C. THE BIG, EARLY CIVILIZATIONS: THE RIVERS DELIVER

Most of the world’s early great civilizations were located in river valleys. Think about it. Rivers provided a regular supply of water, which is, of course, necessary for survival. Also important is that the lowlands around rivers tend to be covered with soil that is loaded with nutrients, which are deposited when the river recedes after floods to nourish the soil. The river itself may be home to animals and plants could also provide food for people. Rivers were also a vital means of transportation.

When we talk about civilizations, we’re talking about large areas of land with large populations and distinct, organized cultures, as opposed to the smaller farming communities that characterized earlier time periods. Pay attention to the social, political, and economic developments of the civilizations in this section: These developments are what made them civilizations in the first place.

A piece of advice: Do not assume that all civilizations were headed by a central authority. Many early civilizations, in fact, were composed of loosely connected city-states, which were made up of an urban center and the agricultural land around it under its control. These city-states were sometimes combined into one because they shared common cultural characteristics; but they were also independent of each other in many ways and often competed with each other. This is true in modern times as well, of course. When we speak of Western civilization, for example, we mean a whole host of countries that have similar characteristics and cultures but that are distinct from one another and, often, compete with one another.

Major early civilizations developed and became dominant starting at around 3000 to 2000 B.C.E. They were located in Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and China.

1. Mesopotamia: Lots of Water, Lots of History

Mesopotamia literally means “land between the rivers”; the rivers were the Tigris and the Euphrates. A series of ancient civilizations—most notably Sumer, Babylon, and Persia—thrived along their banks. Mesopotamia is part of a larger area of relatively arable land known as the Fertile Crescent, which extends westward from Mesopotamia toward the Mediterranean.

Unfortunately, the flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers was very unpredictable, so some early settlements were frequently washed away. But soon people learned to build canals and dikes, and began to build their towns farther uphill, enabling large city-states to emerge. By 3000B.C.E., Ur, Erech, and Kish were the major city-states of the first major civilization of Sumer.

Sumer: The First Major Mesopotamian Civilization

Sumerian civilization rose in the southern part of Mesopotamia. In addition to successful agriculture and river management, the Sumerians developed a form of writing known as cuneiform. Scribes used this form of writing to set down laws, treaties, and important social and religious customs; soon the use of cuneiform spread over the trade routes to many other parts of the region. Trade was also enhanced by the introduction of the wheel, a major development that greatly reduced the time it took to transport both goods and people between two points.

Sumerians also developed a twelve-month calendar and a math system based on units of sixty (as in sixty seconds and three-hundred-sixty degrees). They used geometry, as well, to survey the land and to develop architectural enhancements such as arches and columns.

Sumerians were polytheistic, meaning that they worshipped more than one god. The interesting thing about Sumerian polytheism was that each city-state had its own god that was worshipped only by its people. In addition, there were a bunch of gods that all the city-states worshipped collectively. Sumerians built temples, called ziggurats, which were terraced pyramids, to appease their gods. They believed that when disaster struck—such as a particularly devastating flood—it was because the gods were angry.

Disaster often struck; no temple could stop the relentless flow of invasions of Sumeria. And by around 1700 B.C.E., the civilization had been completely overthrown; however, its conquerors adopted many Sumerian traditions and technologies.

From Sumer to Babylon to Nineveh to Babylon

As the Sumerian city-states declined, the city of Akkad, which was north of Sumer, rose to dominate the region. The Akkadians major contribution was they developed the first known code of laws, which they wrote in cuneiform, which they learned from the Sumerians. But by 1700 B.C.E., Akkad was overrun by a new powerhouse in Mesopotamia, Babylon. King Hammurabi of Babylon expanded on this idea of a code of laws by developing an extensive code that dealt with every part of daily life. The Code of Hammurabi, as it has come to be called, is often credited as a significant step toward our modern legal codes. It distinguished between major and minor offenses (a big deal at the time) and it established a sense of justice and fairness by applying the laws to nearly everyone (the beginnings of “rule of law”).

But Babylon quickly fell due to the invasions of the Kassites and then the Hittites. By 1500 B.C.E., the Hittites dominated the region, especially because they learned how to use iron in their weapons. Because iron is a lot stronger than bronze, the Hittites quickly became a military superpower.

