Governance And Empire Management In Ancient Civilization

Overview:

This World is the most wonderful and oldest creation by the creator. So by the consort of time many civilization has emerged here in the history of this world. Now, the question is what the civilization is. The word civilization, refers to the people’s level of expansion who used to live together peacefully in a civic. Following this concept ancient civilization denotes the first settled and stable communities that became the basis for later states, nations, and empires. This concept is immensely related and concerned to another broader segment which is called ancient history. Now the point of discussion is what means the history is actually. History means the recorded interpretation of human beings past thoughts, circumstance and culture which has been developed by the span of time and action. For a simple and logical matter of fact, those who do not remember the past are convicted to recurrence it, and as an outcome in order to evade the mistakes and acquire from past events, history is remarkably important. So the ancient history included the social, political, and economic and all the sphere of human life of the past. Education remains incomplete without some basic knowledge of the past. Because of this invention today it is possible to keep notable the history of world’s ancient time and we also can modernize now through this great development. The first ancient societies arose in Mesopotamia and Egypt in the Middle East, in the Indus valley region of what are now Pakistan and India. All the civilization have some common features. They built cities, different method of agriculture, domesticates animals as well as different ways of writing, diverse governance and empire management system and so on. History’s most significant invention is agriculture.

Evolution of Human beings:

However, to discuss briefly about the topic, first we have to know the prehistory of human being and the society. I mean how the society and human beings has been embodies in the world. To know about the human origin we must have to discuss the term evolution. Human beings reached a specific format today through a certain method which now we called Evolution. Evolution means the change that takes place over the long period of time. Historians trace mainly two long periods from which the main theory of development gradually established. First one is the age of stone and second is the age of metal. Stone Age is called so because all the building materials was made with the stone at that age. On the same way the metal age is called so because of the radical use of metal was the significant sign of that age. Again the historians divided the Stone Age into two period, known as: the Paleolithic age and the Neolithic age. These Paleolithic and Neolithic age gradually means the Old Stone Age and the new Stone Age. Paleolithic age was the first one, longest and the most painful period of human history. After this longest one the human society experienced a completely new era called Neolithic age when the world’s first civilization also emerged. In addition to that, a high level of intellectual development and perceptive ability made human beings apt for creating nourishing and developing civilization into new elevations. So, these are the all informative history about human evaluation and emergence of civilization. Now, we will be discuss about different civilizations and its governance and imperial rules in the below.

Emergence of different Civilization:

According to most historians, civilizations began in a geographically fit area which could provide human beings with food security and a suitable climate. As a result, historians deduce with a great degree of certainty that civilization emerged in an area which is categorized as The Fertile Crescent. It is a large crescent shaped fertile land stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf, covering modern day Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Syria etc. Historians deduce that arguably the first civilization emerged in between the river Tigris and Euphrates, and the name of this civilization was given the name Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia had fertile lands due to which many civilizations were born such as Sumerian civilization, then later on Babylonian and Assyrian civilization.

Mesopotamian Civilization: Early Bronze Age:

Sumerian Civilization (3500-2000 BCE):

Approximately in c.3500-2000 BCE in a green land, situated in the southern part of Mesopotamia, world’s first civilization was arose which is known as Sumerian civilization. In the process of this civilizations development, more than 30 cities has been came up and all of those were independent city state. All of these, one city was particularly prominent named Uruk. Later on the period was named ‘Uruk period’ after the Uruk city’s name, because of its more influence. Sumerian cities actually served various purposes to its people, like: spiritual, economic and cultural. The Sumerian society was quite well organized. Their social structure can define by an imagination of a pyramid. Now, we have to imagine the supreme ruler of their society, king, in the very top of this pyramid. Then the second most powerful was the priest and they had a strong following among the common people. After the priest comes the warriors who were the fighters and the military. They were the most powerful one. And then comes he administrators and the merchants whom were also very powerful and rich people. At the very end comes the mass people who were the farmers and the slaves. Though they were not so powerful people but they played very important role for the growth of the civilization and worked so hard. So, this was all about the Sumerians governance system. Then another most important element of any civilizations development is family. Though it is the small unit of a culture but its significance ids vast. So the Sumerian people also belong from a particular family which generally dominant by the patriarch. Patriarch refers to the elder member of the family. Sumerian sons inherit property but the women doesn’t. In terms of their marriage the Sumerians practices monogamy. Monogamy means a process which indicates that one, I mean to say, this is a system where one male can contract marriage with only one female. So, we can see that the family and governance management system was really well organized in this Sumerian civilization.

