For More Information
Books
Burrell, Roy. Oxford First Ancient History. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1991, pp. 82-83.
Dijkstra, Henk. History of the Ancient & Medieval World, Volume 3: Ancient
Cultures. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 1996, pp. 295-312.
Dué, Andrea, editor. The Atlas of Human History: Cradles of Civilization: Ancient Egypt and Early Middle Eastern Civilizations. Text by Renzo Rossi. New York: Macmillan Library Reference USA, 1996, pp. 16-19,
40-43.
Dué, Andrea, editor. The Atlas of Human History: Civilizations of Asia: India, China and the Peoples of Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. Text by Renzo Rossi and Martina Veutro. New York: Macmillan Library Ref- erence USA, 1996, pp. 48-51.
Foster, Leila Merrell. Lebanon. Chicago: Childrens Press, 1992.
Long, Cathryn J. The Middle East in Search of Peace. Brookfield, CT: Mill- brook Press, 1996.
Martell, Hazel Mary. The Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World. New York: Kingfisher, 1995, pp. 90-91.
Mulloy, Martin. Saudi Arabia. New York: Chelsea House, 1987. Mulloy, Martin. Syria. New York: Chelsea House, 1988.
Odijk, Pamela. The Phoenicians. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Silver Burdett Press,
1989.
Tubb, Jonathan N. Bible Lands. New York: Knopf, 1991, pp. 22-23.
Phoenicia, Syria, and Arabia 135
Web Sites
“The Ancient Phoenicians.” St. Maron Parish of Cleveland. http://www. stmaron-clev.org/phoenicians.htm (April 13, 1999).
A Bequest Unearthed, Phoenicia. http://phoenicia.org/ (April 13, 1999). “The Phoenicians.” Lebanon2000.Com. http://www.lebanon2000.com/
ph.htm (April 13, 1999).
136 Ancient Civilizations: Almanac
Asia Minor and the 5
Black Sea Region
he regions and groups discussed in this chapter have cer- tain elements in common, not the least of which is geog- raphy. First among these regions is Asia Minor, site of the mod- ern-day nation of Turkey, which in ancient times was the home of the Hittites, the Phrygians, and the Lydians. Asia Minor, which forms a bridge between the European continent and Asia, is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea on the south and the Black Sea on the north. North of the Black Sea lies the Ukraine, controlled by groups such as the Cimmerians and Scythians in ancient times. To the southeast of the Ukraine, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, is the Caucasus, whose most notable ancient civilizations were Urartu and
Armenia.
The importance of Asia Minor and the
Black Sea region
The Hittites, who lived in central Turkey from about
1750 to about 1200 B.C., created a great empire that rivaled
137
Words to Know: Asia Minor and Western Asia
Archaeology: The study of the material evi- dence left behind by past cultures.
Barbarian: A negative term used to describe someone as uncivilized.
Barter: Exchange of one item for another.
Chariot: A small and highly mobile open-air wagon drawn by horses.
Commerce: Buying and selling of goods on a large scale.
Communism: A political and economic system in which the government owns virtually all property in the name of the people.
Concentration camp: A camp where political prisoners or prisoners of war are held.
Dictator: A ruler who holds absolute, or com- plete, power.
Dynasty: A group of people, often but not always a family, who continue to hold a position of power over a period of time.
Economy: The whole system of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services in a country.
Islam: A faith that arose in Arabia in the A.D.
600s, led by the prophet Muhammad
(A.D. 570?–632).
Linguist: A scholar who studies the historical development of languages.
Medieval: An adjective describing the Middle
Ages.
Middle Ages: The period from the fall of the Roman Empire to the beginning of the Renaissance, roughly A.D. 500–1500.
Muslim: A believer in Islam.
Nomads: Wandering groups of people. Peasants: A farmer who works a small plot of
land.
Peninsula: An area of land that sticks out into a body of water.
Sack (verb): To destroy.
Semitic: A term describing a number of groups in the Middle East, including the modern-day Arabs and Israelis.
Smelting: Refining a metal, such as iron.
Soviet Union: A country that combined Russia and fourteen other nations under a Com- munist government from the end of World War I to the early 1990s.
Strait: A narrow passage of water.
Sultan: A type of king in the Muslim world. Systematic: Planned and orderly.
Tumulus: A burial mound. Usurp: To seize power.
