Conquest

The three centuries that followed the death of Alexander are known as the Hellenistic Age, for
their products were no longer pure Greek, but Greek plus the characteristics of the conquered
nations. The age was a time of great wealth and splendor. Art, science, and letters flourished
and developed. The private citizen no longer lived crudely, but in a beautiful and comfortable
house, and many cities adorned themselves with fine public buildings and sculptures.

The Hellenistic Age came to an end with another conquestthat of Rome. On the field of
Cynoscephalae (dogs' heads), in Thessaly, the Romans defeated Macedonia in 197 BC and
gave the Greek cities their freedom as allies. The Greeks caused Rome a great deal of trouble,
and in 146 BC Corinth was burned. The Greeks became vassals of Rome. Athens alone was
revered and given some freedom. To its schools went many Romans, Cicero among them.
When the seat of the Roman Empire was transferred to the east, Constantinople became the
center of culture and learning and Athens sank to the position of an unimportant country town
(see Byzantine Empire). In the 4th century AD Greece was devastated by the Visigoths under
Alaric; in the 6th century it was overrun by the Slavs; and in the 10th century it was raided by
the Bulgars. In 1453 the Turks seized Constantinople, and within a few years practically all
Greece was in their hands. Only in the 19th century, after a protracted struggle against their
foreign rulers, did the Greeks finally regain their independence (see Greece).

The Heritage of the Ancient Greeks

The glorious culture of the Greeks had its beginnings before the rise of the city-states to
wealth and power and survived long after the Greeks had lost their independence. The men of
genius who left their stamp on the golden age of Greece seemed to live a life apart from the
tumultuous politics and wars of their era. They sprang up everywhere, in scattered colonies as
well as on the Greek peninsula. When the great creative age had passed its peak, Greek artists
and philosophers were sought as teachers in other lands, where they spread the wisdom of
their masters.

What were these ideas for which the world reached out so eagerly? First was the
determination to be guided by reason, to follow the truth wherever it led. In their sculpture
and architecture, in their literature and philosophy, the Greeks were above all else reasonable.
Nothing to excess (meden agan) was their central doctrine, a doctrine that the Roman poet
Horace later interpreted as the golden mean.

The art of the Greeks was singularly free from exaggeration. Virtue was for them a path
between two extremesonly by temperance, they believed, could mankind attain happiness.
Since this belief included maintaining a balanced life of the mind and body, they provided
time for play as well as work (see Olympic Games).

From Homer to Aristotle

This many-sided culture seemed to spring into being almost full-grown. Before the rise of the
Greek city-states, Babylon had made contributions to astronomy, and the rudiments of
geometry and medicine had been developed in Egypt. The genius of the Greeks, however,
owed little to these ancient civilizations. Greek culture had its beginnings in the settlements
on the coast of Asia Minor. Here Homer sang of a joyous, conquering people and of their
gods, who, far from being aloof and forbidding, were always ready to come down from
Mount Olympus to play a part in the absorbing life of the people. Philosophy was also born in
Asia Minor, where in the 6th and 5th centuries BC such men as Thales, Heraclitus, and
Democritus speculated on the makeup of the world. Thales also contributed to the science of
geometry, which was further advanced by the teacher and mathematician Pythagoras in the
distant colony of Croton in southern Italy.
In the 5th century BC, with the rise of Athens as a wealthy democratic state, the center of
Greek culture passed to the peninsula. Here the Greeks reached the peak of their extraordinary
creative energy. This was the great period of Greek literature, architecture, and sculpture, a
period that reached its culmination in the age of Pericles. Philosophers now turned their
thoughts from the study of matter to the study of humankind.

Toward the end of the century Socrates ushered in what is considered to be the most brilliant
period of Greek philosophy, passing on his wisdom to his pupil Plato. Plato in turn handed it
on to the master of those who know, the great Aristotle.

The Progress of Science in the Hellenistic Age

Alexander died in 323 BC. The spread of Greek learning that resulted from his conquests,
however, laid the foundation for much of the cultural progress of the Hellenistic Age.
Alexandria, the city founded by Alexander at the mouth of the Nile, became the intellectual
capital of the world and a center of Greek scholarship. Its famous library, founded by Ptolemy
I, was said to have contained 700,000 rolls of papyrus manuscripts.

In literature and art the Hellenistic Age was imitative, looking to the masterpieces of earlier
days for inspiration. In science, however, much brilliant and original work was done.
Archimedes put mechanics on a sound footing, and Euclid established geometry as a science.
Eratosthenes made maps and calculated Earth's circumference.

Aristarchus put forward the hypothesis that Earth revolves around the sun. Ptolemy, or
Claudius Ptolemaeus, believed all the heavenly bodies circled Earth, and his views prevailed
throughout the Middle Ages.

How Greek Culture Survived

The Hellenistic Age ended with the establishment of the Roman Empire in 31 BC. The
Romans borrowed from the art and science of the Greeks and drew upon their philosophy of
Stoicism. As Christianity grew and spread, it was profoundly influenced by Greek thought.
Throughout the period of the barbarian invasions, Greek learning was preserved by Christians
in Constantinople and by Muslims in Cairo. Its light shone again in the Middle Ages with the
founding of the great universities in Italy, France, and England. During the Renaissance it
provided an impetus for the rebirth of art and literature. Modern science rests on the Greek
idea of humankind's capacity to solve problems by rational methods. In almost every phase of
life the quickening impulse of Greek thought can be seen among the peoples who inherited
this priceless legacy. (See also ancient civilization.)

Egypt, ancient

Introduction
No other countrynot even China or Indiahas such a long unbroken history as Egypt.
Nearly 3,000 years before the birth of Jesus, the Egyptians had reached a high stage of
civilization. They lived under an orderly government; they carried on commerce in ships; they
built great stone structures; and, most important of all, they had acquired the art of writing.

Because they lived so long ago, the Egyptian people had to find out for themselves how to do
many things that are easily done today. They adopted some inventions of the Sumerians but
made more extensive use of them. In the Nile Valley the early development of the arts and
crafts that formed the foundation of Western civilization can be traced. (See also Babylonia
and Assyria.)

The traveler along the Nile sees many majestic monuments that reveal the achievements of
ancient Egypt. Most of these monuments are tombs and temples. The ancient Egyptians were
very religious. They believed in a life after deathat first only for kings and noblesif the
body could be preserved. So they carefully embalmed the body and walled it up in a massive
tomb (see mummy). On the walls of the tomb they carved pictures and inscriptions. Some
private tombs were decorated with paintings. They put into the tomb the person's statue and
any objects they thought would be needed when the soul returned to the body. The hot sand
and dry air of Egypt preserved many of these objects through the centuries. Thousands of
them are now in museums all over the world. Together with written documents, they show
how people lived in ancient Egypt.

The desert sands have also preserved the remains of prehistoric people. By their sides, in the
burial pits, lie stone tools and weapons, carved figures, and decorated pottery. These artifacts
help archaeologists and historians piece together the story of life in the Nile Valley centuries
before the beginning of the historical period. (See also archaeology.)

PREHISTORIC ERA

Ages ago the land of Egypt was very different from what it is today. There was rain. There
was no delta, and the sea extended far up the Nile Valley. The plateau on each side of the
water was grassland. The people wandered over the plateau in search of game and fresh
pastures and had no permanent home. They hunted with a crude stone hand ax and with a bow
and arrow. Their arrows were made of chipped flint. (See also Egypt.)

Very gradually the rains decreased and the grasslands dried up. The Nile began to deposit silt
in the valley and to build up the delta. The animals went down to the valley. The hunters
followed them and settled at the edge of the jungle that lined the river.

In the Nile Valley the people's way of life underwent a great change. They settled down in
more or less permanent homes and progressed from food gathering to food producing. They
still hunted the elephant and hippopotamus and wild fowl, and they fished in the river. More
and more, however, they relied for meat on the animals they bredlong-horned cattle, sheep,
goats, and geese.
The early Egyptians learned that the vegetables and wild grain they gathered grew from seeds.
When the Nile floodwater drained away, they dug up the ground with a wooden hoe, scattered
seeds over the wet soil, and waited for the harvest. They cut the grain with a sharp-toothed
flint sickle set in a straight wooden holder and then ground it between two flat millstones. The
people raised emmer (wheat), barley, a few vegetables, and flax. From the grain they made
bread and beer, and they spun and wove the flax for linen garments.

The first houses were round or oval, built over a hole in the ground. The walls were lumps of
mud, and the roofs were matting. Later houses were rectangular, made of shaped bricks, with
wooden frames for doors and windowsmuch like the houses the Egyptian farmers live in
today. To work the lumber, the people used ground stone axheads and flint saws. Beautiful
clay pottery was created, without the wheel, to hold food and drink. They fashioned
ornaments of ivory, made beads and baskets, and carved in stone the figures of people and
animals. They built ships that had oars, and they carried on trade with nearby countries.
Instead of names, the ships had simple signs, probably indicating the home port. These signs
were an early step in the invention of writing.

Good farmland was scarce. The desert came down close to the marshes that edged the river.
To gain more land, the people rooted out the jungle, filled in marshes, and built mud walls to
keep out floodwater. In time they engaged in large-scale irrigation work, digging canals that
cut across miles of land. This required the cooperation of many people living in different
places. Leaders became necessary to plan the work and direct the workers. Because of this
need, orderly government arose.

Population and wealth grew with the increase in farmland. There was food enough to support
a professional class, who worked at crafts instead of farming. Villages grew into towns. Large
towns spread their rule over nearby villages and became states.

At the end of the prehistoric period, there were only two political unitsLower Egypt (the
delta) and Upper Egypt (the valley). Later, when Egypt was united, the people still called it
the Two Lands, and the king of all Egypt wore a double crown combining the white crown of
the south with the red crown of the north.

Before the prehistoric period ended, the Egyptians were stimulated by their contact with
people who lived in a Mesopotamian river valley in Asia. These people were more advanced
than the Egyptians in working metal, and they also had writing. Although this was probably
the inspiration for Egyptian writing, the Egyptians did not take over the Mesopotamian script
but developed a script of their own. This great invention brought Egypt abruptly to the
threshold of history, for history begins with written records. (See also Mesopotamia.)

DYNASTIES OF EGYPT

The beginnings of writing in Egypt go back to about 3100 BC, when the Two Lands became
united in a single kingdom. According to tradition, it was Menes, a king of Upper Egypt, who
brought about the union. He stands first in the long line of kings who ruled Egypt for about
3,000 years. Egyptian priests made lists of their kings, or pharaohs, and noted the most
important events of their reigns. About 280 BC one of these priests, Manetho, grouped the
pharaohs into 30 dynasties. (A dynasty is a succession of rulers of the same line of descent.)

Modern historians group the dynasties into periods. The periods when Egyptian civilization
flourished are the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, and the New Kingdom. These are
separated by periods of decline called the First Intermediate Period and the Second
Intermediate Period. The final period of decline is called the Late Period.

The Old Kingdom

Little is known of Menes' successors until the reign of King Zoser, or Djoser, at the end of the
3rd dynasty. Zoser's capital was located at Memphis, on the Nile's west bank near the point
where the Two Lands met. Imhotep, a master builder, erected Zoser's tomb, the step pyramid
of Saqqara, on high ground overlooking the city. This monumentthe first great building in
the country made entirely of stonemarked the beginning of Egypt's most creative period,
the Pyramid Age.

Later kings built their tombs in true pyramidal form. Each pyramid guarded the body of one
king, housed in a chamber deep within the pile. The climax of pyramid building was reached
in the three gigantic tombs erected for Kings Khufu (Cheops), Khafre, and Menkure at Giza
(Gizeh). Near them in the sand lies the Great Sphinx, a stone lion with the head of King
Khafre. (See also pyramids; sphinx.)

The Old Kingdom lasted about 500 years. It was an active, optimistic age, an age of peace and
splendor. Art reached a brilliant flowering. Sculpture achieved a grandeur never later attained.
The pharaoh kept a splendid court. The people worshiped him as a god on Earth, for they
believed him to be the son of Ra, or Re, the great sun-god. They called him pr-o (in the
Bible, pharaoh), meaning great house.

About 2200 BC the Old Kingdom came to an end. Nobles became independent and ruled as if
they were kings. The country was split up into small warring states. Irrigation systems fell
into disrepair. According to writers of the time: The desert is spread throughout the land. The
robbers are now in the possession of riches. Men sit in the bushes until the benighted traveler
comes to...steal what is upon him. Thieves broke into the pyramids and robbed them of
their treasures. The archaeologists of today can only imagine the splendid treasures they
might have unearthed had thieves not stolen them first.

The Middle Kingdom

The Middle Kingdom period began about 2050 BC. After a long struggle, the rulers of Thebes
won out over their enemies and once again united Egypt into a single state. Thebes was then a
little town on the Nile in Upper Egypt. In the New Kingdom it became one of the ancient
world's greatest capitals.

The pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom constructed enormous irrigation works in the Faiym.
Noting the annual heights of the Nile flood at Aswn, they laid plans to use the Nile water
wisely. They sent trading ships up the Nile to Nubia and across the sea to Mediterranean
lands. They got gold from Nubia and copper from the mines in Sinai. Construction of the
most colossal temple of all time, the Temple of Amen (Amon) at El Karnak, was begun.

After two centuries of peace and prosperity, Egypt entered another dark age. About 1800 BC
it fell for the first time to foreign invaders. Down from the north came the Hyksos, a barbarian
people who used horses and chariots in combat and also had superior bows. The Egyptians,
fighting on foot, were no match for them. The Hyksos occupied Lower Egypt, living in
fortified camps behind great earthen walls; but they failed to conquer Upper Egypt. When the
Egyptians had learned the new methods of warfare, the ruler Kamose began a successful war
of liberation.

The New Kingdom

A new era dawned for Egypt after the Hyksos had been expelled. This period, the New
Kingdom, was the age of empire. The once-peaceful Egyptians, having learned new
techniques of warfare, embarked on foreign conquest on a large scale. The empire reached its
peak under Thutmose III, one of the first great generals in history. He fought many campaigns
in Asia and extended Egypt's rule to the Euphrates.

Slaves and tribute poured into Egypt from the conquered nations. The tribute was paid in
goods, for the ancient world still did not have money. Wall paintings show people from
Nubia, Babylonia, Syria, and Palestine bearing presents on their backs and bowing humbly
before the pharaoh.

The Egyptian rulers used their new wealth and slaves to repair the old temples and build new
ones. Hatshepsut, Egypt's first great female leader, enlarged the great Temple of Amen at El
Karnak. She also built her own beautiful temple at Deir el Bahri.

Amenhotep III built the wonderful temple at Luxor and put up the famous pair of colossal
seated statues called the Colossi of Memnon. In the Middle Kingdom period, the pharaohs of
Thebes had built modest brick pyramids for their tombs. In the New Kingdom period they
broke with this tradition and began to hew tombs deep in the cliffs of an isolated valley west
of Thebes. About 40 kings were buried in this Valley of the Tombs of the Kings.

In the last years of his reign Amenhotep III paid little attention to the empire. It was already
decaying when his son Amenhotep IV came to the throne. This king was more interested in
religion than in warfare. Even before his father's death, he began to promote a new religious
doctrine. He wanted the people to give up all their old gods and worship only the radiant sun,
which was then called Aten. He changed his name from Amenhotep (Amen is satisfied) to
Ikhnaton (Akhenaton) (It is well with Aten). He left Thebes and built a splendid new capital
sacred to Aten at El Amarna in middle Egypt. Throughout the land he had the word gods
and the name Amen removed from tombs and monuments.

Ikhnaton's idea of a single god gained no hold on the Egyptian people. His successor,
Tutankhamen, moved the capital back to Thebes and restored the name of Amen on
monuments. Tutankhamen is famous chiefly for his lavishly furnished tomb, discovered in
1922. Its treasures reveal the luxury of the most magnificent period of Egyptian history.

Half a century later Ramses II completed the gigantic hall at El Karnak and set up many
statues of himself. He also had his name carved on monuments built by earlier rulers, so that
he became better known than any other king. He regained part of Egypt's Asian empire. But
the kings who followed him had to use the army to defend Egypt against invaders.

The Late Period

In the Late Period, the final decline of Egypt's power set in. The treasury had been drained by
extensive building projects and by the army. Hungry workers had to resort to strikes to get
their wages in grain. The central government weakened, and the country split up once more
into small states.

About 730 BC, Ethiopian invaders entered Egypt and established a strong, new dynasty.
However, they were unable to withstand an invasion from the north by the Assyrians. When
Assyria's power waned, a new Egyptian dynasty reorganized the country. Persia conquered
Egypt in 525 BC and held it until 404 BC. Three brief Egyptian dynasties followed, ending
with the 30th, which fell to a second Persian conquest in 341 BC.

Postdynastic Periods

Persian rule lasted until Alexander the Great invaded Egypt in 332 BC. After Alexander's
death, Ptolemy, one of his generals, seized the throne. The Ptolemys introduced Greek
manners and ideas into Egypt. The city of Alexandria became the center of Greek civilization
in the Near East (see Alexandria).

The rule of Egypt by the Ptolemaic line ended with the beautiful Queen Cleopatra, who
reigned first with her brother Ptolemy XIII, then with her brother Ptolemy XIV, and finally
with Caesarion, her son by Julius Caesar (see Cleopatra). In 30 BC Egypt was proclaimed a
province of Rome.

After the Roman Empire was divided in half in the 4th century AD, Egypt was ruled from
Constantinople by the Byzantine emperors (see Byzantine Empire). During this period most
Egyptians were converted to Christianity. In the 7th century, Egypt fell to the Arabs. (For
later Egyptian history, see Egypt.)
EVERYDAY LIFE IN ANCIENT EGYPT

People today live in an age when every year brings forth new inventions and discoveries, new
fads and fashions that affect everyday life. Through communications, migration, and travel,
foreign cultures merge into new life-styles.

The Egyptians had their greatest creative period at the very beginning of their long history.
After that, their way of living changed very little through the years. It is therefore possible to
describe their homelife and their art without reference to the historical periods of Egyptian
history.

Upper-Class Homelife and Dress

Egypt was protected by the sea on the north and by deserts to the east and west. For many
centuries the Egyptians could develop their own way of life without fear of invasion by
foreign armies. Their interests were centered in their homes and families and in their work.
Their stone tombs were a kind of insurance against death. They loved life and wanted it to go
on forever.

Villages and towns were situated near the Nile because it was the chief highway as well as the
only source of water. Even the rich lived in houses of mud brick. The walls were richly
colored. Windows were small, high openings covered with loosely woven matting to keep out
the heat and glare of the sun. The most fashionable district was near the king's palace. Even
here, houses were crowded close together to leave more space for farmland. Some dwellings
were two stories high. Usually houses were built back to back to save space. Some opened
onto a narrow street; others faced a small walled garden.

The walls were decorated with bright frescoes. Straw matting and rugs covered the floors.
Lamps were saucers of oil with a floating wick. Rich people had beds, chairs, and stools but
no real dining tables (see furniture, Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome). They kept their
clothes and linen sheets in box chests or in baskets. The linen was sent to professional
laundrymen to be washed in the river.

The ancient Egyptians stored their water and food in huge pottery jars. To prepare foods, the
cook used pottery bowls, placing them directly on the fire or in a clay oven. She baked bread
and cake and roasted beef, mutton, goose, or wildfowl. The common drinks were beer, wine,
and milk. Honey and dates were the only sweets. Almost everything the family needed was
grown or made by workers belonging to the estate on which the family lived.

The members of Egypt's upper classes spent much of their time tending to their appearance.
They bathed with soda instead of soap and then rubbed perfumed oil into the skin. Men
shaved with a bronze razor. They cut their hair short and wore wigs. Women also wore wigs
or added false braids to their own hair. They had combs and hairpins and mirrors of polished
bronze or silver.
Both men and women darkened their eyelids with black or green paint. Women rouged their
cheeks and lips and stained their nails with henna. The women usually kept their cosmetics in
beautiful box chests. (See also cosmetics.)

Because of the hot climate, both men and women wore white linen clothes. Men usually wore
only a skirt. In the early centuries the skirts were short and narrow; later they were long and
full. Women wore low-cut white dresses with bands over the shoulders. Young children wore
nothing at all. Both men and women wore jewelrycollars and necklaces, strings of beads,
bracelets, anklets, earrings, and finger rings. Silver was more precious than gold.

Peasants and Craftsmen

The luxurious life of the pharaoh and the nobles was made possible by the continual labor of
the peasants who tilled the soil. After the crops were harvested, the pharaoh could call on
them to leave their village huts and go off to labor on irrigation works, to quarry stone with
primitive tools, or to build tombs and temples. Their only pay was grain from the state
granaries, oil, fish, vegetables, and clothing.

The craftsmen and artists had an easier life. They worked in shops close to the palace of the
pharaoh or on the estates of priests and nobles. Their professions were hereditary, passed
down from father to son. An artist was never hurried. If he could produce a masterpiece, it did
not matter whether he worked on it for one year or ten.

The highly-skilled smiths forged bronze tools and weapons and made fine copper and bronze
dishes for the homes of the rich Egyptians. Goldsmiths and silversmiths also made tableware
as well as richly wrought jewelry set with turquoise, carnelian, lapis lazuli, and other
semiprecious stones and gems. Craftsmen in stone ground out vases, jars, bowls, and platters
in hard diorite and porphyry or in soft, cream-colored alabaster, which could be ground so
thin it let the light shine through.

Potters turned clay vessels on a potter's wheel and then baked them in closed clay furnaces as
tall as a man. They covered some of the pottery with a blue glaze. Women wove sheer fabrics
of linen for clothing and for tapestries and awnings to decorate the houses of the rich.

Egypt then as now had little timber. Cedar and cypress were imported from Lebanon and
tropical woods from Nubia. Cabinetmakers fashioned chairs and couches. Other craftsmen
overlaid the furniture with precious metals or inlaid it with ebony or ivory. The leatherworker
contributed cushions. Shipbuilders made Nile vessels with curving hulls and tall sails and
cargo ships to sail to foreign lands (see ship and shipping). Paperworkers took the papyrus
reeds gathered from the Nile marshes, split them, and pasted them crosswise into double
sheets of pale yellow writing paper (see papyrus plant).

RELIGION AND CULTURE

In very early times each town had its own town-god as well as a number of lesser gods. There
were also gods that everybody worshiped. The most important of these were Ra, the sun-god;
Horus, the sky-god; and Osiris, the god of the dead.

When a town grew in influence, its town-god became more important too. People worshiped
him as part of their allegiance to the town. After Thebes became the capital, the worship of its
town-god, Amen, spread throughout Egypt. The people combined his worship with that of Ra,
and in this form called him Amen-Ra. Temples were raised to Amen throughout Egypt. The
most splendid was the temple at El Karnak, in Thebes.

The Story of Ra and Osiris

The people believed that every day Ra, the sun, sailed across the sky in his boat. Every night
he disappeared into the underworld, in the west. In the underworld, they thought, was another
Nile River. Osiris, the ruler of the underworld, had the sun's boat pulled along this river until
at last it crossed the horizon and the sun rose again.

Osiris had been murdered by his brother Set but lived again in the underworld as king of the
dead. The people looked to Osiris to give them, too, a life after death. Osiris was usually
shown in human form, tightly swathed in linen like a mummy and wearing a high crown. (See
also Isis and Osiris; mummy.)

Isis and Osiris

The most popular of the gods in ancient Egyptian mythology was Osiris, god of the sun,
agriculture, and health. His queen was Isis, who was also his wife and sister. She represented
the moon, as Osiris did the sun, and was believed to have taught Egyptians the arts of
agriculture and medicine. She was also credited with instituting marriage.

Osiris had an evil brother, Seth, god of the desert. Seth induced Osiris to get into a large chest,
which was then closed and thrown into the Nile River. Isis recovered her husband's body, but
Seth took it and cut it into pieces. Isis buried the pieces, and Osiris was thereafter regarded as
god of the dead. His son, Horus, avenged the murder by conquering Seth.

On Earth, Osiris took the form of the sacred bull, Apis. From the combined names Osiris-Apis
came Sarapis, another name for Osiris. Later Sarapis was thought of as a separate god. Osiris
was often represented wrapped in mummy cloths and wearing a crown. Isis was frequently
pictured with her infant son, Horus. She was also represented wearing cow's horns, since the
cow was considered sacred to her. From the 7th century BC her cult was the most popular in
Egypt. In the seaport of Alexandria she was regarded as patron of seafarers, and from there
her worship spread to Greece and Rome.

mummy

In the great museum of Egyptian antiquities in Cairo, throngs of sightseers daily look into the
very faces of the pharaohs and nobles who ruled Egypt many centuries ago. They were
preserved as mummies, thousands of which have been taken from the sands and tombs of
Egypt. The word mummy refers to a dead body in which some of the soft tissue has been
preserved along with the bones. Usually this means it was specially embalmed or preserved
for burial, but sometimes natural conditions alone freeze, dry out, or otherwise prevent the
body from decaying by inhibiting the growth of microbes. The Egyptians practiced the art of
mummifying their dead for 3,000 years or more in the belief that the soul would be reunited
with the body in the afterlife, so the body had to be kept intact. The most carefully prepared
Egyptian mummies date from about 1000 BC, but the earliest ones discovered are much older.
Sacred animals, such as cats, ibises, and crocodiles, were also mummified. The most elaborate
Egyptian process, used for royalty and the wealthy, took about 70 days. First, most of the
internal organs were removed. The brain was usually extracted through the nostrils with a
hook and then discarded. The heart, considered the most important organ, was usually left in
place. Most of the other vital organs were embalmed and placed in four vessels, called
canopic jars, which were buried with the body. (In later Egyptian times, the treated organs
were returned to the body cavity rather than sealed in jars.) The body was washed with palm
wine (which would have helped kill bacteria) and then covered with natron, a salt, and left for
many days to thoroughly dry out. Next, the body was treated with resin, oils, spices, palm
wine, and other substances to help preserve it. It was then wrapped in strips of linen.

The shrouded mummy was usually placed in two cases of cedar or of cloth stiffened with
glue. The outer case was often covered with paintings and hieroglyphics telling of the life of
the deceased. A molded mask of the dead or a portrait on linen or wood sometimes decorated
the head end of the case. This double case was placed in an oblong coffin and deposited in a
sarcophagus.

The bodies of less wealthy people were merely dried with salt and wrapped with coarse
cloths. The poorest people could not afford mummification.

During the Middle Ages apothecary shops sold a powder that was made from ancient
Egyptian mummies. At that time the substance was considered to have medicinal value.

The Egyptians excelled in this art of preserving the body in a lifelike condition, but mummy
making has been practiced by many other peoples. Among them were the Inca of ancient Peru
and people living along the Torres Strait, near Papua New Guinea.

Other Gods and Sacred Animals

Other important deities were Nut and Hathor, goddesses of the sky and of joy; Ptah, master
artist and craftsman; Thoth, the moon-god, who was also scribe of the gods and the inventor
of writing; and Khnemu, who fashioned men and women on a potter's wheel. Some gods,
such as Amen and Osiris, were always represented in purely human form. Others were
pictured as animals or with human bodies and animal heads. Thus Horus was worshiped in the
form of a hawk, or falcon, or of a hawkheaded man. Thoth was an ibis, Khnemu was a ram,
and Hathor was a cow. The sun had various symbolsthe obelisk, the sacred scarab beetle,
the uraeus cobra, and the sun disk.

Certain sacred animals were carefully kept in the temples. When Egyptian civilization
decayed in its very late days, the people came to regard every animal of these species as
sacred. They embalmed thousands of crocodiles, cats, and ibis and buried them in special
cemeteries. Bulls were buried in stone vaults in an underground cemetery called the
Serapeum, at Memphis. (See also cat.)

Architecture of the Temples

Egyptian architecture was designed to blend into the setting of the Nile Valley, which is as
level as a floor and is walled in on both sides by sheer limestone cliffs. The temples erected
by the Egyptians are gigantic; their surfaces, flat. The form is rectangular, like that of the flat-
topped cliffs. The only decorations are reliefs and inscriptions that do not break the straight
lines of the stone surfaces on which they are carved. Private tombs were decorated and
inscribed in the same way.

Temples were built on a grand scale. The front wall consisted of two massive sloping towers,
together called a pylon, with a door between them. The door gave entrance to a huge unroofed
court, bordered on two or three sides by colonnades. Here the public assembled for worship.
Beyond the court rose the hypostyle halla forest of huge pillars holding up a roof. Past the
hall was the sanctuary of the temple- god. Only priests and the pharaoh were allowed to enter
the sanctuary. There were many variations of this plan. Large templesparticularly the great
temple at El Karnakhad a series of courts, each faced by a pylon. An avenue of sphinxes led
from El Karnak to the temple at Luxor.

Painting and Sculpture

Wall paintings took the place of reliefs in many private tombs of the New Kingdom. Some of
the paintings and reliefs of this period rank with the world's finest masterpieces in art. In order
to appreciate them, it is necessary to understand the principles upon which Egyptian artists
worked.

Like other early peoples, the Egyptians did not use perspective. Figures at different distances
from the observer were drawn in the same size. Humble people and servants, however, were
pictured smaller than the great lord. Furthermore, the artist did not limit himself to a single
point of view. He drew what he knew, not merely what he saw. A fisherman in a boat might
be sketched as if the artist were looking at the scene from the shore, but fish would be shown
swimming under the water. The same picture might even outline the pond as if seen from
above. Nevertheless, Egyptian paintings are beautiful and harmonious, and they reveal more
than they would if drawn from a single point of view.
In sketching the human figure, the artist usually followed conventions established in early
times. Since he wanted to show all the principal parts of the body, he combined front and side
views. The head is always in profile, but the eye is drawn as it appears from the front. The
shoulders and skirt are front view, but the legs and feet are side view.

Sculptors carved thousands of statues in all sizes, from colossal figures to miniatures. In
addition to gods, kings, and nobles, their works included animals and sphinxes. The pharaoh
is always shown in a dignified pose, never in movement. The face is often an expressive
portrait. The sculptor painted the bodies of men red and women pale yellow and set in
eyeballs of colored stone or crystal.

Three Ways of Writing

The ancient Egyptians had three different ways of writing. They are called hieroglyphic,
hieratic, and demotic. Hieroglyphs were chiseled on a stone surface. The word comes from
two Greek wordshieros, meaning sacred, and glyphein, meaning to carve. From
hieroglyphs the Egyptians developed a cursive writing. Called hieratic, this was written on
papyrus with a pen. Out of hieratic a much more rapid scriptdemoticdeveloped in the
Late Period.

Hieroglyphic writing developed out of picture writing toward the end of the prehistoric
period. Picture recording evolved into writing with the realization that pictures could be used
to express ideas if the words for these ideas had the same sounds as the names of the objects
pictured. The picture of a house meant house; but it could also stand for the sound of the word
for house, pr. The Egyptians did not write vowels. Because the word for to go also consisted
of the consonants pr with a different vowel sound, the sign for house could be used to write to
go by adding to it a pair of walking legs. The legs signcalled a determinativewas not
pronounced but indicated a verb of motion. Hieroglyphic writing was therefore sound writing.
Some of the pictures stood for one consonant and were thus alphabetic, while others were
used to represent two or three consonants.

In hieratic and demotic writing, the signs no longer resembled the pictures from which they
were developed. Rapid cursive writing with a pen on the soft surface of papyrus led to
shortening the signs.

The ability to read hieroglyphics died out with the Egyptian religion. Throughout the Middle
Ages people thought the inscriptions on monuments were not writing but symbols with some
deep religious meaning.

When Napoleon went to Egypt in 1798, he took with him a large staff of scholars and
scientists to study the civilization of ancient Egypt. Near Rashid (Rosetta) one of his officers
discovered a stone inscribed with three kinds of writing. Napoleon's scholars recognized the
writing as Greek at the bottom, demotic in the middle, and hieroglyphic at the top. They could
read the ancient Greek and guessed that the other sections must have the same content.
The stone fell into the hands of the British, who sent copies to scholars throughout the world.
In 1822 Jean-Franois Champollion deciphered the hieroglyphs. Written about 196 BC, they
commemorate the accession of Ptolemy V Epiphanes, about 205 BC. Champollion's work was
the basis of the science of Egyptology. (See also writing.)

The Literature of Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egyptian literature consists of both religious and nonreligious texts. The principal
religious texts were designed to guide the dead into the underworld. In the Old Kingdom
period such texts were written on the burial chamber walls in the pyramids of the 5th and 6th
dynasties and are called Pyramid Texts. Later, coffin texts were written on the coffins of
private citizens. Still later, religious textsnow called Book of the Deadwere written on
papyrus rolls and buried with the dead. Nonreligious writings relate events in the lives of
kings or citizens. (See also ancient civilization.)

hieroglyphics

Ancient Egyptians had three different writing systems. The oldest, best known, and most
difficult to read is called hieroglyphics. The word, which means sacred carving, was used
by Greeks who saw the script on temple walls and public monuments. The Greeks were
somewhat mistaken in their terminology because hieroglyphs were used on gravestones,
statues, coffins, vessels, implements, and for all sorts of nonreligious textssongs, legal
documents, and historical inscriptions.

Hieroglyphic writing has two main characteristics: objects are portrayed as ideograms or
pictures, and the picture signs have the phonetic, or sound, value of the words represented by
the objects. Thus hieroglyphs are not pictures only: they can be spoken, as are words written
in an alphabet such as that of English. A written text normally contains three kinds of
hieroglyphs: ideograms, which are read as the words they represent; phonograms, which are
signs that do not refer to the objects they picture: they simply stand for one or more
consonants; and determinatives, which have no phonetic value but help the reader to
determine the correct meaning of the text.

Hieroglyphics were established as a writing system by at least 3100 BC. The system remained
in use for about 3,500 years. The last known hieroglyphic inscription is dated AD 394. In the
earliest period there were about 700 hieroglyphs. In this first stage of writing only the
absolutely necessary symbols were invented. In the second stage of development easier
readability was achieved by increasing the number of signs and by using determinatives. After
the second stage, a period of about 2,000 years during which the system was essentially
unaltered, the number of symbols increased to several thousand. (See also Alphabet.)

The other two Egyptian writing systems are hieratic and demotic. These are cursive scripts.
Like modern handwriting, they are flowing, and the letters of words are joined. Hieratic (from
the Greek hieratikos, meaning priestly) got its name at a time when it was used only for
religious texts. Everyday documents, especially government texts, were written in demotic
(from the Greek word dmotikos, meaning for the people).