As you’ve no doubt figured out by now, news spread fast even in the ancient civilizations. As soon as one civilization figured out a new way to do something, the information was passed via the trade routes to other groups, who would quickly adopt and adapt the new technology to suit their cultures. In this way, within a hundred years, the Assyrians had learned to use iron, the very technology the Hittites had used to defeat them. This enabled them to establish a capital at Nineveh and, eventually build an empire that swept across the entire Fertile Crescent. Highly disciplined but cruel, the Assyrian army was hated by those it conquered. As a result, there were frequent uprisings against the Assyrian authorities, who, in response, sent large groups of people into exile. This action too played a part in enhancing cultural diffusion across the entire region and beyond.

In spite of their power, within a few hundred years, the Assyrians were defeated by the Medes and the Chaldeans. The Chaldean king, Nebuchadnezzar, rebuilt Babylon as a showplace of architecture and culture. He extended his empire throughout the Fertile Crescent, as the Assyrians had done before him. But like all the civilizations before it, the new Babylon was doomed to fall. A new civilization, the Persian Empire, developed into a major world force.

Focus On: Continuity through Change

You probably won’t be asked a lot of specific questions about the long list of civilizations that emerged, one after the other, in Mesopotamia in the centuries between the Sumerian and Persian Empires. However, the Code of Hammurabi and the growing use of iron are both pretty bigdevelopments. That said, we’ve given you a quick review because it is essential that you understand, and can demonstrate, that as civilizations were conquered, their cultural heritage, religions, laws, customs, and technologies were rarely lost. Commonly, conquering civilizations adopted and adapted the customs and technologies of those they defeated. The series of civilizations that grew, and then fell, in Mesopotamia demonstrates this point well.

Persian Immersion

The Persians established a big empire—a really big empire—that, by 500 B.C.E., stretched from beyond the Nile River Valley in Egypt around the eastern Mediterranean through present-day Turkey and parts of Greece, and then eastward through present-day Afghanistan. Huge!

To improve transportation and communication across the vast empire, the Persians built a series of long roads. The longest was the Great Royal Road, which stretched some 1,600 miles from the Persian Gulf to the Aegean Sea.

We’ll talk more about the Persian Empire later, because they butted heads with the other major world empires.

Lydians, Phoenicians, and Hebrews, Oh My!

Within and near the Persian Empire, many smaller societies existed and kept their own identities. Among these were the Lydians, Phoenicians, and Hebrews.

The Lydians are important because they came up with the concept of using coined money to conduct trade rather than using the barter system, in which goods are exchanged for other goods. This, of course, led to a monetary system of consistent prices and allowed people to save money for future use. The idea of coined money, like everything else, spread over the trade routes and soon just about everybody was doing it.

The Phoenicians are important, first, because they established powerful naval city-states all along the Mediterranean (you’ll read more about this later), and, second, because they developed a simple alphabet that used only 22 letters as opposed to the much more complex cuneiform system. The Greeks later adopted the Phoenician alphabet, and from there it spread and changed, and eventually led to the system of letters you are reading on this page.

The Hebrews are significant because of their religious beliefs called Judaism. The Hebrews were the first Jews. In contrast to previous civilizations in the Fertile Crescent and beyond, the Hebrews were monotheistic, meaning they believed in one god. By around 1000 B.C.E., the Hebrews had established Israel in Palestine on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Although they were frequently invaded by neighboring empires (e.g., Nebuchadnezzar enslaved them), they managed to maintain their identity, in large part because they believed they were God’s chosen people. Under the Persians, the Hebrews were freed from captivity and continued to develop a distinct culture that would later lead to the development of major world religions. Much more about Judaism can be found in Section IV of this chapter.

2. Ancient Egypt: Stay Awhile Along the Nile

The ancient Egyptian civilization developed along the Nile River, where the soil was rich and the agricultural opportunities were plentiful. The Nile cuts through an otherwise arid landscape, so the people clustered along the riverbanks, where, in addition to farms, they constructed towns and cities. Though we often think of ancient Egypt in terms of massive construction projects, such as the pyramids, most Egyptians lived in smaller towns. Unlike the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, the Nile floods at a predictable time of the year and in relatively predictable stages. This made it possible for the ancient Egyptians to follow a very stable agricultural cycle and compile substantial food surpluses.

