Kyle Samuel

Professor Joseph Morreale

ECO 321 H
2-14-17

Where it all Began: Civilizations and Empires

In todays world we can study countries, states, and their governments and see a

system of organization and development. Much of the structure of the world we live in

today was built upon the groundwork laid out by the people of ancient civilizations and

empires from thousands of years ago. We can turn back the clock and see how humans

developed into the dominant race on earth. Ill discuss the difference between an empire

and a civilization and why there is economic inequality in the world.

If I had to pick one word to describe what an empire is, I would choose dominance.

Empires are all about showing and exerting their power. One of the main ways this is done

is through conquests. An empire establishes itself by absorbing and taking over states/city-

states. After multiple conquests of various city-states in a certain region, the empire

becomes large enough to have a dominant presence in the region. Of course to execute

these conquests the empire needs a strong military equipped with enough strength, power,

technology, and experience to successfully capture and overthrow the city-state. To have

the strong military, there needs to be a dominant political power. The dominant political

power is usually run by an emperor who establishes the law of the land and is the leader of

the people. There needs to be strong leadership for the empire to successfully become a

dominant presence. Weak leadership could very well lead to the demise of an empire. One

way a leader could bring the people of his empire together is through religion. If the leader

established one common religion throughout the empire that everyone practices, the
leader can have a great deal of control over the people. For example, as a leader of an

empire you can use religion to get people to fight in wars if they believe they are doing it

for their god or some kind of religious calling. The last key element of an empire is

economic dominance. The government of the empire has to be a strong, wealthy economic

force to support the empire. The wealth of the empire is dependent upon trade. For all the

newly conquered lands added to the empire, there needs to be a common currency to form

one large economy.

The main difference between empires and civilizations is that civilizations are

focused inward. Civilizations are focused on improving and growing domestically within

themselves where empires are focused outward on improving and growing through the

conquering of other lands. Civilizations are very hierarchical in their structure. It was

common to have a social class system with your king at the top, people of elite status under

him, and different levels of social class trickling down from there. Civilizations were also

focused on urbanization. A big contributing factor to the rise of civilizations was the

development of an agrarian society. People learned how to cultivate the land and grow

crops like wheat and barely that they could manipulate to produce the most bountiful

crops. This process is called domestication. People no longer had to live the nomadic life of

the hunter-gatherer and could stay in one spot. Urbanizing and forming planned

out/structured cities is a defining element of civilizations. In order to build these urban

cities, civilizations needed advanced technologies to aid in the large-scale construction the

plan for many of these urban cities called for. A civilizations ability to develop and use

technology is a huge factor in the success of the civilization. Once technology is established

it is very important the technology keeps developing to keep up with the demands of
population growth and to not fall behind other civilizations when it comes to warfare

technology or technology for defense. Religion and economics also play a big role in a

civilization. Religion brings people together and some type of advanced economic system

such as a common currency helps the civilization become an economic power.

To answer the question of why there is inequality in the world, Jared Diamond

proposes two main ideas and ties them both back to luck. The very simple answer to that

question is that there is inequality because some people were luckier than others. Jared

Diamond proposes the idea that some civilizations thrived and others did not because of

the luck of their geographic location. When you look at it, many of the successful

civilizations were all somewhat near the equator where there is a more temperate year

round climate. The climate proves to be extremely important when it comes to agriculture

and natural resources. For example, the natural resources in an area in the Middle East like

the Fertile Crescent, were much more abundant than the resources found in New Guinea.

People in the Fertile Crescent region could yield many more crops from the land than

people in New Guinea. The people in the Middle East figured out how to store their crops

and become dependent on an agrarian lifestyle. Now that everyone did not have to be out

on the search for food, members of the society could focus on advancing technology and

further developing and improving the civilization. This wasnt the case in a region like New

Guinea where the land and crops available were not fruitful enough to be the sole food

source. In this region, agricultural limits and restrictions prevented the civilization from

growing and improving like the civilizations in the Middle East. In addition to crops,

another crucial resource was animals. Livestock could be bred and raised for an additional

source of food as well as other resources like their skin or fur which could be used for
clothing. Livestock could also be extremely useful in plowing land or transporting goods

and people. This is another resource that came down to luck. The people in the Middle East

were lucky to have animals that could be bred and raised as livestock where the people in

New Guinea had much more limited options of animals that could be domesticated. The

civilizations of the Middle East could use animal power in addition to human power

ultimately becoming more efficient where the people in New Guinea had to continue to

solely rely on human power.

Empires and civilizations are uniquely different and both had tremendous influence

on ancient societies and cultures of people. Inequality throughout the world is still a

tremendous problem in todays world and is why we search for answer to the cause of this

problem. By studying empires and civilizations and inequality in the world, we can see the

key factors and elements that have built the structure of the world we live in today.
 Works Cited

DIAMOND, JARED. GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL: The Fates of Human Societies. New York, W W

NORTON, 1999.

Morreale, Joseph. Rise and Fall of World Empires Class Session. New York, Pace

University, Rise and Fall of World Empires Class Session.