Both of these writing forms are based on hieroglyphics. Hieratic script was, like
hieroglyphics, in use from about 3100 BC. It was originally written in vertical columns and
later in horizontal rows from right to left. After 660 BC demotic script replaced hieratic in
most ordinary writing, but hieratic remained in use by priests for several more centuries. (See
also Writing.)

Hieroglyphics were not deciphered until the early 19th century. This was made possible by
the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799 by members of Napoleon's expedition to Egypt.
This basalt stone, now in the British Museum, contains identical texts in hieroglyphics,
demotic, and Greek. A French linguist and historian, Jean-Franois Champollion, succeeded
in translating the Rosetta Stone in 1822.

Hittites

Four thousand years ago the warrior Hittites of Asia Minor rose to world power. For more
than a thousand years they ruled most of the region now in modern Turkey and Syria. Their
empire rivaled in size and strength the two other world powers of the time, Egypt and the
Assyro-Babylonian empires of Mesopotamia.

About a thousand years before the Christian Era their empire fell and their civilization passed
into oblivion. Only their name remained, kept in man's memory by scattered references in the
Old Testament.

The story of the Hittites, nearly all that is known of it, has been recovered within a single
lifetime. Most of it has been pieced together since World War I. The chief source of
information is the royal library of 10,000 clay tablets discovered in 1906 and later, in the ruins
of the ancient Hittite capital Khattushash, near Bogaz Koi in Turkey, about 90 miles (145
kilometers) east of Ankara.

These tablets are in cuneiform writing, and most of them, though in Babylonian spelling, are
in the Hittite language. For years Hugo Winckler, the German archaeologist who made the
find, and other scholars labored vainly to get a clue to this unknown tongue. One day an
Austrian professor, Friedrich Hrozny, found in the same sentence with the Babylonian word-
sign for bread, the Hittite word wadar spelled out. He thought this might be the same as our
water. Other words seemed to have the same roots as the Latin aqua (water) and our
eat. Working from these slight clues, by 1915 he was able to announce that he had solved
the riddle, and that Hittite is an Indo-European language, related to our own. But the
translation of the tablets took another ten years.

From these and other documents, and from the remains of their great fortified cities, it is now
known that the Hittites were wild tribesmen when, not long after 3000 BC, they swept down
from the north with horse and chariot and bronze daggers. They found it easy to conquer the
farmers and herdsmen of Asia Minor, who were skilled only in the arts of peace and had no
means of transport faster or more powerful than the donkey. It was almost 2000 BC, however,
before the Hittite dominions were united into an empire by a king named Labarna. A later
king pushed the Hittite power into Syria and Mesopotamia. This empire lasted until 1650 BC.
A still more powerful one arose in 1450 BC.

If the basis of the old empire had been the horse, that of the new was iron. The Hittites appear
to have been the first to use iron. For a time their mines on the Black Sea represented the
world supply.

Later the Hittite domain broke up into city kingdoms (1050850 BC), and these finally
collapsed before the Acheans, who came in a new wave of Indo-European invasion like that
from which the Hittite empire had sprung. The Hittites continued to be famous soldiers,
however. Uriah the Hittite was a captain in David's army.

In the fertile fringes of their rugged country the ancient Hittites planted barley, wheat, grapes,
and olives. Beekeeping was their sugar industry. They raised horses, cattle, sheep, and goats.
Their shoes, turned up like a ski, were invented for use in snowy mountain passes. Loom
weights and spindle whorls found in great numbers show that they manufactured cloth.
Beautiful cups, jars, and pitchers indicate their interest in graceful and original forms and in
convenient contrivances. The Hittites were also famous workers in metals. Their business
methods were Babylonian, and for buying and selling they too used the weighed pieces of
silver from which the Greeks got the idea for coins. Caravan routes led from town to town.
Big game abounded, and hunting was the sport of king and commoner.

The Hittite state was a military organization. Daily life was closely regulated by law. The
price of plowed field and vineyard, of cattle and their hides, was fixed. So were the wages of
free man and slave. Punishments for breaches of the law were mild, but crimes such as
murder and theft were made prohibitively expensive by heavy fines.

The Hittites contributed to Western civilization by acting as middlemen for the older cultures
of the East. They passed on to the Greeks ideas that influenced their art, their religion, and
their business. Hittite mines supplied the iron that put new implements in the hands of the
Mediterranean peoples and brought the Bronze Age to a close. Above all, Hittites contributed
by holding with a firm hand the bridge between Asia and Europe while Western culture was
in its early stages. Asian despots might have throttled European civilization in its infancy, had
it not been for that millennium of Hittite supremacy.

Indus Valley civilization

The earliest known urban culture of the Indian subcontinent existed in the Indus Valley from
about 2500 BC to about 1700 BC. Its main centers, most of which are now in Pakistan, were
Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Kalibangan, and Lothal.

The archaeological record suggests that humans began settling in the region west of the Indus
River at the Pakistan-Iran border as early as 8000 BC. The people who lived in these early
settlements led a seminomadic existence, herding animals from one place to another and
growing a limited amount of food.
Sometime in the third millennium, increased population led to an eastward migration to the
Indus Valley. This region comprises a floodplain, much like the Nile region of Egypt. The
annual flooding, with its resultant deposit of silt, offered good prospects for growing food and
other crops with a minimum of labor and tools. The first settlements were probably
established near the Indus Delta in the south, and later ones developed as civilization spread
north and east.

The early centuries of colonization appear to have been a time of rapid population increase
and expansion that resulted, despite the many different settlements, in a fairly uniform culture
and a strong measure of economic and political control. The civil government in the leading
cities was probably under the authority of a class of priests or priest-kings, as in Egypt.

The economy of the Indus Valley depended upon crops and animal husbandry. The chief
crops grown were wheat, rice, dates, melons, green vegetablesprimarily legumes, and
cotton. There were large granaries. The cotton provided the impetus for the growth of the
textile industry for which the Indian subcontinent has long been famous. The raw cotton was
brought to the cities, where it was spun, woven, and dyed. Textiles were very likely traded
with Mesopotamia, Afghanistan, and southern India.

The animals raised by the Indus civilization were humped cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, pigs,
camels, dogs, cats, and domestic fowl. Elephants were also in the region and may also have
been domesticated.

The permanent settlements ranged from small villages to fairly extensive cities. Mohenjo-daro
and Harappa were each originally about 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) square, with a large citadel, or
fortress, on the west and the rest of the city to the east. The citadel at Mohenjo-daro was built
upon a raised platform and contained a number of buildings, including the Great Bath in the
center, granaries, and buildings for administrative functions.

The lower city, to the east, was laid out in a grid pattern of streets. In the major cities the
citadel was protected by a massive defensive wall that was made of brick. The cities
themselves may have been surrounded by walls, though traces of a wall around the lower
town have been found only at Kalibangan.

Population estimates for the ancient period are difficult to make, but the findings of
archaeologists suggest that the population of Mohenjo-daro ranged from 35,000 to more than
41,000. Harappa may have had as few as 23,000 or as many as 35,000 people. The population
of the whole regionan area of about 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 square kilometers) at
its heightcannot be guessed. However, at least 70 population sites have been discovered
within this areaa territory larger than modern Pakistan. Some of these sites, lesser in size
than the four main centers, were Amri, Kot Diji, and Chanhu-daro.

Excavations of the Indus cities have produced evidence of a high level of artistic activity.
There are a number of stone sculptures, cast-bronze figures, and terra-cotta figurines. Most of
these are unclothed females heavily laden with jewelry, but a few standing males have also
been discovered. The figurines probably represent gods and goddesses, but manysuch as
animals and cartsare toys. It appears that the only painting was that done on pottery.

The religious beliefs of the Indus society are mostly a matter of conjecture. There is no solid
evidence of places of worship, though a number of buildings believed to be temples have been
excavated. It is widely assumed that there was a Great God and a Great Mother. These may
have formed the basis for later Hindu belief in the god Shiva and his consort, Shakti (see
Hinduism).

There were also animal cults devoted to the bull, the buffalo, and the tiger. Excavations at
burial sites indicate belief in an afterlife. The number of household goods buried with a body
suggest the hope that the individual would later need them.

The uniform civilization of the Indus Valley came to an end in about 1700 BC. Whether this
was due to a major invasion, gradual incursion by outsiders, or other factors is unknown. (See
also India; Pakistan.)

India

Introduction

About one sixth of all the human beings on Earth live in India, the world's most populous
democracy. It is the second most populous country in the world, after China. India's borders
encompass a vast variety of peoples, practicing most of the world's major religions and
speaking scores of different languages. A civilized, urban society has existed in India for well
over 4,000 years, and there have been periods when its culture has been as brilliant and
creative as any in history. The country is also known by its ancient Hindi name, Bharat.

India's leaders have played a prominent role in world affairs since the country became
independent in 1947. Nevertheless, the standard of living of many of its citizens is low. The
huge population strains the country's resources. Many millions of Indians are inadequately
nourished and poorly housed and lack access to clean drinking water year-round. Since
independence, however, the country has made impressive progress in increasing the well-
being of its people. The economy has been greatly diversified and expanded, and a large
middle class has emerged. Substantial improvements to the country's medical and public-
health services have led to greatly increased life expectancies. Literacy rates have also been
raised dramatically. Today, India's workforce includes one of the world's largest groups of
people trained in science, engineering, and technology.

Although the modern country of India encompasses the greater part of South Asia, it is
smaller than the Indian Empire formerly ruled by Britain. Burma (now Myanmar), a mainly
Buddhist country lying to the east, was administratively detached from India in 1937. Ten
years later, when Britain granted independence to the peoples of the area, two regions with
Muslim majoritiesa large one in the northwest (West Pakistan) and a smaller one in the
northeast (East Pakistan)were partitioned from the predominantly Hindu areas and became
the separate country of Pakistan. East Pakistan broke away from Pakistan in 1971 to form the
independent country of Bangladesh. Also bordering India on its long northern frontier are the
People's Republic of China and the relatively small countries of Nepal and Bhutan. The island
republic of Sri Lanka lies just off India's southern tip. India's capital is New Delhi, which is
part of the greater Delhi metropolitan area.

Land and Climate

With an area of more than 1.2 million square miles (3.1 million square kilometers), India is
the seventh largest country in the world. Much of this area is a peninsula jutting into the
Indian Ocean between the Arabian Sea on the west and the Bay of Bengal on the east.

Regions

There are three distinct physiographic regions. In the north the high peaks of the Himalayas
lie partly in India but mostly just beyond its borders in Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet. South of the
mountains, the low-lying Indo-Gangetic Plain, shared with Pakistan and Bangladesh, extends
more than 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal. Finally,
to the south of the plain lies an area consisting largely of tableland that makes up more than
half of the country's area. It is called peninsular India or the Deccan.

India also includes groups of islands in the Indian Ocean. Two of the country's union
territories (an administrative division) consist entirely of islands: Lakshadweep is located in
the Arabian Sea, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands lie between the Bay of Bengal and the
Andaman Sea.

Himalayas

The northern mountain wall consists of three parallel ranges. The highest of these ranges is
the Great Himalayas, which include several peaks that rise above 23,000 feet (7,000 meters).
Even the passes through these mountains are farther above sea level than the highest summits
of the Alps. The Himalayas in India and neighboring countries have the world's largest area
under snow and glaciers outside the polar regions.

Lower mountain ranges branch off from both ends of the Himalayan system, running along
the border with Myanmar toward the Bay of Bengal in the east andmainly through
Pakistantoward the Arabian Sea in the west. Thus, the low-lying country to the south is
relatively isolated from the rest of Asia. This accounts for its designation as a subcontinent.
The Indian subcontinent includes not only the land of India but also of Bangladesh and most
of Pakistan.

Indo-Gangetic Plain
The Indo-Gangetic Plain has an area of about 270,000 square miles (700,000 square
kilometers). It is the world's most extensive tract of uninterrupted alluvium, or river-deposited
sediments. These sediments give rise to fertile soils and are rich in groundwater for well
irrigation. The flat terrain also makes the area ideal for canal irrigation.

The greater part of the Indo-Gangetic Plain is drained by the Ganges River, which rises in the
southern Himalayas and flows in a generally south-to-southeast direction to the Bay of
Bengal. One of its principal tributaries is the Yamuna, or Jumna, which flows past New Delhi
to join the Ganges near Allahabad. The Brahmaputra River flows through northeastern India
before joining the Ganges in Bangladesh. The Indus and its tributaries drain the western and
southwestern parts of the plain. The northern part of this area, now divided between India and
Pakistan, is traditionally known as the Punjab. Its name means five waters, for the five
major tributaries of the Industhe Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej, and Beasthat flow
through the region.

Toward the west the plain becomes progressively drier. It includes the arid Thar, or Great
Indian, Desert, which extends across the India-Pakistan border.

Deccan

The so-called tableland of India is actually a more complex landform region than that word
suggests. Most of the 735,000 square miles (1.9 million square kilometers) of the Deccan
consists of relatively flat plateaus, with elevations ranging from 1,000 to 2,500 feet (300 to
750 meters) above sea level. However, the terrain also includes two chains of hills and
mountains, called the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, which extend along the edges of
the plateau region and meet at the peninsula's tip. Anai Mudi, in the Western Ghats, is the
highest peak in the Deccan, with an elevation of 8,842 feet (2,695 meters).

The Deccan region also includes the coastal plains flanking the Ghats. These plains are
relatively narrow, ranging from 6 to 80 miles (10 to 130 kilometers) wide. The eastern plain is
drained by several large deltas, including, from north to south, those of the Mahanadi,
Godavari, Krishna, and Kaveri rivers.

Climate

In general, India's climate is governed by the monsoon, or seasonal, rain-bearing wind. Most
of the country has three seasons: hot and dry, hot and wet (monsoon), and cool and dry.
During the hot and dry season, which usually lasts from early March to mid-June, very high
temperatures are accompanied by intermittent winds and occasional dust storms. The burst of
the monsoon, or the start of the hot and wet season, often begins in mid-June but may start as
early as May in the south. Strong, humid winds from the southwest and south bring very
heavy rains that fall almost daily in the middle or late afternoon. Usually about three quarters
of India's yearly precipitation falls during this season. Eventually, the rains taper off, and by
late October cool, dry, northerly air has replaced the humid marine air over all of India except
the southeastern third of the peninsula. This retreat of the monsoon marks the start of the
cool and dry season, which lasts to February.

Average annual precipitation varies widely. Cherrapunji in the Shillong Plateau just north of
Bangladesh receives 450 inches (1,143 centimeters), making it one of the rainiest places on
Earth. At the other extreme, the western Thar Desert averages only 4 inches (10 centimeters)
annually. In the driest parts of India, however, the rainfall is highly variable from year to year.

Temperature also varies in different parts of India. Resort towns in the Himalayan region,
such as Darjiling (Darjeeling) and Shimla (Simla), record the lowest temperatures, with
annual averages of about 54 to 57 F (12 to 14 C). In the Indo-Gangetic Plain, Delhi and
Allahabad register an average of 79 F (26 C).

Plants and Animals

The plant and animal life of India are both very diverse. The natural vegetation largely
reflects the distribution of rainfall. Much of the northeast, the Western Ghats, and the
Andaman and Nicobar Islands get more than 80 inches (200 centimeters) of rainfall annually.
This is usually enough to keep the soil moist throughout the year. The natural vegetation
associated with these regions is an exceedingly varied broad-leaved, evergreen rainforest,
typically tall and dense.

Areas with 40 to 80 inches (100 to 200 centimeters) of rainfall (enough to grow at least one
crop of rice) include much of central and eastern India, a narrow belt just south of the
Himalayas, another belt just east of the crest of the Western Ghats, and the southeastern coast.
In these areas, as average rainfall declines, the forests become progressively shorter, less
dense, and less varied. Also, as rainfall declines from 80 to 60 inches (200 to 150
centimeters), evergreens gradually give way to deciduous species, which in these regions lose
their leaves during the cool, dry season. Where government protection has kept forests intact,
they include good stands of teak, sal, and other excellent timber species.

Most of the rest of India averages from 20 to 40 inches (50 to 100 centimeters) of rainfall,
enough to grow one crop of grain other than rice. The natural vegetation consists of low, open
forests, intermixed with thorny shrubs and grasses. Little of the original vegetative cover
remains.

A wide variety of distinctive vegetation types occurs as a result of special ecological

conditions. Tall-grass savannas, with scattered acacias, grow on the moist soils of the Tarai,
the fringe of plains bordering the northern mountains. Coniferous forests are found in the
Himalayas. Mangrove forests are found in the brackish deltas of the east coast, and many
types of palms grow in sandy or salty soils. Often impenetrable stands of bamboo sprout up in
fields formerly given over to slash-and-burn cultivation.
The alterations in India's vegetation over the centuries have brought about many changes in
the animal life. In the forests and the high, rugged areas where wild species are still dominant,
the array of animals remains rich. Among the large mammals are the Asian elephant, the
Indian rhinoceros (living almost exclusively in game sanctuaries), more than a dozen species
of deer and antelope, and wild cattle, sheep, goats, and boars. The carnivores include foxes,
mongooses, jackals, bears, leopards, and the Bengal tiger. The Asiatic lion was once wide-
ranging but is now found only in India, in the Gir Forest in the state of Gujarat. Monkeys,
especially langurs and rhesus monkeys, are common even in cities. The cobra is the best-
known reptile. Crocodiles and the related gavial live in the rivers. Among the more than 1,200
species of birds are vultures, hawks, peacocks, cranes, flamingos, parrots, mynas, quail, and
bustards.

The conservation movement to protect India's forests and wildlife is strong. Virtually no
forests are owned by individuals. Forests have been depleted over the centuries as the
population has grown, and today roughly a quarter of the country's area is officially
considered forested. However, forest areas began to be cleared at a much faster rate in the late
20th century to make room for agriculture and urban and industrial development. Legislation,
nature reserves, and other initiatives protect many key natural areas and endangered species,
including tigers, lions, elephants, rhinoceroses, and vultures.

People and Culture

The long history of migrations of different groups of people to India has resulted in the
thousands of ethnic and tribal groups that make up the population today. Humans have lived
in the Indian subcontinent for hundreds of thousands of years, but the time and place of the
arrival of the first inhabitants is uncertain. Agriculturists settled in the area as early as the 8th
millennium BC. Among the early arrivals were people who spoke languages of the Dravidian
family. Between 2000 and 1500 BC Dravidian speakers moved from the northwest to the
southeast of India. At about the same time a wave of migrants of inner Eurasian origin began
to filter into India through passes on the northwestern frontier of the country. These people,
known as the Vedic people or the Aryans, spoke languages related to those spoken by peoples
in Iran and Europe.

Throughout history new groups continued to come to India, mainly from the northwest.
Among them were Persians, Arabs, Turks, Mongols, and Afghans. All of these peoples
contributed significantly to India's ethnic mix. In the 16th century small numbers of western
Europeans began arriving in India. Although they greatly influenced Indian culture, they had
relatively little impact on India's ethnic composition.

Languages

Probably many hundreds of different languages and dialects are spoken in India. However,
two linguistic groups, the Indo-Aryan and the Dravidian, account for the languages spoken by
all but a tiny proportion of the population. Indo-Aryan is a subgroup of the Indo-European
language family. Speakers of the various Indo-Aryan languages live mainly in northern India,
and speakers of Dravidian tongues are concentrated in the south. Of the Indo-Aryan
languages, Hindi, the official national language, is the most important. In its standard form
and its many dialects, it is spoken as a first language by nearly two fifths of the population. It
is predominant in the northern and central regions. In addition, a large number of Indians use
Hindi as a lingua franca, or a common language among people who speak different first
languages.

The constitution also recognizes 22 official scheduled languageslocal languages that the
states can use in official correspondence. Of these, 15 are Indo-Aryan languages: Assamese,
Bengali, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi,
Sanskrit (the classical literary language of the country's Hindus), Sindhi, and Urdu. Urdu is
spoken by most Indian Muslims (except in the far south and east) and is also the official
language of Pakistan. It is closely related to Hindi. Also among the scheduled languages are
four Dravidian languages: Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu. The remaining three are
Bodo and Manipuri, which are Sino-Tibetan languages, and Santhali, an Austroasiatic
language. Many of the scheduled languages are also the official languages of one or more
states.

As a result of the many years of British colonial rule, most educated persons understand some
English, which is an associate official national language. It is often used as a lingua
francafor example, in correspondence between Hindi-speaking and nonHindi-speaking
states. Of the scores of languages not officially recognized, many are spoken almost
exclusively by various tribal communities.

Religions

Although a number of religions flourish in India's tolerant social climate, nearly three fourths
of the people are Hindus. Hinduism evolved from Vedism, the religion of the ancient Vedic
people. While Hinduism recognizes innumerable gods, they are widely regarded as diverse
manifestations of one great universal spirit. Hinduism has no standard orthodox form. It is, in
effect, what people who call themselves Hindus do in carrying out their dharma, or religious
obligations. This varies considerably from one region and social group to another.

Muslims, who constitute more than a ninth of the population, are the largest religious
minority. There are more than 125 million Muslims in India, more than in any country in the
Middle East. Many of them are descendants of Muslims from the Middle East and Central
Asia who began entering the subcontinent in the 8th century. Most, however, are descendants
of converts from Hinduism and other faiths. The majority belong to the Sunni branch of
Islam, though the Shiite sect is well represented among Muslim trading groups of Gujarat
state. Muslims form a majority of the population in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and the
union territory of Lakshadweep and substantial minorities in the states of Uttar Pradesh, West
Bengal, Assam, and Kerala.
Christians form the next largest religious minority, making up about a 15th of the population.
It is claimed that Christianity in India dates back to AD 52, when St. Thomas, one of the 12
Apostles, is said to have landed on the west coast. Christians are most heavily concentrated in
the northeast, in the far south, and in Mumbai (Bombay). Most of them belong to independent
sects, Protestant denominations, or Roman Catholicism. During the last two centuries,
Protestant missionaries have been successful in converting many people of the lower social
classes and tribal groups.

The country's many millions of Sikhs make up a small portion of the total population but form
a majority in the state of Punjab. Their faith, Sikhism, originated in the Punjab region in the
late 15th century. Sikhs form a prominent part of India's army and are influential in many
professions and in government. The ancient faiths of Buddhism and Jainism each have
several million followers in India. Although Buddhism originated in India, it became virtually
extinct there until 1956, when B.R. Ambedkar, a renowned leader of the lower social classes
(now known as the Dalit), converted to it. Millions of his followers subsequently adopted the
faith. Jainism also originated in India. Although it is the religion of only a small minority of
the population, it has contributed enormously to Indian art, architecture, and religious thought.
Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism share many of the same concepts. For example, Jains
practice ahimsa, or not harming living creatures, a doctrine that is also highly respected by
Buddhists and Hindus.

Religions with smaller numbers of adherents in India include the Bahai faith and
Zoroastrianism. The Zoroastrians in India are known as Parsis, meaning Persians. They are
descendants of Zoroastrians who fled to India from Iran (Persia) from perhaps the 10th
century onward to escape Muslim persecution. Today they form a small though highly
influential community.

In addition, India's many millions of tribal peoples practice various forms of animism, which
is perhaps India's oldest religious tradition. Their traditional beliefs are blended in varying
degrees with forms borrowed from Hinduism.

Caste

For thousands of years a dominating aspect of social organization in South Asia has been the
caste system, especially among Hindus. In Hindu society a caste, or jati, is a strictly regulated
social group into which one is born. Each has its own origin myth and rules relating to
kinship, occupation, diet, and various other forms of behavior. In general, a person is expected
to marry someone from the same caste. Within a village, all the members of the same caste
recognize strong ties with each other and a sense of mutual obligation. Castes are graded in a
social and ritual hierarchy in which each expects respect from inferior groups and gives
respect to superior ones.

There are thousands of jatis, but most may be grouped into four great social classes called
varnas. The highest are the Brahmans, the priestly class that traditionally dominated the
learned professions and still wields great influence. Next are the Kshatriyas, traditionally
warriors, rulers, and large landowners. Third are the Vaishyas, once mainly farmers but now
chiefly associated with commerce. Lowest are the Shudras, who constitute the mass of India's
artisans and laborers.

Below the Shudras are a number of castes with no varna designation. Traditionally these
groups were regarded as Untouchables, because their touch was to be avoided. They were
considered to be ritually impure and able to convey pollution to others because of their
association with unclean occupations, such as leatherworking and street sweeping. These
groups have always been subject to considerable prejudice. The nationalist leader Mohandas
K. Gandhi, who tried to ensure that they were treated humanely, bestowed on them the name
Harijan, meaning children of God. More recently, members of these groups have begun to
call themselves Dalit, meaning oppressed, and have worked to end caste discrimination.
Many Dalit have renounced the caste system completely and converted from Hinduism to
other religions, especially Buddhism.

Officially, the government calls these groups the Scheduled Castes. The Indian constitution,
which outlaws discrimination based on untouchability, requires that a schedule, or list, of
such groups be prepared in every state. The aim is to help them overcome their disadvantaged
position. Thus, they are guaranteed a certain portion of the seats in the national and state
parliaments, as well as a minimum number of places in universities and jobs in government.
Similarly, the tribal peoples are designated as Scheduled Tribes and given corresponding
benefits. These groups include many millions of people, with the Scheduled Castes making up
nearly 15 percent of India's population, and the Scheduled Tribes roughly 7.5 percent.

Although caste is most prominent in Hindu society, it is also found in India among people of
other religions, even those that stress the equality of all people. Indian Muslims, Christians,
Sikhs, Jains, and Jews often identify with their own castes or castelike social groups. They
usually marry within their castes but place less emphasis on food taboos and inherited rank
and status than do Hindus.

The Family

For almost all Indians, the family is the most important social unit. Households often consist
of more than one related married couple. These extended families are usually headed by a
senior male, whose wife, mother, or another related senior female assigns domestic chores to
the women and girls. Generally, the household may include his unmarried children, his
younger brothers and their wives and unmarried children, his unmarried sisters, and his
married sons and grandsons and their wives and unmarried children. In practice, however,
brothers commonly separate and form new households soon after the death of their father.

Nearly all marriages are arranged by family elders, who choose spouses for their children on
the basis of caste, economic status, education, and astrology. However, nonarranged love
marriages have become increasingly common in urban areas. The bride typically moves to
the husband's household. Within some castes, widow remarriage is frowned upon. Married
couples display a marked preference for male children. Boys are desired not only because of
their anticipated contribution to the family income but also because sons are needed to
perform certain rites at a parent's cremation. Girls, on the other hand, are seen as a liability
because they require expensive dowries when they are married. Various state governments
have tried to discourage this practice, but often families still go into debt to provide dowries; a
family with several daughters and no sons may face financial disaster.

Ways of Life

India's population is mostly rural. However, population densities are high, especially in areas
with good conditions for farming, such as the Indo-Gangetic Plain, the western coast, and the
delta regions of the eastern coast, as well as in urban areas. India has some of the world's
largest cities, and they are among the most densely populated places on Earth.

The tempo of life in India varies greatly from region to region and community to community.
By the early 21st century, the lifestyle of middle class and wealthy families in urban areas
generally differed little from that of their counterparts in Europe, East Asia, and the Americas.
In rural areas, however, age-old traditional ways of life continued. Most of the people farmed
the land, with most of the work done by hand or with animal power. Many small villages
remained isolated from most forms of media and communications.

Rural life

More than two thirds of India's people live in villages. These settlements may contain only a
few to a thousand or more households, but one hundred to several hundred families is typical.
In northwestern India villages tend to have an almost urban appearance, with tightly clustered
dwellings that often form parts of high-walled compounds with few windows facing the
street. In the eastern and southern regions the villages are less cramped. The various castes
within a village are residentially segregated. The higher and more powerful castes generally
have their homes near the center of the village, while the lower castes and Muslims, if any,
usually live farther out. In southern India separate Dalit hamlets half a mile or more from the
main village are not uncommon.

In much of India the typical village dwelling is a modest one-story mud hut of one or several
rooms. Roofs are generally flat in the dry regions and peaked in areas of heavier rainfall. Most
houses have no windows, but many have a shaded veranda where social activities take place.
A cubicle or a corner of the yard is set aside for the kitchen hearth, normally containing an
earth stove fueled by cow dung or firewood. Furniture is scarce. More affluent families
typically have larger homes, built of more durable materials such as brick and stone, with
windows and more furnishings.
In the typical village dwelling, indoor plumbing is quite uncommon. Water, brought home
from wells, is stored in large clay jars, which are also used to keep perishable foods. The
access to electricity in rural areas has increased rapidly; however, in the early 21st century,
only about half of all village households had electricity.

Each village usually has a few open spaces where people gather: next to a temple or mosque,
at the main village well, at a shady grove of mango trees, in areas where grain is threshed or
milled, and in front of the homes of the leading families. Depending on the size of the village,
there might be a few shops, a tea stall, a public radio hooked up to a loudspeaker, a small post
office, the panchayat (village council) hall, and a school. Traveling storytellers, musicians,
and acrobats add excitement to rural life, as do weddings, religious celebrations, trips to local
fairs, and occasional religious pilgrimages.

Urban life

More than a quarter of all Indians live in urban places. Of these, more than half live in
settlements of more than 100,000 people, officially defined as cities. The 2001 census listed
27 cities with more than 1 million people. The two largestMumbai (formerly Bombay) and
Delhi (including the capital, New Delhi)had city populations of more than 9 million each.
The metropolitan areas of Mumbai, Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), and Delhi exceeded 12
million each. Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), Chennai (formerly Madras), and Hyderabad,
each with metropolitan areas of more than 5 million, were among the world's fastest-growing
high-technology centers.

Indian cities are much more crowded than those of Europe or North America. Streets are
narrow, and the number of people in residential dwellings is high. In the crowded centers of
the older cities, such as Delhi and Agra, retail trade is mainly carried out in small shops in
specialized bazaar streets. Many shops combine a handicraft activity, often in a back room,
and a sales outlet. The shopkeeper and his family normally live just behind or above the shop.
Cities that grew mainly during British rule, such as Kolkata, Mumbai, and Chennai, also have
crowded cores. However, the street patterns usually show some degree of regularity, and there
are a few broad thoroughfares, a central business district, and some parks.

Open spaces within larger cities and on their outskirts are likely to contain makeshift squatter
settlements, occupied by recent immigrants from the countryside who have come to the city in
search of employment. Many people lack any shelter at all and simply resort to sleeping in the
streets, especially near railway stations where temporary day laborers are recruited each
morning.

Many cities have spawned satellites located a considerable distance away from the densely
settled cores. Some of these housed members of the civil administration during the period of
British rule and are still known as civil lines. Others, designated as cantonments, included
residences and special areas such as parade grounds set aside for the army. Since India
achieved independence, many planned modern suburbs have sprung up. Modern factories,
sometimes grouped in industrial estates, have increasingly been located outside the cities.

Like cities everywhere, those of India are centers of education, cultural activities, political
ferment, and social change. In the urban setting, the caste and religious barriers that loom so
large in the villages are considerably relaxed. Thus, there is somewhat more opportunity for
talented individuals to rise in government, modern business, factories, and universities. (See
also Ahmadabad; Bengaluru; Chennai; Delhi; Hyderabad; Kolkata; Lucknow; Mumbai.)

Arts and Literature

The artistic and literary heritage of India is exceptionally rich. Probably most renowned are
the country's architectural masterpieces. These date from many different ages. The ancient
Buddhist domed stupa, or shrine, at Sanchi was probably begun by the emperor Ashoka in the
mid3rd century BC. The Kailasa Temple at Ellora was carved out of solid rock in the 8th
century AD. The enormous, elaborately sculptured Sun Temple at Konarka (Konarak) dates
from the 13th century, and the Minakshi Temple in Madurai, with its striking outer towers and
inner Hall of 1,000 Pillars, from the 16th century. The sublime Taj Mahal at Agra was built in
the 17th century by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his favorite wife.
Every major region and religious group of India has produced works of extraordinary merit.
Hindu and Jain temples are usually richly embellished by sculpture. Because of the Islamic
opposition to representative art, mosques rely for adornment largely on inlaid stonework,
decorative tiles, geometric designs in stone, plaster, or wood, and ornate calligraphy.

Painting is relatively less developed, and much of the work of the past has fallen victim to
weather. However, the well-preserved, sensuous cave paintings at Ajanta, dating from the 1st
century BC to the 7th century AD, demonstrate great technical proficiency at an early date.
Altogether different is the lyric and romantic style of the various schools of miniature painting
that flourished in the courts of the Mughals and the Rajput princes in the 16th and subsequent
centuries. Modern painting, inspired by both European and East Asian models, has had
several internationally recognized exponents.

Classical Indian music, dance, and drama are closely linked. Their roots go back nearly 2,000
years. Their mastery calls for great discipline and intensive practice. Each has a
conventionalized language that demands considerable sophistication on the part of the
audience. A number of regional styles have developed. Folk music and dance also show wide
regional variations. Interest in Indian popular music has grown rapidly since the late 20th
century, partly because of the great success of the country's film musicals.

Motion pictures are an especially powerful form of entertainment in India. Open-air cinemas
are features of fairs, and no town of any size is without a movie house. India is one of the
world's leading film producers. Headquartered in Mumbai (Bombay), the Indian film industry
is nicknamed Bollywood (from a combination of Bombay and Hollywood, the center of
the U.S. film industry). It releases about a thousand or more feature-length films annually in a
variety of regional languages. Most are formulaic, star-studded, escapist adventures and love
stories with spectacular dance and song sequences. However, some Indian filmmakers, such
as Satyajit Ray, have achieved international acclaim.

The literature of India covers many fields of knowledge, but religious and philosophical texts
are particularly numerous. The oldest are the Vedas (Knowledge), collections of religious
hymns in the Sanskrit language. They were transmitted only by word of mouth for many
centuries before being committed to writing, beginning with the Rigveda (Knowledge of the
Verses) in about 1400 BC. For most Hindus the best-known texts are the two great Sanskrit
epics, the Ramayana (Romance of Rama) and the Mahabharata (Great Epic of the Bharata
Dynasty), composed roughly 2,000 years ago. The former recounts the adventures of the god-
king Rama and provides models of proper conduct for men and women. The latter, the longest
poem ever written, relates a great mythical war involving all the peoples of ancient India. The
part of that epic called the Bhagavadgita (Song of the Lord) is the principal Hindu tract on
morality and ethics.

