MMW 11 Chapter 2: Chapter 2_ The Rise of the State in Southwest Asia and the Nile Valley
13 Mar 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Most of the texts that we have from the ancient world are copies of the originals. The most copied texts are about politics, religion, and military strategy. Things that were inscribed in stone were meant to last forever. Civilizations were deemed as large scale settlements where the people had. The definition of civilization is a little more loose today. The rise of states, laws, and social hierarchies. States coerce people through violence and build up armies to make themselves strong. Develop bureaucracies because violence isn"t always the answer. Usually use a system of writing to record events but not always (inca) Written laws and traditions lead to more complex social hierarchies. Eventually these hierarchies became entrenched in the societies in which they were built. People moved to southern mesopotamia and developed large scale irrigation to deal with the arid climate. The structure of mesopotamian city states was in a circle, with a ziggurat in the middle and everyone"s houses around.
