Mesopotamia was home to some of the earliest major civilisations .The first city-state was Uruk, located near to modern day Baghdad. Uruk was associated with very fast rise to statehood, due to its social and economic diversification, urbanization and literacy. Literacy was a key element in the rise of states, as its origins seem to come in accountancy and so to define a state there has to be a certain amount of literacy.
The indicatiors that show that Uruk was a state are, monumental public architecture which people converge upon, in Uruk’s case, was a small temple which ended up growing into a large ziggurat, which is a tower temple formed of a terraced pyramid of successively receding stories. Also state art shows kings and queens. Along with a stratified class ecnonomy of specialists. A key element which sets Uruk apart from other large chiefdoms, and defines it as a state is the fact that it has large irrigation works. This is due to a hydraulic theory which states that irrigation is an origin of state development as moat primary states depend upon irrigation and the construction of such systems could only be organised by a centralised government. Also once constructed the elites would control and manage a vital resource, water, and so it soon controlled the dependant population.
Many believed that Uruk was the origin of the state, which all others learned from. However, there is no single origin of the state, around the world developing states have lots of similarities like organisation and physicality, however these states developed independently, from each other with no consciousness of the others.
Mesoamerica has similar patterns of growth to that of Mesopotamia, where many small city-states developed. In Mesoamerica the earliest city state developed in around 200bc, in an area called the valley of Oaxaca, which was accompanied by a rapid population change, which points to the fact that states, cause population growth due to the concentration of the population. Also as Oaxaca grew, there was economic intensification, specialization and urbanization, which are all key elements of the emergence of the state. Another large city-state developed in the Mesoamerican era, in the valley of Mexico at Teotihuacan, which began around 150bc. This state had a large urban centre, which was around 13 kilometres square, and had a vast population, which included craftspeople and administrators. The population of the developing states would have to diversify, due to the fact that as the population grows, people with similar agrarian backgrounds will have to develop a specific niche in order to maintain, prosperity. At Teotihuacan, there were also large trading areas, which, were occupied by foreign merchants, and also merchants from near by Oaxaca.
These large urban centres, intensified the literacy and craft specialization, and so these centres became the basis for centralised administration.
The first Egyptian state developed from 3100bc to 2700bc, by the end of this era, like in Mesopotamia the state had developed into a literate, bureaucratically administered, urban-based society with established political leadership and extensive social and economic differentiation. However the Egyptian development cannot be defined as independent from Mesopotamia, as it may have developed due to interactions between Egypt and the Mesopotamian states.
Like Egypt the development of the Indus Valley city-states cannot be defined as independent from those of the Mesopotamian city-states. The Indus Valley was a civilization thriving along the lower Indus River and the Ghaggar-Hakra River in what is now Pakistan and western India, which developed around 2700bc. The state grew as a result of the rapid growth of cities, the largest was Mohenjo-daro which had a population of around 40,000. The state shows evidence of a highly organised literate bureaucracy this is again an example of urbanisation, which shows the increased intricacy that the state, must develop in order to maintain populations of such size. Also due to increased population sizes extensive social differentiation occurs, and so complex social organisation occurs.
Another key development amongst the first states was that of South America, specifically Peru. The foundation of the Andean states, date from 1000ad. City-states develop with a broad series of polities. The two main developments were that of Mochica and Nasca. These civilisations both show signs of urbanisation, and of a large scale centrally organised, society. With both social and economic complexity. Which shows evidence, which surpasses that of chiefdom. However there is some uncertainty as to whether these primary civilisation are states, due to the fact that organisational structure unclear.
Two clear states did develop in South America, these states, Huari and Tiahuanaco, were much larger political units, they developed around 600ad. These certainly had the key elements of the state, i.e. a centralised, ranked and probably bureaucratic societies and large urban centres.
The last state, which can be seen as developing independently from other states, is China. The earliest Chinese state, formed around 1500bc. Which led to the widespread, use of literacy, the emergence of bureaucracy, the growth of population and the intensified social and economic complexity.
In 1500bc China was still, disunited and the competition of the neighbouring states for dominance led to the developed of kingdoms.
Like the other states discussed so far, the growth of the Chinese state, seems to be due to the fact that there is increased decision making and information processing systems.
In conclusion, the consequences of state development are, increased production and distribution, sometimes leading to inter-state trading. Which leads onto increased communication between different civilisations and cultures. As production has increased many people have been freed, from food production, which allows specialization to occur and so the culture of the society matures, and art, music and literature thrive.
There are also negative consequences as class conflict, comes to the for-front of society as, society diversifies and class culture becomes prevalent. Also warfare increases as states expand by conquests and so there will always be tension between different states. This also can lead to an increase in epidemics and diseases, which harm the population as a whole.
Interestingly, there does seem to be a correlation between increased social and economic differentiation and political forms from chiefdoms form states. Which could be a reason for the independent development of states, at similar times. But without a single origin for the development of the state, no single reason can be made, for why states develop, whether it is physicality or organisational structure.
I believe that the development of the state, is a natural progression from that of chiefdoms, as populations increase, organisation must also increase, in order to maintain the population, and so as a direct affect of this public resources will increase also, and as trade and communication increase amongst developing states, ideas will be exchanged and so, states will grow exponentially.
Bibliography
Dark K R. The Waves of Time, 1998, first edition, London.
- references to Mesopotamia, Mesoamerica, Peru, China, The Indus Valley.
