"Three changes transformed the way humans lived."

There’s no official rule that people need to live in states. And there’s no law that states must have cities. People who live in states and cities don’t have to farm or trade with people in farming regions. However, these four things often go together. We’re going to explore why and how they’re linked.

When we learn about history, cities and states centered around farming and trading are important. This is because these places are where many ideas and inventions come from, making them seem very important in history.

But, there was a lot happening during the time we’re covering in Unit 3. There were also communities that weren’t organized as states or cities, didn’t farm, and didn’t center around trade. We’ll also learn about these communities. However, since changes in these communities happened more slowly, we’ll focus more on the growth of trade, the development of cities, and the formation of states. These changes have had a big impact on how people live and connect with each other.

Village networks

By 6000 BCE, people had spread across the globe. Some communities started farming and raising animals, while others continued to gather food and hunt. These groups adapted to their environments, creating unique ways and tools to survive.

New ideas and tools often came from the need to solve problems or from exchanging goods with other communities. Usually, an idea or tool was invented in one place. Then, it was shared with others through trade, conflicts, or marriages. When communities met, they often adopted or adapted these new ideas to suit their needs. Important inventions—like iron and boba tea—were first made in local regions and then spread across the world through networks.

At this time, local networks were essential for survival. Farming villages and nomadic tribes traded with each other, each specializing in certain products. Early human societies really were complex.

Long-distance trade

Trade networks started locally but grew to cover large distances. These networks moved goods, people, and ideas across the world. As cities emerged, they formed metropolitan networks, connecting cities with their surrounding villages and rural areas. Cities could influence these areas because they had larger populations.

Trade networks expanded even further. In Eurasia, the domestication of horses helped messages and control spread far from the capitals of empires. Camels in western Asia and Africa made desert travel quicker. Llamas served a similar purpose in the Americas.

At sea, improvements in shipbuilding and navigation allowed trade to reach distant places. Skilled shipbuilders and sailors were crucial for trade in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and other seas. On land, infrastructure projects like road construction made travel more efficient. More people traveled, learning new languages and sharing new ideas in different places.

Cities

So what came first, cities or trade? Cities often developed around markets where traders met. But, as cities grew, they also encouraged more trade. People in cities had extra resources like money and food and wanted luxury items to improve their lives.

The first cities might have appeared around 6,000 years ago in places like Anatolia and Egypt. Later, cities emerged in China, India, and Southeast Asia about 5,000 years ago. Then, from 4,000 to 2,500 years ago, new cities developed in Mesoamerica, the Andes, the Mediterranean, and sub-Saharan Africa.

Cities were established for various reasons. Some were on trade routes, others for defense, some for religious events, and others as government centers. These cities were part of agricultural societies that produced a food surplus. This extra food went to soldiers, priests, builders, and other workers. Each society or city, whether it was in Shang Dynasty China or Mesopotamia, had its own unique structure and lifestyle.

One thing these societies all had in common was a group of wealthy people. Usually, this group was small. Most people in the cities were very poor in comparison to the wealthy. The majority of people worked hard and often got sick because of the crowded conditions in cities, where people, animals, and waste were all close together.

States

The wealth from long-distance trade benefited a small group of elites. These elites had special rights and power because they controlled resources. To protect their wealth, elites established states. This included creating laws, government structures, and armies. These measures protected everyone, but especially the wealthy. In their pursuit of more power and wealth, elites sometimes led states into large-scale violence and wars.

The rise of the state was closely connected to the development of writing. And writing was probably the most important development during this era. The ability to read and write was rare and generally something only the wealthy had. Therefore, writing deepened the distance between elites and commoners. The first written texts weren’t love poems or novels; they were inventories and receipts for things people owned and traded. Writing started as a way to record the trading of goods and surpluses of food. Writing allowed a merchant to record that they had traded three goats for five bushels of wheat. It let rulers write down instructions to the commanders and governors overseeing the furthest edges of their states.

Still, not all states were the same, as we will see. Assyria, in Mesopotamia, had a hierarchical structure. It was quite different from the negotiated power of Jenne-Jeno, in West Africa. Instead of a ruling elite, different groups split power in Jenne-Jeno. The Olmec cities of Mesoamerica had decentralized rule by religious leaders. This was a big difference from the centralized power of Akkadian kings in Mesopotamia.

Despite all the connections that developed during this period, human societies remained quite diverse. In fact, the wide range of economies, social structures, and cultures in this period helps remind us of the shared creativity that is a human trait. There’s no single pathway for human societies. Each is a product of trade and exchange mixed with local ideas and the genius of individuals. Ancient societies unleashed that genius in ways that made for unique communities while contributing to a shared human history.