Greece’s fortunate location in the eastern Mediterranean provided ample trade opportunities. The onset of Macedonian rule allowed the spreading of Greek culture as far as India. Influenced by the contact, India adopted political unity under the Mauryan Empire (Wiesner-Hanks, 2017). With Ashoka the Great converting to Buddhism and popularizing its ideas, Buddhism’s significance passed beyond Indian borders. Eventually, it spread to China through missionary work and trade, introducing the unfamiliar Buddhist concepts of scriptures, celibacy, and artistic expression.
China produced parallels with the Indian political structure, in its turn heavily influenced by the Greek culture. Under the Qin Dynasty, China became a centralized state, unified and changed significantly in its social dynamics, due to the removal of nobility privileges (Wiesner-Hanks, 2017). Their successors, the Han Dynasty, continued the centralization but advocated peaceful internal politics, thus reintroducing the ideas of Confucianism into social life. The humane principles of the teaching became a favorable environment for the subsequent appropriation of Buddhism, spreading from India.
Then, the Hellenistic empire also had a significant effect on cultural interaction. For instance, epicurean philosophy emphasizes the importance of satisfying a human’s desires, while the Stoic one claims that these desires should be abandoned as they cause too many unnecessary difficulties (Wiesner-Hanks, 2017). Such opposite approaches – both with a strong rationale – substantially impacted philosophic ideas worldwide. Moreover, this empire launched the phenomenon of syncretism – the mixing of various beliefs and doctrines. Hence, the Greeks had the most prominent cultural influence in the framework of philosophy.
The Hellenistic empire was mostly conquered by the Romans, who adopted a massive layer of Greek culture. At the same time, as Buddhism transformed cultural life in eastern Eurasia, western Eurasia was changing under the continual spread of Christianity. After the initial period of religious persecution of Christians, Roman emperors proclaimed Christianity the official religion of the empire. In doing so, Roman rule attempted to solve the problem of political instability and potential invasions. It should also be mentioned that Pax Romana – that means a 200-year peaceful period between 27BC-180AD – had some positive aspects within the trade (Wiesner-Hanks, 2017). Rome traded with the Han Dynasty, which contributed to their prosperity.
Reference
Wiesner-Hanks, M. E. (2017). A history of world societies, value edition, combined edition. Bedford/St. Martin’s.