The rise of cities

Mesopotamia: the area between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, 5,000 years ago. People have lived here for thousands of years. The area is perfect for growing food; when the rivers overflow, the soil becomes fertile and yields huge crops. At first, only a few families live here in a small village, but farming goes well and more people move here. There is enough food for everyone, and more children are born.

The village grows. Houses are built near the fields, along the river banks. Each family looks after itself, but sometimes they need to agree about something in the village. Then the heads of the families meet in a council, and make decisions. More people move here, creating more villages.

The houses and the fields get further away from the rivers and the vital water. The farmers dig canals that carry water to the fields. And they dig reservoirs to save water for the dry periods. The irrigation systems soon get so large that several small villages combine into bigger villages, to take care of them together. Being able to control water is vital to the cultures that develop around this time.

Not only in Mesopotamia but elsewhere in the world, cultures also arise in areas around rivers. And it’s in these river cultures that the first cities, the first civilizations grow. The cities gather more wealth. In order to protect themselves, the residents build defensive walls around them. Outside the walls there are still small villages, where farmers grow grain and breed animals, to sell in the city.

Within the city walls, the villagers can be protected. In the city there are temples, palaces, residential buildings, shops, and workshops, and priests, merchants, craftsfolk and soldiers work there. These specialised professions have emerged thanks to the fact that farmers can produce more food than they need themselves. The villages and the cities are dependent on each other. A city and its surrounding villages together form a small country: a city state.

In the largest of these live as many as 50,000 people. For so many to live together, there must be commonly agreed rules and laws. They need to agree on what to build, and where. Some things are built to be shared: roads, temples, and city walls. Now it’s no longer enough that the heads of the families meet occasionally.

Instead, the heads of the most powerful clans and the religious leaders make decisions about things that affect everyone together. They gather as the council of elders. To be able to build the shared roads, temples, and irrigation systems, the council of elders decides that those living inside and outside the city have to pay tax. The tax is also needed to build the city walls and to pay soldiers to defend the city. In troubled times, when there’s a risk that the city could be attacked, the council of elders may appoint a king.

It's easier to make quick decisions when only one person decides everything. The king will give back the power as soon as the war is over. But often this doesn't happen; the king stays longer. To acquire more tax it’s common for a ruler or king to try to expand their territory by conquering another. Deadly violence has probably always been part of human history, but large scale wars are something new.

Success in war requires planning and organization: exactly what people have been learning in these new cities. Whoever wins a war not only receives new land and riches, but also seizes the surviving enemies as slaves. Slaves provide valuable labour, which can be used to build a city even bigger and even stronger. The birth of the cities, is also called the birth of civilization but it is also the beginning of the time of war and slavery.