The word civilization, derived from the Latin term civitas, is often used to describe a society that has achieved a high level of social and technological development. It is defined by its law-enforcement system, agriculture, arts, culture and science, and military capability. Civilization can also refer to the complex administrative organization of a nation, state or empire. Such an organization is sometimes described as a bureaucracy, with a top-level hierarchy that runs everything from politics to economics. Regardless of the definition used, all civilizations have a common core of characteristics that make them different from non-civilized societies.
Civilizations appear to have emerged independently in most parts of the world at about the same time, when viewed on a large scale. The first cities appeared around 3200 bce, and the first states began to develop by about 2100 bce in Mesopotamia, Egypt, India and China. Other places, like Peru and Mesoamerica, probably also had states by 1000 bce.
What explains this phenomenon is the source of much debate among big historians. One school of thought focuses on the role that trade, irrigation systems and water management played in enabling people to live in cities. Another, called the functionalist theory, argues that civilizations develop in response to organizational challenges, such as providing public goods.
Most big historians avoid rejecting the notion of civilization as a meaningful concept, but they carefully define it as a particular type of human community with certain features. They wonder how and why these features came together in some communities but not in others. They are also interested in the nature of civilization processes, such as why cities appeared out of villages and towns.
The early forms of civilization may have been based on mutually beneficial trade and exchange, but eventually they evolved into hierarchical power structures in which elite rulers coerced a majority of the population. These hierarchical societies often required a large number of people living in close quarters in order to maintain a food supply.
Moreover, as these hierarchical societies became more complex, they also needed to find ways to govern such a large population. They needed to be able to identify the needs and wants of their citizens. They needed to keep track of debts and taxes. They also needed to have a way to communicate their laws to the whole population. In this respect, the emergence of writing was crucial to the creation of civilizations.
The rise of civilizations led to a more unified culture. They embraced a set of shared beliefs and practices, including religion, art, literature, scientific knowledge and technology. This unified culture made civilizations powerful and successful in the areas of commerce, science, and military capabilities. But it also contributed to a number of problems that ultimately lead to the decline or fall of many civilizations, as Jared Diamond explores in Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Some of these problems include environmental degradation; dependence on long-distance trade for vital resources; political instability; over-exploitation of local natural resources; and internal or external violence.