A civilization is a complex society that has developed agriculture, a state, permanent structures, and writing. However, the term carries with it a lot of baggage and it is often unclear what exactly it means. In fact, many academics and historians prefer to use other terms that are more clearly defined. These include empire, state, confederacy, and socio-political group.
The first step in civilization is the establishment of a food supply that can consistently support populations larger than hunter-gathering bands. After that, people begin to specialize in different types of work. This allows them to spend more time on other activities such as making art or building houses. This leads to the emergence of government and religion, as well as social stratification. Eventually, some of these societies develop into powerful states with large armies and territories.
There are several theories about what led to civilization, but the most likely is that population pressure was the driving force. This force eventually forced people to domesticate plants and animals for sufficient food and to get along enough to live in groups much larger than hunting-gathering bands—chiefdoms, states, and even empires. Once that happened, social and political evolution began to happen at a faster rate.
Early civilizations were fragile. Natural disasters could destroy crops, flash floods wiped out cities, and drought killed livestock. Farming also used up land, which meant that it was necessary to move to new areas. This movement helped spread cultures, but it was not without problems. Civilizations were vulnerable to environmental degradation, warfare, and economic disparity.
Despite the challenges, the development of civilizations provided a huge leap forward in human life expectancy and standard of living. Researchers are now looking at ways to learn from the history of civilizations in order to solve some of today’s biggest problems, such as poverty, environmental degradation, and inequality.
There is also a great deal of debate about what makes civilizations so special and what they have in common. For example, all early civilizations developed cities that brought together large numbers of individuals from different parts of an area. This allowed the formation of shared institutions such as government, religion, and language. It also created social classes based on occupation, with farmers and craftsmen at the bottom and warriors and priests at the top.
In addition, most of the earliest civilizations developed some form of writing. This allowed the creation of codified laws, better record-keeping, and an ability to transmit culture over distances. Writing was not universal, but it appears to have been a key component of civilization everywhere that it occurred. It appeared in a variety of forms: cuneiform writing in Mesopotamia, stele and engraved bones in ancient China, and quipu-knotted strings in South America. There is a strong correlation between the presence of these systems and social complexity in ancient societies.