Environment and The Rise of Civilization

Earth has been home to Homo sapiens for about 200,000 years now.  Humans are dispersed throughout the planet and have been for most of our history.  We evolved in the African rift valley and slowly spread out across our vast globe.   We evolved in a hostile ice age world that made room for no cities, states, or nations.  Instead humans were living in a time of “global culture” in which everyone was, at best, the same and no cultural differences were visible.  This would change with the end of the ice age and the onset of the Neolithic revolution. 

            As the ice receded the human mind expanded, we domesticated animals, and made the land suit our needs.  The question that must be answered is; why did some parts of the world develop Civilization while other areas did not?  To answer correctly the environment, geography and climate of the early-civilized cultures must be examined.  The environment of the last ice age provided people with a surplus of food unmatched until today.  People were hunters and gatherers and the hunt was plentiful, this meant people simply followed the food.  There was no need to settle a town for our nomadic ancestors, that is, until the food ran out!

            The end of the ice age spelled the end of ice age affluence around 10,000 BCE.  At this point humans had to adapt.  We began to farm.  This meant people would begin to settle down and form permanent establishments.  It is at this point in human history that civilization, as we know it, begins.  Civilizations formed where the environment was suitable for farming.  Today farming is possible almost anywhere, but for our ancestors who had less tools and knowledge the available land was limited.  The environments that our ancestors found best for cultivation were river valleys.  These places have fresh water for irrigation, which is arguably the most important variable for farming.  The rivers would flood and supply nutrients to the soil as well, making the land very fertile.  The earliest civilizations formed on river valleys; Egypt, Mesopotamia, China on the yellow river and the Indus river valley.

            These four examples are the first that we can call civilization.  They all developed around rivers that were the most important geological feature for success with farming.  Farming established the idea of civilization, as we know it today because it prepared people to live in communities and it began the division of labor.  Before farming humans were nomadic and social hierarchy was not really established.  The cultures that started farming on the river valleys begin to make social progress.  They established governments and created writing.  Cuneiform, from Mesopotamia, was the earliest form of writing.  However they did not use paper as we know it today.  The Egyptians used papyrus, which was available to their specific climate.  Here is an inadvertent advantage to the climate of the Nile.  Writing allowed civilization to keep records, laws, and expand artistically.