Three Kingdoms in One Civilization

You might remember from your studies that, as various dynasties rose to and fell from power, ancient Egypt was reorganized into different kingdoms. You don’t need to remember all the details about the many kingdoms, but you should know that there were three major ones—Old, Middle, and New—and that it was during the New Kingdom that the ancient Egyptian civilization reached its height. By 1400 B.C.E., it stretched from the upper Nile River valley (at least 800 miles upstream from Memphis) through the eastern Mediterranean regions of Palestine and parts of Asia Minor (present-day Turkey).

Egyptian Achievements

Even before the Old Kingdom, the entire river valley was united under King Menes, who built his capital at Memphis and led efforts to manage the floodwaters and build drainage and irrigation systems. As a result of the unification, the civilization became wealthy and powerful. Rulers, known as pharaohs, directed the construction of obelisks and the pyramids, enormous tombs for their afterlife. In addition, the Egyptians used a writing system to communicate. Known as hieroglyphics, this system consisted of a series of pictures (hieroglyphs) that represented letters and words. The Egyptians were also very interested in astronomy, which led to their creation of a fairly reliable calendar.

Over time, the civilization became dependent on trade because its people needed a constant supply of timber and stone for their many ambitious building projects, and because their culture valued luxuries such as gold and spices. Besides giving them access to the goods they wanted and needed, trading had an enormous impact on the Egyptians because it brought them into contact with other civilizations.

You Can Take It with You

Like most Mesopotamian societies, the Egyptians were polytheistic. The most significant aspect of their religious beliefs was the focus on life after death—the afterlife. Many societies shared this belief, but the Egyptians were convinced they could take earthly belongings with them to the afterlife, where they would be happy and well-fed and would continue doing many of the same things they did while in their earthly lives. They also believed that they would be able to use their bodies in the afterlife, and this led to the invention of mummification, a process of preserving dead bodies (although this was only available to the elite members of Egyptian society). The pharaohs, as you know, built huge pyramids to house their mummified bodies and earthly treasures.

Egyptian Women, Hear Them Roar

The first female ruler known in history was Queen Hatshepsut, who ruled for 22 years during the New Kingdom. She is credited with greatly expanding Egyptian trade expeditions. The relatively high status of women extended beyond royalty with most Egyptian women enjoying more rights and opportunities to express individuality than their counterparts in Mesopotamia. During the New Kingdom in particular, women could buy and sell property, inherit property, and choose to will their property how they pleased. Women also had the right to dissolve their marriages.

That said, women were still expected to be subservient to men and were valued most when they bore children. Young girls were also not educated nearly as well as young boys.

Egyptian Social Structure: Another Pyramid

The tombs of the pharaohs weren’t the only pyramids in Egypt. Egyptian social structure was in the form of a pyramid as well.

At the top of the pyramid was the pharaoh, of course, and below him were the priests. Below the priests were nobles, followed by merchants and skilled artisans, which included physicians; at the bottom of the pyramid was the largest group: peasants. The peasants worked the land and generated most of the wealth for the kingdom. Specifically, the pharaoh owned all the land in the kingdom, so the goods produced on the land were considered his property. Typically, the peasants were expected to give over half of what they produced to the kingdom. Also at the bottom level of the pyramid were the slaves, who were mostly either prisoners of war captured during the Egyptian conquest of surrounding regions, or the descendents of those prisoners. It cannot be denied that most slaves lived a hard life, but in many cases they were not much worse off than many of the free peasants. Slaves worked on the land or on irrigation or building projects alongside the peasants, and on occasion were appointed to trusted positions within the government or within the palaces.

Ancient Egypt in Decline

By 1100 B.C.E. and for the next thousand years, ancient Egypt fell into decline, and both the Assyrian Empire and the Persian Empire conquered parts of this once-great civilization. Later, the Greeks occupied Egypt, and eventually the Romans completely absorbed Egypt into their empire. More on the Greeks and Romans later.