Indian Muslim literature covers a wide range of scholarly subjects. Poetry, written mainly in
Persian and later in Urdu, has been particularly admired. (See also Islamic literature.)

British literary traditions became influential in India starting in the 19th century. The Bengali
writer Bankim Chandra Chatterjee established the novel as a literary genre in India.
Rabindranath Tagore, a Nobel-prize-winning writer of poems, songs, plays, and stories,
introduced new verse and prose forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali
literature. Many Indian authors, including the Hindi novelist Prem Chand, chose to write in
Indian languages, while many others, including Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan, Bharati
Mukherjee, Salman Rushdie, and Anita Desai, have written mainly in English.

Education

Although India boasts one of the world's largest pools of scientifically and technically trained
persons, some two fifths of its people are still illiterate. The literacy rate for females (about
half) is much lower than for males (roughly three fourths), but the gap between the sexes is
being reduced steadily. The literacy rate is also considerably lower in rural areas than in urban
areas. The central and state governments are attempting to eradicate illiteracy, and great
strides have been made since the late 20th century. Thanks to a rapid increase in the number
of schools following independence, especially in the villages, most of the children age 611
are now enrolled. Enrollment drops sharply thereafter, however, even though education is free
in most states through at least the lower secondary level (about age 1516).

India's first three universities, at Kolkata, Mumbai, and Chennai, were chartered only in 1857.
By independence the number of universities in what is now India had risen to 20, and by the
early 21st century there were more than 250. In addition, most universities have affiliated
colleges scattered over a rather wide area. There are few towns with a population of more than
20,000 that do not have at least one such college. Unfortunately, a large number of graduates
are unemployed because higher education has expanded much more rapidly than the
economy.

Health

In general, the level of health among the Indian population is far from good. Because of
impure drinking water and lack of public sanitation, diseases such as dysentery and typhoid
are fairly common. Cholera, malaria, filariasis, and other illnesses associated with wet,
tropical climates are serious problems. Although few people now starve to death in times of
scarcity, many millions are improperly nourished and afflicted by various deficiency diseases.

The government is making considerable efforts to meet the health needs of the people. Thus,
the average life expectancy at birth rose from about 32 years in 1951 to 53 years in 1981 and
to 63 years in 2001. Immunization programs have greatly reduced the incidence of certain
diseases, and smallpox, once a major killer, has been eradicated. Vigorous antimosquito and
other public health campaigns have also significantly decreased the incidence of malaria.

The number of government-paid doctors in the countryside has increased substantially, and a
network of rural primary-health-care centers has been established. These centers are staffed
mainly by multipurpose health workers who have taken a short medical course, enabling
them to treat many common health problems that do not really need a doctor's attention.
Throughout India there are also practitioners of traditional Indian systems of medicine, such
as ayurveda, that can be reasonably effective for a number of ailments.

Apart from preventing and treating illnesses, the medical profession has been called on to play
a major role in implementing India's family planning program, to reduce population growth.
This involves giving advice about birth control and performing sterilization operations on
willing men and women. However, a controversial effort to enforce compulsory sterilization
in the mid-1970s failed, and the Indian public has been slow to accept the desirability of
limiting family size. While the birth rate has fallen significantly in recent decades, it is still
quite high. A concurrent drop in the death rate has kept India's rate of population growth at a
level that exceeds the world average.

Economy

India has one of the world's largest and most highly diversified economies. Because of its
huge and growing population, however, its average incomes are among the lowest in the
world. Many millions of the country's people live in poverty.

Nevertheless, by a combination of careful economic planning and foreign economic aid, India
has made remarkable progress since independence in 1947. At that time, the economy was
overwhelmingly based on farming, but the country needed to import food for its people. Since
then, the growth rate of agricultural production has substantially exceeded that of the
population. India now exports food, and acute famine no longer appears to be a serious threat.
The country also broadened its economic base. For many years, the government played a
major role in planning, developing, and running the country's industries. Growth in
manufacturing was impressive, and India is now a significant component of the economy.

In the late 20th century the government began to make free-market economic reforms, such as
relaxing regulations and allowing more private industries to develop. India became one of the
global centers of the high-technology boom. The tremendous expansion in computer and other
services in India helped fuel high annual rates of economic growth, and a large middle class
developed.

Agriculture, Fishing, and Forestry

About half of India's workforce makes a living directly from agriculture, which contributes
about a fifth of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). Most villagers own small parcels
of land, which they farm using traditional methods to produce food for their families. A
substantial number, however, must rent all or part of the land they farm, either for cash or a
certain share of the harvest. Nearly a third of all farming families, especially among the Dalit,
have no land at all, and both adults and children must sell their labor to the large landholders.

A very high proportion of the landmore than half overallis used for farming. Beginning
in the late 1800s Indian agriculture became much more intensive as efforts were made to
obtain the best yield from every piece of land. Irrigation programs have included giant canal
projects, multipurpose river basin development, and the use of groundwater obtained by deep,
cement-lined, power-driven tube wells.

Another major change has been the so-called Green Revolution, a program under which high-
yielding varieties of hybrid seeds have been adopted along with new agricultural technologies.
In some areas the use of these seeds has multiplied wheat yields several-fold. There have also
been impressive gains in rice production. However, these varieties require large inputs of
fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation water. States such as Punjab and Haryana, where the new
methods have been practiced on a large scale, have prospered greatly.

Crops

The pattern of Indian agriculture varies greatly from one region to another. Almost
everywhere, grains are the principal crop: rice in the wetter portions of the east and south,
wheat in the north and northwest, sorghum, millet, and corn (maize) over much of the
peninsular interior. Legumes such as chickpeas, often grown with grain, are also widely
cultivated, as are various oilseeds. Certain fruits, especially mangoes, are exceedingly
abundant in season. Nevertheless, the total area given over to fruits and vegetables is
insufficient to provide most Indians with a balanced diet.
From the 19th century onward there has been a great increase in commercial farming. India
has become one of the world's top producers of sugar. Sugarcane is widely grown, especially
in areas near processing plants. Cotton, another major cash crop, is grown mainly on the black
lava soils of the Deccan and in Punjab. Jute, grown for fiber, is important in West Bengal and
Assam. Plantation crops include tea, grown in the highlands of the far south and northeast;
coffee, grown in the southern highlands; and coconuts, produced mainly along the
southwestern coast. Important specialty crops include tobacco, chilies, various spices, cashew
nuts, and betel leaf (pan). Rice and wheat are also grown for export.

Livestock

The common domesticated animals include cattle, goats, buffalo, sheep, and, in the drier
regions, camels. Livestock are economically important for plowing and transportation; for
milk and milk products; for leather, skins, and wool; and as sources of dung for fuel and
fertilizer. Because of widely held taboos against eating meat, especially beef and pork, little
livestock is raised for slaughter. The cow is considered sacred in Hinduism, and people of
many faiths, including most Muslims and Hindus, abstain from eating the meat of pigs.
Mutton (from sheep), goats, poultry, and eggs are more commonly consumed.

Fishing

Fishing is conducted both at sea, where sardine and mackerel are major catches, and in rivers,
primarily for carp. The overall fishing catch is low, however. Increasingly, rice paddies are
being stocked with carp and other aquatic animals. Shrimp have become a significant export.

Forestry

Commercial forestry is not well developed. The principal timber species include sal and teak.
However, much of the legal cutting and considerable poaching is for firewood and the
manufacture of charcoal. Other forest products include wood for pulp, paneling, and matches;
aromatic sandalwood; bamboo canes; medicinal plants; lac, which is used in shellac; resins;
and tanning and dyeing materials.

Industry

India has a wide range of nonenergy mineral resources, is well endowed with coal, and also
has several petroleum reserves. Although mining is a relatively small sector of the economy,
it provides critical supplies to the country's manufacturing industries, which account for about
a tenth of India's workers and a seventh of its GDP. A diverse array of products are
manufactured in India, using technology ranging from the most traditional to the most
advanced.

Mining and energy

A great variety of minerals are mined and quarried. India is a major producer and exporter of
iron ore. It also produces several minerals used in ferroalloys, such as manganese and
chromite, as well as barite, copper, gold, zinc, lead, bauxite, and silver. Limestone,
phosphorite, dolomite, and gypsum are used in the manufacture of cement, fertilizers, and
other products. High-quality building stones, gems, mica, and kaolin, or china clay, are also
produced in significant quantities.

Oil is produced offshore in the Arabian Sea on an undersea structure known as the Bombay
High and onshore from small fields in several states, especially Assam and Gujarat. India's
production of petroleum has expanded fairly rapidly, but not as rapidly as the country's
growing demand for it. Thus, India imports large amounts of oil. It exports small amounts of
coal. Coal is mined at many sites, notably along the Damodar River in the mineral-rich Chota
Nagpur Plateau, which lies mainly in the state of Jharkhand. One of the world's leading
producers of coal, India relies on coal-powered thermal plants to generate the bulk of its
electricity. Much of the rest is supplied by hydroelectricity. Nuclear power is a small but
growing industry.

The country's utilities have had difficulty in keeping up with the dramatic rise in energy
consumption. Electricity consumption, for example, increased 16-fold from 1951 to 1980 and
more than quadrupled again in the next quarter century. Power outages and rationing are
frequently necessary in periods of peak demand and have been problematic for the country's
industries.

Manufacturing

Indian handicrafts, especially textiles, have been renowned for centuries and were long avidly
sought for European markets. After the Industrial Revolution and during British rule,
however, millions of artisans in India found it virtually impossible to compete with the cheap
products of British factories and lost their traditional forms of livelihood. Before
independence attempts were made to boycott British imports, as advocated by Mohandas K.
Gandhi. This, together with official support for small-scale industry after 1947, led to some
resurgence of handicrafts. Today the majority of industrial workers in India still work in
small-scale handicraft enterprises such as spinning, weaving, pottery making, metalworking,
and woodworking, which mostly make products for use in local villages.

Mechanized factories produce the country's greatest total output and value of manufactured
goods. The oldest factory industryand the most important as a source of employmentis
the manufacture of textiles, especially of cotton. India ranks among the world's principal
manufacturers and exporters of cottons. Cotton mills are found all over the country. Factories
that process jute, for burlap bags, twine, and other uses, are concentrated in Hugliside, the
cities on the Hugli (Hooghly) River north of Kolkata. Other textile industries manufacture
wool, silk, and synthetic fibers and fabrics. Also widespread are industries that process leather
and foods, such as sugar and vegetable oils.

India's modern metallurgical industry got its start in 1911, when production began at the Tata
Iron and Steel Company (now Tata Steel) at Jamshedpur, on the Chota Nagpur Plateau. In
addition to making steel, India produces metals such as aluminum and copper and refines
petroleum. Other major products include machinery, automobiles and other motor vehicles,
cement, chemicals, computer software, and electronics.

In the worst industrial accident in history, a highly toxic gas escaped from a plant in Bhopal in
December 1984. Ultimately, some 15,000 to 20,000 people were killed, and many others
suffered serious health problems. In 1989 the plant's owner, Union Carbide Corporation, paid
470 million dollars in relief to the victims, under the order of the Indian Supreme Court.

Services

India's service sector started to grow remarkably in the 1990s. By the early 21st century,
computer services, trade, communications, banking, engineering, tourism, and other service
industries employed more than a quarter of the country's workers and contributed more than
half of the GDP. A large information technology industry has developed, supported by the
country's highly educated and well-trained workforce. The country also has a large number of
English speakers. This has made it an attractive place for U.S. and British companies to open
telephone call centers, which can be run at a lower cost (with lower wages paid to workers) in
India. In addition, India has remained a major destination for tourists from Europe and the
Americas.

India trades with countries all around the world. Its largest trading partners include the United
States, China, the United Arab Emirates, and countries of the European Union. The volume of
India's foreign trade is low, however, given the diversity of its economic base.

Transportation and Communications

India has an extensive network of roads and railways. The railway system, begun in the mid
19th century, is an important inheritance from the period of British rule. With a route length
of nearly 40,000 miles (65,000 kilometers), the government-owned network is one of the
largest in the world. It is also one of the world's most heavily used systems, especially for
transporting passengers but also for carrying freight. Trains on main lines offer frequent and
efficient service. In many Indian cities electrified lines have become important for
commuters.
Since independence there has been a great spurt of road building, and the use of trucks,
automobiles, motorcycles, and motor scooters has risen dramatically. By the early 21st
century the road network was the second largest in the world, after that of the United States.
India had more than 2 million miles (3 million kilometers) of roads, about half of which were
paved. A national network of highways connects virtually all cities. Most villages also can
now be reached by automobile, at least in the dry season, and are near or within a few hours'
walk of a bus line. In the countryside, transportation of goods by cart and pack animals is still
common. Rickshaws are sometimes used in towns and in cities, where every conceivable
mode of ground transport exists on the crowded streets.

India has one of the largest merchant shipping fleets among the world's developing countries.
In the early 2000s it operated out of 12 major and more than 175 minor ports. Companies
engaged in overseas and coastal trade are both publicly and privately owned. Inland water
traffic on the several thousand miles of navigable rivers and canals is no longer very
important.

Air India, the government-owned international airline, flies to many parts of the world from
several Indian cities, especially Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. Indian Airlines, also
owned by the government, serves virtually all the cities in India and several in neighboring
countries. Several private carriers also operate in India.

The government has traditionally dominated the telecommunications system. In the late 20th
century, it began to allow private companies to provide some services. The number of people
with access to telephones, radios, computers, and Internet service has greatly increased since
the 1990s. Telephone and cellular telephone service is concentrated in the urban areas,
however, and some rural villages have no service at all. There are many millions of personal
computers, but the number remains relatively small given the population size. Cybercafes,
located in most major cities, provide service to many of the country's Internet users.

The main radio and television services are government operated and noncommercial, though
private channels have become increasingly available. In the early 2000s roughly two thirds of
all households in urban areas owned a television, compared to only roughly a fifth in rural
areas. Radio remains an important source for news.

The vigorous Indian press provides several thousand different daily newspapers and tens of
thousands of nondaily ones. The English-language press is still the most prestigious and
influential, but newspapers in Indian languages have been gaining rapidly in readership and
importance.

Government

India is a multiparty democracy. Like the United Kingdom, it has a parliamentary system of
government. Like the United States, India has a federal structure of government, in which the
constitution divides power between the central government and the state governments. India's
present constitution went into effect on Jan. 26, 1950.
The president, chosen by an electoral college, is chief of state, but the office is largely
ceremonial. The head of government is the prime minister. Laws are enacted by Parliament,
which has two chambers: the popularly elected Lok Sabha (House of the People) and the
indirectly elected Rajya Sabha (Council of States). The Lok Sabha has no more than 552
members, who serve 5-year terms, while the Rajya Sabha has no more than 250 members,
who serve 6-year terms. The president nominates a small number of members of both houses.
The prime minister is chosen by the majority party or coalition in the Lok Sabha and then
formally appointed by the president. Executive power is exercised by the Council of
Ministers, or cabinet, which is selected and led by the prime minister. Elections to the Lok
Sabha are held at least every five years; if there is a vote of no-confidence in the prime
minister's government, the president must call for new elections. The Supreme Court decides
on the constitutionality of federal laws, handles disputes between the central government and
the states or between the states themselves, and judges appeals from lower courts.

India consists of 28 states, six union territories, and one national capital territory (Delhi). The
state governments are organized in much the same way as the central government. The federal
constitution gives the states control over certain areas, such as public health, taxation on
agriculture, and local government, while the central government retains control over others,
such as foreign affairs, defense, and communications. There is a third list of areas, such as
criminal law, marriage, and education, on which both the central and state governments may
pass laws. The union territories and the national capital territory are controlled directly by the
central government.

At the village level, government is in the hands of a democratically elected council, known as
a panchayat. The chairperson of the panchayat represents the village at the council of its
community development block, which typically includes about a hundred villages.

The federal constitution includes a lengthy list of fundamental rights, including freedom of
speech and religion. It also specifies goals the states must promote, called directive principles
of state policy, designed to guide the government in the interests of the people. In periods of
national emergency, which only the president can declare, the government may legally
suspend certain rights for a limited period. Such an emergency was in force in India from June
1975 to March 1977.

Party politics are energetically pursued at both the national and state levels. There are many
parties, and their orientations are diverse. The Indian National Congress, or its dominant
faction, formed most of India's governments after independence. The party was long
committed to a form of democratic socialism, with a mixture of private and state enterprise,
but from the 1990s it has favored economic privatization. India has several socialist and
communist parties that are ideologically to the left of Congress. The parties to the right of
Congress have largely appealed either to Hindu interestsas has the Bharatiya Janata (Indian
People's) partyor to those of other religious, linguistic, or regional groups. With so many
parties contesting parliamentary elections, independent candidates have a fairly good chance
of being elected. Despite the high level of illiteracy, voter turnouts in Indian elections are
normally large.
In foreign affairs India has tried to maintain a policy of nonalignment with any of the world's
major power blocs. It remained neutral in the political rivalry between the United States and
the Soviet Union during the Cold War. India has supported independence movements in areas
subject to colonial rule and championed developing countries in their economic dealings with
affluent ones. India is a member of the Commonwealth and has played a prominent role in the
United Nations and in many of its specialized agencies.

History

Humans began inhabiting the Indian subcontinent very long ago in prehistory. People began
farming the land and raising animals in the area before 7000 BC. Archaeological excavations
at many sites, especially Mohenjo-daro and Harappa (both in Pakistan), reveal that an
extensive urban and literate civilization flourished in the Indus Valley from about 2600 to
2000 BC. A highly sophisticated manner of living had developed in which the people had
wells, bathrooms, drainage systems, handsome jewelry, and well-made household utensils and
copper weapons.

In the 2nd millennium BC the Indo-European speaking Vedic people (Aryans) began
migrating into the area. Hinduism later developed out of Vedism, their religion, and the
Vedas, their sacred hymn collections, are revered by Hindus today. The four great social
classes known as varnas are mentioned in the Rigveda, indicating that a social system with
ranked hereditary groupings dates back thousands of years in India. The Vedic people spread
from the northwest to north-central India and the Ganges valley. By the 6th century BC, 16
separate major chiefdoms and kingdoms had been established south of the Himalayas.

In about 321 BC Chandragupta Maurya founded the large, highly centralized Maurya Empire,
which lasted until 185 BC. Under his grandson Ashoka, the empire extended over the entire
Indian subcontinent except the extreme south. Ashoka adopted Buddhism, then a relatively
small sect, and energetically promoted its values, including nonviolence, compassion, and
tolerance. After the Maurya Empire declined, another large empire did not develop for
hundreds of years, until the imperial dynasty of the Guptas was established in about AD 320.
The Gupta Dynasty ruled northern and central India until the mid6th century. The Gupta
period saw a great flowering of Sanskrit literature, notably Kalidasa's plays and poems.
Sculpture and mural painting flourished, and astronomy and especially mathematics were
very advanced.

A succession of various invaders from Central Asia and the Middle East penetrated the
subcontinent over several centuries. Arabs, Turks, Persians, and other Muslim groups began
making raids into India in the 700s. Turkish Muslims later conquered much of northern India
and established the Delhi sultanate, which ruled from the early 1200s to the 1500s. Mongol
forces of Genghis Khan made raids into the Punjab in the late 1200s, and in 1398 Timur
Lenk's armies sacked Delhi and seriously weakened the sultanate.
In 1526 Baber (or Babur), a descendant of both Genghis Khan and Timur Lenk, came through
the northwest passes from Afghanistan and overthrew the Delhi sultanate, establishing the
great Mughal Empire. This Muslim state remained almost continuously powerful until the
early 1700s. The south of India was never completely conquered, but the empire of the north,
under such rulers as Akbar and Shah Jahan, was among the most brilliant in Asian history.
During the reign of Aurangzeb, the last of the great Mughals, from 1658 to 1707, the
Marathas of the Deccan began to undermine the empire.

Arrival of the Europeans

Meanwhile, the struggle between European powers for dominance in Indian affairs had
begun. In 1498 Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese navigator, discovered the ocean route around
the Cape of Good Hope. The Portuguese soon captured Goa, on India's west coast, and
established a spice-trading base there. By the early 17th century the Dutch, British, and
French began to challenge the Portuguese for the Indian trade. In 1600 the British East India
Company was chartered, and within a century it had trading posts at what are now Chennai,
Mumbai, and Kolkata, the latter of which was the capital of British India from 1772 to 1911.
In the 1740s the French and British began struggling against each other for control of trade,
by forming alliances with the numerous different Indian rulers as well as by military might.
The French organized local troops, and their role in the quarrels of Indian rulers brought much
of the Deccan under French influence by 1751.

The genius of British soldier Robert Clive turned the tables. His storming and subsequent
defense of Arcot in 1751 and his victory at Plassey in 1757 marked the beginning of the end
of French power in India and laid the foundations of the rule of the British East India
Company. Later, trading rights gradually grew into political rule. It was a strange conquest, in
which a private trading company conquered an empire chiefly through the use of soldiers
(sepoys) raised in the land itself. Warren Hastings, who became governor-general for the East
India Company in 1774, built upon the foundation Clive had laid. By 1849 the rule of the
company had been extended over virtually the whole of the subcontinent by conquest or
treaties.

Certain high-handed methods used by the British companyas well British missionaries
trying to convert Hindus to Christianity and the introduction of European customs at the
expense of traditional Indian onesstirred a great wave of unrest. In 1857 a rumor circulated
among the company's Indian soldiers that the cartridge papers they had to tear with their teeth
were greased with the fat of cows and pigs. The cow is sacred to Hindus, and the pig is
abhorred by Muslims. This set off the Indian Mutiny, or Sepoy Revolt, of 185758, a
widespread armed Indian rebellion against the British. The bloody revolt, though ultimately
crushed, ended the powers of the East India Company. In 1858 the administration of India
was transferred to the British Crown. In 1876 the British Parliament ruled that India should be
designated an empire. The next year Britain's Queen Victoria was crowned empress of India.
The Indian Empire

The viceroy of India, appointed by the British crown, ruled directly only in the provinces of
British India. Hindu and Muslim princes continued to govern almost 600 princely states.
These were nominally autonomous, but they were forbidden to make war on one another, and
the viceroy kept an agent at each court to advise the ruler.

British rule brought internal peace and some economic development. The British modernized
cities and built roads and railways, canals, irrigation works, mills and factories, and schools.
They also introduced Western law and police systems. Very few Indians were accepted into
government posts. Most British civil service personnel were able, though their aloofnessand
often disdain of Indian culturearoused resentment.

The Struggle for Independence

Indian intellectuals, many of them educated in England, began to dream of a free India. In
1885 they founded a political party known as the Indian National Congress. Initially, it was a
moderate reform party aiming to further the participation of Indians in their own government;
it later called for outright independence from Britain. The Muslim League was formed in
1906 to protect the political rights of India's Muslim minority. A few years later it joined the
Congress party in calling for Indian independence. For several decades the league promoted
Hindu-Muslim unity, though the two groups often had major differences.

During World War I, Indian troops served the British loyally, but nationalist agitation
increased afterward. In 1919 the British Parliament passed a reform act providing for
provincial councils of Indians with some control over agriculture, education, and public
health; appointed British officials retained control over other areas. That year the British also
gave the government repressive powers to combat resistance to its rule, such as to imprison
political activists without trial.

Mohandas K. Gandhi of the Congress party led a movement against British rule through
noncooperation, which included boycotting British-made products and British institutions.
Hundreds of thousands joined his nonviolent civil disobedience campaigns, and many
thousands of them, including at times Gandhi, were imprisoned. The Congress party quickly
gained a mass following. In 1929 Jawaharlal Nehru was elected its president. Like Gandhi,
Nehru was passionately devoted to the cause of freedom.

After years of roundtable meetings about how to reform India's constitution, the British
Parliament passed an act in 1935 that provided for elected legislatures in the provinces.
However, property and educational requirements greatly restricted the number of eligible
voters. To protect the interests of minorities, voting was by communal groups, so that
Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, and others voted for candidates from within their own groups.
The system perpetuated religious strife.
The already strained relations between India's Hindus and Muslims deteriorated after the 1937
elections, in which the predominantly Hindu Congress party was very successful. The
Congress party did not include any Muslim League members in its provincial governments,
and the league came to view the party as biased toward Hindus.

When World War II broke out in 1939, the Congress party demanded postwar freedom for
India as the price for India's active participation. The British were not prepared to promise
this, and the Congress party opposed the war effort. In 1942 the British offered a plan for
granting India dominion status after the war, but Indian leaders did not agree to its terms. The
Congress party insisted on a unified India. Since 1940, however, the Muslim League had been
demanding the separation of the mainly Muslim provinces from India to create an
independent country called Pakistan, which means country of the pure. Moreover, the
hundreds of princes were determined to preserve their own states.

The Japanese invaded northeast India from Burma (now Myanmar) with a small force in the
spring of 1944. It was quickly driven out. In spite of opposition to British rule, India raised a
volunteer army of nearly 2.5 million. Its industries expanded greatly to supply arms and other
goods for the war effort.

Birth of the New Nations

In 1946 the British proposed another plan for dominion status. However, Hindu and Muslim
conflict over the plan sparked riots and killings. In February 1947 the British government
announced that it would leave India not later than June 1948. With the violence still raging,
Hindu leaders agreed to the partitioning of the subcontinent into two separate countries. The
British Parliament rushed through the Indian Independence Act in July. On Aug. 15, 1947, the
Indian Empire came to an end.

The two new dominionsIndia and Pakistanhad complete self-rule. Though they remained
in the Commonwealth, they were free to withdraw. India took over the Indian Empire's
membership in the United Nations. Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the leader of the Muslim League,
became the first governor-general of Pakistan. Nehru took office as India's first prime
minister.

The boundaries between the countries were drawn so that the majority of Hindus were in
India and the majority of Muslims were in Pakistan. Yet some 38 million Muslims remained
in India, and about 19 million Hindus were left in Pakistan. The Punjab, Bengal, and Assam
were split in two. Rioting broke out. Millions poured across the borders to the country of their
own faith. The Sikhs had wanted their own separate country, but when that was not granted,
most of those who were left in Pakistan fled to India. Hundreds of thousands of people of all
faiths were massacred or died of other causes while migrating. Hundreds of villages were
burned in communal strife.

On Jan. 30, 1948, Gandhi was assassinated by a fanatical member of a militant Hindu group
that disapproved of his efforts toward Hindu-Muslim reconciliation. Hindus and Muslims
alike mourned his death. The Indian government immediately acted against the extremist
group, and violence subsided. In 1950 the two countries agreed to protect their religious
minorities. By 1951 about 7.2 million Hindus and Sikhs had fled from Pakistan into India and
7.4 million Indian Muslims had entered Pakistan. Additional millions crossed later. Religious
strife and sporadic outbreaks of violence persisted for decades, however, in spite of these
migrations. (See also Pakistan.)

Status of Princely States and Foreign Areas

The Indian Independence Act applied only to the provinces of British India. The 562 princely
states were left outside both dominions. A few joined Pakistan. The rest were brought into
India. Hyderabad, the largest princely state, insisted on remaining independent. India sent in
troops, and in November 1948 it became a part of India.

Both India and Pakistan coveted Kashmir, a large princely state in the far north. When troops
entered the state from Pakistan, the ruler of Kashmir joined his state to India and asked for
India's help. For 14 months the two countries waged an undeclared war in Kashmir. The
fighting ended on Jan. 1, 1949, when both agreed to permit the United Nations to hold a vote
in Kashmir to decide which country it would join. It was never held. India and Kashmir
announced in 1957 that Kashmir's accession to India was permanent, but it was not
recognized by the United Nations. Part of it remains occupied by Pakistan. The portion held
by India makes up the Indian state named Jammu and Kashmir. China has also claimed part of
Kashmir. In 1962 Chinese troops penetrated into the Ladakh region of Indian-held Kashmir
and India's North East Frontier Agency (now the state of Arunachal Pradesh). Subsequently,
the Chinese withdrew, though they maintained possession of the northeastern part of Ladakh.

When Britain withdrew from India, Portugal still ruled Goa and several other territories on
India's west coast with a total area of 1,472 square miles (3,813 square kilometers). France
held Pondicherry (now Puducherry) and a number of other small areas totaling 196 square
miles (508 square kilometers). Between 1950 and 1954 France's colonies were merged with
India. India seized the Portuguese possessions in 1961.

India Under Nehru

In 1949 India adopted a new constitution. It became effective on Jan. 26, 1950. India then
became a republic, though it remained in the Commonwealth. Nehru served as prime minister
until his death in 1964. In foreign policy, he attempted to steer a nonaligned course between
the communist and the noncommunist powers, hoping to maintain peaceful relations with all
countries. His guiding principles in domestic affairs were democracy, socialism, unity, and
secularism. Unlike Gandhi, Nehru favored industrialization, and under his leadership India
made substantial economic progress. Under the first two five-year plans (1951 to 1956 and
1956 to 1961) national income rose 42 percent. Great strides were made in the steel, electric
power, cement, and fertilizer industries.
As the vehicle of independence, the Congress party enjoyed great prestige, and throughout
this period it maintained a firm grasp on the national government. As the state boundaries
were redrawn to accommodate various language groups, however, parties emphasizing local
and regional issues assumed increasing importance in state governments.

Rule of Indira Gandhi

Lal Bahadur Shastri succeeded Nehru as prime minister in 1964. In 1965 the quarrel with
Pakistan over Kashmir flared into heavy fighting. After three weeks United Nations
intervention brought about a cease-fire. On Jan. 10, 1966, the heads of the two countries
signed a pact aimed at a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir dispute. The following day
Shastri died. He was succeeded as prime minister by Indira Gandhi, Nehru's daughter.

In 1967 and 1969 the Congress party suffered serious election losses, and in 1969 it split. The
branch of the party led by Indira Gandhi captured two thirds of the seats in the Lok Sabha in
1971. Gandhi's popularity reached a peak in December 1971 when India won a brief war with
Pakistan, fought in support of East Pakistan's struggle for independence (see Bangladesh).

In 1975 the courts voided Gandhi's 1971 election to the Lok Sabha because of improper
procedures in her campaign and barred her from holding elective office for six years. She
responded by declaring a national state of emergency. The harsh measures carried out under
itincluding a controversial mass sterilization program and the jailing of her political
opponentscontributed to her defeat at the polls when the postponed general elections were
finally held in 1977. In late 1978 she was expelled from Parliament and was briefly
imprisoned.

The victorious Janata (People's) party, actually a coalition of four smaller parties, had
difficulty governing. Prime Minister Morarji Desai resigned in July 1979. A month later his
successor, Charan Singh, also resigned, and the president called for new elections. In January
1980 Gandhi, leading a new faction called the Congress (I)the I for Indirawon a
remarkable victory and returned to power.

A continuing domestic problem was the resistance of the tribal peoples to central government
rule. Resentment in Assam against Bengali refugees who had settled there led to a massacre in
1983 in which more than 1,000 people were killed. Subsequently, a group of Bodo
tribespeople in Assam began waging a guerilla campaign for that state to secede from India.

Also in 1983 the government took direct control of Punjab, where a group of militant Sikhs
were fighting a violent movement to establish an independent Sikh nation. To combat them,
Gandhi sent troops into Punjab in June 1984. The troops invaded the Golden Temple, the
holiest Sikh shrine, and killed more than 400 Sikhs. On Oct. 31, 1984, two of Gandhi's Sikh
bodyguards shot and killed her in revenge.

Rajiv Gandhi, her son, was chosen as prime minister and led the Congress party to a landslide
victory in elections in December. His government focused on liberalizing the economy. He
also sent peacekeeping troops into Sri Lanka in 198790 to help disarm the Tamil Tigers, a
militant separatist group.

General elections in November 1989 brought the defeat of Rajiv Gandhi. Officials in his
government were accused of taking kickbacks from the Bofors Company of Sweden in a
purchase of guns for the army. Vishwanath Pratap Singh, leader of the Janata Dal party, was
sworn in as prime minister in December 1989. Chandra Shekhar replaced Singh in November
1990 but resigned four months later. On May 21, 1991, while campaigning to return to office,
Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a bomb detonated by a woman associated with the Tamil Tigers.

Recent Events

P.V. Narasimha Rao became prime minister after the Congress party triumphed in 1991
elections. Rao's government continued programs to restructure the economy, allowing greater
private ownership of industries and eliminating subsidies and fixed prices. The reforms
spurred economic growth, and India's high-technology industries expanded dramatically.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) and other Hindu nationalist parties began to gain
a wider following. While the Congress party supported secular policies, the Hindu nationalist
parties sought to promote India as a Hindu state. Heightened Hindu fundamentalist rhetoric
and political action led to intense and often violent conflict between Hindu and Muslim
extremists. In 1992 a Hindu mob destroyed a centuries-old Muslim mosque built on a Hindu
sacred site in Ayodhya. Hundreds were killed in the ensuing riots in cities across India. The
riots set the stage for further Hindu-Muslim clashes in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Elections in 1996 brought the United Front, a coalition of center-left parties, to power for a
couple of years, with H.D. Deve Gowda and later Inder K. Gujral serving as prime minister.
K.R. Narayanan was president of India from 1997 to 2002. He was the first member of the
Dalit to serve in that office.

In 1998 the BJP won the largest share of seats in the Lok Sabha, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee,
the BJP leader, became prime minister of a coalition government. Under the BJP, Indian
products were favored over imports, and the party openly opposed what it considered non-
Hindu values. The names of several Indian cities were changed, either to drop a name
associated with the colonial government (such as changing Madras to Chennai) or to bring the
English name more in line with the name's pronunciation in the local language (such as
changing Calcutta to Kolkata).

Vajpayee's government reached the height of its popularity when it conducted five
underground nuclear weapons tests in May 1998. The tests, India's first since 1974, violated a
de facto international moratorium on nuclear testing. In India they evoked strong feelings of
national pride. Concern over a possible arms race on the subcontinent heightened when
Pakistanciting a need to ensure security in the face of Indian aggressionconducted its
own series of nuclear weapons tests.
Despite several steps the countries took to improve their relations, in 1999 hundreds of
insurgents crossed from Pakistan into the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir. An armed
conflict broke out. Eventually, intense international pressure persuaded the militants to
withdraw. India accused the Pakistani government of supporting the militants, who also
committed terrorist attacks in India that killed many civilians. Such attacks, conducted by
extremists hoping to change Indian policy toward Kashmir, grew more common and severe.
In late 2001 heavily armed terrorists tried to enter Parliament House in New Delhi.
Nevertheless, India and Pakistan restored diplomatic relations in 2003 and opened major
peace talks in 2004.