Vassal: A ruler who is subject to another ruler.
Westerner: Someone from a culture or civiliza- tion influenced by ancient Greece and Rome.
138 Ancient Civilizations: Almanac
UKRAINE
miles
0 100
200
0 100
200
RUSSIA
kilometers
Macedonia
GREECE
Troy
Gordian
Bla ck Sea
Ankara
Hattush
GEORGIA
ARMENIA AZERBAIJAN
Mount Ararat
A S I A M I N O R
Phrygia
TURKEY
N
Lake Van
IRAN
Greatest area of Hittite influence
Ancient city
All present-day countries shown in gray
Medi te rranean
Sea
EGYPT
SYRIA LEBANON
Phoenicia
JORDAN ISRAEL
E
Babylonia
IRAQ
Egypt and the nations of Mesopotamia, with whom it was often at war. The two greatest achievements of the Hittites were the development of iron smelting and chariot warfare, skills that their enemies adapted and used against them. Their language also provided an important historical link for schol- ars studying the relation between the peoples of Europe and India. Later came the Phrygians, known for their great wealth; and the Lydians, the first nation to coin money. As for the Cimmerians, Scythians, and Sarmatians of the Ukraine, they were notable not so much for their civilizations as for their conquests. Among the nations they threatened were Urartu and Armenia to the south, civilizations that became heavily involved in the affairs of Mesopotamia, Persia, and even Rome.
Asia Minor
Asia Minor, or modern-day Turkey, covers more than
300,000 square miles (777,000 square kilometers), making it a
Map of Asia Minor and the Black Sea Region. XNR Productions. The Gale Group.
Asia Minor and the Black Sea Region 139
bit smaller than the states of Texas and Oklahoma combined. Its western portion is part of the European continent, and a narrow passageway of water, called a strait, separates this por- tion from the majority of Turkey, which is part of Asia.
Its location between Europe and Asia made Asia Minor an important crossroads. Many of the ancient world’s most important civilizations developed along the Mediterranean to the south and west: Egypt, Israel, Phoenicia, and later Greece and Rome. To the southeast was Mesopotamia, a constant source of conflict for the civilizations of Asia Minor. Likewise conflict came from the nations across the Black Sea to the north, people who were considered barbarians (bar-BARE-ee- uhnz), or uncivilized peoples.
The Hittites (c. 1750–c. 1200 B.C.)
For centuries, the principal source of knowledge about the Hittites (HI-tytz) was the Bible, which refers to them throughout the Old Testament as one of many nations that made war on Israel. Many historians believed that the Hittites never really existed, especially because their neighbors to the west, the Greeks, knew nothing of them. But the Hittite cul- ture flourished and died long before Greek civilization came into being, so the omission is understandable. Beginning in the late A.D.1800s, as archaeological evidence of the Hittites’ existence mounted, historians were forced to recognize the truth of the Biblical account.
Like the peoples who founded later civilizations in Per- sia and India, the Hittites were descendants of the Indo-Euro- pean tribes who came from the region of the Caucasus (KAW- kuh-sus) around 2000 B.C.. When they arrived in Asia Minor, there was already a Semitic people there called the Hatti (HAH- tee), from which the name “Hittite” comes. This has created some confusion for students of history, because the people later referred to as the Hittites simply took over the lands belonging to the Hatti and adopted their name, but in fact they were a new and distinct culture.
Around 1750 B.C., the Hittites established their capital at Hattush (hah-TOOSH), about 100 miles (161 kilometers) east of the present-day Turkish capital of Ankara (ANG-kuh- rah). From there, they began conquering neighboring peoples,
140 Ancient Civilizations: Almanac
expanding all the way to the Mediterranean, more than 500 miles west of Hattush. In about 1600 B.C., they sacked Babylon but did not stay around to make it a Hittite possession. As it turned out, they had run out of supplies for their army and had to return home. On their retreat, they were defeated by the Hurrians, whose kingdom of Mitanni (mi-TAHN-ee) was briefly a great power in the region. This began a period of decline for the Hittites.
