The Beginnings of Human Society The Beginnings of

The Beginnings of Human Society The Beginnings of Civilization

Advantages of a Settled Life When people hunted and gathered, they were constantly searching for food. When people began producing their own food by farming, they could stay in one place because they had a steady supply of food. When they had more than enough food, they had a surplus, and could store the extra food and use it another time.

Farming Becomes More Advanced When people began farming, they discovered ways to improve their crops. They began to build irrigation systems, which directed water from one place to the crops in the fields. For example, in Ancient Egypt, people directed water from the Nile River out to the fields so that they could grow more food than they could have otherwise.

The Population Grows When people began having surplus (extra) food, their families grew. When humans were hunting and gathering, they could not have many children, because they did not have enough food to feed a lot of children. When humans began farming, they had enough food to feed many children. Therefore, families became larger. The world population began growing rapidly. 10, 000 years ago the world population stood at about 10 million people. 7, 000 years ago, the world population was about 66 million people. Today, the world population is around 6 billion people.

World Population - The Past 12, 000 Years

Early Villages and Towns People lived in New Stone Age farming settlements for a long time before towns developed. When the population increased, the settlements grew larger, and became towns. When there were surpluses of food, some people could stop farming and do other things. Some people became artisans, who were workers that were skilled at making items such as baskets, leather goods, tools, pottery, or cloth.

The Growth of Cities could grow where there was rich soil. The rich soil meant that large surpluses of food could be maintained. Cities also could grow where there was a dependable source of drinking water, and materials to build shelter. Many early cities developed around rivers, such as the Nile River in Egypt or the Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia.

The Earliest Cities In villages, most people were farmers. In cities, however, workers had a wide variety of occupations. Most worked at a craft. Cities also differed from villages in that cities had large public buildings, places for people to worship their gods, and places to buy and sell food. Locations of the First Cities Area Date Founded Southwestern Asia 3500 BC Egypt 3100 BC Pakistan 2500 BC China 1700 BC Central America 200 BC

Governments Form As the population grew, and people began living together in cities, they began to need rules. Someone needed to be responsible for keeping the order. People developed governments to keep order and to provide services. Workers in the government settled disputes. They also managed things like irrigation projects.

The First Civilizations Over time, some New Stone Age societies grew into civilizations. A civilization is a society that has cities, a central government, and workers who specialize in various jobs. Civilizations also have social classes. A civilization has writing, art, and architecture.

Civilizations Spread With Trade People began to bring their valuable items to cities. They brought pottery, tools, weapons, cloth, spices, and baskets to trade them in cities. As new people began meeting each other, they exchanged ideas as well as goods. People used carts built on wheels (invented around 3500 BC) and ships to bring their items to cities.

Social Classes Develop A social class is a group that someone belongs to. A social class is made up of people with similar backgrounds, wealth, and ways of living. In large cities, the king was the most powerful person. The next most important class of people were the priests of the city’s religion. The noble class was made up of government workers and military officers. Traders, merchants, and artisans were in a class below the nobles. The lowest class was made up of common workers and farmers.