1. River Valley Civilizations 3500-600 BCE

2. Common Terms
Political: refers to who is running the society and controls the power (government)
Society: the economic status and classes (rich elites, soldiers, slaves, etc.), as well as gender roles
Cultural: refers to characteristics of the local people (religion, language, art)
Economic: how they traded, bought, or sold goods / services

3. The Need for a State (gov.)
As civilizations emerged, they domesticated the local animals
Cows (Eur/India), pigs (central Asia), donkeys (Africa), Llamas (South America)
Additionally, specialized labor (experts) resulted in tech. advances
Pottery (pop. growth), the wheel, and metallurgy
This resulted in a greater surplus, expanded villages into cities, and
resulted in some people gathering more power / resources than others
Social disparity: some people having more power / resources than others
This led to the need for a more complex state (gov.) to provide law,
order, and protection to large, permanent settlement populations

4. Hierarchy
Kings
Priest
Soldiers
Citizens
Slaves

5. The State
Monarchies were placed at the head of these new, permanent settlements
Kings and priests were placed at the top of these
new states, and chose advisors and officials
These largely replaced the chieftain systems of kinship
and rewards for small groups of hunter/gatherers
There was now a need to coordinate and exercise
authority over cities, with thousands of people
Cities needed to manage surpluses, build walls,
sewers (Harappa and – Indus Valley), defend, etc.

6. River Valley Civilizations
Mesopotamia – Tigeris and Euphrates Rivers
Indus Valley – Indus Rivers (Harappa, Mojeno-Daru)
Olmec (Mexico)
Chavin (Andes Mtns.)
Yellow River
Egypt – Nile River

8. City-states in Mesopotamia
Cities Name of Empire
Uruk Sumer
Akkad Akkadians
(nomads)--> Hittites
Mycenae Mycenaeans
Nineveh Assyrians
Babylon Babylonians

12. Society Elites emerged both as chosen officials, as well
as those with more land or resources than other
Women quickly lost equality, remaining subject to men who
were the rulers, soldiers, scholars, and heads of the household
Local culture was defined by monuments & structures were built by laborers & slaves
Ziggurats, Pyramids, city walls, sewers, irrigation
Writing was also developed for detailed record keeping in the 4th millennia BCE
Cuneiform (Sumer), Hieroglyphics (Egypt), alphabet (Phoenicians)
Additionally, written law was developed to provide consistent laws /order (unequal)
Code of Ur-Mammu, Sumer, 2100 BCE; Code of Hammurabi, Babylon, 1754

13. Power Through Divinity
Kings justified their power through divinity—either as stewards of the gods,
or as gods themselves to maintain prosperity
In Egypt, pharaohs lived as gods, and in Sumer (Mesopotamia),
they acted as stewards (crowns and scepters symbols)
In China, rulers were legitimized by the Mandate of Heaven
The Mandate of Heaven: that rulers must
rule benevolently and maintain social harmony
To violate the Mandate as a ruler would result in you losing your position of king
Example: Shang Dynasty being overthrown and replaced by the Zhou Dynasty

15. Expansion
In Mesopotamia, these cities began to compete for territory and
resources, and empire building began (Mesopotamia – city-states)
States that could acquire the most surplus resources
experienced rising populations and power
Those positioned advantageously to resources (iron)
were able to more easily expanded (Hittites and Assyrians)
Pastoralists contributed heavily to the spread of technology and resources
They introduced iron, horses, chariots, and bows
between civilizations, as well as becoming conquerors themselves