The Hittites always had trouble staying organized, which is why they are usually referred to in the plural form, rather than as “the Kingdom of Hatti” or some other term that would indicate a firmly established nation. King Telipinus (teh-li-PIE-nus) in about 1525 B.C. tried to bring a measure of organization to his people, but after his death the land of the Hittites became unstable again. A new dynasty arose in the mid-1400s B.C., however. From this line would come the great- est of the Hittite kings, Suppiluliumas I (suh-pil-oo-LEE-uh- mus), whose reign began around 1380 B.C.
Assyro-Babylonian Empire,
479 B.C. Archive Photos. Reproduced by permission.
Asia Minor and the Black Sea Region 141
Ramses II.
The Library of Congress.
There followed a century of conquest, during which time the Hit- tites continually threatened Egypt and Babylonia, the world powers of the time. The Hittites conquered the Hurri- ans, paying them back for their defeat centuries before and establishing a vas- sal (VA-sul) king in Mitanni. They maintained their power through such vassals—that is, a king who is subject to another king—and by marrying their princesses to the rulers of other lands. In about 1285 B.C., they fought the Egyptians under Ramses II at Kadesh (KAY-desh), and it appears that the Hittites gained the upper hand. They did not conquer Egypt, but the fact that Ramses agreed to marry a Hit- tite princess suggests that he was eager to develop and maintain good rela- tions with them.
For many years, the Hittites controlled most of Asia Minor and Syria, and faced only occasional trou-
ble from the Assyrians to the southeast. But their enemies had also learned from the Hittites, who at the time possessed the most advanced military technology in the world. Not only were they the first people to discover how to smelt iron, an important advancement for any civilization—particularly one that was almost constantly at war, as the Hittites were—but they also became the first to use chariots in warfare. Later the Egyptians and especially the Assyrians would make great use of these horse-drawn wagons, which gave them the advantage over armies on foot.
By all appearances, however, the group that brought an end to the Hittites came neither from Egypt nor Assyria; rather, it appears that in about 1200 B.C., they were destroyed by the mysterious “Sea Peoples.” Historians do not know the exact origin of the Sea Peoples, though it is possible they came from the land of Canaan (KAY-nun) conquered by the Israelites. The Sea Peoples may have included the Philistines. In any case, the Sea Peoples threatened much of the region
142 Ancient Civilizations: Almanac
before vanishing, probably by inter- marrying with the peoples they con- quered; and afterward, the Hittites ceased to exist as a distinct group.
Despite their warlike character, which is symbolized by the fact that their principal contributions to civi- lization were military in nature, the Hittites also had a highly developed culture. Theirs was the first Indo-Euro- pean language known to scholars. Study of Hittite inscriptions has helped linguists (LING-gwistz) better under- stand how the languages of Europe and India developed. The Hittites were also unusual among most ancient peoples in that Hittite queens often had as much power as kings. Among notable female leaders was Puduhepa (poo- doo-HAY-pah), who ruled alongside her husband Hattusilis III (hah-tuh- SIL-us) in about 1250 B.C. She contin- ued to reign even after he died.
Phrygia (1100s–695 B.C.)
The Hittites occupied the central part of Asia Minor, whereas the Phrygians (FRIJ-ee-unz) lived on the Black Sea in the northern part of the region. Related to the Greeks, they came into the area from Macedon (MAS-uh-dahn), the part of Greece from which Alexander the Great would emerge many centuries later. In fact, one of the great events of his early life occurred in the Phrygian city of Gordian (GOHR-dee-uhn). Far to the west of Phrygia was the city-state of Troy, with which the Greeks did battle in the famous Trojan War in about 1260 B.C. The Iliad, the Greek story of the war, men- tions the Phrygians.
In fact the Phrygians probably settled in the region in about 1200 B.C., or around the time the Hittites’ kingdom fell. They did not emerge as a powerful kingdom, however, for more than 400 years. The king who united them, in about 725 B.C., was Mita (MIE-tuh), who perhaps because of
Many centuries later, Alexander the Great would travel to the city of Gordian. Corbs Corporation (Bellevue). Reproduced by permission.
Asia Minor and the Black Sea Region 143
The legend of King Midas
King Mita of Phrygia (fl. 725 B.C.) may have been the basis for the Greek legend of Midas. Supposedly Midas pleased the god Dionysus (die-oh-NY- sus) so much that Dionysus offered him an extraordinar y gift: ever ything he touched would turn to gold.