In May 2004 the BJP-led ruling coalition suffered a surprise defeat at the hands of the
Congress party in India's parliamentary elections. Sonia Gandhi, president of the Congress
party and widow of Rajiv Gandhi, declined the prime minister's post and instead supported
former finance minister and economist Manmohan Singh for the position. A member of the
Sikh faith, he became India's first non-Hindu prime minister. Pratibha Patil of the Congress
party became the first woman president of India in 2007, and the party's Meira Kumar, a
Dalit, became the first woman speaker of the Lok Sabha in 2009. Singh began his second term
as prime minster after leading the Congress party to an impressive victory in the
parliamentary elections of 2009. He thus became only the second prime minster, after Nehru,
to be returned for a second term after having served a full five-year first term.

Singh's government introduced several programs to bolster agricultural development and to

create jobs for the poor in rural areas. The country also continued to fight terrorism at home
and abroad. Several deadly terrorist attacks occurred within India; among them were
bombings in Mumbai in July 2006 and in Delhi in September 2008 and attacks by armed
terrorists in Mumbai in November 2008. These attacks were thought to have been carried out
by Muslim extremists. India also faced a serious rise in violence by communist groups called
Naxalites who were fighting a guerrilla insurgency. The groups gained support among some
of the country's poorest and most marginalized rural residents.

In foreign affairs, relations between India and Pakistan deteriorated after the Mumbai terrorist
attacks in 2008, as India linked the militants responsible for the attacks to Pakistan.
Meanwhile, India continued to develop closer ties with several other Asian countries, notably
China, which had become a major trading partner. India negotiated free-trade agreements with
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and with South Korea, both of which went into
effect in 2010. It also sought to improve relations with other world powers, including the
United States, with which it signed an agreement to allow India to purchase nuclear energy
equipment and fuel on the world market. In addition, the country successfully hosted the 2010
Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

Pakistan

ntroduction
Established under traumatic circumstances, modern Pakistan was carved from British India
first by partition in 1947 and later by war with India in 1971. The latter established the new
country of Bangladesh from what had been East Pakistan.

Pakistan is one of the world's major Islamic nations. It is in effect the only remaining vestige
of the Mughal Empire of Islamic rulers from whom the British wrested control in the 18th and
19th centuries (see Mughal Empire). The capital of Pakistan is Islamabad.

Land and Climate

The total area of Pakistan, excluding the Pakistani-held part of Kashmir, covers 307,374
square miles (796,095 square kilometers). The country is divided into three major natural
regions: the northern highlands, the Indus River plain, and the Baluchistan Plateau.

Natural Regions

The northern highlands of Pakistan are a region of some of the most rugged, formidable
mountains anywhere. Huge glaciers and roaring rivers traverse a landscape of the highest
relief. The Himalayas sweep across northern Pakistan in a great arc from northern India in the
east to the Hindu Kush and Pamir Mountains of Afghanistan to the west and north. The
Karakoram Range and the Great Himalayas of Pakistan are the world's greatest masses of
high mountains (see Himalayas). The northern highlands pass westward into the Hindu Kush
and western border ranges of Swat, Dir, and Chitral. The low Khyber Pass (3,500 feet; 1,000
meters), through which so many famous conquering armies have passed, is at the north end of
the Koh-i-Safed Range. Farther east the Lesser and Sub-Himalayas are progressively lower
elevations, including the Margalla Hills above Islamabad. From here the Potwar Plateau
extends southward to the Salt Range and westward across the Indus River to the basins of
Peshawar, Kohat, and others.

The Baluchistan Plateau of western Pakistan is a varied arid landscape of mountains, plateaus,
and basins. Except for the Toba Kakar Range, which is dotted here and there with juniper,
tamarisk, and pistachio trees, most of the mountains are naked and bleak. They are eroded by
rare but torrential desert rainstorms, but little water ever reaches the dry basins, or hamoon,
between the ranges.

The Indus River plain has two subdivisions that correspond roughly to the provinces of
Punjab and Sind. The northern part is traversed by the five rivers of the Punjabthe word
Punjab being derived from panj, five and ab, water. From northwest to southeast the
tributaries to the Indus are the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej (see Indus River).
Climate

Pakistan is in the warm temperate zone; it is generally arid, with hot summers, and cool to
cold winters. The winds in winter blow northeast to southwest and reverse in summer to bring
the monsoon. The cold-weather season from December through February is characterized by
somewhat low temperatures. Some precipitation sweeps across Iran and Afghanistan into
Pakistan from small low-pressure disturbances that form along the Mediterranean front.
During the dry, hot-weather season from March through May and into June, the daily
temperatures can rise under the hot sun to the middle 120s F (low 50s C). This heat causes
progressively lower pressures that pull the monsoon winds and rain from the Indian Ocean in
June through September. Temperatures decrease, but the humidity increases so that it feels
little different. In October and November the high pressures and cooler temperatures
reestablish themselves to produce a comfortable autumn.

Mean annual rainfall is under 5 inches (13 centimeters) in northwestern Baluchistan near Iran
and Afghanistan and in much of Sind toward India to the east. Precipitation rises to more than
40 inches (102 centimeters) in the foothills and mountains of the Great Himalayas. In the rain
shadow to the northeast beyond these ranges, precipitation declines to a few inches in the
deep, arid valleys where summer temperatures directly adjacent to ice glaciers commonly rise
above 100F (38C).

Plants and Animals

The forests, shrubs, and grasses of Pakistan are classified into three main groups. The Saharo-
Sindian flora is predominantly tropical or subtropical and is as diverse as mangrove coastal
swamps, desert and savanna scrubs, and seasonally flooded aquatic or semiaquatic species.
The Irano-Turanian flora is composed of discontinuous areas of semiarid open shrublands and
such forests as the pencil junipers, pistachio, ash, and Chilghoza pines of Baluchistan. This
type of plant life extends well into the dry mountain valleys of the Himalayas and includes
spruce, willow, and other woody species. The Sino-Japanese flora makes up a narrow belt that
extends across the well-watered foothills and lower frontal ranges of the Himalayas and
includes horse chestnut, hazel, cherry, several oak species, and various pines, spruce, and
cedar.

Pakistan's expanding human population and the resultant decline in natural habitat has boded
poorly for its wildlife. Several species have become extinct since being first reported in the
19th century. Limited governmental protection is provided for endangered species. Among
the unusual animals present are the snow leopard of the high mountains, common leopard,
Marco Polo sheep, Indian wild ass, Baluchistan bear, and blind Indus dolphinnow reduced
to fewer than 350 animals. Other rare or endangered species include the green turtle, gavials
and crocodiles, bustard birds, musk and hog deer, weasels, otters, lynx, ratels, hyenas, wolves,
martens, goitered gazelles, and the gray goral and Himalayan tahr, which are species of wild
goats. More than 600 bird species are known, including many migratory water and game
birds. The Indus Delta complex is a wintering area for them. There are more than 188 species
of mammals, including various rodents, bats, insectivores, primates, and cetaceans. Of the 25
hooved mammals, the urial and baral (blue sheep) and ibex and markhor goats are the most
common.

People and Culture

Pakistan is one of the most populous nations in the world. By 2008 the population was nearly
162 million. According to some projections, the population will top 200 million by 2020.
About four fifths of the population lives in the riverine tracts of Punjab and Sind. The high
population coupled with the country's relatively small area results in crowded conditionsthe
overall population density in 2008 was approximately 527 people per square mile (203 per
square kilometer). More than 60 percent of the population lives in rural areas.

Pakistan is divided into four provinces largely on the basis of linguistic groupsPunjab,
Sind, Baluchistan, and the North-West Frontieras well as the Pakistani-administered
portions of the Kashmir region in the northern mountains. Baluchistan is the largest province
but Punjab is the most populous. Along the border with Afghanistan are the seven federally
administered tribal areas of Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Orakzai, Kurrum, and North and
South Waziristan. These areas are basically outside direct administration by the government
because they maintain their independence by direct force of arms.

Ethnicity

The people of Pakistan are largely a mixture of Indo-Iranian lineage. Although the official
religion of Islam is basically egalitarian, cultural and social concepts of status and caste are
still prevalent. The principal ethnic groups are the Baluchi-Brahui, Pashtun, Punjabi, and
Sindhi. Each group is further divided into numerous subunits. By and large these groups are
based in their provinces, but large numbers are over the borders in neighboring Iran,
Afghanistan, and India. Each of the main groups has its own language. In addition there are
numerous other ethnic groups and mountain tribes as well as muhajirs, or emigrants from
India following partition, and Bihari refugees from Bangladesh. Close proximity of the
diverse ethnic groups in the burgeoning cities has sometimes resulted in violence.

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries additional pressure came from millions of refugees
fleeing a series of wars in Afghanistan. Many of these refugees were repatriated in the early
1990s, but with renewed conflict in Afghanistan their numbers again grew. In 2002 the
number of Afghan refugees in Pakistan was thought to exceed 1 million.

Religion

Although Pakistan has small populations of Hindus, Christians, and Buddhists, the vast
majority of Pakistanissome 96 percentare Muslims. From its inception in 1947, the
country defined itself as an Islamic republic. The religion of Islam, however, is complex with
its many divisions and controversies.

In Pakistan, the Sunnite branch of Islam predominates over the Shiite, which constitutes 15
to 25 percent of the population. The Shiite branch has numerous subsects, one of the most
successful of which is the Ismailis. The Ismailis are further divided into the Mustalis and
the Nizaris, who pay allegiance to the Aga Khan.

The Ahmadiya Islamic sect was formed in India in 1889. The high literacy rate and general
industriousness of the Ahmadiyas won them considerable economic success. Traditional
Muslims, however, have long considered the Ahmadiyas to be heretical because they do not
regard Muhammad as the final prophet. This has led to considerable enmity and persecution.
In 1974 the government of Pakistan declared the Ahmadiyas to be non-Muslims.

Government Islamization programs beginning in the 1970s led to much unrest among the
minority sects, who feared Sunnite dominance. The trend toward an increasingly strict
interpretation of traditional laws led to a revival of often-brutal corporal punishments,
including whippings, stoning, and amputations. Women's rights were severely diminished,
particularly in the highly conservative North-West Frontier province. Women were ordered to
withdraw from public life, and their role in society became restricted to domestic duties in the
home. The erosion of women's legal rights, such as the ruling that evidence submitted by a
man in court cases is twice as significant as that submitted by a woman, coincided with a
surge in gender-related violence.

Languages

Urdu, the national language, evolved during Mughal rule as the working language between
the Muslim rulers, who spoke Persian or Turkish, and the people, who spoke different
languages in different areas. Urdu is very similar linguistically to the Hindi language spoken
in neighboring India. It is the native tongue of less than 10 percent of the populace and is
unfamiliar to many. Punjabi is the most common language, spoken by about half of the
population. Pashto, Sindhi, and Saraiki are also important languages. Access to the world
community of scholarship, business, and development is perceived to be through the English
language, and it is used as the lingua franca, or common language, in such settings. Only
about 10 percent of the population is conversant in English, however.

Culture

Most rural homes in Pakistan are made of mud or mud-brick, though concrete and fired brick
buildings have become more prevalent. Traditional dress for both men and women consists of
the shalwar kamizloose cotton trousers and a long or short shirt or skirt worn outside over
the pants. Women usually wear a long dupatta, or scarf, draped around the head and
shoulders. The trend toward Islamization, begun in the late 20th century, forced women to
wear veils and other modest forms of clothing, such as the tentlike burkha when appearing in
public. Women in traditional villages tend to be secluded according to strict Islamic custom.

In contrast to the more traditional lifestyle that is followed in rural areas and small villages,
many Western customs have been adopted in the cities, though Islamization has enforced laws
to restrict some forms of expression. The family remains the most important and fundamental
social unit. Families in Pakistani society are patriarchal, which means that the father or eldest
male has absolute authority over the family. Although young people may adopt Western
styles of clothing and other habits, they continue to respect and obey their fathers and elders.
Marriages are usually arranged in the belief that close family alliances have a greater chance
of success than Western-style couplings.

Architecture, Art, and Music

The most ancient cultural remnants in Pakistan are from the Indus Valley culture that
flourished from 4,000 to 5,000 years ago in Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. Brick buildings,
jewelry, and various utensils have been unearthed there (see Indus Valley civilization).
Perhaps the most spectacular of the ancient work is that of the Gandharan civilization dating
back about 2,500 years. It was this civilization that Alexander the Great traveled from Greece
to conquer. Taxila in northwestern Punjab was a great and influential center of Buddhist
architecture, sculpture, education, and religion. Stupas, monastic establishments, and stone
carvings from this period dot the northern plains and mountains.

Most of the greatest surviving architecture, arts, and handicrafts of today, however, trace back
to the Muslim influence that began more than 1,000 years ago. The mosques, tombs, shrines,
forts, and formal gardens are among the world's largest and most beautiful, with the finest
examples dating from the Mughal period of about 500 to 200 years ago.

Traditional arts and handicrafts are diverse and linked to tribal cultures. Weaving of cotton,
wool, and silk; block printing of fabrics; embroidery; mirror work; and carpet making are
done all over Pakistan. Pottery is an essential craft and is painted after low-temperature firing.
Hammered copper and brass, woodwork, lacquer, jewelry, leather work, and inlays in iron
and brass add to the rich artistic culture. Fine miniature paintings, decorative calligraphy
paintings, and inlaid tile work on buildings also add great beauty.

A wide variety of tribal dances, songs, and music are performed, though classical ragas are
the summit of musical endeavor. Musical instruments include various drums, pipes and flutes,
sitars, and the mouth harp. Pakistanis revere fine verse, and one of their great heroes,
Muhammad Iqbal (18771938), was not only a poet-philosopher but was instrumental in the
formation of the country (see Iqbal, Muhammad).

Education
Enrollment in schools increased greatly in the decades after independence. By the late 20th
century almost 10 percent of the population had received some primary education, and almost
15 percent had attended secondary school. The vast majority of the population, however, has
received no formal education. Thus the literacy rate is low; 52 percent of Pakistanis over 15
years of age can read and write. The rate is considerably lower among women than among
men. Part of the country's frustration with education stems from a problem of
communicationthe use of Urdu, which is not widely spoken, as the primary language of
instruction in schools has caused difficulties.

For those students who do complete their schooling, education has had a disappointing
relationship to future job prospects. The result is a high level of frustration among educated
job seekers, and emigration of trained people is common. Ensuring the return home of
Pakistanis sent abroad for higher degrees is also a problem. Special incentives in land and
salaries have been implemented to attract Pakistanis living overseas back to the country.

Economy

Agriculture and manufacturing are the mainstays of the Pakistani economy. The gross
national product (GNP) was about 141 billion dollars in 2007, or 870 dollars per capita.
Exports were roughly 20 billion dollars in valuemainly cotton and manufactured textiles,
rice, and petroleum products. Imports were 35.4 billion dollarsmainly crude oil and refined
petroleum, machinery, chemicals and chemical products, and food. Pakistan's major trading
partners are the United States, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia,
and China.

Agriculture

Pakistan is among the largest nations lacking sufficient precipitation to support dryland
cropping. For more than 3,000 years it has been an agricultural center based primarily on
irrigation from the Indus River. Today the country has the world's largest contiguous
irrigation system. More than 35 million acres (14 million hectares) can be irrigated by
bringing water through more than 36,000 miles (58,000 kilometers) of canals and 1.6 million
farm and field ditches. This massive irrigation effort also causes ever-increasing waterlogging
and brings in salts that form toxic plant-killing crusts in farm fields.

Farming methods in Pakistan are generally traditional, with most farms small and fragmented.
Hand labor and draft animals are common despite dramatic increases in the number of
tractors, small threshing machines, and other agricultural equipment.

Food crops are essential to the large population. Wheat is the country's staple food, and rice is
the other major food grain. Other food crops include corn (maize), potatoes, onions,
chickpeas, and various spices. Mangoes, oranges, apples, bananas, and various melons are
among the fruits that are grown. The major commercial crop is cotton. Other cash crops
include sugarcane, peanuts, and oilseeds such as rapeseed, sunflower seed, and safflower
seed. Despite production of these seeds, the country is also dependent on imported vegetable
oils.

Animals provide draft power as well as food, dung fuel, manure, wool, and hides.
Overgrazing is rampant, especially in arid Baluchistan, but the sheep and goats that are raised
provide not only a cash crop but also much of the meat that is eaten locally. There are also
cattle, water buffalo, donkeys, camels, horses, and mules. Commercial chicken farming is also
an important industry.

Forests are a significant resource in this arid country, and wood is very expensive. Illegal
deforestation is widespread and difficult to control. The removal of protective vegetation is
responsible for widespread soil erosion, downstream siltation, and flooding. Because
government forests produce only a small portion of what is needed to meet the demand, much
wood is imported.

Mining and Energy

The geologic history and structure of Pakistan suggest the existence of significant mineral
resources. The exploration of the country's mineral wealth is far from complete, but more than
20 different types of minerals have been located. Coal mining is one of Pakistan's oldest
industries, but the quality of the coal is poor. Iron ore deposits are also mostly of poor quality.
Large deposits of copper ore have been located, but most sites remain unexploited. Enormous
reserves of easily exploited limestone form the basis of a large cement industry. Other
minerals that are exploited include chromite, barite, gypsum, rock salt, and clays.

Pakistan has some petroleum reserves, but demand has far outpaced the domestic supply.
Therefore petroleum and petroleum products are leading imports. The country has good
reserves of natural gas and meets much of its demand with domestic production; continued
discoveries of new gas fields should help satisfy future demands. The largest natural gas
deposits are at Sui, on the border between Baluchistan and the Punjab. They were discovered
in 1953. Gas from Sui and other smaller fields is delivered around the country by pipeline.

Oil and natural gas fulfill the majority of Pakistan's energy requirements. The other main
energy source is hydroelectric power, which is produced by harnessing the country's rivers.
Pakistan's main source of hydroelectricity is the giant Tarbela Dam, the world's largest earth-
filled dam, which spans the Indus River at its exit from the Himalayas. Nuclear power
supplies only a very small percentage of the domestic demand for electricity.

Manufacturing

At partition in 1947 Pakistan had only about 5 percent of the larger industrial facilities of
British India. Nearly 90 percent of all raw materials were exported. By 1987 there had been a
94 percent increase (in constant rupee value) in the manufacturing GNP and a 96 percent
increase in the construction GNP. By 200708 roughly 18 percent of the gross domestic
product came from manufacturing, making it the second largest sector after agriculture.

At first Karachi was the center of Pakistan's industrialization effort, but in the late 1960s and
early 1970s Lahore and the cities around it began to industrialize rapidly. The chief industries
include cement production, food manufacturing, textiles, petroleum refining, ginning and
baling of fibers, iron and steel, tobacco, chemicals, nonmetallic minerals, transport equipment,
pharmaceuticals, electrical and nonelectrical machinery, leather goods, and rubber products.
Woven carpets are a major household industry. Woven cloth, embroidery, and fancy
needlework are also important handicrafts, as are leather goods, pottery, furniture, and
metalwork.

Transportation and Communications

Pakistan's railways cover roughly 7,155 miles (11,515 kilometers). Most are in the Indus
Valley, from Karachi to the Punjab, with a few lines into the North-West Frontier and one
westward across northern Baluchistan to the Iranian border.

Buses and trucks have replaced rail as the principal means of long-distance transport in
Pakistan. The country has about 165,000 miles (265,000 kilometers) of roads, of which some
67 percent are paved. The rest are graveled or unimproved tracks. Road traffic is increasing to
nearly overwhelming proportions, with mixtures of animal carts, high-speed cars, buses, and
trucks.

Pakistan is served by numerous international airlines as well as its own Pakistan International
Airlines, which provides both international and domestic service. International airports are
located at Karachi, Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta, and Lahore. Prior to the early 1990s the
domestic airline industry was regulated by the state. After deregulation, several privately
owned airlines began to operate in Pakistan.

Ocean shipping is extensive through Karachi, on the coast of the Arabian Sea. The city's port
handles more than 95 percent of all of Pakistan's imports and exports. The city of Qasim also
has a port to handle a share of the country's trade.

Pakistan enjoys good international telecommunications links via satellite. The availability of
domestic telephone service improved in the 1990s as the utility was privatized. Cellular
telephone service and Internet connections are available though not widespread. Radio and
television are controlled largely by the government.

Government

Since the adoption of its first constitution in 1956, Pakistan has undergone radical changes in
its government. The current constitution dates from 1973, but it has been substantially
amended several times. Under the terms of the constitution, a president serves as chief of state
and a prime minister serves as head of government. Both must be Muslim. The bicameral
Parliament consists of a lower house, the National Assembly, and an upper house, the Senate.
A portion of the seats in the National Assembly are reserved for women and non-Muslims.
The National Assembly, the Senate, and assemblies representing the country's four provinces
elect the president to a five-year term; the National Assembly elects the prime minister.
Judicial matters are handled by the Supreme Court, whose justices are appointed by the
president. Pakistan also has a Shariah court, which oversees matters relating to Islamic law.

In 1997 Pakistan's prime minister pushed through two significant changes to the constitution.
The first revoked the president's power to remove a sitting government, and the second gave
the prime minister authority to dismiss from parliament any member not voting along party
lineseffectively eliminating the National Assembly's power to make a vote of no
confidence. In 1999 a military government again came to power, and the constitution was
suspended. The chief executive of that government initially ruled by decree and was made
president in 2001. In 2002 the constitution was reinstated following a national referendum,
though it included provisions (under the name Legal Framework order [LFO]) that restored
presidential powers removed in 1997; most provisions of the LFO were formally incorporated
into the constitution in 2003.

History

The history of Pakistan as a separate country began in 1947 when the Indian subcontinent
gained independence from Great Britain and was partitioned into the two countries of
Pakistan and India. This separation was the culmination of events set in motion by the
formation of the All-India Muslim League in 1906 to seek political rights for Muslims.
Mohammed Ali Jinnah, called Qaid-e-Azam (Great Leader), served as the league's president
and was the main force behind partition. At first he worked with India's Congress party for a
free united India, but the Muslims doubted that a Hindu majority would respect their rights. In
1940 Jinnah demanded a separate Islamic state, and when the British departed in 1947
Pakistan came into being as a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Karachi was
made the administrative capital, and Dhaka in East Pakistan later became the legislative
capital. Jinnah ruled as governor-general until his death in 1948. (For earlier history, see
India.) (See also Jinnah, Mohammed Ali.)

When the British left, millions of Hindus fled to India, and millions of Muslims poured into
Pakistan. This left Pakistan with a shortage of trained workers, because the Hindus had held
most of the skilled jobs in both business and in the professions. Religious riots broke out in
both countries, and an undeclared, inconclusive war was fought over Kashmir. Pakistan
gained control over the northwestern portionsincluding Gilgit, Baltistan, and Azad (Free)
Kashmir. India retained the Vale of Kashmir.

In 1956 Pakistan adopted a constitution under which it became the Islamic Republic of
Pakistan. In 1958 Gen. Mohammad Ayub Khan came to power in a bloodless revolution. He
was elected president in 1960, and he proclaimed a new constitution in 1962. Pakistan's
administrative capital was moved from Karachi to Rawalpindi in 1959 and then to Islamabad
in 1967. (See also Islamabad; Karachi.)

In 1960 Pakistan and India agreed to share the waters of the Indus River system for irrigation.
The Kashmir dispute erupted again in 1965 but was ended by a United Nations (UN) truce in
1966. In 1968 Pakistan was swept by strikes and political violence. The threat of economic
and political chaos led President Ayub Khan to resign in 1969. He turned over control to a
military regime headed by Gen. Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan, who suspended the
constitution, declared martial law, and promised reforms.

In 1971, after a brief civil war and invasion by India, East Pakistan split away and became
Bangladesh. President Yahya Khan resigned, and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the deputy premier and
foreign minister, became president. In 1972 Bhutto nationalized some major industries and
withdrew Pakistan from the Commonwealth when some member states recognized
Bangladesh. In 1974, however, Pakistan granted diplomatic recognition to Bangladesh, and in
1989 it rejoined the Commonwealth. (See also Bangladesh.)

When a new constitution was adopted in 1973, Bhutto became prime minister, but political
unrest continued. A military coup led by Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq deposed Bhutto, and
martial law was declared once again. Bhutto was found guilty of political murder in 1978 and
was hanged in 1979. A strong hand against the populace inspired protests through 1985.
Limited civilian rule returned with the election of Mohammad Khan Junejo as prime minister,
but Zia remained in power as president. In May 1988 Zia fired Junejo and dissolved the
Parliament. He decreed the Islamic legal code to be the sole law.

Zia was killed in a plane crash in the summer of 1988. That fall Pakistan held National
Assembly elections, and in December, Benazir Bhutto, the daughter of the executed former
premier, became prime minister. Ghulam Ishaq Khan was elected president. Ethnic unrest
continued over the next few months, and in August 1990 Bhutto was removed from office by
Ishaq Khan, who accused her of corruption. She was replaced as prime minister by Nawaz
Sharif. In a close 1993 election, however, Bhutto was returned to office. (See also Bhutto,
Benazir.)

Escalating political and ethnic unrest battered Bhutto's ambitious plans for social reform. In
May 1994 violence erupted in Karachi as members of a national movement of muhajirs
Muslim immigrants from India who had settled in Pakistan after partitiondemanded
recognition as a distinct ethnic group and lobbied for greater autonomy for the city. Political
activists were arrested and many incarcerated without being formally charged with a crime. In
addition, violent sectarian disputes between Shiite and Sunnite groups wracked the country.
Rampant drug trafficking further darkened Pakistan's image. Backed by the chief of army
staff, Bhutto's government defended itself against an attempted coup in October 1995.
Opposition to Bhutto gained momentum throughout 1996, however, and her government was
ousted late in the year.
Elections in 1997 returned Sharif to the office of prime minister. Sharif and his supporters in
Parliament passed constitutional reforms that eliminated the president's power to dissolve the
government in times of crisis. The reforms also rescinded the president's right to appoint
military commanders and provincial officials, and gave those powers instead to the prime
minister. President Farooq Ahmed Leghari resigned from office in protest over Sharif's
reforms.

In May 1998 India's testing of five nuclear weapons turned the attention of the Pakistani
government to international concerns. Despite calls for restraint from the international
community, Pakistan chose to respond to the implied nuclear threat by conducting its own
nuclear tests. The tit-for-tat nuclear testing threatened to spark an arms race between India and
Pakistan. A combination of international pressure, including economic sanctions, and a desire
to curtail an arms race brought India and Pakistan to the negotiating table in August and
September of 1998. In their first face-to-face meetings, Sharif and Indian Prime Minister Atal
Behari Vajpayee agreed to abide by the international moratorium on nuclear testing.

Meanwhile, urban unrest, rising crime, and the deteriorating economy eroded support for
Sharif. In October 1999 the army chief of staff, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, suspended the
constitution and arrested Sharif on charges of treason. He installed himself as chief executive
of a new military government. Musharraf promised that he would eventually hold elections
and transfer power back to civilian leaders.

Musharraf's government faced a number of problems in the early 21st century. The economy
continued to falter, and factional violence and crime still plagued the country. Some of the
violence and crime was attributed to drug trafficking, but much was ascribed to the presence
of Islamic extremist groups and terrorist cells. Targeted and random murders and kidnappings
became common events, especially in the cities.

After the terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, worldwide attention to
terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda led to increased surveillance of suspected militant
activities in Pakistan. Musharraf's cooperation with the United States during its invasion of
Afghanistan in late 2001 led to a surge of protests and violence from extremist groups in
Pakistan. In 2002 Musharraf declared the eradication of violence, crime, and terrorism to be
his highest priority. Several militant Islamic organizations were banned, and many activists
were arrested. Pakistani officials captured several high-ranking al-Qaeda members operating
in the country.

Musharraf also had to deal with the ongoing conflict with India. Terrorist attacks were a
regular occurrence in Jammu and Kashmir, and Indian authorities attributed them to Islamic
extremists supposedly encouraged by Pakistan's policies. India's large military presence on the
Pakistani border brought the two countries to the brink of war.

In 2002 Musharraf overwhelmingly won a national referendum granting him an additional

five years as president. Over the next several years, he survived a number of assassination
attempts. In October 2007 an electoral college consisting of the parliament and four provincial
legislatures voted to give Musharraf another five-year term; he agreed to step down as head of
the military and was inaugurated as a civilian president in November. The following month
Benazir Bhutto, who had returned to Pakistan from exile in order to campaign for upcoming
parliamentary elections, was assassinated at a political rally in Rawalpindi. Her husband, Asif
Ali Zardari, assumed de facto leadership of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and guided
the PPP to victory in the parliamentary elections that took place in February 2008. Musharraf,
facing impending impeachment charges that included a number of constitutional violations,
resigned the presidency in August. Zardari was elected president on Sept. 6, 2008, and took
office three days later. Population (2008 estimate), 161,900,000.

Byzantine Empire

Introduction

The most brilliant of medieval civilizations was the Eastern Roman Empire. The Roman
Empire was divided in AD 395 into two parts. The Western half, ruled from Rome, fell to the
tribal Germanic peoples known as barbarians in the 5th century. The Eastern half, known as
the Byzantine Empire, lasted for more than 1,000 years. Until the mid-11th century, when it
began to decline in power, the Byzantine Empire was one of the leading civilizations in the
world.

In 324 Constantine, the first Christian emperor, became sole ruler of the Roman Empire. He
set up his Eastern headquarters at the ancient Greek colony of Byzantium in 330. The city,
renamed Constantinople after its founder, was also known as the new Rome. It became the
capital of the Byzantines after the Roman Empire was formally divided. (See also Constantine
the Great; Roman Empire.)

Constantinople was located on the European shore of the Bosporus, midway between the
Aegean and Black seas, in what is now the country of Turkey. The city brought together
people from the lands of Europe and Asia. In 1453, when the Ottoman Turks conquered the
Byzantine Empire, Constantinople became the capital of the new Ottoman Empire. (The city's
name was changed to Istanbul in 1930.)

In their own time, the citizens of the Byzantine Empire were known as Romaioi (Romans).
Only in the 17th century did scholars label them, and their empire, as Byzantine. But the
Byzantine Romans differed from the Western Romans in two important ways: they spoke
primarily Greek instead of Latin, and they were Eastern Orthodox Christians rather than
Roman Catholic Christians.

During the ten and a half centuries that the Byzantine Empire lasted, its boundaries
continually changed. Barbarian, Western, and Arabic conquerors captured territories that were
sometimes retaken by the Byzantines before being lost again. At its largest, the Byzantine
Empire included Greece, Italy, Egypt, Syria, North Africa, and southern Spain. At its weakest,
it consisted of just a few scattered outposts far from Constantinople.

For centuries, the Byzantines were the most powerful and influential people in Europe and the
Middle East. Their contributions to the world were many. Scholars preserved the literature of
Rome and Greece through the darkest centuries of the Middle Ages. Statesmen developed
pioneering legal codes, which were used as a basis for imperial monarchies for more than
1,000 years. Artists created a distinctive style of mosaic work, painting, and domed
architecture, which influenced the cultures of Greece, Italy, Spain, and Russia. The Byzantine
state religionEastern Orthodox Christianitybecame dominant in the Balkan and Russian
kingdoms as well as in Greece.

The Early Period: Rise of the Byzantines

The first era of Byzantine civilization lasted from about AD 324 to 640. During this time, the
separate identity of the empire was established. The first great period of the Byzantines
occurred during the reign of Justinian I, who took the throne in 527. Justinian reconquered
much of the territory that had fallen into barbarian hands. He also built Constantinople into
one of the most splendid cities of the world (see Justinian I).

The Byzantine Empire was formally separated from Rome in 395, following the death of
Emperor Theodosius I. His 17-year-old son Arcadius ruled the Eastern Empire from
Constantinople, while his 10-year-old son Honorius was given the Western Empire to rule
from Milan. This division, considered temporary at the time, became permanent.

There was conflict both at home and abroad during the first years of the Byzantine Empire.
Hordes of barbarian peoples, eager for land and power, pushed at its boundaries during the 5th
century. The Vandals invaded France, Spain, and North Africa. In 455 their attack on Rome
was so savage that their name was used as a term meaning malicious destroyer. The Visigoths
invaded Italy in 409 and later conquered France and southern Spain. The Ostrogoths also took
parts of Italy, defeating the city of Ravenna in 490. A Hun attack on Constantinople itself was
halted only because a plague destroyed the invading army. (See also Goths; Huns; Vandals.)

At first, the Byzantines attempted to form an uneasy peace with the barbarians who
surrounded them. Theodosius II, who reigned from 408 to 450, subsidized the Huns under
their chief, Attila, granting them gold in exchange for peace (see Attila). It was at this time
that walls were first built to surround and protect Constantinople.

While invaders threatened the foreign affairs of the Byzantines, religious arguments damaged
the domestic peace of the empire. A number of heresiesideas that are different from widely
accepted beliefswere hotly debated by churchmen and laymen alike. One of these heresies
was Monophysitism. It concerned the relationship of the human and divine natures of Jesus.
Monophysites believed that Jesus had only one nature, one that was divine and not human. In
451 a church council at Chalcedon condemned this belief as heresy.

Controversies such as that concerning Monophysitism were more than religious

disagreements. They were also a means of opposing the emperor, and so had political as well
as religious significance. In Egypt and Syria, for example, the persistence of Monophysitism
meant that Byzantine emperors faced continuing conflict with native subjects. Periodic
quarrels about religious doctrine and church practice also divided Christianity between the
Western (Roman Catholic) and Eastern (Eastern Orthodox) churches. These divisions became
a permanent schism, or split, in 1054.

Justinian I became emperor in 527, and ruled until 565. Empress Theodora, his wife, ruled
with him until her death in 548. Justinian built Constantinople into a glorious city of domed
churches, palaces, and public arenas. By the end of his reign, the city was surrounded by a 12-
mile (19-kilometer) circuit of walls. Inside, spacious streets were lined with buildings of
marble and alabaster. Goods from around the world filled the shops: silk, purple cloth, and
gold from Greece; spices, drugs, and precious stones from India; silks from Arabia; fur,
honey, and wax from Russia; and jewelry, gold brocades, carved ivories, and rich
embroideries from Constantinople itself.