Mesopotamian Civilization: Late Bronze Age:

Sumerian Civilization (3500-2000 BCE):

This was much more developed than the earlier one. In the late bronze age of this Mesopotamian civilization where occurred so many significant changes in social, political, economic as well as in the governance management system. Early Bronze Age’s city state was replaced by the territorial states, which was the, much wider, more population and more powerful rulers than the city state. The credit of building the first territorial state in Mesopotamia is given to a powerful king named Sargon the great (1st). He was the king of a territory called Akkad. This was the large kingdom but some historians called an empire as well. Akkadians were Semitic people, that means whom are used to speak in Hebrew, Arabic, and Amharic etc. language. They were also very developed in the sector of architecture, art, and literary history. Though they used to speak their own language instead of Sumerians, they adopted some of Sumerian religion and farming does. So, overall these people were very much intellectual and they follows their own rules to lead their small kingdom successfully and this was the first territorial state of the history of world.

Hebrew Civilization:

The Hebrews were a Semitic micro-society Most scholars agree that the geographical origin of the Hebrews occurred somewhere around the Arabian Desert. However, the first definite appearance of the founders of the nation of Israel was in northwestern Mesopotamia. Apparently as early as 1900 B.C. According to the biblical account they were gradually enslaved by the Egyptian government, although there is no record of this in the Egyptian evidence. After being invaded by the Philistines for a short period of time when the Hebrew people thought they needed to form an organized kingdom. Thus originated the first Hebrew Kingdom, or the Kingdom of Israel. The kingdom of Israel experienced a change of power in its early years when King Saul, the first king of this kingdom, was criticized for his debauched ruling policies and his power was usurped by King David. David successfully ruled for 40 years and unified all the Hebrew tribes under one law. He also formed the New Hebrew capital at Jerusalem. King David was succeeded by King Solomon.

Mesopotamian Civilization: Late Bronze Age:

Babylonian kingdom:

It is true that no civilization cannot exist forever. So, as the Akkadian territory had declined, due to various reasons. Instead of this declination the new center of Mesopotamian civilization replaced by a new city which considered as the new civilized kingdom. This was called the Babylonian kingdom which established in the previous Akkadian territory. These people was came from the western Mesopotamia. They also restored laws and orders. They followed dynastic rule which means a kind of political system where kings form the same family, rule for successive yeas. They also combined tribal traditions with the dynastic rule. There was many Babylonian king, but among the King Hammurabi (1792-1750 BCE) was the most powerful and significant one. He was famous not only for a ruler but also as a law giver. He was famous for creating the first code of law in the history which covered almost all the aspect of daily life of the Babylonian people. This is all about the Babylonian rules, regulations and laws by which implication this era had been successful.

Neo-Babylonian kingdom:

After the end of Babylonian empire a man named Chaldeans founded the Neo Babylonian kingdom in 612 BCE. The most famous ruler of that Neo Babylonian kingdom was Nebuchadnezzar 2 (604-562) among many of the leaders. He had a vast contribution in the development of art and architecture like as other emperors. He is given the credit of creating the world most famous art work “Hanging Garden”. As we already know that this is one of the seven wonders in the ancient world. So, this is the last kingdom of world’s largest civilization. In 539 BCE by the invention of Persian civilization this largest Mesopotamian civilization concluded.

Ancient Egyptian Civilization: Early Bronze Age:

So we already briefly discuss about the world’s first civilization. Now we are going to discuss about the next another largest civilization, the Egyptian civilization. Gradual deterioration of the Middle Kingdom directed to the second intermediate period (c. 1786BCE to c. 1560 BCE) which was a period of core chaos and foreign incursion. Like the Mesopotamian this is also divided into two phase like: early Bronze Age and then the late Bronze Age. It also provoked the Hykos to invade Egypt around 1650. Hyksos means ‘’ rulers of the foreign land”. Hykos came from West Asia and they used new approaches of rivalry including war chariots, superior bronze axes and composite bows.

New Kingdom (1550-1069 BCE):

Ahmose I established a new kingdom which is sometimes called “period of the empire” after centuries of political struggle. He prolonged rule to Syria and Palestine. They had a strong standing army. Former nobles were permissible to become courtiers or members of the royal bureaucracy under the complete dominion of the king.

Ramesses II (c.1303BC-1213BCE), also known as Ramesses the Great, was one of the most powerful and longest serving (66years) Pharaohs. He built cities, temples, monuments and led many successful military operations. He signed the first known peace treaty in history in 1258 BCE with the Hittites. He was sanctified during the 30th year of reign (Sed festival).Egyptian had a male conquered and class allocated society. Social mobility was allowed. Positions in the society could be erased overtime considering reputation in the society. Unlike the Mesopotamian society, in Egypt women were not entirely subordinated to men. They could own and inherit property and engage in business. The most powerful female Pharaoh in Egypt was Hatshepsut. She ruled as her son’s (Thutmose III) substitute. When Thutmose III was seven years old, she asserted herself “king”, ruling as co-regent until she died. During her supremacy there was little warfare, but trade contacts into Levant and Mediterranean and southward into Nubia flourished. So this is all about the intellectual civilization whose contributions are still alive in this modern era.

