Advanced Civilizations

Early civilizations made major contributions to social, political, and economic progress.

Patterns in Civilizations:

• Social: Rigid class system, families of rulers
• Governments: City-states, empires, laws
• Economic: Metal, Surpluses in food, More trade, Slavery

Social Patterns

Hereditary rulers: Dynasties of kings- based on family (King dies, son the prince becomes king)

Strict and rigid social class system: everyone has their place

Slavery is both accepted and common in these civilizations

Governments

City-States: a city that with its surrounding land forms an independent state (mini-country)

Kingdom: a large state or country all under control of a royal leader, like a king or queen

Empire: a group of states or countries all under the control of one leader, usually an emperor

Government

• 1 central authority
• Establishes laws (Hammurabi) and provides for defense
• Sometimes based on religious authority

Economics

As technology gets better and better, man is able to grow more crops

Civilizations also started to specialize in certain goods

which leads to trade

Once man moved away from making his tools with stone, he turned to metal.

Copper and bronze were first used; but they are very soft

Untitled Slide