A civilization is a complex society with intricate cultures, political and religious organization, art, architecture, and industry. It has a large population center or city and extensive manufacturing and trading networks. It also has a well-developed education system and complex rules of law.
Anthropologists use the term civilization to describe societies that have reached a higher level of cultural development than hunter-gatherers or other primitive peoples. The term arose from the work of European scholars who praised the achievements of certain civilizations and condemned those they deemed less developed. The application of the term “civilization” has since been challenged, and anthropologists have tried to find more value-free ways to classify human societies.
Early civilizations developed because of the growing needs of their peoples. They needed to eat more than they could harvest themselves, and they needed ways to store food. These early civilizations developed agriculture and a system of storage, using pottery, jars, and other containers. They domesticated animals, keeping herds of cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats to provide meat, milk, wool, and other products. They also grew fruits, vegetables, and grains to eat, making their diets more nutritious.
These innovations gave rise to cities, which were centers of commerce and government. As populations grew, these cities required a system of law to keep order. The leaders of these civilizations became kings, and they formed military units to protect their territory and peoples from outside invaders. They also established educational institutions to teach their subjects science, mathematics, and other topics that would help them in their endeavors.
This civilization process also spawned social and economic stratification, which is the division of people into different classes based on their income or type of work performed. The wealthiest members of a society, usually the kings and queens, had enormous amounts of money and land. Serfs, or people who worked the land, had almost nothing. Over time, a merchant economic class also developed, and this group provided goods for the other classes to consume.
All these elements helped to make possible the development of writing, a way to record and transmit information to future generations. It is possible that the first written language was created in an ancient Sumerian city-state, and the idea eventually spread to other parts of the world.
The end of a civilization may come from natural causes or from the need for new resources. For example, a drought may cause crops to fail or to die. Other reasons for the decline of a civilization may include war with an external enemy, environmental degradation, or economic problems. For example, the Roman Empire, which at its peak covered a huge territory from the Mediterranean Sea to India and beyond, ultimately fell because of a series of wars with barbarians from beyond its borders. In these cases, the failure of a civilization is often considered a tragedy and an undesirable outcome. It is a good idea for schools to teach students about the history of civilizations around the world and to encourage them to think critically about the impact of civilization on other peoples.