Archaic period (3100-2686BCE)

Narmer (Menes) founded the first dynasty of the archaic period in 3100 BCE. During the archaic period, canals were dug, cities and roads were built. The had a well-developed written language (hieroglyphic) centralized bureaucratic system. Initial burial monuments in this period were called Mastaba which were the primitive form of the gigantic Pyramids.

Old Kingdom (2686-2181 BCE)

During this period pharaoh was considered as the representatives of Sun God. So, the pharaoh in one hand exercised state absolutism and on the other was the ecclesiastical head of the spiritual world. Pharaohs married step sisters to keep the divine blood uncontaminated and did not let the outsiders to exercise royal power. The pharaohs did not have any standing army or national militia.

Founder of the old kingdom was king Djoser (the first king of the third dynasty). Step pyramid built by Pharaoh Djoser –was the predecessor of the gigantic pyramids of later days. The old kingdom was considered as the Golden age of Egyptian civilization. The old kingdom collapsed in around 2181 BCE mainly because of climate change, economic crises due to less food production as a result of climate change and dissipating huge wealth in building grandiose pyramids, power usurpation by the provincial nobles, social and political unrest.

Middle Kingdom (2050-1650 BCE)

After a century-long power struggle and chaos, the middle kingdom was established by the eleventh dynasty of Egypt in 2050 BCE. In addition to establishing centralized rule, they made alliances with middle class people and the nobility kept them in check. They succeeded to maintain stability and prosperity for about four centuries.

Persian Civilization:

Assyrians and Neo-Assyrians

Assyrians were Semitic people living in Northern Mesopotamia in two particular place called Assur and Nineveh. The Assyrian Empire formed in approximately 2025 BCE. Persian Empire had a huge landmass with freedom to exercise various religious and cultural practices, and as a result the Persian Empire was very much multicultural. However, in order for Darius to rule this vast Empire he developed a good management system. For example, the Empire was divided by provinces (satrapies) and it was the duty of each province to bring the wealth to the imperial center. Each province was ruled by a satrap (a governor) who was a relative or a close associate of the king. The local bureaucrats and officials who administered the government worked under close monitoring and acted as the so-called eyes of the king. They enforced the satraps’ loyalty. Further, Darius established a system of fixed taxation and formal tribute allocations; when needed, he also instituted economic reforms. Moreover, he promoted trade throughout the empire by building roads, establishing a standardized currency including coinage, and introducing standard weights and measures. The Persians also built many large roads to connect its vast land mass, and all the people of the Persian Empire had to acknowledge the King as being elected by Divine Rights, that is the King is ordained by God and hence he is unquestionable.

Hellenistic civilization:

A war called the Peloponnesian war brutally weakened several Greek city states. So the Greek military and economic power started declined rapidly. Greek city states were known as police and they had conflicts with each other. They never could agree together in any kind of single policy. Though the city states had self-government in local affairs, but Greek was under the power of foreign controllers. Then Alexander the great became the king. Although Alexander was only 20 years old when he became the great king, but he was well prepared to lead. Once he became king he had been proved that his military training had not wasted. Then he destroyed the city and around 600 therians were killed and the survivals were sold into slavery. Frightened by Alexander’s cruelty, the other city states quickly give up the idea of uprising. After that Alexander started to take control over Persia, Egypt, and Indus Velley and gradually he became the unchallenged ruler, and then he was more interested to expanding his emperor and then governing it. The political expansion that was drawn by the military conquest brought a period of wide spread migration of trade and economic diffusion. After the death of Alexander the great, we observe a mixture of culture. It was the mixture of the Hellenic and the Greek culture.

Conclusion:

All of these civilization are the implications for the development of the mankind. In every sectors of life, from law to politics to sports, the terminology and innovations of that ancient era are still relevant and very much applicable today. The democratic tradition of the city states embodied the ideals of legal equality, personal freedom and governance by the people. Then comes Philosophy, the ancient focused on the role of reason and the inquiry that also had a wonderful influence. Now a days we are going through the modern age of this world and this will be definitely remain as the modern is only for those wonderful era was going on and made us exemplary. The world history. All the science and technologies, ideas and every elements of the modernism which actually developed from that ancient civilization.