As I mentioned in the previous article, human beings have evolved and spread all over the world, and the change from hunter-gatherer life to farming and livestock life has greatly changed people's lives, and the structure of a nation was completed and civilization was born.
This time, I would like to specifically focus on "how the country was created" and "what kind of civilization was born in ancient times".
What is the world's first ancient civilization?
Ancient civilization It doesn't start without many people to be born. A safe place, water, and food are needed to be a place where many people can live.
Human beings born in Africa and migrating to the world have relied on hunting and gathering for quite some time, but with global warming, the means of food acquisition will change to farming and livestock farming. This change to farming and livestock farming is called the agricultural revolution.
Since the agricultural revolution, it has become possible to store food and the population has increased.
Mesopotamia is the fastest farming industry is. At first, farming and livestock farming was carried out on the move, but over time, irrigated agriculture was born. Sometimes it draws water from rivers and lakes, and sometimes it uses groundwater.
Mesopotamia is a dry area with little rain and it is difficult to get water.
It is thought that irrigated agriculture was born by combining water usage and agriculture because it was an area that thoroughly considered the use of water like this.
Above all, the Tigris-Euphrates The basin is blessed with fertile soil, and because of its excellent location, it is easy to pull water from the river, so irrigated agriculture methods will spread.
With the advancement of agricultural technology, it gradually connected to other industries and became an advanced region of this era.
Unlike hunting and gathering, agriculture is " storing " It is an industry that can do. Excessive sunlight, soil, water ... Various factors may or may not produce a lot of crops. Therefore, the difference between rich and poor gradually began to appear.
As time goes by and we continue to farm for a long time,
Agricultural production technology will improve Become.
Mesopotamia at the time Agriculture was very efficient, with wheat yields 50 times higher than the seeds sown. This yield seems to be about the same as in Japan today.
At first, the quality of the land may have determined the quality of the crops, but ...
Those who can obtain more crops than they need in their daily lives will be able to "exchange for surplus crops and obtain farm tools from people who are good at making farm tools for more efficient farming." The positive cycle of "improving the production of crops" begins to be born.
In this way, some wealthy people were able to afford to live more and more.
As irrigated agriculture begins in arid areas and the population grows exponentially, it is essential to develop more farmland and secure water to cover the population.
Manpower is indispensable to cultivate them, and the more places to cultivate such things, the more leadership organizations and human resources are needed. In this way, human resources (leaders) with leadership are born.
I don't know now whether the leader was a wealthy person or not. However, there must have been many wealthy people who helped the leaders. Perhaps there were several such leaders in the old days, and one of them was the king . It is thought that it became.
And the wealthy people who spared no help to the king might have set aside. Needless to say, we also need talented people to lead.
The use of religious authority was advocated and implemented by the king and the Dekir human resources close to the king as a means of gaining leadership. A profession called a priest is born.
Warriors are born when agriculture provides planned food production and the land that has become rich is threatened by other ethnic groups.
Also, craftsmen will be born to make the weapons of the warriors in order to make more efficient farming tools for farming and livestock farming.
A city-state where priests, warriors, craftsmen, peasants and many humans live, centered on the king to exert leadership in the above circumstances. Developed into. Sumerians By Mesopotamian civilization Was born.
By the way, the Sumerians had a king in each nation, but it seems that they did not reach a unified nation because there were many city-states and they were fighting each other.
Let's take a look at the ancient civilization that was born a little later
Mesopotamia It's been about 500 years since then. The unified nation was created in the northern part of the African continent Nile basin Egypt is. Mesopotamia Like the Nile basin, it is a region with little rain. Many people gathered because the surrounding area is desert and the environment is very harsh for people to live in.
When it rained upstream, the soil suitable for agriculture in the upstream basin flowed, and agriculture was carried out using the rich soil. Farming and livestock farming itself seems to have come from West Asia.
The Nile is flooded even though it doesn't rain (it rains upstream).
- Know when it is
- Hydraulic control
was needed.
Hydraulic control requires joint labor, and strong leaders are also essential. For that reason Egypt Also king Is born, but unlike Mesopotamia, it has grown into a unified nation , not just a city-state. doing. The civilization born here is Egyptian civilization Has come to be said.
This rich Sumerian It seems that the city-state of Egypt and the unified nation of Egypt also traded, and people began to gather around Syria, which is the middle point of trade, where the country was born and civilization was nurtured.
Besides Mesopotamia and Egypt, India And China An ancient civilization was born in a similar flow in the river basin of. India is Indus River Basin 400 years behind Egypt. In the case of China, Huanghe and Yangtze River basins Civilization was born at a time similar to India.
What is a civilization born in the middle area of trade? ??
As the times progress, some of the people who live in land that has become more productive enough to develop into a city-state can secure enough grain to be divided among those who live in places that are not suitable for grain cultivation. It came out.
Mesopotamia And Egypt , Syria On the other side of the Mediterranean around the ... Current Greece It's around.
Greeks produce slightly different crops, such as olives and grapes, and barter with people across the Mediterranean for food.
Wealthy people actively exchange grains for olives and grapes because they can obtain rare crops that cannot be produced in places where irrigated agriculture is carried out.
In this way, people gradually gathered in places where they were making trading crops, and cities were created and their scope was expanded.