The country that the Greeks called Baktria with its double-named capital of Baktra-Zariaspa was located on the plain that comprises northern Afghanistan from the Hindu-Kush mountains in the south to the Amudaria River in the north and west, and the Badakhshan mountains in the east. During the Bronze Age, hundreds of desert oasis settlements arose on both sides of the Amudaria. The first written references to Baktria occur after its inclusion in the Achaemenid kingdom. During Alexander the Great's campaign in Persia, a relative of the Persian king, Darius III Commodanus, and satrap of Baktria-Sogdia, Bessos, commanded the Baktrian cavalry at the Battle of Gaugamela. The history of this period is generally viewed as an interlude marking the transition from the end of Greek rule to the beginning of the Kushan Empire. It is generally agreed that the Kushans were one of the several tribes of the Yuezhi, among whom some probably spoke Tokharian, mentioned by the Chinese sources.

The name Mediterranean is derived from Latin and means 'in the middle of the earth', a reference to the fact either that it is almost entirely surrounded by land or that it was deemed to be at the center of the known world by ancient West Afro-Eurasian societies. The fall of the Western Roman Empire shapes the way in which Western history is periodized, as it marks the end of the classical era. The cultural influence of the Assyrians and Egyptians, particularly the Hebrews, Phoenicians, Minoans, and Mycenaeans, who occupied the coasts and islands of the Eastern Mediterranean, was substantial. Within both large political structures, such as the Hellenistic and Roman empires, and smaller cultures and states that did not evolve into large-scale empires, such as those of the Hebrews, Phoenicians, Minoans, and Mycenaeans, expansion invariably led to the emergence of more complex social structures, which explicitly situated various groups, including women and slaves, into more sharply delineated hierarchical structures.

Attica, as the area surrounding the city of Athens is called, smaller than many modern US counties, but larger than most of the other Greek poleis. The Athenians enjoyed an advantage of natural resources: rich silver mines at Laurion in southeastern Attica. Athens had not only some advantages in geography and resources but also favorable historical circumstances and remarkable leadership on its side. Interrupted by only two brief periods of oligarchic rule during the fifth century BCE, the Athenian government was characterized by a participatory system that had come to be called demokratia. A key to understanding the reasons for the remarkable expansion of political enfranchisement lies in the connection between political rights and military service. The city of Athens was not just a political and military center; it was also the focus of a commercial empire that controlled trade in the Aegean. Education was key to power and wealth in a litigious, participatory democracy.

The city of Constantinople, among the most distinctive and consequential European creations of late antiquity, presents itself as a witness to the various transformations that take place between the fourth and the ninth centuries CE. Late antiquity, especially as it relates to Europe, may accordingly be characterized as a period of disruption, transition, and transformation away from a Mediterranean-centered, late Roman imperial political and socioeconomic order. The expansion of the late Roman state apparatus and its increasing claim upon the economy has traditionally been seen as causes of economic crisis and decline. Attempts in the sixth century to regain lost Roman territories in the western Mediterranean achieved limited success. Like the Romans, the Umayyads relied upon local elites for the collection of taxes. In the Roman period, trade in amber led from the southern shores of the Baltic to central Europe and the Black Sea.

The written Chinese language played a critical role in shaping the emergence of a distinctively East Asian cultural zone. The development of writing in Bronze Age China is thus fundamental to both Chinese and East Asian civilization more broadly. Although tantalizing examples of markings that seem to resemble writing have been discovered from earlier periods, the first unmistakable examples of written language in China appear on the 'oracle bones' that were used for divination at the late Shang court. During the fourth and early fifth centuries, Xianbei bands in the northeast established a series of dynasties in the area of southwestern Manchuria and northeastern China proper. In the early sixth century, there was reportedly a steady flow of merchants from the remote west arriving in the Northern Wei dynasty capital at Luoyang, in north-central China. Buddhism was then introduced to Paekche by a Central Asian monk, Malananda, coming from Southern dynasty China in 384.