At first this seemed like a good thing, and his wealth grew rapidly: Midas had only to touch an ordinary object such as a twig or a rock, and suddenly it became priceless. But as soon as he became hungry, Midas discovered that this gift was not as wonderful as it had seemed. He tried to eat a piece of bread, but it turned to gold and became hard as a rock. Worse, when he tried to drink a glass of wine, it became melted gold in his throat.
Midas begged Dionysus to take back his “gift,” which now seemed like a curse. Dionysus had mercy on him, and told him to go bathe in the River Pactolus (PAK-tuh-lus). When he did, washing away his power, the sands of the river turned to gold.
In modern times, people say that someone with a great ability for earning money has “the Midas touch.”
his great wealth later became famous as King Midas (MIE-dus) in the Greek legends. Mita established his capital at Gordian, about sixty miles west of modern-day Ankara. Gordian had a great palace and a huge entrance gate, designed to impress visitors and sub- jects with the power of King Mita.
Outside the city were a number of burial mounds called tumuli (TOOM-you-lie; the singular form is tumulus.) These were similar in concept to the Egyptian pyramids, except that they were made of heaped earth instead of stone. One of these, called “The Great Tumulus,” stands 174 feet high, making it taller than the Statue of Liberty, which is 151 feet tall with- out its base. The Great Tumulus, the second-tallest tumulus yet discovered by archaeologists, holds the remains of a man who may have been the great Mita himself.
Phrygia suffered an invasion by the Cimmerians (si-MARE-ee-unz) from the Caucasus in 695 B.C., but the conquerors did not maintain their con- trol. Eventually Gordian and other cities regained their independence, but they remained subject to the next great power in the region, Lydia.
Lydia (c. 685–546 B.C.)
Lydia (LIH-dee-uh) lay on the far western edge of Asia Minor, facing Greece across the Aegean (uh-JEE-un) Sea. Its culture was even more closely tied to that of Greece than that of the
Phrygians. According to legend, the dynasty that founded Lydia descended from the Greek hero Heracles (HAIR-uh- kleez), more commonly known as Hercules.
144 Ancient Civilizations: Almanac
This early dynasty ruled for many centuries, but Lydia truly emerged as a civilization only under the Mermnad (MAIRM-nad) dynasty, estab- lished in about 685 B.C. Its founder was named Gyges (GY-jeez), a palace guard who, according to the Greek historian Herodotus (hur-AHD-uh-tus), mur- dered the king, Kandaules (KAN-duh- les), married his wife, and usurped (yoo- SURP’D) the throne. Gyges made Lydia a great power. His successor, Ardys (ARR- dis; r. 651–625 B.C.) managed to drive the Cimmerians out for good.
Later kings tried to conquer the Ionian (ie-OH-nee-un) colonies, Greek city-states along the Aegean coast. Only under Croesus (KREE-sus), who ruled from about 560 to 546 B.C., was the conquest complete. Like Mita, Croesus was known for his exceptional wealth, which gave rise to the expres- sion “rich as Croesus,” which has sur- vived into modern times.
It was fitting, then, that Lydia under Croesus became the first nation in history to coin money, producing gold and silver coins. Before this time, businesspeople had bartered, or simply traded goods; now coins gave them an easy method of exchange. Instead of having to trade cattle for cloth, for instance, a farmer could sell his cattle and pay a cloth merchant in coins.
The Lydians’ capital was Sardis (SAR-dis), a great city that would long outlast their empire. It, too, had its tumuli, including the world’s tallest, which stands 210 feet (64 meters) high. For a time, Lydian wealth and power seemed secure. Its stability as an empire was reinforced by the fact that Croesus’s brother-in-law was king over the powerful Medes (MEEDZ) to the east. But when the Persians overthrew the Median king, it
Croesus, King of Lydia, illustration. Archive Photos. Reproduced by permission.
Asia Minor and the Black Sea Region 145
spelled the end for Croesus. In 546 B.C., the Persian armies defeated the Lydians, and Sardis became an important western city in the Persian Empire.
Four later kingdoms
The centuries that followed would see the rise and fall of the Persians and, later, the takeover of Asia Minor by Alexander the Great and his successors. Eventually four king- doms would develop, only to be absorbed later by Rome.
