Environment and The Rise of Civilization

             All of the earliest civilizations’ shared the common factors of farming on alluvial plains. Yet there are many more rivers on the planet so why didn’t civilizations spring up all over?  One reason might be that there were simply more people in the regions of early culture.  This meant more workers and therefore a better chance of farming success.  Another reason might be the fact that societies throughout the rest of the world did not need to farm because they were sustaining themselves fine herding animals.  Still another factor is that these herding cultures did not have enough people to farm, and being nomadic had no idea how to cultivate the land.   Eventually farming knowledge would spread to the entire world.  Yet, the first four river cultures had the advantage of first knowledge that allowed them to get a head start on controlling their domains and eventually expanding to control beyond their river borders. 

            Yet the environment of rivers was not always an advantage for early society.  The examples of collapse around 1000 BCE proves such. In the Indus river valley society, the shifting river and unusual flood patterns wound up running the civilization into the ground.  It was such an epic collapse that we do not even know their language or what happened to its subjects today.  In Mesopotamia we see a constant shift in power between civilizations such as the Babylonians, Assyrians, and Persians.  The global population would inevitably increase with the perpetuation of cultivation.  This meant strife, starvation and a constant battle for land and power.  The trend continues today. 

            A major period of societal collapse occurred in the Mediterranean around 1000 BCE.  Here we saw upstart civilizations such as the Hittites and Mycenaean’s who had based their empires on trade and warfare, unfortunately not agriculture.  It is not because of this that they failed, but it proves the advantage of agriculture on sustaining a civilization.  The example of Egypt’s relative stableness throughout history shows us that agriculture may not provide a vast empire, but will provide life for its citizens.  The advantage of Egypt was its stable flood plains and ability to consistently feed its population.

            Early civilizations formed in the most suitable climates for expansion. Beyond this they also all started around rivers and used agriculture as a means to sustain a stable and static society.  Civilization sprang up where the geography was most suitable for agriculture, which was the catalyst for a stable and expandable empire.  Although not all of the earliest civilizations survived, they all thrived at some point.  The success of civilization came from permanent residency that was only made possible by agriculture.  Agriculture was only made possible where the climate and environment was suitable.  Therefore the success of civilization was made possible by successful, farmable environments.