The greatest of the public buildings was the Hippodrome, an arena that could seat over 40,000
people. Byzantines gathered there to sit under silk awnings and watch chariot races, jugglers,
circus acts, and fights between wild animals. They also enjoyed the processions of victorious
generals, who gave the crowd loot taken from vanquished enemies.

In a city of churches, the most magnificent was St. Sophia Cathedral. Also known as Hagia
Sophia, or the Church of the Holy Wisdom, this building still stands as an Islamic museum. It
was completed by Justinian in 537. It is an enormous building, shaped like a cross, with a
dome reaching 180 feet (55 meters) from the ground. It has a lavish interior of colored
marble, gold, silver, and beautiful mosaics.

Mosaic art was typical of Byzantine culture. Mosaics are designs made of small bits of
colored stone, marble, or glass set in plaster against a background, often of bright gold.
Typical of the Byzantine style was the look of the portraits in both mosaics and paintings.
Both religious and nonreligious figures were portrayed by artists as long and slim, with huge
dark eyes and small mouths. Byzantine artists were also famed for their illuminated
manuscripts, silver work, ivories, and sculpture.

A cosmopolitan city, Constantinople was home not only to Greeks and Romans, but also to
Jews, Arabs, Serbs, Persians, Huns, and Scandinavians (who called the city Miklagard, or
Place of Enchantment). At the same time the rise of extreme religious orthodoxy led to
persecutions of those who did not follow the strict rules of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, the
state religion. After 391 imperial decree banned the practice of non-Christian religions.

Justinian contributed more to the world than this dazzling city. He is perhaps best known for
the Justinian Code, a collection of Roman laws from the time of the 2nd century. This code,
composed by a legal commission headed by the lawyer Tribonian, was completed in 529.

The code listed all valid edicts of the time and set the legal basis for the absolute and God-
given authority of an emperor over his subjects. It influenced legal theory in France,
Germany, Italy, Russia, and Serbia until the 19th century.

In 532 Justinian's reign was threatened by an uprising of hundreds of thousands of citizens

during what is known as the Nika (conquer) rebellion. The Nika rebellion occurred when two
factions of soldiers, who were also rival horse-racing charioteers known as the Blues and the
Greens, united to oppose Justinian's policies. Justinian was saved only because Empress
Theodora refused to yield. At her instigation, a young general, Belisarius, led troops in a
massacre of thousands in the Hippodrome. Although parts of the city were destroyed in this
rebellion, Justinian's victory ushered in a new era of absolute imperial rule.

Justinian hoped to recapture the lands lost to the barbarians in the 5th century, and to recreate
the glory of ancient Rome. His military successes were led by Belisarius, who had begun his
military career at the age of 23 when he defeated the Persians at the battle of Daras in 528.
After that he went on to reclaim North Africa and Sicily from invaders. From 535 to 540, he
retook parts of Italy, including Rome, from the Ostrogoths. In 539 he captured Ravenna, the
last stronghold of the barbarians in northern Italy. He then dispatched a Gothic king, nobles,
and royal treasure to Constantinople.

During the reign of Justinian, the Byzantines recaptured parts of southern Spain and made
peace with the Avars (Asian nomads) and the Persians. Many of these military gains were
only temporary, however. Syria fell again to the Persians in 540, the same year that the
Ostrogoths retook parts of Italy. Rome was recaptured by the Ostrogoths in 546. In 567 the
Visigoths reconquered western Spain.

After Justinian, the next great Byzantine emperor was Heraclius, who ruled from 610 to 641.
Like Justinian, he was successful in combat with enemies. Heraclius faced invasions from
Arabs, Avars, Bulgars, and Persians. His military organization relied on a new system first
used in Asia Minor. Heraclius divided Byzantine territories into themes (army districts),
which were ruled by strategoi (military commanders). In each theme, soldiers were given land
by the government. In return, each soldier had to provide a man, a horse, and weapons for
combat when called upon by the theme commander.

These themes provided the empire with an inexpensive native army and an independent class
of farmers. Typically, a commander of a large theme governed 10,000 men. Themes were
further divided into two brigades, each of which had five regiments. Each regiment consisted
of five companies.

In 610, the year Heraclius took the throne, the prophet Mohammed began to preach to the
Arabs a religion that became known as Islam. After 634, rising Islamic forces threatened the
Byzantine Empire. War now became holy war between rival religions. Byzantine armies
began to march behind iconspainted images of Christian holy figuresand looked to these
icons for protection in battle.

The Golden Age of Byzantium

The period from about 641 to 1025 is considered to be the golden age of the Byzantine
Empire. Advances in military strength, religious influence, and the arts made the Byzantines
one of the most powerful forces in the world of the Middle Ages.
The territories of the empire continued to change. Lands were lost to Islam in North Africa,
Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. Arab forces besieged Constantinople in 674 and again in 717.
Slavs and Bulgars threatened Byzantine holdings in the Balkans. Byzantine leaders were able
to protect the empire, however. By the end of this period, the empire once again had far-flung
frontiers and enormous wealth.

Emperor Leo III, known as the Isaurian, turned back Arab assaults on the Byzantines in 718
and 740. His son and successor, Constantine V, also won victories against the Arabs, Syrians,
and Bulgars during his reign from 741 to 775. In 745 Constantine reconquered Syria and, in
746, Cyprus.

The coronation of Basil I of Macedonia in 867 instituted a long dynasty of Macedonian

emperors. After murdering Emperor Michael III, Basil secured the succession to the crown for
his descendants.

Under the Macedonians, Byzantine military might triumphed against the Arabs to the east and
the Bulgars to the north. In 880 Basil retook Italy and rebuilt the imperial army and navy. In
976 the 20-year-old Basil II became sole ruler of the empire. His victory over the Bulgarians
in 1018 after a 20-year campaign, and his orders to blind the Bulgarian soldiers, gained him
the title of Bulgaroktonus, or Bulgar Slayer. In 1018, the Byzantines won further victories
against the Lombards and Normans in Italy, and against the Bulgarians in Macedonia.

The religious identity of the Byzantines underwent profound change during this period. In
particular, the controversy over the use of icons led to the movement called iconoclasm
(image breaking). This in turn paved the way for the final split between the Roman Catholic
and Eastern Orthodox churches.

Iconoclasts argued that the use of icons by such leaders as Heraclius was a pagan rather than
Christian ritual. Religious art, they claimed, should be only of abstract symbols, plants, or
animals. They believed that the growing power of the Arabs was due to the Byzantine sin of
icon worship.

Opponents to iconoclasm, led by the monks, were called iconophiles. In 726 Emperor Leo III
issued the first of many laws against the use of icons. This ushered in the Iconoclastic
Controversy, which lasted until 843. In 731, the Roman pope, Gregory III, countered the
uprising with a threat to expel the iconoclasts from the Catholic church.

The controversy revealed the Eastern Orthodox church to be closer in spirit to the followers of
Islam, to whom the representation of God in human form was blasphemy, than to the Roman
Catholic church. The Eastern church was becoming much more of a national church that saw
the emperor as the union of both religious and political power. The Western church, in
contrast, was independent of state authority and more international in scope.

It was not until 1054 that a permanent split between the two churches occurred. One
indication of the future division was seen on Christmas Day in 800 when Pope Leo III
crowned Charlemagne emperor of the Romans in the West (see Charlemagne). The
Byzantines, who at that time were ruled by Empress Irene, ignored the claims of the new Holy
Roman Empire and of the pope. It was Empress Irene who brought the Iconoclastic
Controversy to an end by restoring the use of images in the Eastern Orthodox church. A
further sign of dissent came in 879, when the pope of Rome and the patriarch of
Constantinople expelled each other from the church by a process called excommunication.

In the time of the Macedonian emperors, Eastern Orthodox churchmen made great strides in
converting pagan peoples. The conversion of the Slavs and the Bulgars to Christianity was
carried out by the Thessalonian monks Cyril and Methodius. These missionaries invented the
Slavonic alphabet (Cyrillic and Glagolitic). The new language brought literacy as well as
Christianity to the converts. At the same time, missionary activities extended Byzantine
influence to Russia and the Balkans.

Byzantine culture continued to flourish. In the arts, poetry revived and scholars produced
encyclopedias, anthologies, studies of classic Greek and Roman texts, and histories. The
University of Constantinople was reorganized. Mosaics and paintings were influenced by a
new church decoration style, in which the church itself represented the world and the dome
represented heaven. In this scheme, a portrait of Christ Pantocrator (Ruler of All) stared down
at worshipers from the dome; the church walls were covered with portraits of other holy
figures.

The Macedonians developed a revision of the Justinian Code, known as the Basilica, and
abolished the last vestige of the old Roman Republicthe Senate. A centralized and highly
ritualized bureaucracy helped the emperor to control an elaborate foreign and diplomatic
service. There were by now more than 30 army districts in Europe and Asia directly
responsible to the emperor in Constantinople. By the opening decades of the 2nd millennium,
the Byzantines had reached the peak of their power.

Decline and Fall of the Byzantine Empire

The era from about 1025 to 1453 witnessed the decline of the Byzantine Empire and its
ultimate destruction. Loss of territory, internal discord, and defeats by the crusaders were
blows from which the empire could not recover. There were new enemies in this erathe
Petcheneg and Seljuk Turks to the east and north, and the Normans and Slavs to the west. In
1064 the Byzantines lost Belgrade to the Hungarians. In 1071 a Turkish victory at the battle of
Manzikert (now Malazgirt) ended Byzantine control in Asia Minor. Also in 1071 the
Byzantines lost their last territory in Italy to Norman invaders.

Internal politics of the empire contributed to its growing weakness. After the death of Basil II
in 1025, 15 emperors reigned in the 56 years until 1081. The rise of Alexius I Comnenus to
power in 1081 restored some stability to Constantinople. The Comnenus family ruled for the
next century, until 1185.

In 1054 the final schism between the churches of Rome and Constantinople occurred. Led by
Pope Leo IX and Cardinal Humbert, the papal legate to Constantinople, the Roman church
excommunicated the head of the Eastern Orthodox church, Patriarch Michael Cerularius. By
this time, the churches differed on a number of important doctrines, including the celibacy of
clergy.

The Crusades, inspired by the Roman Catholic church, undermined the power of the
Byzantine Empire even further. In 1096 the First Crusade, consisting of some 30,000 persons,
converged on Constantinople before going to the Holy Land to free it of Arab domination.
Emperor Alexius I Comnenus provided supplies for the crusaders, but he failed to obtain a
promise from them to recover any of the empire's former territories that they might conquer.
The crusaders, partially out of hostility toward the Eastern Orthodox church, proceeded to raid
Byzantine lands on their way to Palestine (see Crusades).

Tensions between the Byzantine Empire and the Holy Roman Empire were further fueled
when disagreements about trading rights in the Mediterranean Sea led to a war with Venice in
1171. By the Fourth Crusade from 1202 to 1204, these hostilities had reached such a point
that the crusaders invaded and conquered Constantinople. After an orgy of looting and
destruction, the crusaders established a Latin Empire in the city. The first Latin emperor was
Count Baldwin of Flanders.

This so-called empire was confined to the city of Constantinople. Loyal citizens of the
Byzantine Empire relocated in Asia Minor and Greece and in the kingdom of Trebizond near
the Black Sea.

The end of the Byzantine Empire had not yet come. In 1261 a force under Emperor Michael
VIII Palaeologus reconquered Constantinople and destroyed the Latin Empire of the
crusaders.

There followed a final flowering of Byzantine culture. The Eastern church, now secure in its
independence from the Roman Catholic church, grew in prestige and authority. The patriarchs
of Constantinople were respected by other Orthodox churchmen throughout the East. There
was a renewed interest in classical Greek learning and a revival of the arts, especially mosaics
and painting.

From 1341 to 1347, civil war destroyed what was left of the Byzantine economy and domestic
peace. In 1341 the 9-year-old son of Andronicus III Palaeologus became emperor as John V
Palaeologus. He was challenged by his guardian, John Cantacuzenus, who rallied a group of
religious fanatics called Zealots (mystic Christians, also called Hesychasts) to side with him
in his quest for the throne. The Orthodox clergymen sided with John V and his mother, Anna
of Savoy. The resulting civil war led to John Cantacuzenus' victory, but at great cost. The
empire was ravaged by war and dissent, and new attacks by the Serbs, Turks, and Genoese
threatened remaining territories. By 1400 only Constantinople, Salonika, and parts of southern
Greece remained in the empire.

The end of the Byzantine Empire came on May 29, 1453. On that day, the Ottoman Turks, led
by the Sultan Mohammed II, invaded Constantinople. By transporting their boats over land to
join Ottoman assault forces, the Turks bypassed an iron chain stretched across the waters
leading to the city. They used a cannon that was 26 feet (8 meters) long to fire 1,200-pound
(545-kilogram) cannonballs at the walls of Constantinople. The last emperor, Constantine XI
Palaeologus, was killed fighting in the city's defense.

The Turks plundered the city for three days. Then they replaced the crosssymbol of the
Christianswith the crescentsymbol of Islamover St. Sophia. A few Byzantine outposts
fell to the Turks shortly afterAthens in 1456, Morea in 1460, and Trebizond in 1461. With
these communities gone, the last remnants of the Byzantine Empire vanished. However, its
contributions to religion, art and architecture, and political thought endured as a legacy to the
world.

Aztec

Introduction

In the 15th and early 16th centuries, the American Indian people known as the Aztec ruled a
large empire in what is now Mexico. When Hernn Corts and his Spanish soldiers reached
the Valley of Mexico in 1519, they found a splendid city standing on an island in a lake.
Three wide causeways led to huge white palaces and ornate temples on pyramids. This proud
city was Tenochtitln (now Mexico City), capital of the Aztec. Its grandeur showed their
power and wealth. From the city their armies went out to conquer. To the city came tribute
from subject peoplesfoodstuffs, pottery, gold, jade, turquoise, and ornaments. Beside
porters marched captive soldiers who were to be sacrificed on the altars of Aztec gods. When
the Spanish arrived, the Aztec ruled the area from the Gulf of Mexico to the Cordilleras and
southward into what is now Guatemala. However, their emperor, Montezuma II, did not have
a firmly organized empire. When vassal tribes or cities revolted, he had no governors or
standing armies to control them. He had to reconquer them. This weakness in government
helped the Spaniards conquer the warlike Aztec in about two years. Corts was aided
throughout his campaign by rebellious tribes.

The Aztec had the most advanced civilization in North America at the time of Corts, but they
did not originate it. When they invaded the region, they took over the culture of earlier,
advanced peoples the Toltec, Maya, Zapotec, and others. The Aztec came to Mexico in
about AD 1200.

Religion was the great controlling force in Aztec life. In architecture and sculpture they gave
their best efforts to building and decorating huge temples. They had picture writing,
hieroglyphics, and number symbols with which they recorded religious events and historic
annals. They had learned from the Maya how to determine the solar year accurately. With this
knowledge their priests kept an exact solar calendar. An almanac gave dates for fixed and
movable festivals and listed the various deities who held sway over each day and hour.

A trade system linked the far parts of the empire with Tenochtitln. Soldiers guarded the
traders, and troops of porters carried the heavy loads, for the Aztec had no pack animals.
Canoes brought the crops from nearby farms through the canals to markets in Tenochtitln.
Their chief produce included corn (maize), beans, peppers, squash, avocados, tomatoes,
tobacco, cotton, and turkeys. Trade was carried on by barter, since the Aztec had not invented
money. Change could be made in cacao beans.

Life in the Capital

The Aztec used their wealth and power to provide a brilliant life in their capital. Montezuma
lived in a splendid palace. He was surrounded by his nobles and served by thousands of
slaves. In the palace grounds were beautiful gardens and menageries.

The city streets and palace walls were scrubbed dazzlingly white by sweating slaves. Bridges
carried the streets over the network of canals that laced the city. An aqueduct brought
drinking water from Chapultepec, a rocky height nearby.

Strange floating islands fringed the oval main island. They were made of mud dredged up
from the lake bottom, supported on a network of branches and water grass. At first, the
farmers could tow them with canoes. Then, as trees sent down roots, they became permanent
island farms, called chinampas.

Farmers lived in wattle-and-daub huts on these islands. In the older sections of the city
officials lived in houses of stone and adobe. Each house was built around a patio and raised
on a platform for protection against lake floods. Most Aztec were farmers. There were also
traders and craftspeople.

Training of Children

Custom governed many details of child rearingeven the number of tortillas to be fed at
various ages. Children were taught courtesy, respect for their elders, truthfulness, and self-
control.

Aztec boys learned practical tasks from their fathers at home, then went to the house of youth
(called telpuchcalli) at the age of 15. Here older men of each clan taught the boys the duties of
citizenship, religious observances, the history and traditions of their people, and arts and
crafts. Training for war included learning to use the javelin thrower (called the atlatl), bows
and arrows, and wooden war clubs with sharp blades of obsidian. In another school, the
calmecac, boys studied for the priesthood. Girls could learn to be priestesses in temple
schools.

Tribal Organization

Aztec tribes were divided into families and clans. Each clan had its own elected officials and
sent representatives to the council of the tribe. The council appointed officials to govern the
four quarters (phratries) in which the city was organized. The council also elected and
advised the supreme chief, who led the tribe in wars and alliances. A second chief supervised
internal affairs. Although the system was theoretically democratic, actually the chiefs were
selected from powerful families. The priesthood had a strong influence in tribal affairs but
probably took no active part in government.

Land was held in common by the tribes. The council apportioned shares to heads of families.
They controlled the land, however, only as long as it was cultivated. Sections were also
farmed to provide food for chiefs and priests.

Strict laws and courts protected common citizens and even slaves from many forms of
injustice. Crimes and disorder were severely suppressed. Theft of growing corn was punished
by slavery or execution.

The Aztec worshiped a host of gods who personified the forces of nature. To obtain the gods'
aid, the worshipers performed penances and took part in innumerable elaborate rituals and
ceremonies. Human sacrifice played an important part in the rites. Since life was man's most
precious possession, the Aztec reasoned, it was the most acceptable gift for the gods. As the
Aztec nation grew powerful, more and more sacrifices were needed to keep the favor of the
gods. At the dedication of the great pyramid temple in Tenochtitln, 20,000 captives were
killed. They were led up the steps of the high pyramid to the altar, where chiefs and priests
took turns at slitting open their bodies and tearing out their hearts.

The Aztec sometimes practiced cannibalism; that is, they ate the flesh of their victims,
believing that they would then absorb the virtues of the slain. The sacrificed victims were
thought to win a high place in paradise. The need for collecting captives led Aztec warriors to
seek prisoners instead of killing their enemies in battle.

The Spaniards were horrified by these Aztec rites, and after the conquest they ruthlessly
destroyed the temples in order to blot out the old faith. The friars who came to convert the
Indians to Christianity and to educate them added to the destruction by burning records and
shattering idols. They frequently built a Christian church on the rubble left when the old
temple was torn down.

History of the Aztec Nation

The Aztec are believed to have come from the north. They spoke the Nahuan, or Nahuatl,
language. This tongue belongs to the Uto-Aztecan linguistic stock. It is related to the
languages of the Piman and Shoshonean tribes of the western United States.

Aztec legends reveal the early Aztec as a nomadic farming people, wandering about in search
of fertile land. In the Valley of Mexico they fought with the settled tribes and at times were
forced to serve them. Finally they took refuge on islands in the shallow lakes and founded
Tenochtitln on the site of what is now Mexico City in about 1325.

Here they prospered and reached out to win new lands. They allied themselves with other
Nahua tribes. Soon the Tenocha Aztec dominated the Aztec Confederacy. They were at the
height of their power when the Spaniards attacked them. The Indians living in the Mexico
City region today are largely descendants of those whom Corts conquered. (See also Middle
American Indian.)

Middle American Indian

Introduction

The Indians of the Middle America culture area traditionally lived in a region that extends
southward from what is now northern Mexico to Honduras. The heartland of Middle America
is the central valley of Mexico. It is enclosed by mountains: the two Sierra Madre ranges on
the east and west and a volcanic range that links them. In the southeastern part of Middle
America lie the Chiapas-Guatemala highlands. Along the coasts are lowlands. There is
tremendous variety in ecology, climate, and soil, all of which influenced the cultures of the
peoples who lived there.

Traditional Culture

Peoples and Languages

Middle American peoples spoke hundreds of languages. Most of them belonged to one of
three language groups: the Mayan (or Macro-Mayan), the Oto-Manguean, or the Uto-Aztecan.
Each of these groups included a number of language families.

Mayan-speaking peoples lived in southeastern Middle America. They occupied a large

territory in what are now southern Mexico, Guatemala, and northern Belize. One Mayan
group, the Huastec, lived in the northeast. The people known as the Maya developed a great
civilization that peaked in about AD 900 and then quickly declined.

Speakers of Oto-Manguean languages occupied a wide area that centered on what is now the
Mexican state of Oaxaca. They separated Uto-Aztecan peoples to the north and east from
Mayan and other peoples to the south. Among the notable Oto-Manguean peoples were the
Mixtec and the Zapotec. Both had large, powerful kingdoms at the time of the Spanish
conquest in 1519.

The dominant group in Middle America when the Spanish arrived, however, was the Aztec.
Through conquest, the Aztec had created an empire with a population of 5 to 6 million people.
Their Uto-Aztecan language, Nhuatl, spread throughout Middle America as their empire
expanded. Uto-Aztecan is the only Middle American family that also includes languages
spoken north of Mexico, including those of such western U.S. Indians as the Hopi, Paiute, and
Shoshone.

The Tarasco people lived in the mountains of what is now the state of Michoacn in western
Mexico. They resisted Aztec attempts at conquest and built up their own empire. Their
language, Tarascan, is not known to be related to any other.
Food

Agriculture was the base of Middle American cultures. The Indians planted a great many
crops, of which corn (maize), beans, and squash were the most important. Others included
chili peppers, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava, cotton, cacao, pineapples, papayas, peanuts
(groundnuts), and avocados. Many crops could be raised only in certain environmental zones,
which encouraged trade between regions.

Farming was most intensive in the highlands, where farmers used a variety of special
techniques. In places with sloping land, farmers created terraces (stepped fields) to control
erosion. The terraces were constructed of either earth and maguey (a hard fiber taken from the
agave plant) or stone. In some places people built irrigation canals to water their fields. A
unique feature of Middle American agriculture was the use of chinampas. These artificial
islands were built up above the surface of a lake using mud and vegetation from the lake
floor. After settling, the chinampa was a rich planting bed. Tenochtitln, the Aztec capital,
depended on chinampas for much of its food.

In the lowlands, people typically practiced slash-and-burn farming. First, toward the end of
the dry season, a patch of forest was selected for planting. Next, a band of bark would be
removed from the trunks of larger trees (the slash), which caused the tree to die and shed its
leaves. Then the undergrowth and smaller trees were burned and cleared away. The new field
was ready to be planted in time for the first rains. After a few years of planting, the fertility of
the soil declined, weeds increased, and the field was abandoned to the forest. The slash-and-
burn system was often supplemented by raised-field farming in the lowlands. The Indians
built small earthen hills for planting in shallow lakes or marshy areas, similar to the
chinampas of the highlands. In addition, farmers constructed terraces in some lowland
regions.

The diet was similar throughout Middle America. The Indians boiled dried corn to soften the
hull and then ground it into cornmeal. They used dough made of cornmeal and water to make
thin, flat bread called tortillas. The tortillas were eaten with sauces prepared from chili
peppers and tomatoes, along with boiled beans. They also mixed ground corn with water to
make a drink called posol. At higher altitudes they made pulque, an alcoholic drink, from the
fermented sap of the agave plant. Luxury foods included cocoa drinks, meats, and fish. Meat
came from small game or from the only two important domestic animals, the dog and the
turkey.

Settlements and Housing

With their long history of farming, Middle American peoples established villages earlier than
most other Indians. The basic requirement for settlement was water, and the main settlement
sites were near major rivers and high valley lakes. Through the years, as their farming skills
improved, their settlements grew larger. Some developed into great cities, such as
Tenochtitln, the Aztec capital. Tenochtitln covered more than 5 square miles (13 square
kilometers) and had about 140,000 to 200,000 residents at its height. The great Mayan cities
of the lowlandsincluding Tikal, Palenque, and Copndeclined after 900. In the highlands
of the Yucatn Peninsula, however, Mayan cities such as Chichn Itz, Uxmal, and Mayapn
continued to flourish for hundreds more years.

When the Spanish arrived in the early 1500s, however, most Middle American Indians lived
in fairly small rural villages. Houses in the villages were typically made of adobe bricks or a
pole frame covered with plant material and mud. The roof was thatched.

Among the Aztec, the type of house in which a person lived was based on wealth and social
class. The upper classes lived in two-story palaces of stone, plaster, and concrete. Merchants
and the rest of the middle class typically had one-story adobe houses. Each house was built
around a patio and raised on a platform for protection against lake floods. Commoners lived
in small huts.

Clothing

Middle American Indians wore different kinds of clothing depending on their social status.
Commoners had simple clothing woven from rough maguey fiber. Men wore a breechcloth
covered by a cloak, while women wore a skirt and a blouse. The upper classes wore brightly
colored cotton garments that were often lavishly dyed and decorated. Priests and nobles
adorned themselves with jewelry and sometimes feather headdresses. Among the Aztec,
turquoise jewelry and turquoise-colored clothing could be worn only by the emperor.

Technology and Arts

The advanced cultures of Middle America are especially remarkable considering that their
technology was quite simple. Their tools were made mostly of chipped and ground stone, and
with no large domesticated animals available, all power was based on human energy. In
farming, the Indians used stone axes to clear vegetation and wooden digging tools to work the
soil. They ground corn into dough on milling stones called manos and metates.

Stone and concrete architecture was a notable skill of the Middle American Indians. Another
was woodworking. They made large dugout canoes, sculpture, drums, stools, and a great
variety of household items. They worked metalsgold, copper, and sometimes silverto
produce jewelry and some tools. Their ceramics included pottery, figurines, and musical
instruments. A variety of gourd vessels of many sizes and shapes were artistically painted
using local materials and techniques. Among their other crafts were stone sculpture and
basket making. Some groups were known for their skills in a particular craftfor example,
sculpture among the Aztec, ceramics among the Mixtec, and architecture among the Zapotec.
Society

The basic social units among Middle American peoples were nuclear and extended families,
with male members and elders dominating. Family ties were typically traced through both the
father's and the mother's sides. On a larger scale, Middle American peoples tended to organize
themselves into political units with a central government. People were commonly ranked in
social classes, with priests holding positions of great respect and authority.

Among the Aztec, an extended-family household usually consisted of a married couple, their
married sons (or the husband's married brothers), and their families. A number of households,
varying from dozens to several hundred, were organized into a group called a calpulli.
Calpulli lands were owned communally but were distributed among various households. The
household had the right to use the land, but only the calpulli as a whole could sell or rent it.
Some calpulli communities consisted of a cluster of houses surrounded by their farmland.
Others had houses spread throughout the land holdings. The calpulli was ruled by a council of
household heads led by a chief selected by the council.

Above the level of the calpulli was the state. Most states in Middle America were small; the
Aztec Empire and other large states were exceptions. Just before the Aztec expansion there
were 50 or 60 such states in Mexico's central valley. When the Spanish arrived, these states
had an average population of 25,000 to 30,000 people. In less densely settled areas, the
territories were larger and populations smaller. The range of size was from a few thousand up
to 100,000.

The average small state included a central town with a population of several thousand. The
rest of the people lived in rural calpullis. At the head of the state was a ruler called the
tlatoani. The ruler lived in a large, multiroom masonry palace with a great number of wives,
children, and other relations as well as servants and professional craftsmen. He was carried in
a sedan chair in public and was treated with great respect. His many powers included
promoting men to higher military status, organizing military campaigns, and collecting taxes
from calpulli chiefs. He was assisted by a large staff, including priests, military leaders,
judges, tax collectors, and accountants.

Aztec society was based on a complex hierarchy. At the top was the ruling class, consisting of
priests and nobles. At the bottom were the serfs and slaves. Serfs worked on private and state-
owned rural estates; slaves were used mostly for human sacrifice. A man could move up in
class through promotions, usually as a reward for valor in war; women were similarly
rewarded for braving the dangers of childbirth. Certain occupationssuch as merchants,
goldsmiths, and featherworkerswere given more prestige than others.

Middle American peoples traded extensively with one another. Agricultural products, luxury
items, and other goods were exchanged at well-organized markets. Trade linked the far parts
of the Aztec Empire with Tenochtitln. Soldiers guarded the traders, and troops of porters
carried the heavy loads. Canoes brought the crops from nearby farms through the canals to
markets in Tenochtitln. Trade was carried on by barter, since the Aztec had not invented
money. Change could be made in cacao beans.
The intellectual achievements of the Middle American peoples included the creation of an
accurate calendar. It was based on observation of the heavens by the priests, who were also
astronomers. The Aztec calendar was common in much of the region. It included a solar year
of 365 days and a sacred year of 260 days. An almanac gave dates for fixed and movable
religious festivals and listed the various gods who held sway over each day and hour.

Another great achievement of Middle American civilization was writing. Books were made
from deerskin or bark paper. They recorded calendars, astronomical tables, taxes, court
records, and the history of rulers.

Religion

Religion was a powerful force in Middle American life. The people worshipped a host of all-
powerful gods. Some gods were male while others were female. Some personified the forces
of nature, such as the sun and the rain. Others were associated with basic human activities,
such as war, reproduction, and agriculture. There were also gods of craft groups, social
classes, and governments.

Quetzalcatl, the Feathered Serpent, was part god and part culture hero. With his companion
Xolotl, a dog-headed god, he was said to have descended underground to gather the bones of
the ancient dead. He sprinkled the bones with his own blood, giving birth to humanity.
Quetzalcatl was also revered as the patron of priests, the inventor of the calendar and of
books, and the protector of goldsmiths and other craftsmen. As the morning and evening star,
Quetzalcatl was the symbol of both death and resurrection. To obtain the gods' aid,
worshippers performed penances and took part in innumerable elaborate rituals and
ceremonies. Each god had one or more special ceremonies, in which offerings and sacrifices
were made to gain the god's favor. Masked performers acted out myths in the form of dances,
songs, and processionals. Human sacrifice played an important part in the rites, especially
among the Aztec. Since life was humankind's most precious possession, the Aztec reasoned, it
was the most acceptable gift for the gods. As the Aztec Empire grew powerful, more and
more sacrifices were needed to keep the favor of the gods. The need for collecting captives
led Aztec warriors to seek prisoners instead of killing their enemies in battle. At the
dedication of the great pyramid temple in Tenochtitln, records indicate 20,000 captives were
killed. They were led up the steps of the high pyramid to the altar, where chiefs and priests
took turns at slitting open their bodies and tearing out their hearts.

Ceremonies were led by professional priests. They acted as a link between the gods and
human beings. Priests were required to live a simple life. They performed constant self-
sacrifice by passing barbed cords through their tongue and ears. In this way they offered their
own blood to the gods.

European Contact and Cultural Change

When the Spanish arrived in the early 1500s, the Aztec Empire extended over most of Middle
America. The empire fell to the Spanish. led by Hernn Corts, in 1521. From there the
Spanish went on to conquer Guatemala in 1524 and, after overcoming strong resistance from
the Indians, the northwest.

The Spanish overthrew the urbanized, class-structured high civilization of the Aztec. They
removed the Indian ruling class and placed themselves at the height of society. They also
brought new farming methods and crops, horses, cattle, wheels, iron, mines, and new forms of
political and economic organization.

In the early colonial period following the conquest, a small minority of Spaniards
administered and controlled vast Indian populations. Roman Catholicism, the religion of the
conquerors, spread rapidly, as did many of their domesticated plants and animals. In this
period the Indians were grouped into villages modeled on the European grid plan, with a
central plaza on which stood the church and town hall. The Indians lost control of their land
through the encomienda system. An encomienda was a grant of land and Indian labor to a
Spanish conquistador, soldier, or official. In the later colonial period encomiendas were
abolished and replaced by the estates called haciendas, but the Indian workers continued to
struggle. In theory they were free, but in practice their employers could bind them to the land,
especially by keeping them in debt. At the same time cattle ranching and mining operations
grew, with Indian lands taken over at an increasing rate.

Mexico and Guatemala became independent of Spain in 1821. The new national governments
did little to address the concerns of the Indian peasants. In fact, the Indians were seen as an
obstacle to the processes of nation building and economic development. The consequences for
the Indians were drastic, with an increase in land-grabbing and anti-Indian social policies.
These pressures united Indians in opposition and made them determined to keep their
communities intact, even at a low economic level.

In the Mexican Revolution that began in 1910, the Indians won a place in Mexico's political
structure. The government began to return some land to the Indians, and it adopted policies
that aimed to incorporate Indians into national economic and political life. Nevertheless, most
Indians in Mexico and the rest of Middle America remained very poor and saw their rights
ignored. In the late 20th century these conditions spurred Middle American Indians to
political action. In Guatemala native peasants fought repressive military governments in a 36-
year civil war that ended in 1996. Brutal government tactics resulted in the deaths of about
200,000 mostly unarmed citizens. In Mexico a group called the Zapatista National Liberation
Army rebelled against the government in 1994 to demand Indian rights. In later years that
group held massive protests throughout Mexico.

In this same period Middle American Indians experienced increased access to material goods
and the global economy. They generally accepted technological changes that improved their
economic position and resisted externally imposed changes that affected their traditional
social life.

Holy Roman Empire

Introduction

From Christmas Day in AD 800 until Aug. 6, 1806, there existed in Europe a peculiar
political institution called the Holy Roman Empire. The name of the empire as it is known
today did not come into general use until 1254. It has truly been said that this political
arrangement was not holy, or Roman, or an empire. Any holiness attached to it came from the
claims of the popes in their attempts to assert religious control in Europe. It was Roman to the
extent that it tried to revive, without success, the political authority of the Roman Empire in
the West as a countermeasure to the Byzantine Empire in the East. It was an empire in the
loosest sense of the wordat no time was it able to consolidate unchallenged political control
over the vast territories it pretended to rule. There was no central government, no unity of
language, no common system of law, no sense of common loyalty among the many states
within it. Over the centuries the empire's boundaries shifted and shrank drastically.