Pergamum (PUR-guh-mum), in the western part of Asia Minor, flourished as an independent state during the period from 263 to 133 B.C. After the latter year, it became a part of the Roman Empire. Pergamum was an important cul- tural center and later came under the influence of Christianity: Revelation, the last book of the Bible, begins with messages to seven churches, among them the church at Pergamum.
Cappadocia (kap-uh-DOH-shuh), a mountainous region in the eastern part of Asia Minor, also functioned as an independent state, in this case during a period of about 300 years beginning with the time of Alexander. Long an ally of Rome, Cappadocia became a Roman province in A.D. 17.
Pontus (PAHN-tus), whose name is Greek for “sea,” was a Black Sea kingdom to the north of Cappadocia. Established in the 300s B.C., it began to grow its empire during the cen- turies that followed. But another, much more powerful, empire was also on the rise, and this eventually led to a show- down between Mithradates the Great of Pontus (mith-ruh- DAY-teez; r. 120–63 B.C.) and the Roman general Pompey. By 63
B.C., Pontus also belonged to Rome.
For many years, Pontus was at war with another king- dom, Bithynia (buh-THIN-ee-uh). A mountainous and heavily wooded region in the northwest part of Asia Minor, Bithynia began its existence as a kingdom in 264 B.C. Continued warfare with Pontus, however, weakened it and made it ripe for Roman conquest in 74 B.C.
The Black Sea region
Though the Ukraine (you-KRAIN) is not part of the
Caucasus (KAW-kuh-sus), both regions are noted for their rich,
146 Ancient Civilizations: Almanac
black soil, which makes the area one of the best places for farming in the world. Spanning the northern shore of the Black Sea, the Ukraine is a land of about a 250,000 square miles (647,500 square kilometers), nearly twice the size of Texas. The Caucasus, a mountainous region which in modern times con- sists of the extreme southern part of Russia, along with Arme- nia (ahr-MEEN-ee-uh), Georgia, and Azerbaijan (ah-zur-BAY- zhahn), is equally large. The word “Caucasian,” which in modern usage typically refers to a person of European heritage, comes from the name of the Caucasus, and can also be used to refer to people from that region.
In ancient times, the Ukraine was inhabited in turn by the Cimmerians (sih-MARE-ee-unz), Scythians (SITH-ee-unz), and Sarmatians (sar-MAY-shunz). The Caucasus was controlled first by the Urartians (oo-RAR-shunz) and later by the Armeni- ans. Other notable civilizations of the area, primarily in what is now Georgia, included Colchis (KOHL-kis) and Iberia (ie- BEER-ee-uh—not to be confused with the Iberian Peninsula, where Spain and Portugal are located.)
A series of tribes (900s B.C.–A.D. 300s)
The Cimmerians, Scythians, and Sarmatians were nomadic groups who originated deep in Central Asia and moved westward beginning in about 1000 B.C. First came the Cimmerians, who drove out the Trypilians (tri-PEEL-ee-unz), a group who had settled in the Ukraine as early as 6000 B.C. The Cimmerians occupied the region until they, too, were driven out, by the Scythians in the 700s B.C. They spread out to Asia Minor and Assyria, where they posed a threat for many years, and in about 600 B.C. took part in the destruction of Urartu.
People in the civilized countries of Europe and Asia considered these groups of people barbarians, but the Scythi- ans, while not truly civilized—that is, they did not possess great cities and did not produce any notable literature—did engage in commerce with the Greeks. They spread their influ- ence through military expeditions, and at one point their lands extended as far as the Balkan (BAWL-kun) Mountains in southeastern Europe. They managed to ward off attacks by the Persians in 512 B.C. and the Greeks under Alexander the Great in about 325 B.C.
Asia Minor and the Black Sea Region 147
By about 300 B.C., however, the Scythians had been dri- ven back to their adopted homeland in the Caucasus. They were eventually overtaken by the Sarmatians, a closely related group. The Sarmatians retained control over the area until about A.D.
200, and joined forces with Rome against the various Germanic (jur-MAN-ik) tribes swarming over Europe at that time. Eventu- ally the Huns, who brought down the Roman Empire, would push the Sarmatians out of the region in the A.D. 300s.
