Alberto Samayoa

E portfolio Signature Assignment

Dr. Beurtheret

04/20/2019

Changes and evolutions in the early World history

World history or global history is a field of historical study that emerged as a direct academic field in the
1980s. It examines history from a global perspective. World history looks for common patterns that
emerge across all cultures. World historians use two major focal points of Integration, how processes of
world history have drawn people together, and difference which are patterns of world history that
reveal the diversity of the human experience. These two approaches help us see the changes and
evolutions that civilizations have made to result in what they are today. First, I will present the advent of
civilizations, then I will address how writing allowed for the codification of laws and religion to maintain
and consolidate power over larger population.

A civilization is a complex society that cerates agricultural surpluses allowing for specialize labor, social
hierarchy and the establishment of cities. Developments such a writing, complex religious systems,
monumental architecture, and centralized political power have been suggested as identifying markers of
civilization. When we see these changes occur, we should stop and ask, “Did people institute them?”
Historians debate this very question, trying to determine whether civilization was a bottom-up or top-
down development. Most likely, it was a combination of both.

There are different forms of social organization it is helpful to think in terms of a spectrum of
complexity. On one side we have the Hunter-forager the least complex, on the other side we have a
Civilization being the most complex, and in the middle there is the Pastoral or Horticultural which are
societies that are larger than hunting- and-gathering that grow crops or raise livestock but at the same
time are smaller than Civilizations.
Writing emerged in many early civilizations to keep records and better manage complex institutions.
Cuneiform writing in early Mesopotamia was first used to keep track of economic exchanges. Oracle
bone inscriptions in Ancient China seem to have been tied to efforts to predict the future and may have
had spiritual associations. In all the places where writing developed no matter its form or purpose,
literacy the ability to read and write was limited to small groups of highly educated elites, such as scribes
and priests. It also offered a new method for maintaining law and order, as well. The first legal codes, or
written collections of laws, were the Code of Ur-Nammu from Sumer, written 2100 to 2050 BCE and the
Code of Hammurabi from Babylon, written around 1760 BCE. The benefit of written laws was that they
created consistency in the legal system.

This shift toward writing down more information might now seem like a significant development,
especially since most people were unable read and write. However, having consistent, shared records,
laws, and literature helped to strengthen ties between increasingly large groups. Religious leaders and
Political leaders mobilized large communities to raise labor and resources. As more and more people
shared the same beliefs and practices, people who did not know each other could find common ground
and build mutual trust and respect.

It was typical for politics and religion to be strongly connected. In some cases, political leaders also acted
as religious leaders. In other cases, religious leaders were different from the political rulers but still
worked to justify and support the power of the political leaders. In ancient Egypt, for example, the kings
which were referred to as pharaohs practiced divine kingship, claiming to be representatives, or even
human incarnations, of gods. Both political and religious organization helped to create and reinforce
social hierarchies, which are clear distinctions in status between individual people and between
different groups. Political leaders could make decisions that impacted entire societies, such as whether
to go to war. Religious leaders gained special status since they alone could communicate between a
society and its god or gods.

Civilization is a tricky concept for many reasons. For one thing, it can be difficult to define what counts
as a civilization and what does not, since experts don’t all agree which conditions make up a civilization.
There are many features that early civilizations had in common. Most civilizations developed from
agrarian communities that provided enough food to support cities. As cities intensified social hierarchies
based on gender, wealth, and division of labor. Some developed powerful states and armies, which
could only be maintained through taxes.