Origins

The original Roman Empire ended in Italy and Western Europe in AD 476, when the last
emperorRomulus Augustuluswas deposed. Political power passed to Constantinople
(now Istanbul), the capital of the Byzantine Empire. Theoretically Constantinople included all
of Europe in its domain. Realistically, however, this proved impossible, as barbarian
kingdoms were established throughout Western Europe. The only figure in the West who had
any claim to universal authority was the pope in Rome, and he was legally bishop of Rome,
confirmed in his position by the Byzantine emperor.

By the 8th century, Byzantine control of Italy had vanished. The Lombard kingdom of
northern Italy had driven out the emperor's representative in Ravenna in 751. There were also
strong religious differences between the pope and the church in Constantinopledifferences
that would lead to a complete break in 1054. Confronted with this situation, the Roman popes
sought political protection from the only people who would give itthe kings of the Franks,
the strongest power north of the Alps. In 754 the Frankish king Pippin the Short invaded Italy
and conquered the Lombard kingdom. Two years later he assigned the former Byzantine
territory around Ravenna to the pope. This was the birth of the Papal States of Italy, which
would endure until the unification of Italy in the 19th century.

This close cooperation between popes and the Frankish kings would have far-reaching
consequences. It laid the basis for centuries of conflict between emperors and popes over who
had the supreme authority in Europe. According to the popes, the empire was the political arm
of the church. The emperors, on the other hand, saw themselves as directly responsible to
God, and they relied on conquest and control for their power.

There is little doubt that the popes hoped to become the successors of emperors in the West.
Since this was politically impossible, the next best solution was to assert religious control by
means of political institutions. On Dec. 25, 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor
during a service at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome (see Charlemagne). The act was illegal,
because popes never had the right to crown emperors. The crowning did nothing for
Charlemagne. He was as before king of the Franks and Lombards and the most powerful
monarch in Europe. The main practical outcome of Leo's act was to complete the separation
between East and West. It thereby set up a rivalry with Constantinople, a rivalry in which
neither side had a real advantage. Most significantly the coronation involved the new emperor
and his successors in the political pretensions of the papacy.

Charlemagne's Empire

The empire lasted as long as it did because the idea was politically and religiously appealing
to the peoples and rulers of Europe. It did not endure unbroken, however. Charlemagne's
kingdom did not remain whole very long after his death. His domains were fragmented by his
successors. The last of his descendants to hold the title of emperor was Charles III the Fat
(88187). From 888 France, Germany, and Italy were separate states (though not unified
nations by any means). A succession of emperors, mostly nominees of the popes, followed
Charles. With the death of the last of these in 924, the powerful Roman family of the
Crescentii abolished the title of emperor in Italyat least for a time.

Rise of the Germanic Empire

The imperial title had died temporarily in Italy, but it persisted north of the Alps. It was a
notion of empire that had nothing to do with Rome. By the middle of the 10th century there
were two Frankish kingdomseast and west. The West Kingdom was composed largely of
today's France. The East Frankish Kingdom was Germanic. From this time the Holy Roman
Empire was to be basically Germanic, though it maintained pretensions of rule over greater
territory, including Italy. In the German lands the kings were Saxon, not Frankish.

Otto I (died 973) was the first of the Saxon kings powerful enough to assert control over
Germany and Italy. He was crowned emperor by Pope John XII in 962. Although he held the
title, he made no pretense of governing the East Frankish lands. From his reign the empire
was to be a union of German states and northern Italy.

Otto I did not claim the title of Roman emperor, but his descendants did. Otto II did so to
proclaim his rivalry with the emperor at Constantinople. Otto III (ruled 9831002) made
Rome his capital. He felt himself to be the political power by which Christian domination
would spread throughout Europe. Popes were subject to him and his successors down to
Henry III (103956). By that time effective rule over Germany and Italy together had become
impracticable. Distance alone made it difficult.

Reassertion of Papal Power

For more than 200 years, from 1056 until 1273, the popes made a political comeback. Some
very strong-minded individuals were elected popeamong them, Gregory VII and Innocent
III were the most notable. They wasted no time in refuting the pretensions of the emperors to
control the church.

It was the Investiture Controversy that brought matters to a head. At issue was the question
whether political figures, such as emperors and kings, had the right to appoint bishops and
heads of monasteries and to invest them with the symbols of their office. At the heart of the
issue was the place of the emperor in Christian society, especially his relationship with the
papacy. It was Pope Gregory VII (pope 107385) who initiated the controversy in 1076 by
stating that only the pope had the right to crown emperors, just as it was his right to appoint
bishops and other church officials. The controversy was brought to a close in 1122 by an
agreement between Pope Calixtus II and Emperor Henry V, but future popes revived the issue
as they saw fit.

The era of the Hohenstaufen emperors (11381254, except for the years 11981214) was a
time of almost unceasing conflict between popes and emperors (see Hohenstaufen Dynasty).
The greatest of these, Frederick I Barbarossa, added the word holy to the name of his empire
to balance the claims of the Holy Church. He emphasized continuity with the past, going back
to the days of Charlemagne. His rights as emperor, he determined, were not based on the deed
of Leo III but on the territorial conquest of the Franks. Lawyers for the emperors argued
against the popes, saying that he who is chosen by the election of the princes alone is the true
emperor. The emperors were generally chosen by this time through an election held by
German princes.

The conflicts with the popes drew the Hohenstaufen emperors into Italian politics. The
temptation to control Italy, and thus Rome, was persistent. Henry VI married the heiress to
Sicily, and the Norman Kingdom of Sicily was used to restore imperial power in Italy. The
popes reacted vigorously to this threat. They found allies in their opposition to the emperors,
and by 1245 it was possible to depose Frederick II. His death in 1250 effectively ended the
Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages. Over the next two decades the imperial structure
fell apart in Italy.

Hapsburg Rulers

If most of Italy was lost, the empire maintained itself north of the Alps in Germany for several
centuries. It became little more than a coalition of German states, each with its own ruler.
When Rudolf I of the House of Hapsburg became German king in 1273, he was the head of a
federation of German princes. He abandoned all claims to the center and south of Italy and
retained only nominal title to the north. (The north of Italy was not entirely free of Hapsburg
domination until after World War I.) After him only four emperors were crowned by a pope
or his delegate. The last was Charles V, a Hapsburg who was also king of Spain.
By the end of the Middle Ages, any hope of reviving anything like a real empire in Europe
had become impossible. France and Spain were the most powerful kingdoms in Europe. Both
were contending for control of the continent. The weak and disunited German states were in
no position to establish any kind of control, even within their own boundaries. (Germany did
not become united until 1870.) Charles IV therefore set out to make the empire a solely
German institution. By an agreement with Pope Clement V, he abandoned Italy. He went to
Rome for his coronation on April 5, 1355. He then refashioned the empire into the Holy
Roman Empire of the German Nation.

From then the empire was essentially part of the history of Germany. A few emperors, notably
Charles V, entertained a larger vision of power, but there was no way for him to unite his
Spanish and Austrian possessions with Germany as long as France stood in the way. (See also
Germany, History.)

The 16th-century Reformation in the church further divided the weak empire. Germany was
split into two religious camps, and the emperor was little more than the head of a religious
faction. The electors, the real heads of the German states, were entrenched by virtue of
championing either Roman Catholicism or Lutheranism.

The Thirty Years' War, originally a religious conflict, devastated Germany and further
weakened what little reality the empire had left. No emperor afterward ever tried to establish a
central authority. (See also Thirty Years' War.)

The end came with Napoleon. For several centuries France had been intending to annex at
least the fringes of the empire. It had never happened. When Napoleon carried his wars
eastward, however, he was resolved to terminate the reign of Emperor Francis II (later Francis
I of Austria). The emperor saw what was coming, and he resigned his title on Aug. 6, 1806.
The empire ceased to exist as a political reality. It persisted for some time as an ideal. It was
used as an inspiration for the German Empire of 1870 and more so by Adolf Hitler's Third
Reich (Empire) in the 1930s.

Incas

When the gold-seeking Spanish conquistadors reached Peru in 1532, they encountered the
vast empire of a Quechua-speaking people called the Incas. The great civilization of the Incas
extended along the Pacific coast of South America from modern Ecuador southward to central
Chile and inland across the Andes. The Incas had conquered this vast territory in a single
century, and they ruled its people through a highly organized government. Quechua became
widely spoken throughout the empire, and the Quechuan languages remain the dominant
indigenous language group in the central Andes.

In their capital, at Cuzco in Peru, lived the emperorcalled The Incawho was regarded
as a god on Earth. The nobles were a strong and gifted group. They developed among the
people great skill in handicrafts, building, and architecture, and they accumulated fabulous
wealth in gold and silver.
Many remains of Inca civilization may still be seen scattered over the central highlands of the
Andes. Towering above Cuzco are stupendous ramparts made of huge individual stones
some 20 feet (6 meters) high and weighing many tons. No mortar was used, yet after centuries
these stones lie so perfectly fitted together that it is impossible to insert a knife blade between
them. Terraced fields, some of more than 50 steps, still climb the mountainsides. Long
stone causeways show that irrigation was extensive.

The Incas had no form of writing, but they kept records by means of an intricate system of
knotted cords called quipus. Historians believe these cords recorded crop production and
possibly were used as a basis of taxation. If crops failed in one locality, the government's
records would show where produce was more abundant, and the shortage could be made up
by drawing on public warehouses in those districts. The farmers of the Inca empire were the
first to grow potatoes. They also had a hand in improving other wild plants. Among their
important crops were Indian corn, sweet potatoes, and cassava. The Incas rode llamas and also
used them as beasts of burden.

The craftspeople of the Incan empire practiced every style of hand weaving known today.
They also knew how to smelt metals and cast in molds. The gold artifacts and pottery that
have survived reveal the extraordinary craftsmanship of the Incan artisans. Incan art forms
also included music; among the remains of their civilization are found flutes made of bone
and of cane, clay trumpets and trumpets of shells, and bells of different tonessome made of
bronze, some of pure copper. The Incans built paved roads with suspension bridges and
posthouses over the wildest mountain ranges and through the coastal desert.

By the time the Spaniards arrived, however, the empire had been weakened by civil war. The
fall of the Incas to Francisco Pizarro and his handful of men is considered one of the tragedies
of history (see Pizarro, Francisco). After a few disastrous rebellions, the spirit of the people
was broken. Oppression continued through centuries. By the end of the 20th century there
were fewer than 3 million individuals of direct Inca descent. The ancient population is said to
have been between 8 and 10 million. (See also Peru.)

Peru

Introduction

This South American land of arid coasts, high Andes Mountains, and Amazon rainforest is
more than three times the size of the U.S. state of California and, covering 496,218 square
miles (1,285,198 square kilometers), is equal to Spain, France, and the United Kingdom
combined. Peru is the third largest country in South America after Brazil and Argentina and
the fourth in Latin America (which includes Mexico). With nearly 30 million people, it is also
the fifth most populous Latin American nation. The capital and largest city is Lima. Peru is
bordered by the Pacific Ocean on its long western coast and by Ecuador and Colombia to the
north, Brazil to the east, Bolivia to the southeast, and Chile to the south. Tourists and
archaeologists flock from around the world to Lake Titicaca and ancient Inca sites such as
Machu Picchu, Cajamarca, and Cuzco. Peru's pre-Incan ruins are also famous, from the
massive adobe walls of Chan Chan on the northern coast to the Nazca Lines on the southern
coastal plain. For all its wonders, however, Peru is also a land of social inequality, with
impoverished millions on the one hand, a small percentage of wealthy elites on the other, and
a struggling middle class between them.

Land and Climate

Peru's landscape consists of three regions stretched north to south: the dry coastal plain
(locally called the Costa) in the west, the Andes Mountains (also called the Sierra) in the
center, and, in the east, the vast Amazon rainforest (usually called the Selva, and sometimes
La Montaa). The Costa, less than 100 miles (160 kilometers) wide, blends in the south with
Chile's Atacama Desert. The adjoining ocean has cold waters, plentiful fishing, and small
islands covered in nitrate-rich guano (bird droppings), a source of fertilizer. The volcanic and
earthquake-prone Andes rise to snowcapped peaks including the country's highest point,
Mount Huascarn, at 22,205 feet (6,768 meters). However, most of the central and western
peaks provide a dry, brown panorama. The Andes of southeastern Peru surround the Altiplano
(high plateau) and Lake Titicaca, which is shared with Bolivia. Peru's longest rivers are
Amazonian tributaries such as the Napo, Maran, and Ucayali. In the well-watered Selva,
temperatures vary little by season but can range from about 60 F (15 C) at night to the mid-
90s F (mid-30s C) in daytime. Coastal temperatures average 59 to 61 F (15 to 16 C) in
winter months (June to October) and 72 F (22 C) in summer, but conditions are sometimes
hot and muggy. There is little rainfall, but dew is produced by ocean fogs called gara,
especially in winter. In the thin mountain air temperatures drop with altitude, and though the
tropical sun burns skin during the daytime, nights can be chilly and even freezing. As a result,
Cuzco averages 52 F (11 C) in January and 47 F (8 C) in July, but from day to night,
temperatures can drop 40 F (22 C) or more. Mountain streams and glaciers nourish
irrigation agriculture and supply drinking water for many cities. On the coast and in the
mountains, dry conditions persist for two reasons: first, the cold Peru, or Humboldt, Current
causes gara but limits rainfall; and second, the Andes block humid winds from the Amazon.

Plants and Animals

There is little plant life on the coast outside of river valleys, although marine life is abundant.
In the Andes two camel cousins, llamas and alpacas, have long been domesticated as wool-
providing and pack-bearing animals. A related species, the vicua, is protected by law. The
large Andean condor inhabits remote cliffs and caves. Quinoa and the potato are considered
native to highland Peru and Bolivia. The Peruvian section of the Amazon has an astounding
array of plant and animal life, from trees, vines, and water plants to tapirs, caimans, pumas,
and millions of insects. (See also Amazon River.)

People and Culture

With a blend of Spanish, indigenous, and other cultures, Peru boasts of its grand Inca heritage
but still dreams of a stable and prosperous future. It struggles to support a population that has
swollen from 4.8 million in 1920 (with 5 percent living in Lima-Callao) to 8 million in 1950
(with 13 percent in Lima-Callao), 13.5 million in 1970 (with over 25 percent in the capital),
18 million in 1981, and nearly 30 million today. About 75 percent live in towns and cities,
chiefly on the coast and in the Andes.

Most Peruvians speak Spanish, although some Amerindians speak only Quechua or Aymara;
all three are official languages. More than half of Peruvians are Amerindians, one in three are
mestizos (of mixed heritage), and one in eight are whites (of European ancestry). Smaller
numbers are of Japanese, Chinese, African, or other heritage.

More than 96 percent of Peruvians describe themselves as Christian, including Roman

Catholics (85 percent) and Protestants (7 percent, mostly Pentecostals), and smaller numbers
follow traditional religions. Many practice syncretic (blended) beliefs that combine aspects of
Catholicism and Quechua, Aymara, or other Amerindian religions.

Art and literature

Peru has proud artistic roots dating from Chavn vases and sculptures (1500 BC and earlier)
and colorful Moche (Mochica) ceramics imitating people, animals, and plants. From remote
villages to Internet Web sites, Peruvians still create art that is indebted to the ancient Andes.

The Incas used knotted strings (quipus) to keep records, but most scholars doubt that they had
a true writing system. Peru's first literature therefore dates to conquistadors and chroniclers
like Pedro de Cieza de Len. In 1609 the son of an Inca princess and a conquistador,
Garcilaso de la Vega, wrote a history called the Royal Commentaries of the Incas. In 161215
Felipe Guamn Poma de Ayala criticized abuses against the Indians in his First New
Chronicle and Good Government. In the 1800s the social critic Manuel Gonzlez Prada
lamented the glorification of war, and Ricardo Palma compiled heartwarming tales and
legends. Clorinda Matto de Turner's Birds Without a Nest (1889) can be regarded as modern
Peru's first Indianista (pro-Indian) novel.

Andean literature gained depth in the 1900s with the essayist Jos Carlos Maritegui and the
groundbreaking poet Csar Vallejo. Three Indianista novelists also appeared: Luis Valcarcel;
Ciro Alegra, who wrote The Golden Serpent (1935), The Hungry Dogs (1939), and Broad
and Alien Is the World (1941); and Jos Mara Arguedas, who wrote Yawar Fiesta (1941) and
Deep Rivers (1958). Many recent writers have focused on the Amazon, magical realism,
social ills, and women's experiences. Mario Vargas Llosa produced the best sellers The Time
of the Hero (1963), Death in the Andes (1993), and The Feast of the Goat (2000). Influential
newspapers and magazines such as the political weekly Caretas are based in Lima.

Theater, film, and television

The ancient Andean penchant for spectacle is recalled every year in Cuzco's massive, outdoor
Inti Raymi (Festival of the Sun). Street theater is commonly practiced in passion plays and
processions, most notably during Holy Week at Eastertime and the annual Lord of the
Miracles event in Lima. The chief indoor playhouse is Lima's Municipal Theater.

Moviegoers spend a great deal of money on imported Hollywood films. Nevertheless,

Peruvians have created critically acclaimed movies such as The Green Wall (1970), in which
a young family confronts bureaucracy and the rainforest; The City and the Dogs (1985), based
on Mario Vargas Llosa's novel about boys in a military academy; Juliana (1988), dealing with
kids in shantytowns; The Lion's Den (1988) and You Only Live Once (1992), which both
uncover the horrors of the dirty war; and Madeinusa (2006), a Spanish-Peruvian
production. The most popular TV programs are nighttime telenovelas (soap operas), most of
which are imported, variety shows, news, and sports shows.

Sports, music, and dance

Soccer (association football) is played throughout Peru on fields of grass or dirt, and
Peruvians also play a version called futbito (little football) on basketball courts or in other
limited spaces. Many parks feature walls for a type of paddleball called paleta frontn. Those
who can afford steep fees attend horse races, tennis, bowling, sharp-shooting, or other sports
at exclusive clubs. Volleyball, basketball, and cycling are also enjoyed.

Peruvian music is an astounding blend of ancient, modern, local, and imported styles. Crowds
still attend concerts of, and dance to, traditional huaynos, marineras, and Andean music with
its distinctive quena flute, charango (armadillo-shell guitar), panpipes, and drums. Caribbean-
and African-influenced styles have long been popular for dancing, including cumbia and
salsa. Among Peru's world renowned musicians have been songwriters such as Carmen Oll
and Nicomedes Santa Cruz, the singer Yma Sumac (Ima Sumack), and more recent rock and
pop artists such as Miki Gonzalez, Los Nosequien y Los Nosecuantos, Arena Hash, Libido,
and Mar de Copas.

Food, drink, and daily life

Daily life, like other aspects of culture, is greatly influenced by gender, religion, ethnicity, and
income. Many households support members of three generations, including newlyweds who
may work and save money for years before moving out on their own. When schedules permit,
families unite at midday or early afternoon for soup and a main course, the day's largest meal.
Peruvians are generally relaxed about time, and social events often begin late.

Open-air markets are usually bustling, even in cities with modern retail centers and upscale
grocery stores. Basic staple foods include potatoes, rice, beans, and, in coastal and Amazonian
areas, fish and shellfish. Guinea pigs (cuy) have been a delicacy since at least Inca times.
There are many tasty regional dishes, such as rocoto relleno (stuffed hot peppers) served with
potatoes and cheese in Arequipa, and papa a la huancaina (Huancayo-style potatoes). But
these dishes increasingly compete with pizza and other fast foods. Soft drinks vary from
Coca-Cola to Inca Kola, and popular fermented drinks include beer, wine, a traditional corn-
beer called chicha, and pisco (a brandy). Although drug smugglers chemically process coca
into cocaine, natural coca leaves are legally chewed (like chewing tobacco) or made into a
mild herbal tea.

Education and Social Welfare

Peru has numerous universities and technical institutes in its cities, including Lima's
prestigious National University of San Marcos. Funding for libraries, computers, books, and
other resources are scarce in universities, however, and severely lacking in secondary and
primary schools, except for wealthier private schools. Literacy rates are climbing, but more
than two fifths of adults have a grade school education or less.

Peru has a shortage of doctors and health care facilities, especially in rural areas. Life
expectancy is about 68 years for males and 71 for females. The major causes of death include
diseases of the circulatory system, cancers, respiratory diseases, accidents, and violence.
Typhoid, malaria, yellow fever, and cholera can still cause problems because of the lack of
safe drinking water and hygienic practices.

Major Cities

Peru's population is concentrated on the coast around the national capital of Lima and in
smaller cities such as Trujillo, Chiclayo, and Ilo. Among the Andes centers are Arequipa,
Puno on the Altiplano, and historic Cuzco. The oil center Iquitos is the largest city in the
Peruvian Amazon. With some 8 million people in Lima-Callao (as its metropolitan area is
known), the capital houses more than one fourth of the nation. It has Peru's main factories,
offices, and top-tier schools and hospitals, but it also contains some of the country's largest
slums. Many of the slums are called pueblos jovenes (young towns) or invasions because
their residents set them up overnight on hillsides or farmland on the urban fringe. Despite
their poverty, young towns offer opportunities for entrepreneurs to set up shops and
services, though paved streets as well as electricity and piped water are often lacking.

Economy

Peru has a mixed economy, combining capitalist markets and private ownership with key
government controls. Because of high rates of poverty and unemployment, however, Peru has
what is called a developing, or third world, economy. Services account for most jobs,
followed by manufacturing. The most valuable exports are gold, fish meal, and copper, which
together account for about two fifths of export earnings. The lack of jobs has stimulated Peru's
informal economic sector, which involves black-market vending and drug smuggling for
some, but for most it means everyday work as maids, nannies, gardeners, construction
laborers, car mechanics, or sidewalk vendors of candy, bread, clothing, utensils, or other light
goods.

Agriculture, Fishing, and Forestry

For thousands of years Peruvians have irrigated and terraced fields at different altitudes to
grow quinoa (a high-protein grain), corn (maize), coca, and myriad types of potatoes. Native
llamas and alpacas have provided wool, meat, and labor as pack animals. In the 1530s
Europeans brought cattle, sheep, horses, wheat, and other crops. In addition to its traditional
crops and livestock, Peru also produces sugarcane, alfalfa, rice, and plantains. Irrigated cotton
is grown in coastal valleys. Settlers in the Amazon grow cassava (manioc), sugarcane, sweet
potatoes, cacao, bananas, mangoes, and other fruits. They raise cattle at the expense of slashed
and burned rainforest and export tropical hardwoods, Brazil nuts, and natural rubber (though
most rubber is now synthetic). In the Huallaga Valley and other eastern Andean slopes, coca
is grown both as a traditional, legal crop and as a source of illicit cocaine, although U.S.-
supported drug-eradication efforts in Peru have caused much coca growing to shift to
Colombia. Peruvian fishers have seen many booms and busts because of overfishing and El
Nio events (during which warm water deprives fish of oxygen).

Industry

Peru is a major mineral producer. Its exports of gold and copper come mostly from high-
altitude Andean mines. There are lesser amounts of lead, zinc, iron, antimony, manganese,
coal, and phosphorus. Pipelines transport much of Peru's petroleum and natural gas from the
rainforest to the coast. Copper is mined at Toquepala, Cuajone, Cerro Verde, and other mines
in southern Peru. Most other industry, including food products, textiles, chemicals, and paper
products, is located in Lima-Callao.

Services

A growing source of jobs and income, services center on banks, tourist agencies, government
offices, schools, hospitals, retail shops, and business vendors. Live-in maids and nannies are
employed by wealthy and middle-class families because of the low wages they are paid. Most
maids are from poor, rural, indigenous families.

Transportation and Communications

Only about 13 percent of Peru's roads are paved. The Pan-American Highway crosses Peru
from north to south, but the Andean highways can be deadly because of drivers passing on
blind mountain curves, the scarcity of safety rails, the mix of pedestrians and bicyclists with
cars and heavy traffic, and drunk driving. Floods and mudslides frequently block roads to the
Amazon. Railroads serve the mines and some passenger traffic. The largest international
airport is in Callao, the port city of Lima. The main ports are at Callao, Ilo (the main copper-
exporting port), Matarani, and Iquitos. Cell phones and Internet usage have surged since the
1990s.

Government

Peru is a republic composed of 25 regions (24 departments plus the Callao constitutional
province). The 1993 constitution divides the national government into three branches
(executive, legislative, and judicial), with the president acting as both head of government and
chief of state. In addition, the president has official control of the armed forces, but
throughout Peru's history, many military officers have ousted presidents and taken over the
government themselves. A constitutional amendment passed in 2000 allows presidents to
serve more than one 5-year term, as long as the terms are not consecutive. The 120 members
of the unicameral Congress are also elected to 5-year terms. A Supreme Court leads the
judiciary. Voting is mandatory for citizens aged 18 to 70. Peru's electoral, judicial, and prison
systems struggle with corruption, inequality, and improprieties at various levels.

History

Peru is famous for its epochs of Inca and Spanish conquest, but its Andean landscape was
inhabited for more than 12,000 years before the Incas. By 3000 BC ancient Peruvians were
creating remarkable textiles and monumental buildings. Over the next few millennia the
Chavn and other Peruvian civilizations thrived on long-distance trade, agriculture, fishing,
and herding. The Moche (Mochica) dominated the north coast as early as AD 300 and
produced beautiful cloths and multicolored ceramic vases and bowls. For centuries the Nazca
ruled the area around the famous Nazca Lines, whereas the Tiwanaku (Tiahuanaco) spread
through southern Peru from their Bolivian capital. By AD 1100 the Chim were building the
massive adobe walls of Chan Chan, the ruins of which still exist. Ruling from its capital in
Cuzco, the Inca empire was expansionistic, authoritarian, and calculating. From the 1400s to
the early 1500s it took control of a swath of territory from Ecuador to northern Chile, though
it could not conquer the eastern rainforests. One of the Inca ruler's proven tactics was to
relocate the people of a conquered village or town to a central region in order to ensure
control. But the Inca also provided for its subjects, maintaining surpluses of food, textiles, and
other supplies. Although they had no horses or carts, skilled engineers built a marvelous foot-
highway system that can still be seen, in parts, as the Inca Trail that leads to Machu Picchu. It
had thousands of cut-stone steps, rest stops, fortified sites, and rope bridges. (See also Incas.)
The Spanish conquest of the Inca empire began in 1531 when Francisco Pizarro led a small
force of men and horses into Ecuador. They were also unwittingly accompanied by European
diseases such as influenza and smallpox, which did more than anything to decimate the
population. Following the murder of the Inca ruler and numerous battles, Pizarro captured
Cuzco in 1533. Soon afterward, he made Lima the new capital, preferring its coastal location
for its access to ships and reinforcements.

Within a short time South American crops such as quinoa, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peanuts,
cashews, and cherimoya and guava fruits were introduced to Europe, while Europe provided
the Andes with wheat, alfalfa, cattle, sheep, and horses. The mining of silver and gold made
Peru (which included Upper Peru, now Bolivia) one of Spain's prime colonies. But life was
not golden for everyone. Indigenous people labored as farmhands and servants, and few had
the same legal guarantees as European-descended elites, though some mestizos gained status
in business, the church, and the military.

Peru was a loyalist stronghold during the Wars of Independence, but in 182021 Jos de San
Martn invaded with an army of Chileans and Argentines. Independence was declared on July
28, 1821, and full independence was won in 1824 after Colombian, Venezuelan, Chilean, and
Argentine troops under Simn Bolvar and Antonio Jos de Sucre won the battles of Junn and
Ayacucho, respectively.

The 1800s were turbulent times as one caudillo (militaristic leader) after another seized
power, including Agustn Gamarra, Felipe Salaverry, and Andrs de Santa Cruz. The caudillo
Ramn Castilla ruled (184551 and 185562) with the support of liberal businessmen. He
encouraged foreign corporations to exploit coastal guano deposits (a source of nitrates, used
in fertilizer and explosives), established public schools, and emancipated black slaves;
however, he also allowed landowners to import thousands of Chinese laborers who were
treated nearly as badly as slaves.

Peru's national debt grew when, aided by Chile, it successfully resisted Spanish military
encroachments in the 1860s and when trans-Andean railroads were built during the
corruption-riddled presidency of Manuel Pardo (187276). A dispute over nitrate exports to
Great Britain led to the disastrous War of the Pacific in 187983, in which Chile vanquished
Peru and Bolivia, occupied Lima, and annexed valuable ports and territory on the southern
coast (see Pacific, War of the).

Peru continued to suffer dictatorships in the 1900s, including the rule of Augusto Legua y
Salcedo (190812 and 191930). Mid-century brought more political and social changes. In a
194041 border war, Peru defeated Ecuador and took away much of its Amazonian land.
During World War II Peru was a major source of cinchona bark (used in the antimalarial drug
quinine) for U.S. troops, and Peru joined the United Nations in 1945. Peru underwent another
period of military rule from 1948 to 1957, and although in 1956 women gained the full right
to vote, many still experienced unequal rights. President Fernando Belande Terry (196368)
promoted land reform and Amazonian settlement until he was deposed by the leftist dictator
Juan Velasco Alvarado (196875). Velasco initiated more sweeping reforms, resistance to
U.S. interests, and increasing contacts with the Soviet Union. Francisco Morales Bermdez
ousted Velasco in 1975 and reversed some of his policies.

In 1980 the civilian Belande was reelected to the presidency. But he proved unable to limit
the violence between government forces and leftist insurgents of the Shining Path (Sendero
Luminoso) and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. In Peru's ensuing dirty war, as
in other Latin American countries, all sides were guilty of disappearances, torture, and
summary executions. Tens of thousands of people, mainly civilians, were killed. Meanwhile
most Latin American economies, including Peru's, stagnated during the Lost Decade of the
1980s. When President Alan Garca (first term, 198590) limited payments to international
lenders, they cut Peru off from loans. The economy shrank and prices rose nearly every day.
Meanwhile and for various reasons (including the fear of violence), Peruvians left rural zones
in the 1970s and '80s, and by the mid-1990s only one in eight worked in agriculture.

In the 1990 elections Alberto Fujimori, the son of Japanese immigrants, defeated novelist
Mario Vargas Llosa. In his campaign Fujimori promised not to use shock methods to fix the
economy because it would bring suffering to the poor, but as president he did just that. The
Fujishock, as critics called it, did tame inflation. And after Shining Path leader Abimael
Guzmn Reynoso was arrested, Fujimori enjoyed great popularity, even after he dissolved
Congress in 1992. He cut social spending, sold off state-owned companies, and sought foreign
investment and trade. In the short term this seemed successful, and Fujimori was reelected in
1995. Controversy, however, surrounded Fujimori's handling of border clashes with Ecuador
in 199495 (the most serious fighting since 1981) and the subsequent peace treaty. In 2000
Fujimori's intelligence director, Vladimiro Montesinos, was linked to several incidents of
bribery and torture. Fujimori fled to Japan but was extradited (from Chile) in 2007 and
sentenced to prison.

In 2001 Alejandro Toledo became the first person of Quechua ethnicity to be elected
president of Peru. The next year Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission began to hold
public hearings on Peru's dirty war, and in 2005 the government began to pay reparations to
victims. Toledo struggled against allegations of voter fraud and continuing economic
uncertainty, which helped pave the way for Alan Garca's return to the presidency in 2006.
Economic growth and trade, inequality, natural disasters (including earthquakes in 2001 and
2007), and environmental issues remained major preoccupations for Peruvians in the 21st
century. Population (2009 estimate), 28,887,000.

Maya

Introduction

The Maya of Mesoamerica, along with the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru, made up
the high civilizations of the American Indians at the time of the Spanish conquest. Both the
Aztecs and the Incas were late empires (about AD 13001533), capstones of a sequence of
civilizations in Central Mexico and the Andes in South America, respectively. But the Maya
of Yucatn and Guatemala exhibited a cultural continuity spanning more than 2,000 years
(1000 BCAD 1542), and many aspects of their culture continue to the present.
Mesoamerica had three major time periods: preclassic (2000 BCAD 300), classic (300900),
and postclassic (9001500). During the six centuries of the classic period the Mayan
civilization flourished first in the forests of the Petn in Guatemala and adjacent areas
creating such cities as Tikal, Uaxactn, Quirigu, Copn, and Palenqueand then in the
semiarid scrublands of northern Yucatnconstructing such pilgrimage centers as Uxmal,
Kabah, Sayil, Labn, Etzna, Old Chichn, and Cob.

The postclassic period in Yucatn was marked by the invasion of the Toltecs from Central
Mexico and the establishment of their control at Chichn Itz (9871200). Later the coastal
trading town of Tulum grew in significance following the decline of military leagues led by
Mayapn. Pyramids and temples were built in more than 40 cities, each with a population of
about 20,000 people. The Spanish conquest by Francisco de Montejo, whose house still stands
on the central plaza in the capital of Mrida, completed the downfall of the Mayan civilization
in 1542.

Today more than 2 million Mayan Indians live in northern Yucatn and highland Guatemala
in a style similar to that of the common people among their ancestors. Excavations at
Dzibilchaltn near Mrida revealed house sites from 1000 BC that resemble today's huts in
rural regions. The same style of constructionwattle-and-daub walls in an oval shape with a
thatched roof of palmetto fronds and little furnitureserves the native Maya, who continue to
resist racial mixing and the dilution of their culture.

The design of the native house from antiquity is reproduced in stone as a decorative art motif
in the Puuc style at such sites as Uxmal and Labn (8001000). The Puuc style, named for a
region of low limestone hills in northern Yucatn, is characterized by an unadorned lower
level that contrasts sharply with an elaborately sculptured upper level. Examples are the
Nunnery Quadrangle and the governor's palace. It is possible that the stone columns, or
cylinders, also featured in this art style represent posts and wickerwork of the daub-and-wattle
native huts.

Agriculture

The Mayan civilization in all stagesformative, flourishing, declining, and continuinghas

been based on agriculture. Indian corn, or maize, was domesticated from a wild grass in
central Mexico about 7,000 years ago and sustained most sedentary Indian civilizations from
that time.