Urartu and Armenia (880 B.C.–A.D. 66)
Urartu and Armenia were not two different places; rather, they are the names of two different civilizations that occupied more or less the same location around Lake Van, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. This area lies in what is now eastern Turkey and northwestern Iran, near Mount Ararat (AIR-uh-rat), which is mentioned in the Bible as the site where Noah’s Ark came to rest. Parts of Armenia are quite fer- tile, giving rise to a legend that the Garden of Eden was located there, though the Bible places the Garden in Mesopotamia.
From records uncovered by archaeologists, it appears that there was already a civilization in the region as early as
1350 B.C. Urartu probably did not become united until a king named Aramu (uh-RAHM-oo) took the throne in 880 B.C. Some time after the end of Aramu’s reign in 844 B.C., the Assyrians overran the area, but by the 700s B.C. Urartu was on the rise again. It briefly controlled lands from Colchis in the Caucasus, far to the north, to Syria in the west. But in 714 B.C., Sargon II of Assyria conquered Urartu. By about 600 B.C., it had ceased to exist.
In the next century, a new civilization, Armenia, began to take hold in the area once controlled by Urartu. Darius the Great mentioned the Armenians in his Behistun Inscription, and Armenia eventually became part of the Persian Empire. In
331 B.C., Armenia fell under the control of Alexander the Great.
Armenia taken by Romans
Armenia flourished under Artaxias I (ahr-TAK-shuhs; r.
190–159 B.C.) and Tigranes (ti-GRAY-neez; c. 140–c. 55 B.C.), who conquered a great empire that stretched into southern
148 Ancient Civilizations: Almanac
The Caspian Sea and other Great Lakes
The Caspian Sea separates the Caucasus from Central Asia and is bounded on its southern shore by Iran. Despite its name, the Caspian Sea is actually a lake, because it contains fresh, as opposed to salt, water and does not empty into an ocean. In fact it is the world’s largest lake, at more than 143,000 square miles (370,370 square kilometers)
—which means that this “lake” is about the size of Montana. No wonder, then, that geographers called it a “sea.”
By contrast, the second-largest lake in the world, Lake Superior on the U.S.- Canadian border, is 31,700 square miles (82,103 square kilometers), or less than one-fourth the size of the Caspian Sea. Lake
Victoria in Africa, at the mouth of the Nile
River, is the third largest, at just under
27,000 square miles (69,930 square kilometers). Fourth is the Aral Sea, about
200 miles east of the Caspian in Central Asia, at slightly less than 25,000 square miles (64,750 square kilometers); fifth is Lake Huron (23,000 square miles or 59,570 square kilometers), which like Lake Superior is one of the Great Lakes. All four of these lakes, plus the fifth- and sixth-largest in the world—respectively, Lake Michigan of the Great Lakes and Lake Tanganyika (tahn- gahn-YEE-kuh) in Africa—could fit inside the Caspian Sea, and there would still be almost 2,000 square miles (5,180 square
kilometers) to spare!
Europe. But the empire did not last long: the Romans took most of Armenia’s lands in the years between 69 and 66 B.C.
Nor was this the end of Armenia’s unfortunate dealings with Rome: Tigranes’s son, Artavasdes III (ahr-uh-VAZ-deez; c.
55–34 B.C.), found himself caught in the middle of a struggle between the Roman consul Octavian (later Caesar Augustus) on the one hand and Cleopatra and Mark Antony on the other. Antony and Cleopatra had him captured and executed.
In A.D. 66, the Roman emperor Nero crowned a prince of the Parthians, then ruling over Persia, as vassal king of Armenia. Later, in A.D. 303, Armenia became the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as its national religion. Dur- ing the period from the 200s to the 600s A.D., Armenia changed hands between the Persian and Roman/Byzantine empires many times.
Asia Minor and the Black Sea Region 149
Empire, revolution, and genocide
During the first half of the Middle Ages (A.D. c.
500–1500), Asia Minor belonged to the Byzantine (BIZ-un- teen) Empire, which emerged from the eastern half of the Roman Empire. Geographically, the empire tied together Europe and Asia, and in terms of history, it linked the ancient and medieval (med-EE-vul) worlds. The Byzantine capital was at Constantinople (kahn-stan-ti-NOH-pul), just across a nar- row strait from Asia Minor.