Compare Them: The Decline of Egypt and Mesopotamian Civilizations

Be sure to take note of the fact that whenever a civilization became powerful and prosperous, it attracted a lot of attention and envy from its neighbors, who wanted a piece of the action. Typically, this was the breeding ground for invasions. By the time it came under attack, the wealthy civilization was often so big it couldn’t adequately protect all its borders, so over a period of time it began to weaken. This was true of the empires that arose in Mesopotamia and in ancient Egypt. As you continue to read, you’ll learn that it was true of the Greeks and Romans as well.

3. Indus Valley Civilization: Indus Industry Ruled

Like Mesopotamia and Egypt, the Indus Valley civilization was built along the banks of a river system. But because of the huge mountains north and west of the Indus River, contact with outside civilizations was more limited there than in Mesopotamia, which was under continual threat by invaders. That is not to say that the Indus Valley was entirely cut off. The Khyber Pass through the Hindu Kush Mountains provided a connection to the outside world and was used by merchants on trade excursions. Later, as you might guess, it also gave invading forces a way into the land.

From at least 2500 to around 1500 B.C.E., the ancient Indus Valley civilization stretched for more than 900 miles along the Indus River in what today is northwestern India. Its two major cities, Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, were each home to perhaps more than 100,000 people—enormous cities by ancient standards. There is strong evidence that the cities were master-planned, uniformly constructed, and had sophisticated wastewater systems. This indicates that the Indus people had a strong central government, probably led by a priest-king. Like the major religions of Egypt and Sumer, those in the Indus Valley were polytheistic.

Like the architecture of its cities, Indus Valley industry was top-notch. In addition to using technologies such as potter’s wheels, the Indus Valley farmers grew cotton, and its artisans made cloth. This became an extremely important trade item among merchants traveling through the Khyber Pass to Mesopotamia.

Sometime around 1900 B.C.E., the cities of the Indus Valley were abandoned, for reasons that remain unknown today. All that is known is that, by 1500 B.C.E., the civilization crumbled with the arrival of the Aryans.

The Arrival of the Aryans

The Aryans were nomadic tribes from north of the Caucasus Mountains (near the Black and Caspian Seas). Using horses and advanced weaponry, they easily defeated the populations in the Indus Valley. Each of the Aryan tribes migrated to India independently; over a period of time, they began to settle in the Indus Valley, where they would give up their nomadic lifestyles.

The important thing to remember about the Aryan conquest of the Indus Valley is the establishment of their religious beliefs on the Indian subcontinent, in particular their belief in reincarnation. The Aryans, yet another polytheistic people, recorded their beliefs and traditions in the Vedasand the Upanishads. Over centuries, these early Aryan beliefs evolved to form the basis for what later became Hinduism, which is discussed in detail in Section IV of this chapter.

The Aryan social structure also had a major impact on later developments in India. Combined with Hinduism, it formed the basis of what later became the caste system. Initially, the Aryan social structure divided its people into three classes, in this order from top to bottom: warriors, priests, and peasants. Later, a class of landowners and merchants would be added above the peasant class; and the priest class (known as Brahmans) would be moved above the warrior class because they were considered closer to the gods.

In the early days of this system, movement between classes was allowed. But as the system became more complex and ingrained in society, it became more rigid. Eventually, subcastes were added to the four main castes, and social mobility among the castes was prohibited. Because members of different castes could not marry, children were born into the same castes as their parents, and stayed there.

4. Early China: Shang on the Hwang

Shang China rose in the Hwang Ho River Valley (also known as the Yellow River Valley), and like other river-basin communities, used its stable agricultural surplus to build a trade-centered civilization. At its height, Shang controlled large parts of northern China and was militarily quite powerful. Thousands of its workers built walls around the towns and cities along the river; its warriors used chariots to defeat their enemies. The Shang dynasty controlled the Yellow River Valley from around 1600 to around 1100B.C.E.

However, Shang China had limited contact with the rest of the world, though it did trade with Mesopotamia (a very long journey!). The Shang were so isolated, in fact, that they believed themselves to be at the center of the world, which explains why they called their civilization “All Under Heaven.” This belief contributed to the Shang’s ethnocentric attitude, which means they considered themselves superior to all others.

The Shang certainly had reasons to be proud. Not only were they accomplished bronze workers, but they also used horse-drawn chariots, developed the spoked wheel, and became experts in the production of pottery and silk. What’s more, they devised a decimal system and a highly accurate calendar.