In the humid Petn a surplus of water and rapid growth of trees and vines encouraged the
slash-and-burn farming method. The farmer cleared the cornfield by cutting bushes and
girdling the trees, usually near the end of the rainy season, allowing the piled brush to dry
under the hot sun of the dry season. Then the wood was burned and the ashes scattered among
the stumps. A mattock of stone or wood to scoop the earth into a hummock and a fire-
hardened pointed stick to poke a hole for the seed were used.
Culture

The productivity of the corn farmer sustained the Mayan civilization. It is estimated that as
many as 150 days a year were free from daily drudgery in the fields. This surplus time was
utilized by the nobility and the priests in a stratified society to build the cities, pyramids, and
temples. There was sufficient leisure to support skilled craftsmen in arts and crafts. The
Mayan workers who constructed the great stone structures and decorated the walls with
artistic embellishment, however, were unaided by draft animals and wheeled carts. The lords
of the land oversaw civic matters, while the priests conducted religious rituals, pursued
intellectual studies, and corrected the calendar.

Cities that flourished in the classic period in lowland Guatemala are exemplified by Tikal,
which has pyramid-temples more than 200 feet (60 meters) high and numerous carved stelae
as time markers and reign recorders. Then the Old Empire collapsed. The stable city-states,
comparable to ancient Greece in cultural accomplishment and administrative acumen, faded
from memory.

No one knows why the culture declined and the cities were covered by encroaching forest
until rediscovery in the 19th century. Possible causes include exhaustion of the cornfields by
overpopulation, climatic changes, hurricanes, pestilences of epidemic proportions, wars, and
insurrection.

Far to the north at the tip of Yucatn the New Empire waxed while the Old Empire waned.
Archaeologists trace transition routes through Palenque in Chiapas, via Mirador and Rio Bec
in Quintana Roo, and around Cob, where a network of causeway roads called sacbes connect
distant cities.

The physical environment of the peninsula of Yucatn differs from that of the Petn. It too is
lowland and limestone but arid and covered with desert scrub. Water is scarce and seasonal,
draining underground via sinkholes and subterranean streams. Where the water table reaches
the surface or the limestone layer can be breached, a cenote, or well, provides water for
settlement and cultivation. Chaltunes are man-made cisterns lined with plaster to catch
rainwater runoff. Such sites are typified by Uxmal and Chichn Itz with the Sacred Cenote,
or Well of Sacrifice.

Palenque presents two notable features: the tomb of Lord Pacal (615683), located inside the
Temple of the Inscriptions, and the royal palace with a four-story square tower used not for
defense observation but to notify the hospitable lords that visitors were approaching along the
Usumacinta River, the artery of trade and travel to Tikal.

Uxmal (7501000) is distinguished by the Temple of the Magician, which was rebuilt five
times to comply with century cycles every 52 years according to the rounds of the lunar and
solar calendars. The tracery of Kukulcan, or feathered serpent in the Mayan tongue, is
intertwined through the mosaic of fretwork on the upper wall of the Nunnery Quadrangle.

El Castillo, or the Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent in the Nahuatl language of
the Toltecs and Aztecs, is the outstanding feature of Chichn Itz (10001200). It heralds the
coming of the Toltecs from Central Mexico and their dominance of the Maya of Old Chichn
(8001000). The themes of art and architecture duplicate Tula, the original capital in the
highlands, with emphasis on the images and symbols of the feathered serpent. The
Quetzalcoatl portal supported the lintel over the entrance to the Temple of the Warriors, and
the memoirs of the associated military orders of Jaguar and Eagle are carved into the Court of
the Thousand Columns. The head, body, and tail of the creator deitythe giver of corn and
civilizationoutline the grand staircase rising to the temple atop El Castillo. Inside, the red
Jaguar throne is encrusted with pieces of precious jade. The Quetzalcoatl legend predicted the
return of the god to Mexico, which happened to coincide with the arrival of the
conquistadores, and Cortez astutely assumed the mantle of the deity to befuddle the
superstitious Montezuma and complete the Spanish conquest.

Religion and the state among the Maya were as closely interconnected as among the
Spaniards who conquered them. This convergence of customs and beliefs facilitated the
merging of religions and the acceptance of authority during the colonial period. The Indians
were converted to Roman Catholicism, but pagan practices persist, particularly in rural
villages. In ancient days religious rites were conducted in temples by priests, and the
government was administered by the aristocracy. The palace at Sayil and the governor's
palace at Uxmal represent the residences of the landed elite.

Architecture achieved distinction in the Mayan cities of Yucatn, though the designers and
builders were restricted by the technical limitations of the corbeled arch as compared to the
Roman arch. The Roman model features a keystone, which affords wide coverage of space,
whereas the corbeled arch contains a capstone, which allows only narrow spaces.

The huge arch approaching Kabah on the causeway from Uxmal is the largest in Mayaland,
and the great gate at Labn is balanced with native huts in stone. A temple at Labn atop an
unrestored mound illustrates Mayan construction methods: a one-room interior vaulted with a
corbeled arch appears to be two stories high and is heightened still more by a roof comb for
prestige. The roof comb exhibits an open lattice to reduce air pressure during windstorms.

Such special structures as the Caracol at Old Chichn and the observatory at Copn had an
astronomical purpose. They were operated by the priests to devise and maintain a calendar
more accurate than any except the Gregorian. The Maya invented a numerical system that
involved the concept of zero, which was positional like the decimal system but based on 20
instead of 10. The symbols were dot-and-bar combinations and hieroglyphs. Scholars
developed a system of hieroglyphic writing similar to the ideographic type of the ancient
Egyptians but more primitive. The glyph inscriptions with narrative content are being
translated with partial success.

Many buildings of Yucatn in the Puuc style are decorated with the face of Chac, the Mayan
rain god, an all-important deity in a society dependent on agriculture. Chac can be recognized
by an elephant tusk nose. Sometimes there are three or four Chacs stacked over a doorway,
giving security in numbers, and on the corners of buildings with eyes surveying two sides at
the same time. The use of Chacmoolsthe bearers of messages to the pantheon of deitiesso
prominent at Chichn Itz, was introduced by the Toltecs of Tula from Central Mexico.
The Maya located in the highlands lived in a third type of physical environmentthe volcanic
mountains and intermontane valleys of Guatemala. Kaminaljuy arose as a notable urban
center in the classic period, much influenced by Teotihuacn in Central Mexico. The region
was harshly conquered by Pedro de Alvarado in 1524 after the submission of Tenochtitln,
the Aztec capital. The myths and traditions of the past are preserved in the Popul Vuh, the
sacred book of the Quich Maya, and the customs of the ancient Maya can still be observed in
Quetzaltenango and Chichicastenango near Lake Atitln. The Maya are a most resilient
people.

Mongol Empire

The traditional homeland of the Central Asian people known as the Mongols is a vast
highland region in what are now Mongolia and northern China. The Mongols share a common
language and a tradition of following a nomadic way of life herding livestock. Their origin is
unknown. By the 13th century a confederation of nomadic Mongol tribes had become a
powerful military force. Under the leadership of Genghis Khan and his successors, they
established an empire that reached from what are now China and Korea in the east to eastern
Europe and the shores of the Persian Gulf in the west. At the height of their power, they
overthrew the rulers of northern and southern China and reunited China under Mongol rule, as
the Yuan (or Mongol) Dynasty. The Mongols were the first foreigners to rule all of China.
The western part of their empire, in Russia and eastern Europe, was known as the Golden
Horde. The power of the Mongol Empire declined greatly in the 14th century. In 1206
Genghis (or Chinggis) Khan was elected head of the All the Mongols league, a confederation
of Mongol tribes, and founded the Mongol Dynasty. Between 1206 and 1227, when Genghis
Khan died, the Mongols conquered a dominion that stretched from the China Sea to the
Caspian. On the north it bordered the forest belt of Siberia, and on the south it touched the
Kunlun Mountains, Tibet, and the central plains of China. The Mongols' impressive military
conquests were largely due to their armies of archers mounted on horseback, who possessed
great speed and mobility. Their first attack was launched against the Xi Xia, who occupied a
border state in northwestern China. They next began to fight the Jin Dynasty, which
controlled the rest of northern China. By 1215 the Mongols had taken the Jin capital of
Yanjing (now Beijing). They eventually conquered all of northern China. By 1225 they had
taken Turkistan, in Central Asia. Advance troops penetrated into southern Russia and raided
cities in the Crimea.

The Mongol Empire created by Genghis Khan was not a unified state but a vast collection of
territories held together by military force. Because it was controlled by so many military
leaders, all theoretically responsible to a leader known as the great khan, the empire carried
within it the seeds of its own breakdown.

Central power rested with the great khan and his councillors. Although they were well
organized militarily, the Mongols had no developed concept for ruling settled populations.
The various territories were under the authority of military commanders. Most new conquests
were not administeredjust economically exploited. In areas that were under subjugation
longer, there was some growth of administration. Local bureaucracies, though dominated by
Mongols, usually followed administrative patterns that had been locally developed. This was
especially true in China, with its ancient and vast bureaucracy.

While Genghis Khan was still living, he divided the empire between his four sons by his
favorite wife. Tolui, the youngest, received eastern Mongolia. gdei received western
Mongolia and part of northwestern China. Chagatai was given most of Turkistan and part of
western China. The oldest son, Jchi, received southwestern Siberia, western Turkistan, and
Russian lands stretching north of the Black Sea.

Genghis Khan and Jchi both died in 1227. At a convocation of Mongol leaders, gdei was
appointed great khan. Jchi's lands in the west were inherited by his son Batu. gdei made
his capital at Karakorum in central Mongolia. He immediately set out to add more of China to
the Mongol conquests. By 1234 all but the southernmost region of China had been
incorporated.

In the western part of the Empire, or the Golden Horde, Batu began a series of campaigns in
1236 in Russia and eastern Europe. Resistance in Russia ceased after the fall of Kiev in 1240.
The Golden Horde, at its peak, included most of European Russia from the Urals to the
Carpathians, and it extended eastward deep into Siberia. The capital was Sarai Batu, on the
Volga River. Terrorizing eastern Europe, Batu's armies reached central Germany before
turning southward to establish themselves in Hungary by 1241. The Mongol advance in
Europe was stopped in 1241 by the death of gdei. Batu and his generals gave up their
eastern European territory to return for the election of a new great khan. Because the
succession was disputed for several years, Europe was saved from further incursions.

Gyk, a son of gdei's widow, was elected great khan in 1246 but died two years later. He
was succeeded by Mngke, a son of Tolui. Under him the empire was expanded into
unsubdued neighboring countries. The main new conquest was in the Middle East. Hleg, a
brother of Mngke, conquered what are now Iran, Iraq, and Syria in the 1250s. The only
defeat the Mongols suffered was at the hands of the Mamluk Dynasty of Egypt in 1260.
Hleg's conquests resulted in the creation of a kingdom of nearly independent rulers, the Il-
khans of Persia.

In the east the Mongols opened another campaign against China. During the conflict, in 1279,
Mngke died. He was succeeded by his brother Kublai. The selection of Kublai Khan marked
a turning point in Mongol history. In theory he was ruler of the whole empire, but he came to
regard himself primarily as a Chinese emperor. The other parts of the empire began to go their
separate ways. Under Kublai the center of power moved away from Mongolia into China. In
1267 the Mongols built their new capital, Dadu, just outside the old Jin capital, at what is now
Beijing. Kublai renamed his dynasty the Yuan (meaning beginning) Dynasty, to indicate
that it would be the beginning of a long period of Mongol rule. He completed the conquest of
China in 1279, finally conquering the Southern Song Dynasty.
In China, the Yuan Dynasty rebuilt the Grand Canal, put the roads and postal service in good
order, and made paper money the sole legal currency throughout China. In the Yuan period,
many foreigners traveled to China, and many Chinese journeyed to Iran, Russia, and even
western Europe. The Chinese resented their Mongol conquerors, however. The Mongols kept
their own language and customs, rather than adopting Chinese ones, and they barred the
Chinese from holding the higher political offices.

After Kublai's death in 1294 the Mongol Empire fragmented. From 1300 on, disputes over
succession weakened the central government in China, and there were frequent rebellions
there. The Yuan Dynasty fell in 1368, overthrown by a Chinese rebel leader who established a
new dynasty, the Ming. In the Middle East, the Il-khans had lost power in 1353. The most
enduring part of the Mongol Empire was the Golden Horde. It had begun to decline
significantly in the 1340s, however, after outbreaks of the plague and the murder of one of its
rulers. It broke apart into several smaller territories in the 15th century.

The only other notable Mongol conqueror appeared in the 14th century in the person of Timur
Lenk. Although his conquests were extensive, they were temporary and never matched the
extent of the empire under Kublai Khan.

Norman Conquest

Edward the Confessor, king of England, died childless on Jan. 5, 1066. It is possible that
Edward had promised William, duke of Normandy, the throne. As William was Edward's
cousin, it is likely that William had been given some encouragement about the succession.
Nevertheless, when Edward died, Harold, the powerful earl of Wessex, had himself crowned
king, and he was accepted by the British nobles. William decided to invade England to gain
the throne.

By August 1066 William had assembled a force of about 5,000 knights on the coast of
Normandy. But contrary winds made it impossible to sail until late September. Meanwhile,
Harold made his hold on the crown more secure by defeating an army led by the king of
Norway, Harald III Hardraade, at the battle of Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire on September
25.

Finally, on September 27 William and his army were able to sail. They landed at Pevensey
Bay the next day and marched directly for Hastings. King Harold marched directly south, and
by October 13 he approached Hastings with about 7,000 men. Many of them were poorly
armed and poorly trained. The next day William's knights gradually wore down Harold's
forces, and toward evening Harold was killed. (See also Hastings, Battle of.)

William made a swift march to isolate London, and the majority of English nobles submitted
to him. William was crowned king at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066. Sporadic
revolts against him continued until 1071, but they were put down. Helping to complete the
conquest was the redistribution of land with the rapid building of a great number of castles to
house his followers.
William's conquest forever changed the course of English history. In political terms his
victory destroyed England's age-old ties to Scandinavia and brought the country into closer
contact with Western Europe.

One remarkable achievement of William's reign that has come down to posterity is the
Domesday Book, a population and property survey of the country started in 1086. For the
king's officials it was an invaluable record, and for today's historians it is a unique source of
information about the period. For the people, however, it was as though an angel of God were
recording every fact of their lives for the final judgment. Therefore they called it the
Domesday (Doomsday) book. (See also William, kings of England.)

Ottoman Empire

Early in the 14th century the Turkish tribal chieftain Othman, or Osman, founded an empire in
western Anatolia (Asia Minor) that was to endure for almost six centuries. As this empire
grew by conquering lands of the Byzantine Empire and beyond, it came to include at the
height of its power all of Asia Minor; the countries of the Balkan Peninsula; the islands of the
eastern Mediterranean; parts of Hungary and Russia; Iraq, Syria, the Caucasus, Palestine, and
Egypt; part of Arabia; and all of North Africa through Algeria. (See also Balkans; Byzantine
Empire.)

The Early Empire, 13001481

The dynasty that Othman (12581326) founded was called Osmanli, meaning sons of
Osman. The name evolved in English into Ottoman. The Ottoman Empire was Islamic in
religion. During the 11th century bands of nomadic Turks emerged from their home in Central
Asia to raid lands to the west. The strongest of the Turkish tribes was the Seljuks. In time they
established themselves in Asia Minor along with other groups of Turks. Following the defeat
of the Seljuks by the Mongols in 1293, Othman emerged as the leader of local Turks in the
fight against the tottering Byzantine Empire. The final conquest of the Byzantines was not
achieved until 1453 with the fall of Constantinople (now Istanbul), but by that date all the
surrounding territory was in Ottoman hands.

The initial areas of expansion under Othman I and his successorsOrkhan (ruled 132659)
and Murad I (ruled 135989)were western Asia Minor and southeastern Europe, primarily
the Balkan Peninsula. During Orkhan's reign the practice began of exacting a tribute in
children from Christian subjects. The boys were trained to become soldiers and
administrators. As soldiers they filled the ranks of the infantry, called the Janizaries (also
spelled Janissaries), the most fearsome military force in Europe for centuries.

Murad conquered Thrace, to the northwest of Constantinople, in 1361. He moved his capital
to Adrianople (now Edirne), Thrace's capital and the second city of the Byzantine Empire.
This conquest effectively cut off Constantinople from the outside world. Adrianople also
controlled the principal invasion route through the Balkan Mountains, giving the Ottomans
access to further expansion to the north.
During Murad's last victorious battle against Balkan allies, he was killed. His successor,
Bayezid I (ruled 13891402), was unable to make further European conquests. He was forced
to devote his attention to eastern Asia Minor to deal with a growing Turkish principality,
Karaman. He attacked and defeated Karaman in 1391, put down a revolt of his Balkan
subjects, and returned to consolidate his gains in Asia Minor. His successes attracted the
attention of Timur Lenk (Tamerlane). Encouraged by Turkish princes who had fled to his
court from Bayezid's incursions, Timur attacked and overwhelmed him in 1402. Taken
captive by Timur, Bayezid died within a year.

Timur soon retired from Asia Minor, leaving Bayezid's sons to take up where their father had
failed. The four sons fought for control until one of them, Mohammed I, killed the other three
and took control. He reigned from 1413 to 1421 and his successor, Murad II, from 1421 to
1451. Murad suppressed Balkan resistance and eliminated all but two of the Turkish
principalities in Asia Minor. The task of finishing the Balkan conquests and seizing all of
Asia Minor fell to Murad's successor, Mohammed II (ruled 145181). It was he who
completed the siege of Constantinople in 1453 and made it the capital of the Ottoman Empire.
The whole Balkan Peninsula south of Hungary was incorporated as well as the Crimea on the
north coast of the Black Sea. Asia Minor was completely subdued.

In addition to conquering a large empire, Mohammed II worked strenuously for consolidation

and an adequate administrative and tax system. He was assisted by the fact that the whole
Byzantine bureaucratic structure fell into his hands. Although Islamic, Ottoman sultans were
not averse to using whatever talent they could attract or capture.

The Golden Age, 14811566

Three sultans ruled the empire at its height: Bayezid II (14811512), Selim I (151220), and
Sleyman I the Magnificent (152066). Bayezid extended the empire in Europe, added
outposts along the Black Sea, and put down revolts in Asia Minor. He also turned the
Ottoman fleet into a major Mediterranean naval power. Late in life he became a religious
mystic and was displaced on the throne by his more militant son, Selim I.

Selim's first task was to eliminate all competition for his position. He had his brothers, their
sons, and all but one of his own sons killed. He thereby established control over the army,
which had wanted to raise its own candidate to power. During his short reign the Ottomans
moved south- and eastward into Syria, Mesopotamia (Iraq), Arabia, and Egypt. At Mecca, the
chief shrine of Islam, he took the title of caliph, ruler of all Muslims. The Ottoman sultans
were thereafter the spiritual heads of Islam thereby displacing the centuries-old caliphate of
Baghdad (see Caliphate).

By acquiring the holy places of Islam, Selim cemented his position as the religion's most
powerful ruler. This gave the Ottomans direct access to the rich cultural heritage of the Arab
world. Leading Muslim intellectuals, artists, artisans, and administrators came to
Constantinople from all parts of the Arab world. They made the empire much more of a
traditional Islamic state than it had been.

An added benefit of Selim's efforts was control of all Middle Eastern trade routes between
Europe and the Far East. The growth of the empire had for some time been an impediment to
European trade. In time this led European states to seek routes around Africa to China and
India. It also impelled them to face westward and led directly to the discovery of the
Americas.

Selim's surviving son, Sleyman, came to the throne in an enviable situation. New revenues
from the expanded empire left him with wealth and power unparalleled in Ottoman history. In
his early campaigns he captured Belgrade (1521) and Rhodes (1522) and broke the military
power of Hungary. In 1529 he laid siege to Vienna, Austria, but was forced to withdraw for
lack of supplies. He also waged three campaigns against Persia. Algiers in North Africa fell to
his navy in 1529 and Tripoli (now Libya) in 1551. In more peaceful pursuits he adorned the
chief cities of Islam with mosques, aqueducts, bridges, and other public works. In
Constantinople he had several mosques built, among them the magnificent Sleymaniye Cami
named for him.

Imperial Decline, 15661807

During Sleyman's long reign the Ottoman Empire was at the height of its political power and
close to its maximum geographical extent. The seeds of decline, however, were already
planted. As Sleyman grew tired of campaigns and retired to his harem, his viziers, or prime
ministers, took more authority. After his death the army gained control of the sultanate and
was able to use it for its own benefit. Few sultans after Sleyman had the ability to exercise
real power when the need arose. This weakness at home was countered by a growing power in
the west. The nation-states of Europe were emerging from the Middle Ages under strong
monarchies. They were building armies and navies that were powerful enough to attack a
decaying Ottoman military might.

In 1571 the combined fleets of Venice, Spain, and the Papal States of Italy defeated the Turks
in the great naval battle of Lepanto, off the coast of Greece. This defeat, which dispelled the
myth of the invincible Turk, took place during the reign of Selim II (ruled 156674). But the
empire rebuilt its navy and continued to control the eastern Mediterranean for another
century.

As the central government became weaker, large parts of the empire began to act
independently, retaining only nominal loyalty to the sultan. The army was still strong enough,
however, to prevent provincial rebels from asserting complete control. Under Murad III (ruled
157495) new campaigns were undertaken. The Caucasus was conquered, and Azerbaijan
was seized. This brought the empire to the peak of its territorial extent.

Reform efforts undertaken by 17th-century sultans did little to deter the onset of decay. The
Ottomans were driven out of the Caucasus and Azerbaijan in 1603 and out of Iraq in 1604.
Iraq was retaken by Murad IV (ruled 162340) in 1638, but Iran remained a persistent
military threat in the east. A war with Venice (164569) exposed Constantinople to an attack
by the Venetian navy. In 1683 the last attempt to conquer Vienna failed. Russia and Austria
fought the empire by direct military attack and by fomenting revolt by non-Muslim subjects
of the sultan.

Beginning in 1683, with the attack on Vienna, the Ottomans were at war with European
enemies for 41 years. As a result, the empire lost much of its Balkan territory and all the
possessions on the shores of the Black Sea. In addition, the Austrians and Russians were
allowed to intervene in the empire's affairs on behalf of the sultan's Christian subjects.

The weakness of the central government, as manifested by its military decline, also showed
itself in a gradual loss of control over most of the provinces. Local rulers, called notables,
carved for themselves permanent regions in which they ruled directly, regardless of the
wishes of the sultan in Constantinople. The notables were able to build their power bases
because they knew of the sultan's military weakness and because local populations preferred
their rule to the corrupt administration of the faraway capital. The notables formed their own
armies and collected their own taxes, sending only nominal contributions to the imperial
treasury.

Selim III (ruled 17891807) attempted to reform the empire and its army. He failed and was
overthrown. When Mahmud II (ruled 180839) came to the throne, the empire was in
desperate straits. Control of North Africa had passed to local notables. In Egypt Muhammad
'Ali was laying the foundation of an independent kingdom. Had the European nations
cooperated, they could have destroyed the Ottoman Empire.

In 1826, five years after Greece began its fight for independence, the Janizaries revolted to
stop reforms. Mahmud had them massacred and constructed a new military system in the style
of European armies. He also reformed the administration and gained control over some of the
provincial notables, with the exception of Egypt. By the time of Mahmud's death the empire
was more consolidated and powerful, but it was still subject to European interference.

Mahmud's sons, Abdlmecid I (ruled 183961) and Abdlaziz (ruled 186176) carried out
further reforms, especially in education and law. Nevertheless, by mid-century it was evident
that the Ottoman cause was hopeless. Czar Nicholas I of Russia commented on the Ottoman
Empire in 1853: We have on our hands a sick man, a very sick man.

The Sick Man of Europe, 18501922

The conflicting interests of European states propped up the Ottoman Empire until after World
War I. Great Britain especially was determined to keep Russia from gaining direct access to
the Mediterranean from the Black Sea. Britain, France, and Sardinia helped the Ottomans
during the Crimean War (185456) to block the Russians.
The Russo-Turkish War of 187778 brought Russia almost to Constantinople. The Ottomans
were forced to sign the harsh Treaty of San Stefano, which would have ended their rule in
Europe except that the European states called the Congress of Berlin. It succeeded in propping
up the old empire for a few decades more (see Berlin, Congress of).

Abdlhamid II (ruled 18761909) developed strong ties with Germany, and the Ottomans
fought on Germany's side in World War I. Russia hoped to use the war as an excuse to gain
access to the Mediterranean and perhaps capture Constantinople. This aim was frustrated by
the Russian Revolution of 1917 and withdrawal from the war. Ottoman defeat in war inspired
an already fervent Turkish nationalism. The postwar settlement outraged the nationalists. A
new government under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal, known as Atatrk, emerged at
Ankara (see Atatrk). The last sultan, Mohammed VI, fled in 1922 after the sultanate had
been abolished. All members of the Ottoman Dynasty were expelled from the country two
years later. Turkey was proclaimed a republic, with Atatrk as its first president. (See also
Turkey.)

Turkey

Introduction

The country of Turkey occupies a position between Europe and Asia. This geographical
location has had a major influence on the history of Turkey and on the politics and culture of
its people. At one time Turkey was the heart of the large Ottoman Empire that contained
much of the Middle East, North Africa, and southeastern Europe.

Since World War I, Turkey has played a more modest, but still significant, role in
international politics. Turkey controls one of the most vital seaways in Europe, the two sets of
narrow straits that link the Black Sea with the Mediterranean.

Land

Turkey is about 300,000 square miles (780,000 square kilometers) in area. About 97 percent
of this area lies in Asia and about 3 percent in Europe. The Asian part of the country is mainly
a long peninsula, bounded on the north by the Black Sea and on the south by the
Mediterranean. In the southeast it borders Syria and Iraq, in the east Iran, and in the northeast
Georgia and Armenia. The European part of Turkey borders Greece and Bulgaria.

Turkey is traditionally divided into two main provinces. Turkey in Asia is known as Anatolia,
or Asia Minor, while Turkey in Europe is called Trakya, or Thrace (see Thrace). Most of
Anatolia consists of a large plateau, or raised flat area. This Anatolian Plateau rises from
about 2,000 feet (600 meters) in the west to more than 6,500 feet (1,800 meters) in the east. It
is bounded on the north by the Pontic Mountains, which stretch along the Black Sea coast,
and in the south by the higher ranges of the Taurus and Anti-Taurus Mountains. The latter
reach their highest point on Erciyas Dai at 12,851 feet (3,917 meters). The plateau slopes in
the west to the Aegean Sea and becomes a region of small hills and valleys. In the east the
Pontic and Taurus mountains meet in a complex group of mountain ranges that contain the
highest mountain in Turkey, Mount Ararat, at 16,853 feet (5,137 meters).

Apart from the areas of flat land on top of the plateau and along the coasts, there are few
extensive lowlands. The coast of the Black Sea has only a narrow plain. In the south the
Mediterranean coastal plain is wider in places, notably along the Gulf of Antalya and the Gulf
of Iskenderun. The latter, known as the Cilician Plain, is reached from the plateau by a pass
through the Taurus Mountains called the Cilician Gates. In the west there are scattered areas
of lowlands intermixed with hills. Although there are no active volcanoes in Turkey, much of
the country is geologically unstable, and severe earthquakes have occurred.

The longest river is the Kizilirmak. It is 734 miles (1,181 kilometers) long and flows into the
Black Sea, as do the Sakarya and the Yeil Irmak. The Gediz and Menderes rivers flow
westward to the Aegean Sea, and the Seyhan and Ceyhan rivers flow southward into the Gulf
of Iskenderun. The two great rivers of Iraq, the Tigris and the Euphrates, both begin in the
heart of eastern Turkey and flow to the southern border. Turkish rivers are often low in
summer and of little use for navigation. Some have been dammed to provide water for
irrigation.

In the center of the plateau there is a large salt lake, Tuz Lake, which dries up in summer.
There are several other lakes, of which Lake Van, near the eastern border, is the largest.

Turkey in Europe is bounded on the north and south by mountain ranges. Between these two
ranges lies the valley of the Ergene River. The Maritsa River forms part of the boundary
between Turkey and Bulgaria. The European and Asian parts of Turkey are separated by the
two straits known as the Bosporus in the north and the Dardanelles in the south. Between the
two lies the Sea of Marmara.

Turkey has a variety of mineral resources. The most important deposits are located along the
lower slopes of the Pontic and Taurus mountains. High-quality coal is mainly found in the
region near Zonguldak on the western Black Sea coast. Lignite, an inferior type of coal, is
found in Turkey in Europe and in western Anatolia. It is mainly used to produce electric
power. Small amounts of petroleum are produced in Turkey. Some comes from southeastern
Anatolia near Adana, but the main oilfields are in the east along the Tigris River.

Turkey is particularly rich in metallic minerals such as iron ore, chrome, copper, lead, zinc,
and manganese. Most of the iron ore comes from central Anatolia and is of good quality.
Turkey is one of the world's largest producers of boron, which is used in the chemical
industry. It is found in western Anatolia. Other minerals of importance are antimony,
magnesite, bauxite, mercury, sulfur, tungsten, and asbestos.

There are several hydroelectric power stations on the major rivers, of which the largest is the
Keban Dam on the Euphrates. More than half of the electricity produced in Turkey comes
from waterpower.
Climate, Vegetation, and Animal Life

Climate

Despite its southern location, Turkey is subject to severe weather. This is because of the
relatively high altitude of much of the country. The plateau has cold winters, often
accompanied by high winds. In January Ankara in the west has an average temperature of
31F (1C) while Erzurum in the east, 6,400 feet (1,950 meters) above sea level, has a
temperature of 15F (9C). In summer the two places have average temperatures of 73F
(23C) and 65F (18C), respectively. Most of the plateau is dry throughout the year, as the
surrounding mountains prevent moisture from the seas from reaching the interior. The average
annual precipitation varies from 10 inches (25 centimeters) in the west to more than 20 inches
(50 centimeters) in the more mountainous east. In winter snow may lie for three or four
months. In the summer the heat in the interior of the plateau can often be extreme and is
accompanied by drought.

The coastal regions in general have a Mediterranean climate with hot, dry summers and mild,
rainy winters. Istanbul has average temperatures of 42F (6C) in January and 75F (24C)
in July, as does Samsun on the Black Sea coast. Both places have about 29 inches (74
centimeters) of precipitation in the year, much of it in winter. The highest levels of
precipitation100 inches (254 centimeters) a yearare found along the Black Sea coast
close to the Georgian border.

Vegetation

Much of Turkey is a region of treeless, barren grasslands and bare hills. The plateau consists
mainly of grass. In the spring, flowers such as crocuses and tulips bloom for a short period.
The coastal regions have a typically Mediterranean vegetation. It consists of trees such as
pines, oaks, cedars, junipers, and chestnuts except where cutting, burning, and grazing have
prevented tree growth. Here, in place of trees, scrub vegetation known as maquis appears. The
only lowland region with dense forest is the eastern Black Sea coast where precipitation is
high.

The soils of Turkey vary widely in type. Much of the country is covered with stony acidic
soils that are poor for farming. In hilly areas that have been grazed by livestock, there is
serious soil erosion. In the coastal regions a typical Mediterranean soil known as terra rossa
is found. It is formed from limestone and is good for farming. In the valleys and plains there
are areas of rich alluvial soils, or those deposited by running water.

Animal Life

Turkey harbors a wide variety of creatures. In the western and southern areas with a
Mediterranean climate, such animals as deer, wild goats, lynxes, wildcats, bears, and
occasionally leopards are found. In the drier areas of the plateau and the east, gazelles,
hyenas, ground squirrels, jerboas, hares, and foxes occur. Wolves, jackals, badgers, and otters
are found throughout the country, but many species are located mainly in isolated and wooded
regions. Birds include owls, partridges, quail, buzzards, storks, vultures, and eagles. Among a
variety of snakes the only poisonous one is the viper.

People and Culture

The population of Turkey is roughly 70 million. The earliest known inhabitants were the
Hittites, who probably came from Central Asia. Although the present-day Turks are proud of
their descent from the Hittites, they are in fact a mixture of other peoples who entered the
country at various times such as Persians, Celts, Romans, Arabs, and Seljuk Turks. The
Seljuk Turks came from Central Asia, where they had adopted the Muslim faith, and entered
Asia Minor in the 11th century. They intermarried with the inhabitants of their conquered
territories and lost the distinctive features of the Central Asian Turkic peoples. Most Turks are
similar in appearance to the other peoples of the eastern Mediterranean region.

Approximately two thirds of the population is made up of ethnic Turks. The largest minority
group is the Kurds, who probably make up at least 15 percent of the population. They speak
an Iranian language and are separated by political boundaries from other Kurds who live in
Iran and Iraq. They have fiercely resisted attempts to turn them into Turks. Other minority
groups are much smaller and include Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, Georgians, Circassians, and
Jews.

About 97 percent of the population is Muslim, the remainder being Christian or Jewish.
Turkey differs from many other Muslim countries because Atatrk, the national leader from
1923 to 1938, attempted to reduce the influence of the religion of Islam in Turkey. He
abolished Islamic law and removed the power of the religious leaders. Islam was declared no
longer to be the state religion.

About two thirds of the population lives in cities and towns. The largest city is Istanbul with
about 8 million inhabitants. Formerly known as Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine
and Ottoman empires, Istanbul contains many historic buildings of the Christian and Muslim
periods. It is situated on the shore of the Bosporus in Europe. Ankara, with about 3 million
inhabitants, has been the capital of Turkey since 1923. It is located on the western plateau.
Ankara was selected as the capital instead of Istanbul because its location was more secure
from attack from abroad. Other major cities are Izmir, the major port of Asia Minor, and
Adana, on the Cilician Plain.

Turkish literature reflects both Middle Eastern and European influences. Until the 19th
century the main influence was the religion of Islam, and most writers and poets followed the
patterns of Persian and Arabic literatures. In the 1850s, however, writers began to imitate
European forms of the novel and poetry. Notable writers of this period were Halid Uakligil
and Hseyin Grpinar and the poet Tevfik Fikret. Rising nationalism was reflected in the
works of Ziya Gkalp and Reat Gntekin. After World War II the trends toward a more
original native Turkish literature continued, and such writers as Kemal Tahir and Orhan
Kemal described village life in realistic terms. Popular present-day writers include Yaar
Kemal, whose works have been translated into English and other languages, Mahmut Makal,
and the woman writer Nehziye Meri.