The Byzantine Empire was Christian, but with the rise of Islam (IZ-lahm) in the A.D. 600s, much of Asia Minor became Islamic. Around A.D. 1000, the region was invaded by the Turks, a group of people who came ultimately from Central Asia. A group of Turks called the Seljuks (sel-JOOKZ) estab- lished control over most of Asia Minor in the A.D. 1000s. Hav- ing adopted Islam as their religion, the Seljuks fought against the Crusaders from Europe who were attempting to gain con- trol of Palestine.
In about A.D. 1300, another group of Turks called the Ottomans (AH-tuh-munz) established an empire on the Asian portion of Turkey. After the Byzantine Empire came to an end in the 1400s, they united Asian and European Turkey under their rule. They went on to conquer a region that stretched from Hungary in southeastern Europe to the Arabian Penin- sula, and from Persia to Egypt. The Ottoman Empire lasted a long time—until 1924—but by the 1500s it was already in decline. By the early 1900s it had become known as “The Sick Man of Europe.” Though it was still technically ruled by a sul- tan (SUL-tun), or king, in 1908 the real power shifted to an enthusiastic group of reformers known as the Young Turks. When World War I began in 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined Germany and Austria against Britain, France, Russia, and the United States.
Genocide in the Ukraine and Caucasus
During the Middle Ages the Ukraine had flourished as an independent kingdom, but it did so in the shadow of its powerful neighbor to the north, Russia. Russia also took an interest in the nations of the Caucasus, and Russia and the Ottoman Empire both sought to gain power over Armenia,
150 Ancient Civilizations: Almanac
controlled by the Ottomans after the
1600s. In 1915 the Ottoman Turks, attempting to crush Armenian hopes of independence, rounded up millions of Armenians and moved them to con- centration camps in the Syrian Desert. There, more than 1.5 million Armeni- ans were starved to death, the first instance of large-scale genocide (JEN- uh-side) in history.
Genocide is the systematic (that is, planned) murder of a whole group of people on the basis of race, class, or nationality. Though there had always been cruelty in the world, only in the twentieth century did nations have the power to commit wholesale acts of genocide. Although the massacre of the Armenians was the first, it was far from the last. The most famous instance of genocide, or course, was the Holocaust, the killing of six million Jews by Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) and the Nazis in Germany during World
War II (1939–1945). But a crime on an even greater scale has barely received any attention by historians: the massacre of some 10 million people in the Ukraine and Caucasus by Josef Stalin (STAH-lin; 1879–1953), dictator of Soviet Russia.
In 1917, Russia experienced a revolution, a political uprising to bring about rapid social change. The revolution and its aftermath, which established communism in Russia, was a violent one. Communism is a political and economic system that calls for the joint ownership of all property by the people of a nation; in practice, however, Communist governments— which are controlled by a very small group of leaders—own everything. Stalin, who was a Georgian, took power over the Soviet Union in 1929. He demanded that the peasants of the Ukraine and Caucasus give up their land to the government. They refused, so his troops sent millions of them to slave-labor camps, where they died. Stalin starved millions more by with- holding food from them.
Joseph Stalin sent millions of peasants to slave-labor camps for their refusal to give their land to the government. Archive Photos. Reproduced by permission.
Asia Minor and the Black Sea Region 151
Kemal Ataturk helped move Turkey into the company of the United States and Western Europe.
Archive Photos. Reproduced by permission.
Hope for the future
After World War I, Turkey came under the leadership of a different kind of revolutionary: Mustafa Kemal (moo- STAH-fuh ki-MAHL), sometimes known as Kemal Atatürk (a-tuh- TOORK; 1881–1938). Kemal also ruled as a dictator and dealt harshly with his enemies, but his aim was to bring about genuine progress for Turkey. He helped move his nation into the twen- tieth century. As a result, Turkey became increasingly tied with the United States and Western Europe.
Progress took much longer in the Ukraine and the Caucasus, which suffered under Soviet rule. The Ukraine also endured a brutal invasion by the Nazis in World War II. Communism came to an end in the early 1990s, and the four nations—the Ukraine, Arme- nia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan—finally received their independence. These countries have continued to be
plagued by war, however, including a conflict between Arme- nia and Azerbaijan in 1992 and 1993.
For More Information
Books
Bator, Robert. Daily Life in Ancient and Modern Istanbul. Illustrated by Ray
Webb. Minneapolis, MN: Runestone Press, 1999.
Burrell, Roy. Oxford First Ancient History. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1991, pp. 74-75.
