In many cases, locations with small agricultural villages grow into cities and civilizations. Civilization has had many benefits, but civilizations on all continents typically had a central ruling bureaucracy, class system, abuse of the poor, frequent wars, lack of freedom, and pollution. Acknowledging these common characteristics, this chapter generally focuses on the positive accomplishments of civilizations.
Civilization began in southern Mesopotamia, the land of Sumer (Figure 15‑2), and then spread to Egypt and the rest of the ancient world. The first city with a centralized bureaucracy was Uruk (4,000 BC), which is the namesake of Iraq. The centralized bureaucracy governance model spread to other cities in Mesopotamia and northern Syria.
Egyptians developed Neolithic agriculture during the Predynastic Period (5500 – 3100 BC). They then developed three great civilizations: Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, and New Kingdom. A drought ended the Old Kingdom between 2200 and 2000 BC. A political upheaval ended the Middle Kingdom in 1600 BC. The New Kingdom formed after the Egyptians defeated the Hyksos.
Bronze Age civilizations arose out of Neolithic cultures in China in the Yangtze and Yellow river valleys. The three sovereigns and five emperors were the founders of civilization in the Yangtze Valley in China. Yu the Great formed the Xia Dynasty on the Yellow River after controlling the flooding from the Yellow River. The Shang Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty followed the Xia Dynasty.
The Indus Valley Civilization in India and Pakistan was one of the great civilizations in the ancient world. Agriculture began in 6500 BC in Baluchistan at the edge of the Indus Valley. As with Sumeria and China, the ancient Indus Valley Civilization (Figure 15‑26) followed the early agricultural culture and formed in 3300 BC in the Indus Valley. The civilization last for 2,000 years until 1300 BC.
Rome was a small village on the Tiber River that grew in power as it conquered other cities. It began as a monarchical Kingdom and then became a Republican nation ruled by elected representatives, one of whom was Julius Ceasar. Rome built amazing road and aqueduct systems to rule its empire, facilitate trade, and deliver water to cities. Rome’s focused on military strength, and it slowly conquered the entire continent of Europe and eventually the Middle East and North Africa.
There were many great civilizations in Mesoamerica and the Andean region. This section focuses on the Inca in the Andes region and the Maya in Mesoamerica (Figure 15‑34). The earliest Andean civilization was in 3200 BC. Civilizations were in Mesoamerica since 1800 BC.
The only way to grow crops in central Arizona is with irrigation. The Hohokam culture lasted from 300 AD to 1500 AD. They occupied an area from Flagstaff to the Mexican border. They extracted water from the Salt River and constructed hundreds of miles of irrigation canals and irrigated an area from east Phoenix to Casa Grande, approximately 40 miles south of Phoenix.
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