Because of the Muslim ban on the use of the human figure in art, there was little development
of painting and sculpture in Turkey until 1923, when the ban was removed. Even afterward,
tradition and nationalism ran strong in Turkish art. Folk and decorative arts are the most
popular forms. Oriental carpets, vases, pottery, and copper articles are all used to decorate the
home.

Turkish music reflects its Middle Eastern origin and has strong Arabic and Persian influences.
Folk music and folk themes are still popular, though Western influenced musicespecially
for dancing and in places of entertainmenthas appeared in recent years.

Children in Turkey must attend school between the ages of 7 and 12. After three years at a
secondary school, they may go to a lyce, which prepares them for the university. There are
also technical, agricultural, and commercial secondary schools. Education at state schools is
free. Only a few of Turkey's many universities were founded before the 20th century. One of
the oldest, and the largest, is the University of Istanbul. Ankara, Izmir, Adana, Elazig,
Kayseri, Kocaeli, and Trabzon are among the other cities with at least one university.

The Turkish language belongs to the Turkic family of languages that are widespread in
eastern Europe and in Central and North Asia. Turkish was traditionally written with Arabic
script, but since 1928 the Latin alphabet has been used. About 18 percent of the population
mainly in the rural areasis still unable to read or write.

Economy, Transportation, and Communication

Economy

Farming is the most important branch of the economy and employs about 40 percent of the
working population. About 36 percent of the land area is suitable for cultivation and another
16 percent for livestock grazing. Most of the best farming land is found on the coastal plains
and the river valleys, while much of the plateau and the mountain regions are suitable only for
grazing.

Much of the cultivated land is used to grow grain. The most important grain crop by far is
wheat. Barley is grown in the drier areas, and a little rye, corn, and rice are also cultivated.
Because there is not much rain, irrigation is necessary for farming in many parts of the
country. The government has invested in the construction of dams, reservoirs, and canals for
this purpose.
The most important industrial crop is cotton. It provides raw material for the country's textile
industry. It is grown mainly on the Cilician Plain. Tobacco is also a major export crop, grown
mainly in the southwest and on the Black Sea coast. Sugar beets are grown in order to reduce
the amount of sugar imported from abroad.

Along with citrus fruits and figs, Turkey is a major producer and exporter of sultana raisins
and hazelnuts, which grow on the Black Sea coast. Tea is grown in the areas of high rainfall
on the eastern Black Sea coast. At one time the opium poppy formed an important source of
revenue for the farmers, but now production is restricted.

Because of the large areas of dry grasslands and mountains that are unsuitable for crops,
livestock herding is an important branch of Turkish agriculture. Sheep and goats are the main
livestock. About one quarter of the goats are of the Angora variety that produces mohair.
Cattle, oxen, and water buffaloes are also kept. Much of the livestock is of poor quality and
does not produce much milk or meat.

Because of the destruction of much of Turkey's forest by overgrazing and cutting, the forests
are of little economic importance. In spite of the fact that the government owns all the forests,
little has been done either to curb their misuse or to develop a well-managed forest industry.

The seas around Turkey contain many fishes of different species, but the fishing industry is
only of minor importance. There is a small canning industry. The most common fishes caught
are mackerel, anchovies, and tuna.

In recent years Turkey has made considerable progress in the development of tourism. The
climate of the Mediterranean coast and its beaches are major attractions along with the
historic buildings and museums of Istanbul. About half the tourists come from western
Europe.

Industry is becoming an increasingly important branch of the economy. Turkish industrial

development has been affected by the lack of foreign investment, the result of nationalism and
a distrust of foreign investors. The state controls certain key industries such as mining, power,
iron and steel, and transportation.

The most important industry is food and tobacco processing, which includes fruit canning,
sugar refining, flour milling, and cigarette manufacturing. The second largest is the cotton and
wool textile industry.

Turkey has a state-owned iron and steel industry with three major plants located at Karabk
and Ereliboth near the coalfields at Zonguldakand at Iskenderun on the southeastern
coast. Most of the steel produced goes to the engineering industry, which has developed
rapidly in recent years aided by the government.

A variety of products are manufactured such as machine tools, small engines, industrial
equipment, and household appliances. There is also a small production of tractors, trucks, and
automobiles.
There are chemical plants located close to the Zonguldak coalfields and a petrochemical plant
at Izmit in the northwest. Izmit is also the site of a petroleum refinery and an aluminum plant.

Transportation

Because of rugged terrain and long distances, it has been difficult to develop an effective
transportation system. The 5,400 miles (8,700 kilometers) of railroad are still not enough for a
country of Turkey's size but nevertheless form the best transportation network in the country.
The major cities are linked by highways, but most villages have no good roads in or around
them.

Sea transportation is important for this country with its long coastline. The main port is
Istanbul, which handles about two thirds of Turkey's trade. Other smaller portssuch as
Izmir, Mersin, Samsun, and Trabzonhandle both local and foreign trade.

The Turkish national airline is the government-owned Trk Hava Yollari, or Turkish Airlines,
which offers domestic flights as well as flights to several European and Middle Eastern
countries. Both Istanbul and Ankara have international airports.

Communication

Television and radio are government monopolies. The telephone and telegraph services are
also government-controlled.

Government

Since becoming a republic in 1923, Turkey has experienced many changes of government.
The first president of the republic, Atatrk, established authoritarian, one-party rule that lasted
until 1950. In that year, multiparty democracy was instituted. For the most part it has
remained in force since then, though it has been interrupted by brief periods of military
government. After each of these periods, power was returned to civilian hands under a revised
constitution. The current constitution was written in 1982 and has since been revised several
times. It established a one-house legislature, the Grand National Assembly, with 550 members
elected every five years. Executive power is divided between the prime minister and the
president. Political parties are subject to certain restrictions, including bans on extremist
parties and on religious parties. The major parties in the Turkish government include the
Motherland party, the Populist party, the Nationalist Action party, and the True Path party.

History
During the 11th century, bands of Turkish horsemen invaded western Asia from Turkestan.
They adopted the religion of Islam, but they plundered the Muslim lands in their path. The
strongest of these tribes was the Seljuks. They took their name from an early sultan, or
chieftain. (For the ancient history of what is now Turkey, see Asia Minor.)

The Seljuks established a small state in Anatolia called the sultanate of Rum (Rome). From
here they attacked both the Arabs in Syria and Palestine and the Christians of the Byzantine
Empire in Asia Minor. In 1071 they defeated the army of the Byzantine emperor Romanus IV
at Manzikert and took him prisoner. In the same year they conquered Jerusalem and with it
the Holy Land.

The Byzantines still held most of Asia Minor and their capital at Constantinople (now
Istanbul). They appealed for help to the pope in Rome, and for two centuries the Christians of
Europe fought the Turks in seven Crusades (see Crusade). After the last Crusade the Seljuks
still held their land. Now, however, they were attacked by new invaders from Turkestan.

Ottoman Empire

An outstanding leader among the newcomers was Othman I, or Osman I, who was born in
1258 and died in 1326. He founded the dynasty of Turkish rulers called after him Osmanli,
meaning sons of Osman. In time the English transformed the name to Ottoman.

Othman's son Orkhan (ruled 132659) pushed his conquests to the Aegean coast. By peaceful
barter he gained a foothold on the European side of the Dardanelles at Gallipoli. He built his
army by exacting a tribute of children from his Christian subjects. The strongest and brightest
boys were taken from their parents, reared in the Muslim faith, and trained for military or
government service. From these slaves Orkhan filled the ranks of his infantry, the Janizaries
(also spelled Janissaries). His successors continued this practice. In later centuries no force in
Europe could match this hard and ruthless corps.

Orkhan's son Murad I (ruled 135989) conquered Thrace and moved his capital to
Adrianople. Mohammed II (ruled 145181) captured Constantinople in 1453 and made it the
capital. During Selim's reign from 1512 to 1520, the Ottomans moved eastward and
southward. At Mecca in Arabia, the shrine of the Muslim world, Selim took the title caliph
ruler of all Muslims. Henceforth the Turkish sultan was the spiritual head of the entire
Muslim world.

Under Sleyman I the Magnificent (ruled 152066) the Ottoman Empire reached its greatest
extent, but the sultans who followed Sleyman were weak and dissolute. In 1571 the
combined fleets of Venice, Spain, and the Papal States defeated the Turks in the great naval
battle of Lepanto off the coast of Greece. This victory dispelled the legend of the invincible
Turk. Russia annexed the Crimea in 1783. In 1821 Greece began its long fight for freedom.
The Janizaries revolted in 1826, and the sultan abolished the famous corps after slaying
thousands.
Russia waged war against the Turks in 1806 and again in 1828 and 1829, winning the
Caucasus and the northeastern coast of the Black Sea. Russia, now master of the Black Sea,
was determined to control its outlet. Great Britain, France, and Sardinia helped Turkey in the
Crimean War of 1854 to 1856 and blocked Russia (see Crimean War). The Russo-Turkish
war of 1877 and 1878 brought Russia almost to Constantinople. Turkey was forced to sign the
harsh Treaty of San Stefano, which would have ended its rule in Europe. The Western
powers, however, quickly called the Congress of Berlin in 1878 and once more revived the
failing Ottoman Empire (see Berlin, Congress of).

By the end of the 19th century, the sultan's government was tottering. To get money, the
sultan gave special rights to foreigners in Turkeythe so-called capitulations. Railways,
mines, banks, and ports fell into the hands of foreign capitalists.

Sultan Abdlhamid II (ruled 18761909) developed strong ties with Germany. German
engineers began work on a railway across Turkey that was to link Berlin with Baghdad and
the Persian Gulf. Turkey sided with Germany in World War I and succeeded in holding the
straits and Constantinople. But in the end Turkey was defeated (see World War I).

In 1920 the sultan's representatives signed the Treaty of Svres, which would have confined
Turkey to the Anatolian Plateau. The Aegean and Mediterranean coasts were assigned to
Greece and Italy. Armenia was to be independent.

Turkish Republic under Atatrk

Resentment flamed high in Turkey. A new government sprang up at Ankara in Anatolia, led
by the dynamic Mustafa Kemal, an army officer. Kemal first subjugated Armenia, then turned
westward and drove the Greek forces from Smyrna. The sultan, Mohammed VI, fled from
Constantinople.

In July 1923 the Treaty of Lausanne repudiated the Treaty of Svres. On Oct. 29, 1923,
Turkey was proclaimed a republic with Kemal as president. Kemal in 1924 gave Turkey a
liberal democratic constitution. Later in the same year, however, he announced that he would
rule as a dictator.

The new government was intensely nationalistic. Kemal uprooted 1,300,000 Greeks who
lived in Asia Minor and shipped them to Greece. At the same time some 353,000 Muslims
who lived in Macedonia were admitted to Turkey. The large Armenian population had already
been reduced by the massacres of 1915 (see Armenia).

Kemal abolished the office of caliph, suppressed religious orders, and closed religious schools
and law courts. He forbade men to wear the fez. He encouraged women to cast off their face
veils, gave them equal rights before the law, and made polygamy illegal. He abolished titles
of nobilitypasha, bey, and effendiand ordered Turks to take family names, which they
had not had before. For himself he chose the name Atatrk, meaning father of the Turks
(see Atatrk).
Atatrk entered into friendly relations with the Soviet Union and established state socialism.
In 1934 he launched a five-year development plan with machines and financial aid from the
Soviets. He enforced a strict ban, however, on the Communist party. When he died in 1938,
the assembly elected his prime minister and friend, Ismet Inn, president.

After Atatrk

Inn made a defense pact with Britain and France when World War II broke out in 1939, but
it was not implemented because of Germany's early victories. The 1936 Montreux Convention
had restored to Turkey the right to fortify the Dardanelles, and Turkey closed the straits to
Allied shipping during the war. In February 1945, after Germany's defeat seemed assured,
Turkey entered World War II on the side of the Allies.

The most notable change after the war was the liberalization of political life. A growing class
of professional and business people demanded more freedom. The government allowed new
political parties to form, extended the right to vote, and allowed direct elections.

In 1946 the Democrat party was founded from a split in Atatrk's Republican People's party.
It gathered immediate support and by 1950 won a majority in the assembly. Adnan Menderes
became prime minister, the first time this office surpassed the presidency in importance.

Turkey's troops strongly supported the United Nations forces in the Korean War, and the
country joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1952. The new government had
great success the first few years, but as economic problems developed it became increasingly
repressive. The army staged an almost bloodless takeover of the government in 1960, and a
38-member committee ran the country. Menderes and two other ministers were executed.

A new constitution was adopted in 1961, and the military withdrew from direct political
control. It began a period of political moderation. The Democrat political prisoners were
released, new labor legislation promoted a great expansion of trade unions, and workers
became more active in politics. The new Justice party drew its main support from the same
elements that had supported the Democrats, and it had a similar philosophy. It won the
election of 1965, and Sleyman Demirel became prime minister. He headed a weak
government, but he was skillful in balancing the increasingly radical left and a newly
emerging radical right as well as holding his party to a moderate line. By the late 1960s
Demirel's government was unable to deal with increasing disorders, and in 1971 the army
called for his resignation.

The Cyprus Question

In the 1950s the Greek Cypriots demanded independence from Great Britain and union with
Greece. This led to strife with the Turkish Cypriots, who looked to Turkey for help. Tension
between Turkey and Greece resulted, which was eased somewhat by the granting of
independence to Cyprus in 1959. (See also Cyprus.)

Disputes between Turkish and Greek Cypriots after independence led to civil war in 1963,
bringing Turkey and Greece themselves to the brink of war. A United Nations peacekeeping
force helped control the conflict until Archbishop Makarios, the Greek president of Cyprus,
was forced out in mid-1974. Turkish troops then occupied the northern part of the island. The
Turkish-occupied zone declared independence in 1983, an action condemned by the United
Nations. Relations with Greece improved in 1988 following a dispute over petroleum rights in
the Aegean Sea in 1987.

Disputes between Turkish and Greek Cypriots after independence led to civil war in 1963,
bringing Turkey and Greece themselves to the brink of war. A United Nations peacekeeping
force helped control the conflict until Archbishop Makarios, the Greek president of Cyprus,
was forced out in mid-1974. Turkish troops then occupied the northern part of the island. The
Turkish-occupied zone declared independence in 1983, an action condemned by the United
Nations. Relations with Greece improved in 1988 following a dispute over petroleum rights in
the Aegean Sea in 1987.

Some Recent Events

Short-lived coalition governments were in power during the 1970s. Inflation, unemployment,
political violence, and the imposition of martial law led to another military takeover in 1980
and a new constitution in 1982. Turgut Ozal, founder of the Motherland party, was elected
prime minister in 1983 and 1987 and president in 1989. Martial law was lifted by 1987.
Sleyman Demirel was elected to the presidency after Ozal died in April 1993. In June 1993
Tansu Ciller of the True Path party became the country's first female prime minister.

In March 1996 interim Prime Minister Ciller and Mesut Yilmaz of the Motherland party
announced that they had agreed to form a coalition government to keep the Islamic Welfare
party, which had won a plurality of the vote in the country's general election in January, out of
power. Many had feared that if the Islamic Welfare party gained power it would move the
country down the path of other Islamic-controlled states, such as Iran. Ciller and Yilmaz
agreed that the latter would serve as prime minister until the end of 1996. Infighting plagued
the coalition from the start, and Yilmaz announced his resignation from the post of prime
minister after just three months in office.

In June 1996 the Welfare party announced that it had teamed with the True Path party to form
a new coalition government. President Demirel appointed Welfare leader Necmettin Erbakan
as the nation's new prime minister. Erbakan became the first nonsecular leader of the country
since the Ottoman Empire was dissolved. From the time of Erbakan's election, the pro-
secularist military repeatedly stated that it would not tolerate the establishment of a religious
republic in Turkey. In his first few months in office, Erbakan drew criticism from secular
Turks for his decision to meet with leaders of radical Islamic states such as Iran and Libya.
Tensions between pro-Islamic Turks and pro-secularist Turks mounted in 1997. In February
tens of thousands of Turkish citizens took to the streets of Ankara to protest the growing
influence of religious forces in the Turkish government. Military officials, angry at the prime
minister's refusal to abide by constitutional statutes demanding that the government adhere to
strict secularist policies, ordered that Erbakan either resign or revoke pro-Islamic policies that
had been instituted during his tenure. In May, as many as 300,000 Turkish men and women in
traditional Islamic garb demonstrated in Istanbul in protest against the Turkish military's
decision to issue directives ordering the closing of Islamic religious schools and the barring of
traditional Islamic dress throughout the country. In May 1997, spokesmen from the armed
forces hinted that the army would topple the government unless Erbakan agreed to either
resign from power or completely reverse his pro-Islamic stances. Erbakan, faced with the
prospect of a military coup, resigned power on June 18, 1997.

Following the resignation of Erbakan, President Demirel called on Yilmaz to form a new
government. The new coalition of Yilmaz' Motherland party and two smaller parties was
decidedly secular in nature.

The Constitutional CourtTurkey's highest legal authorityannounced in January 1998 that

Erbakan's Welfare party would be outlawed on the grounds that the party's actions during its
19961997 stint in power had violated the constitutionally mandated secular nature of the
Turkish state. This decision brought sharp criticism from the United States, and also from the
members of the European Union (EU), which cited the undemocratic proceedings against the
Welfare party as one reason for its refusal to extend membership in the EU to Turkey. Many
of the Welfare party members later joined a new party, the Virtue party, which was formed in
February.

In November 1998 the government of Prime Minister Yilmaz collapsed after losing a censure
vote in the Turkish parliament. The vote of no-confidence was brought on by allegations of
corruption against Yilmaz. Despite Yilmaz' denial of any wrongdoing, the Turkish parliament,
which was heavily stacked with political opponents of the prime minister, voted 314 to 214 in
favor of a censure motion against Yilmaz, prompting his resignation from office. After several
failed attempts to form a new governing coalition, former Deputy Prime Minister Bulent
Ecevit of the Democratic Left party agreed to lead a caretaker government until elections
could be held in April 1999. As a result of those elections, Ecevit and his party gained the
right to form a new governing coalition. That coalition collapsed in 2002, and in 2003 Recep
Tayyip Erdogan came to power as head of the Justice and Development party.

Kurdish Relations

Conflict between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK) began shortly after the
foundation of the PKK in 1984. The PKK organized with the goal of forming a Kurdish state
within Turkey and shortly thereafter began a campaign of violence against civilians and
government officials in southeastern Turkey. Fighting between the Turkish government and
the PKK raged periodically during the rest of the decade. In the aftermath of the 1991 Persian
Gulf War, however, tensions between the government and the PKK subsided briefly. In the
wake of the ruthless Iraqi suppression of Kurds after the Gulf War, President Ozal announced
that the government would seek a peaceful settlement with the Kurdish population living in
Turkey. Negotiations between the two sides faltered in mid-1991 when the PKK, angered by
the Turkish government's reluctance to call for formal peace negotiations, resumed its
campaign of terror.

During the course of the next four years, the Turkish army repeatedly flew bombing missions
and sent ground units across the Iraqi border to track down and destroy PKK bases in the area.
By 1995, Turkish military personnel assigned to anti-Kurdish operations numbered an
estimated 200,000 troops, of which, approximately 35,000 were stationed in Iraq in order to
pursue rebels. The Iraqi government expressed outrage at the blatant violation of its northern
border, but Iraq proved powerless to prevent these incursions. In April 1995, however,
international pressure, including strong pressure from the United Nations, prompted Turkey to
withdraw all but 12,000 of its troops from Iraq.

In 1996 Turkey began, once again, to conduct raids into Iraqi territory. They continued to
make sporadic raids throughout 1997 and 1998. In 1998 Turkey also accused Syria of lending
support to the PKK and of harboring Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the PKK. Syria denied
the charges but eventually signed an agreement with Turkey stating that they would not
provide assistance to the Kurds. Turkey subsequently announced that Ocalan had been forced
from his base in Syria. Ocalan spent the next several months seeking asylum in various
European contries. He was arrested in February 1999 by Turkish authorities after he left the
Greek embassy in Kenya, where he had been in hiding for two weeks. Turkish officials
expressed the hope that the arrest of Ocalan would greatly reduce Kurdish resistance, but
others warned that it could serve instead to strengthen the resolve of the Kurdish nationalists.
Population (2002), 69,359,000.

Vikings

Introduction

In the 9th century AD seafaring warriors known as Vikings began raiding the coasts of
Europe, burning, plundering, and killing as they went. These marauders, or pirates, came from
Scandinaviawhat is now Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The people who lived there were
known as Norsemen, or Northmen. Their expression for these campaigns of swift, cruel raids
was to go a-viking. Vik in Norse means harbor or bay. The Vikings came to be the most
feared raiders of their time and were the only Norsemen with whom most Europeans came in
contact. They also colonized wide parts of Europe. Their name was given to the era that dated
from about AD 740 to about 1050the Viking Age.

Conquests and Settlements

Some of the Viking ships were quite long for that era. Called longships, they ranged from
about 45 to 75 feet (14 to 23 meters) in length. They were strongly built of oak, and from 40
to 60 oarsmen sat on the rowers' benches. Each ship had a single mast with a square sail that
was often striped in brilliant colors. Bright shields overlapped along the gunwale. The ships
were pointed at each end so that they could go forward or backward without turning around.
They had tall curved prows, usually carved in the shapes of dragons. These dragon ships, as
they were often called, usually appeared in a bay at about dawn. As soon as the ships reached
the beach, fierce warriors jumped out, shouting battle cries. Armed with swords and battle-
axes, they attacked the sleeping villagers. They killed many of them, captured some of the
women and young men, and gathered all the loot that their ships could carry. Then they sailed
away.

At first these Viking attacks were made by small bands. Later there were more men and more
ships, which roamed farther and farther from their homelands. To the north and east they
attacked the Sami (Lapps), Finns, and Russians. To the west they conquered and held for
generations large parts of Great Britain and Ireland. To the south they occupied northern
France. The Norsemen did not conquer any country south of France, but their ships sailed
along the coasts of Spain and Portugal. They plundered Sicily (now in Italy) and the northern
shores of Africa and attacked Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey), the capital of the
Eastern Roman Empire.

To the west the Vikings did not stop with the British Isles but crossed the Atlantic Ocean to
take Iceland away from the Irish monks who had settled there. In 874 they began to colonize
Iceland, and during the years that followed, many freedom-loving people came to Iceland as
settlers. In about the year 982 Erik the Red sailed westward from Iceland. He landed on the
coast of Greenland and gave the island its name. Later he founded the first colony there. His
son, Leif Eriksson, sometimes called Leif the Lucky, is believed by most historians to have
been the first European to reach the North American mainland. In about the year 1000 he
landed at a place that he called Vinland. Vinland was identified as Newfoundland (now in
Canada) in 1963 when archaeologists uncovered the remains of a Viking settlement at the
extreme northern tip of the island.

While the Vikings were discovering lands and waging war, they were telling each other
adventure tales that later were known as sagas, from the Icelandic word for story. Poets also
were singing the praises of Norse heroes and gods and describing the Norse way of life. In
this way the Norsemen preserved major parts of the early history of the Scandinavian
countries and of Russia, Germany, Britain, and Ireland.

Why the Vikings Were Powerful

The Vikings probably were descended from invaders from the south of Scandinavia. Long-
limbed and muscular, Norsemen were trained from childhood to be strong and self-reliant.
Running, jumping, and wrestling took the place of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Their
other subjects were skating, skiing, snowshoeing, swimming, rowing, and riding horseback.
As soon as a boy could carry a weapon, he was taught to thrust a sword, to swing a battle-ax,
and to throw a spear.
A part of their success was due to their religion, for the Norsemen's gods were warriors too.
Thor the Thunderer made constant war against the ice and snow giants of the North. The chief
god, Odin, presided over Valhalla, the warrior's heaven. Death in battle was considered the
most honorable death. Only by that death could a Norseman enter Valhalla. So the Norsemen
battled unafraid and joyful, calling upon their gods to help them. (See also mythology.)

The Norsemen were the most skilled and daring seamen of their day. Because the compass
was still unknown, they navigated by the Sun and stars. When fog hid the stars, their ships
drifted until the weather cleared. Not fearing death, they took great chances. Their
experiences and discoveries were therefore many.

The Norsemen dared not risk open fires aboard their wooden ships, and in those days there
were no stoves. So, unless they were on a long sea voyage, they would anchor in a quiet bay
each evening. Then they pitched tents on the shore, kindled fires, and cooked their food.
Porridge with dried meat or fish was the usual diet. Sometimes they had bread, butter, and
cheese. If they spent the night aboard ship, they unrolled their sleeping gear, which was made
from skins, and stretched out on the rowers' benches. A successful Viking expedition might
bring fortune, fame, and, perhaps, noble rank to those who took part. So by the time they were
15 or 16, Norse boys were eager to try their luck in battle.

Trade Is Developed

The early Viking voyages were mostly raids in which Christian churches and monasteries
were robbed and burned and peaceful villages were plundered. But in later times piracy was
often combined with trading. A pirate expedition might stop off to do a little quiet trading,
and a trading expedition might turn to a little pirating.

As time went on, trade among the Scandinavian countries and with the rest of Europe grew.
Norway sent herring and salt to Sweden. Denmark received sheep from the Faroe Islands.
Greenland imported timber from Labrador and grain and iron from Europe. It paid for these in
walrus and narwhal ivory, furs, live falcons, and even live polar bears.

Norwegian Viking expeditions started in the spring after the seed was sown or in the autumn
when crops were harvested. At home the Norsemen were mainly farmers and stockmen. They
also hunted and fished. After a successful voyage or two, many retired from the sea and were
often succeeded by their sons.

During wars and raids, villagers who were not killed by the Vikings were often taken as
slaves. These slaves, called thralls, were usually Irish, Finns, Germans, or Slavs. A free
Norseman might be enslaved for a debt or crime, but this was rare. Many slaves were
voluntarily freed by their masters, especially after the introduction of Christianity, and there
was much intermarriage.
The Norsemen at Home

The houses of the Norsemen differed according to the resources of each country. In Norway
houses were built of rough pine logs. The roofs were usually covered with turf or straw. In
Iceland, which had few trees, houses were built of turf, rocks, and driftwood. Both in Iceland
and Greenland heavy timbers needed for the frames of buildings were brought from Norway
and later from North America.

A house had only one room and was built with a pitched roof. A poor man might have two or
three huts. The estate of a rich man had so many buildings that it looked like a village. In later
centuries, several of these buildings were often connected by passageways.

The houses were plain on the outside. All the decoration was indoors, where most of the
woodwork was carved, painted, and touched with gilt. On festive occasions, brightly
embroidered tapestries would be hung on the walls, and long tables were set up for feasting.
The Norsemen had a great variety of foods and beverages. Mutton and beef were plentiful.
Until its use was forbidden, the favorite meat was horsemeat. The Norsemen also used fish
and cereals, eggs from wild and domestic fowl, and milk products. They had few vegetables.
Honey was the only sweet, and bees were kept to supplement the wild honey. Meat and fish
were often dried, smoked, or pickled. Many foods were preserved in brine or in sour whey, a
preservative still in use among Scandinavians. Butter was never salted. It was eaten fresh or
was fermented for use like cheese.

Norsemen liked both fresh and sour milk and buttermilk too. The favorite drink was whey.
They had a food named skyr that was much like cottage cheese. Apples and berries were their
only fruits. Porridge was cooked in enormous kettles over an open fire. Although boiling was
favored for most foods, meat was sometimes baked in hot ashes. Bread was baked in ashes or
in clay ovens.

At feasts the Norse drank quantities of ale. From honey they made a fermented drink called
mead, and wealthy Norsemen imported wine from France. There were long and sometimes
rowdy drinking festivals, at which sagas were told and poems were recited.

All wealthy Norsemen dressed lavishly for events such as weddings and funerals and for
things, as the assemblies were called. Skins and furs of tame and wild animals were used, but
the most common material was a woven woolen cloth, called vadmal. Dyes were expensive,
so poorer people wore the cloth in its natural color. The rich wore it in bright colors, often
striped and patterned. Silk and linen, which were imported and costly, were used mostly for
underwear.

Since the Vikings traded with so many countries, they often brought home new ideas for dress
and adornment. The native dress of both sexes in early times was similar. The main garment
was a long buttonless tunic, which might be narrow or wide. If wide, it was gathered around
the waist with a belt. It had an opening that was slipped over the head and tightened with a
brooch. The custom was to wear a gown of one color and a cloak of another. A man's tunic
was usually sleeveless, perhaps to show off his muscles and gold arm rings. Young women
wore their hair long and caught around the forehead with a band, sometimes made of pure
gold. Noble and wealthy men also wore their hair long with a band to keep it in place.

The young Norsemen loved games, especially those that helped to develop their bodies. They
played ball games on the ground and on ice. Wrestling and fencing were popular sports.
Young Norsemen used skates made of the bones of animals. According to a Norwegian
historian, an unusual sport involved walking on oar blades while a boat was being rowed. In
another game two or three small swords were thrown in the air and then caught; to play with
three swords at once without injuring oneself required great skill.

Norsemen loved music and dancing. They had a fidla, or fiddle, a horn made from a buck's
horn, and also a kind of harp. The high point at a feast was the performance of a skald, or
professional poet.

Education

There were no public schools. All education was given at home, with a parent, nurse, or
visitor acting as teacher. Children were often sent to the home of a rich man, sometimes a
relative, to be educated. Both girls and boys learned to sing, to recite and compose poetry, and
to tell sagas. Girls were also given lessons in how to spin, weave, and dye wool; to sew, knit,
and embroider; to wash and to cook; and to make butter and cheese.

Some girls and most boys learned to read and cut runes, which were the letters of the ancient
alphabet used by the Norsemen. Just as the English alphabet is often called the ABCs, that of
the Norsemen was called futhork after the first letters. The early Norse alphabet had 24 letters.
The later Norse alphabet had 16.

At first runes were used for scratching names on personal belongings or for simple memorials.
Later these memorials grew more elaborate. Thousands of these memorial stones have been
found on the Scandinavian peninsula and in Denmark. North of Upernivik, in Greenland, the
discovery of a little rune stone was considered proof that Vikings had traveled more than 400
miles (640 kilometers) north of the Arctic Circle. Others carved runes on the statue of a lion
in Athens, Greece.

Government

In the early history of the Norsemen there were no countries in the modern sense. People lived
in what might be called tribal communities. These communities were independent of one
another, and banded together only for some common purpose. When the title konungr (king)
was given to the chief of a community, it did not carry the meaning that it has now. There
were many kings. Often one would rule over a small section of land no larger than a county,
and some of the kings were war chiefs who had no land.
Each community had a thing, or assembly, which acted as a court and legislative body. Only
those who owned land could be members. A king could hold his position only as long as the
people wanted him. Before a new king could take office, he had to have the consent of the
members of the assembly.

Next in rank were the jarls, nobles who often had about as much power and land as the kings.
Both kings and jarls had to rule according to law. No laws were written down until about
1100. Before then the laws were really traditions and opinions of the majority of the people.
The people elected lawmen who had to know these unwritten laws and explain them to the
rulers.

Later in Sweden and in Denmark people began to unite under one king. In 872 Norway had a
single king, known as Harald Fairhair. But Harald undid much of Norway's unity by giving
each of his numerous sons the title of king. Norway therefore remained divided for some time.
When Harald became king, some dissidents went to Iceland and founded a colony there.
While the people of Iceland did not unite under one king at that time, Iceland was the only
country to form a national assembly during the Viking Age. Called the Althing, it first met in
930 and is the oldest national assembly in the world.

Religion

A young Viking, King Olaf Tryggvason of Norway, became a convert to Christianity some
time before AD 1000. His passion for the new religion was backed by a military force that
threatened all who refused baptism. Some Norsemen had already become Christians, mainly
through Irish influence, though on the whole the Vikings were content with their own gods.
Gradually Norway was Christianized, then the Faroe Islands and Iceland, and finally
Greenland. The first Christian missionaries in Greenland were brought there from Norway by
Leif Eriksson.

A Viking chieftain was buried with everything he might need to get to Valhalla. One third of
his property might be used in this way. (Another third went to his widow and the remainder to
his children.) The goods buried included money, tools, changes of clothing, weapons, horses,
chariots, boats, and even ships. Women's graves contained many of the things it was thought
they might need in afterlife, such as needles and thread, looms, kitchen utensils, and cooking
vessels.

Sometimes a dead warrior would be placed aboard his ship, which was set afire and allowed
to drift out to sea. Sometimes people were buried in boat-shaped coffins, which were covered
with earth mounds. Fortunately, ships were not always burned, and a few have been
preserved.

Next to the sagas, graves have been the best source of information about the Norsemen. In
Scandinavian museums there are examples of almost every art known to the Viking Age.
Among these are jewelry, weapons, furniture, and bronze and silver utensils. Most have
survived because they were made of such durable materials as stone, metal, and hardwood.
But woolen clothes in good condition have been found in parts of Greenland where they had
lain in the frozen soil for centuries.

History from the Sagas

The Norsemen, like the Greeks of Homer's time, were storytellers and poets. At all
assemblies, weddings, and funerals, those skilled at storytelling and reciting verses would
perform.

When Christianity came to the mainland of Scandinavia, folk poems and stories were frowned
upon by the clergy. But Iceland was protected by distance from the influence of Europe. So,
long after Christianity became the official religion, the Icelandic people struggled to preserve
their historical and literary heritage. Their religious leaders enjoyed the storytelling and found
no offense in it.

During the 12th and 13th centuries, the clergy and scholars of Iceland wrote many
manuscripts. All were written as the saga tellers related them. Some were true and some were
pure fiction. Among the serious historical records are sagas that tell of the kings and of Viking
conquests. They tell of their discovery and colonization of Iceland and Greenland and their
discovery of the American mainland.

Two significant manuscripts dealing with the religion and philosophy of the Norsemen were
written in Icelandthe Elder Edda (in poetry) and the Younger Edda (in prose). Much of
what is known of early Norse mythology came from the Eddas. (See also saga; Scandinavian
literature.)

In Iceland much of the old Norse language has been retained. In Norway, Sweden, and
Denmark the languages are as different from the old Norse as modern English is from early
Anglo-Saxon.