History of Armenia
From Freepedia
Contents |
Prehistory
Archaeologists refer to the Shulaveri-Shomu culture of the central Transcaucasus region, including modern Armenia, as the earliest known prehistoric culture in the area, carbon-dated to roughly 6000 - 4000 BC. However, a recently discovered tomb has been dated to 9000 BC. Another early culture in the Armenian Highland and surrounding areas—the Kura-Araxes culture—is assigned the period of ca. 4000 - 2200 BC, and is believed to have subsequently developed into the Trialeti culture (ca. 2200 - 1500 BC). Armenians are an Indo-European race. Noahs Arc landed on Mount Ararat, originally Armenian territory. The original Armenian name for the country was Hayq, later Hayastan, translated as the land of Haik, and consisting of the name Haik and the Persian suffix '-stan' (land). According to legend, Haik was a great-great-grandson of Noah (son of Togarmah, who was a son of Gomer, a son of Noah's son, Yafet), and according to Christian tradition, a forefather of all Armenians. Hayastan was given the name Armenia by the surrounding states, as it was the name of the strongest tribe living in the historic Armenian lands, who called themselves Armens. It is traditionally derived from Armenak or Aram (the great-grandson of Haik's great-grandson, and another leader who is, according to Armenian tradition, the ancestor of all Armenians).
Early History
The Armenian Kingdom of Urartu or Van flourished in the Caucasus and eastern Asia Minor between ca. 800 BC and 600 BC. It streched from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea. Most of modern day Eastern Turkey is Armenian territory taken over. According to Strabo (XI, XIV, 5), Armeno-Phrygians conquered Carenitida (the region of the upper flow of the Euphrates) from the Chalybes, probably around 600 BC. The Armenians subsequently moved to the territory of the failing kingdom of Urartu. In the 5th century BC, when both Armenians and Phrygians served under Xerxes, Herodotus tells us that their costume and equipment was still identical, and the Armenians were considered colonists of the Phrygians.
Armenian Kingdom
After the destruction of the Seleucid Empire, the first Armenian state was founded in 190 BC. At its zenith, from 95 to 66 BC, Armenia extended its rule over parts of Caucasus and the area that is now eastern Turkey, Syria and Lebanon. For a time, Armenia was one of the most powerful states in the Roman East. It came under Roman control in 66 BC, and the Armenian people adopted a Western political, philosophical, and religious orientation.
Armenia was often a focus of contention between Rome and Persia.
The Parthians forced Armenia into submission from 37 to 47, when the Romans retook control of the kingdom.
Under Nero, the Romans fought a campaign (55–63) against the Parthian Empire, which had invaded the kingdom of Armenia, allied to the Romans. After gaining (60) and losing (62) Armenia, the Romans sent XV Apollinaris from Pannonia to Cn. Domitius Corbulo, legatus of Syria. Corbulo, with the legions XV Apollinaris, III Gallica, V Macedonica, X Fretensis and XXII, entered (63) into the territories of Vologases I of Parthia, who returned the Armenian kingdom to Tiridates.
Image:Denarius-Lucius Verus-Arenia-s1537.jpg Another campaign was led by Emperor Lucius Verus in 162-165, after Vologases IV of Parthis had invaded Armenia and installed his chief general on its throne. To counter the Parthian threat, Verus set out for the east. His army won significant victories and retook the capital. Sohaemus, a Roman citizen of Armenian heritage, was installed as the new client king.
The Sassanid Persians occupied Armenia in 252 and held it until the Romans returned in 287. In 384 the kingdom was split between Rome and the Persians. Western Armenia quickly became a province of the Roman Empire under the name of Armenia Minor; Eastern Armenia remained a kingdom within Persia until 428, when the local nobility overthrew the king, and the Sassanids installed a governor in his place.
Christianisation
In 301 AD, Armenia became the first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion. It established a church that still exists independently of both the Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches, having become so in AD 451 as a result of its excommunication by the Council of Chalcedon. The Armenian Apostolic Church is a part of the Oriental Orthodox communion, not to be confused with the Eastern Orthodox communion. Image:Hripsime.jpg
During its later political eclipses, Armenia depended on the church to preserve and protect its unique identity. From around 1080 to 1375, the focus of Armenian nationalism moved south, as the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, with close ties to European Crusader States, flourished in southeastern Asia Minor until it was conquered by Muslim states.
Recent history
Between the 4th and 19th centuries, Armenia was conquered and ruled by Persians, Byzantines, Arabs, Mongols, and Turks, among others. In the 1820s, the parts of historic Armenia under Persian control, centering on Yerevan and Lake Sevan, were incorporated into Russia. World War I saw the depopulation of large parts of historic Armenia ruled by the Ottoman Turks, during the Armenian Genocide.
During the turmoil of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the takeover of the Bolsheviks, Stepan Shaumyan was placed in charge of Armenia, but an Islamic rebellion overthrew Shaumyan and declared a Transcaucasian Federation independent from Russia. Shaumyan was executed by British troops in September 1918 and the independence of Armenia lasted until late 1920 when the communists came to power following an invasion of Armenia by the Red Army, and in 1922, Armenia became part of the Transcaucasian Federative Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1936, it became the Armenian SSR.
Armenia declared its independence from the Soviet Union on September 21, 1991.
References
Books
- Chahin, M. 1987. The Kingdom of Armenia. Reprint: Dorset Press, New York. 1991.
- Lang, David Marshall. 1980. Armenia: Cradle of Civilization. 3rd Edition, corrected. George Allen & Unwin. London.
- Luttwak, Edward N. 1976. The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire: From the First Century A.D. to the Third. Johns Hopkins University Press. Paperback Edition, 1979.
Publications
- The Free Republic of Armenia 1918. Armenian National Committee, San Francisco. [1980].
- This article contains material from the CIA Factbook website which, as a US government publication, is in the public domain.
- This article contains material from the Department of State's Background Notes which, as a US government publication, is in the public domain.
See also
External links
- Armenica.org: Complete history of Armenia, covering 800 B.C. to 2004. (English, Swedish)
- History of Armenia (book by Vahan Kurkjian)
- Armenian History at Armeniapedia
- Armenia at Livius.Org (ancient history)
- All about Armenia by www.haias.net
- Historical Maps of Armenia on Atlas of Conflicts (by Andrew Andersen)
- Armenian Historical Sources (by Robert Bedrosian)