Focus on the Family

The extended family was an important institution in many ancient civilizations across the globe, but nowhere was it more important than in Shang China. There, multiple generations of the same family lived in the same household in a patriarchal structure (led by the eldest male). Shangreligion held that gods controlled all aspects of peoples’ lives; people also believed they could call on the spirits of their dead ancestors to act as their advocates with the gods. This gave the extended family even greater significance.

Enter the Zhou

Around 1100 B.C.E., the Shang were ousted by Wu Wang, who established the Zhou Dynasty (also spelled Chou Dynasty), which maintained many of the traditions and customs developed under the Shang Dynasty (sound familiar?). The Zhou ruled China for nearly 900 years, longer than any other dynasty. Think of how long the United States has existed as an independent country, then multiply it by four. Now you have an idea how long the Zhou dynasty existed.

The Zhou Dynasty believed in what was called the Mandate of Heaven, meaning that heaven would grant the Zhou power only as long as its rulers governed justly and wisely. Put another way, the Zhou Dynasty would remain in power only as long as it had the blessing of heaven.

The Zhou developed a feudal system in China, similar to that of Europe during the Middle Ages (which we’ll talk about more in the next chapter). The king was the ruler of the entire empire, but because it was too big for one person to manage, nobles were given power over smaller regions within the empire. This worked out well for a couple hundred years. The king gave each noble protection as long as the noble remained loyal to him. But as time passed, a number of the nobles built up a lot of wealth and power within the regions under their control and eventually split off into independent kingdoms. Some of the most complex kingdoms developed bureaucracies within their governments, which was a way of organizing government tasks by department, or bureau, so that different parts of the government could specialize and stabilize. A bureaucratic form of government remained popular in China for thousands of years. Eventually, though, fighting and warfare among the feudal kingdoms brought an end to the Zhou Dynasty in 256 B.C.E.

5. West Africa: Bantu Migrations and the “Stateless Society”

Beginning around 1500 B.C.E., farmers in the Niger and Benue River valleys in West Africa began migrating south and east, bringing with them their languages (from the Bantu family of languages) and their knowledge of agriculture and metallurgy. These migrations, usually referred to as the Bantu migrations, continued over the course of the next 2,000 years. Bantu speakers gradually moved into areas formerly occupied by nomads. Some of the nomads simply moved on, and some of them adopted the more sedentary culture of the Bantu.

It is generally believed that the migration was spurred by climactic changes, which made the area now known as the Sahara Desert too dry to live in. People moved south out of the Sahara into the Bantu’s homeland, which in turn caused them to move to the forests of Central Africa, then eventually beyond the forests to the east and south.

However, not all Bantu-speakers moved away. Further north in the upper Niger River valley can be found the remains of Jenne-Jeno, believed to be the first city in sub-Saharan Africa. Beginning as a small fishing settlement around 250 B.C.E. and reaching urban size in 400 C.E., Jenne-Jeno is unusual because although it reached urban density, its architecture suggests that it was not a hierarchically organized society. Instead, archeologists believe that it was a unique form of urbanism comprising a collection of individual communities. It just goes to show, once again, that not all human societies have followed the same path toward sophistication, and that urbanization doesn’t necessarily mean centralization.

Focus On: Migrations

Why do people migrate? People migrate for the same reason animals do: to find food and a hospitable environment in which to live. Nomadic peoples by definition are migratory, moving from place to place with the seasons to follow food sources. Agricultural peoples also migrated, following the seasons and therefore agricultural cycles. To maintain a stable home, people also migrated to avoid natural disasters or climatic changes that permanently change the environment, making it too hot and dry (the Sahara Desert’s expansion), too cold (Ice Ages), or too wet (flooding cycles of major rivers such as the Yellow River in China).

Migration isn’t always solely the result of random environmental change. Overpopulation of a particular area can exhaust the food supply, forcing people to move elsewhere, often displacing a smaller or weaker population in the process. Massive migrations of people from Ireland during the famines of the mid-nineteenth century were caused by a mix of politics, destructive farming methods, and an unpleasant fungus that wiped out the populace’s main source of food. The Jewish diaspora, the slave trade, and the waves of immigrants coming from Europe to the Americas in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are examples of more modern-day migrations caused by people rather than nature.