508 BC—
Cleisthenes reorganizes
Athens. He creates the
deme, a local unit to serve as the basis of his political system. Citizenship is tightly linked to the deme, for each deme keeps the roll of those within its jurisdiction, who are admitted to citizenship. He groups all the demes into ten tribes, which thus form the link between the demes and the central government. The central government includes an assembly of all citizens and a new council of five hundred members. This is a very early form of
democracy.
500 BC—The Zapotecs establish
Monte Albán, the sacred city, and continue building pyramids. Founded toward the end of the Middle Formative period at around 500 BC, by the Terminal Formative (ca.100 BC-AD 200) Monte Albán had become the capital of a large-scale expansionist polity that dominated much of the Oaxacan highlands and interacted with other Mesoamerican regional states such as Teotihuacan to the north (Paddock 1983; Marcus 1983).
508 BC—
Cleisthenes reorganizes
Athens. He creates the
deme, a local unit to serve as the basis of his political system. Citizenship is tightly linked to the deme, for each deme keeps the roll of those within its jurisdiction, who are admitted to citizenship. He groups all the demes into ten tribes, which thus form the link between the demes and the central government. The central government includes an assembly of all citizens and a new council of five hundred members. This is a very early form of
democracy.
500 BC—The Zapotecs establish
Monte Albán, the sacred city, and continue building pyramids. Founded toward the end of the Middle Formative period at around 500 BC, by the Terminal Formative (ca.100 BC-AD 200) Monte Albán had become the capital of a large-scale expansionist polity that dominated much of the Oaxacan highlands and interacted with other Mesoamerican regional states such as Teotihuacan to the north (Paddock 1983; Marcus 1983).