A Short History of the World Read Online Free PDF Page A

number of separate kingdoms that more often than not waged war upon each other. Of the two largest to remain, one was the Seleucid Kingdom, founded by one of Alexander’s generals, Seleucus, which included most of Asia Minor, Mesopotamia and Persia. The other was the Ptolemaic Kingdom, founded by his general Ptolemy, which consisted of Egypt. With the exception of much of Persia, most of these lands and successor kingdoms were later swallowed by the Roman Republic.  

    In Egypt, Ptolemy established the last dynasty that would rule the country with the title of Pharaoh. For the following two and a half centuries the Ptolemaic dynasty of the Greeks would successfully rule Egypt, mingling Greek traditions with the legacy of the Pharaohs. Ptolemy and his descendants adopted Egyptian royal trappings and added Egypt's religion to their own, worshipping the gods and building temples in their honour, some even going to the extent of being mummified after death. Of all Alexander’s successor kingdoms, Egypt was to last the longest, and was only finally added to the Roman Empire in 30 BC following the suicide of Cleopatra – the last Ptolemaic queen.  
    One of the many legacies of Alexander’s reign, born of a desire to dominate Egypt, was the city of Alexandria, which was founded on the northern coast of the country in the 4th century BC. With Athens declining and Rome not yet developed, Alexandria occupied the key junction between the western and eastern worlds. It became one of the greatest cities in antiquity, the busiest port in the world, and a cultural melting pot of Greek, Roman and Egyptian thought and trade. 18 The city would not be eclipsed in its importance within Egypt until Cairo was established in the 10th century.  

    The Unification of China (221 BC)
    Over in the east, by 400 BC, the multitude of separate states in present-day China had been consolidated into thirteen, and for the next 175 years they fell into a protracted struggle referred to as ‘the Warring States Period’. The state that emerged as the strongest, partially thanks to its use of iron over the bronze weapons of its neighbours, was the western Chou state of Qin (pronounced Ch’in) from which, some have suggested, we get the name China.  
    The leader who brought all these states together, and in effect became the first emperor of China in 221 BC, was named Shi Huang-Ti. Emperor Shi Huang-Ti gained a terrible reputation, ruthlessly crushing any resistance to his rule. He also instigated the building of the Great Wall of China 19 – the largest man-made structure in the world at over 6,000 km long – in order to protect his empire from the Huns, the same people that would attack the West several hundred years later. Obsessed with immortality and fearing retribution by the spirits of all those he had killed, Shi Huang-Ti ensured that he was buried with over 6,000 terracotta warriors to protect him in the afterlife.
    As a result of his cruelty, the Qin Dynasty was rapidly overthrown after his death and the Han Dynasty ruled China for the following 400 years. 20 This was a time of peace that witnessed Confucianism – a way of life expounded by Confucius and his followers since the 6th century BC – adopted as the state philosophy. It was during the Han Dynasty that the great trade route of the Silk Road was established, a route that saw Asia trading silk and other luxuries with Persia and India, and with a new empire that was gaining ground in the west – an empire which would grow by conquest and assimilation to rule the western world: Rome.

    The Roman Republic (509–27 BC)
    Rome started as a small town on the banks of the river Tiber in the 8th century BC. Legend has it that the city was founded in 753BC by the twins, Romulus (hence Rome) and Remus, who were both saved from death by a wolf who suckled them. The area was ruled by Etruscan kings until 509 BC, when a more representative form of government was established under the Republic of