Dijkstra, Henk. History of the Ancient & Medieval World, Volume 3: Ancient
Cultures. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 1996, pp. 337-48.
Dué, Andrea, editor. The Atlas of Human History: Cradles of Civilization: Ancient Egypt and Early Middle Eastern Civilizations. Text by Renzo Rossi. New York: Macmillan Library Reference USA, 1996, pp. 24-27.
Hotham, David. Turkey: The Land and Its People. London: Macdonald Edu- cational, 1975.
152 Ancient Civilizations: Almanac
Martell, Hazel Mary. The Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World. New York: Kingfisher, 1995, pp. 24-25.
Wren, Melvin C. Ancient Russia. Drawings by Elizabeth Hammond. New
York: John Day Company, 1965.
Web Sites
“About Indo-Hittite Languages.” Mansfield Library at the University of
Montana. http://www.lib.umt.edu/guide/lang/indohih.htm (April
13, 1999).
The Armenian Genocide. http://www.scf-usc.edu/~khachato/index1.html
(April 13, 1999).
Armenia Resource Page. http://www.soros.org/armenia.html (April 13, 1999). “ARMENIANS.” http://www.calpoly.edu/~pkiziria/pub-files/history.html
(April 13, 1999).
“History of Ancient Armenia and Urartu.” http://www.usd.edu/~clehmann/
pir/arm_hist.htm (April 13, 1999).
“The Hittite Civilization.” Explore Turkey. http://www.exploreturkey.com/
hitit.htm (April 13, 1999).
Hittite Home Page. http://www.asor.org/HITTITE/HittiteHP.html (April 13,
1999).
“Hittite/Hurrian Mythology REF 1.2.” http://pubpages.unh.edu/~cbsiren/
hittite-ref.html (April 13, 1999).
“Phrygia.” Greek Mythology Link. http://hsa.brown.edu/~maicar/ Phrygia.html (April 13, 1999).
“Sardis.” Explore Turkey. http://www.ExploreTurkey.com/sart.htm (April
13, 1999).
Asia Minor and the Black Sea Region 153
Persia 6
ran, which in its ancient version was called Persia, lies to the east of Iraq, or Mesopotamia. Shaped like a snail, the country has a number of frontiers, or borders. On its north- west frontier is Turkey—called Asia Minor in ancient times. Iran is bounded by water on both its northern and its south- ern edges: to the north is the Caspian Sea, the world’s largest lake; and to the south are the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Northeastern Iran borders the central Asian republic of Turkmenistan. In ancient times this area belonged to var- ious nomadic (wandering) tribes originating north of China; during much of the twentieth century Turkmenistan was part of the Soviet Union. To the east is Afghanistan, a moun- tainous land with close ethnic ties to Iran. To the southeast is Pakistan, where the Indus Valley civilization flourished thousands of years before Persia came into being. A broad band of mountains runs through central Iran and along the Caspian shore. At the heart of the country is a desert; and eastward, the lands rise toward the high mountains of
Afghanistan.
155
RUSSIA
N
KAZAKHSTAN
Aral
Sea
Greatest extent of
Persian Empire
Royal Road
Ancient coastline
All present-day countries shown in gray
l
Sardis
Asia Minor
TURKEY
TURKMENISTAN
SYRIA
JORDAN
IRAQ
Susa
P e r s i a
IRAN
AFGHANISTAN
PAKISTAN
LIBYA
EGYPT
A r a b i a
miles
0 250
0 250 kilometers
500
500
OMAN
Ara bian
Sea
Map of Persia. XNR Productions. The Gale Group.
Why Persia is important
The empire established by the Persians in the 500s B.C. was as powerful and as brilliant as it was short-lived. The early Persian Empire was known for its religious tolerance: unlike most invaders before or afterward, the Persians respected the tradi- tions of the people they conquered. For instance, they allowed the Jews to rebuild their city of Jerusalem. Another important aspect of Persian rule was their system of organization, which allowed them to build what was then the largest empire in his- tory. The Persians built roads, dug canals, and established the first important postal system in history to maintain communi- cations between the emperor and his satraps, or governors. They also brought about advancements in law. Among their most notable contributions to civilization was a religion few people in modern times have ever heard of: Zoroastrianism. Certainly people have heard of the Devil, however, and of the idea that good and evil, symbolized by God and Satan, are continually at
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