The Emergence of Cities and States

1. The Emergence of Cities and States Chapter 1.3

2. A. Introduction: • Farming generated more complex societies • As settlements grew, people began to see themselves as part of communities larger than the family, clan, or tribe • With increasing surpluses and populations, villages grew into the first cities • Cities established foundation for the rise of states, trade networks, and writing

3. B. The Rise of New Technologies • Development of metallurgy for farming tools and weaponry helped shape the increasingly complex societies • Soft, easy to work copper was first metal used for tools and weapons • West Asian metal craftsman created bronze • Bronze and iron made better tools but also more deadly weapons

4. C. Urbanization and the First Cities • Settled life, grain, and cow’s milk shortened human birth intervals, increasing populations • Catal Huyuk grew into prosperous towns, centers of long-distance trade, and then cities- Central Turkey, mud-bricked buildings, plastered walls, bakery, brewery, • Greater wealth and size allowed cities to control adjacent farmlands that provided surplus needed to sustain city dwellers • As farming became more efficient, urbanization became the next great transition in human social organization-fostered networks of communication and trade

5. D. The Rise of States, Economies, and Record-Keeping • The need to control surplus-producing farmlands and to govern urban populations created the first governments • Diverse urban societies generated enough wealth to permit substantial division of labor and social, cultural, and religious hierarchies-cities became extensive trade networks • Increased trade created the need for record-keeping, which led to the development of writing-literacy usually reserved for the privileged • Civilization- once used to describe urban-based societies • Subjectivity of term limits its value in understanding WH • Misuse and abuse of term

6. E. The Rise of Pastoral Nomadism • PN is an economy based on breeding, rearing, and harvesting livestock • Trade and conflict between farmers and herders became common, and some PN exercised strong influence on societies with much greater populations • Mostly in grasslands and deserts- lived in small dispersed groups generally organized by tribes; had view possessions • Some pastoral societies maintained egalitarian social structures-women warriors, others headed by chiefs • Indo-European- various tribes who all spoke related languages deriving from original common tongue and who eventually settled Europe, Iran, and Northern India-spread their language and culture, imposed military power-profound changes across Eurasia