Early Western Civilization (4000-1000 B.C.E.) History - Research Paper Example

2008). The pastoral peoples of these societies played a significant role in the history. It was the start of emergence of new states in the third and second millennia BCE. Eurasia was militarized, and major trends were seen in Eurasia and Africa. It all began when irrigation was started on the floodplain of Mesopotamia in Southwest Asia, which initiated a drastically novel trial in human organization on earth. Although the valleys of the lower Tigris and Euphrates were rainless, yet they had an abundant supply of water due to which these areas could provide land to vast concentrations of population, and could support higher cultural density than any hill country.

4000 BCE was followed by the emergence of large walled cities along the two rivers. This paper details the chronological series of developments in the western world history from 4000 to 1000 BCE. Spielvogel (2011, xxix) writes in his book that, “Although early civilizations emerged in different parts of the world, the foundations of Western civilization were laid by the Mesopotamians and the Egyptians.”i These were the people who struggled with the newly emerging problems of the new states and communities in 3000 BCE (Noble 2008, 14).

This era saw the emergence of major civilized societies. The appearance of four great floodplain civilizations was significant. First was in Mesopotamia, which was followed by a second one in the Nile valley, and the third one appeared in the Indus valley in 2500 BCE. These civilizations had a great impact upon each other through intercommunication, agriculture and trade. Then, the fourth civilization appeared in the Yellow River valley of northwestern China. Agriculture went on spreading, and urban centers emerged on the rain-watered lands of Syria and the island of Crete.

When agriculture and trade was extended on large areas, new complicated societies arose in the Aegean Sea Basin and Western Europe. It was the era when most of the population of the world resided in small farming areas, with the main occupation of hunting and foraging. This population had to make a lot of struggle to adapt to the changing world of new civilizations. New social circumstances demanded a lot of effort on their part. This was also the era of pastoralism- the emergence of pastoral peoples (Embree and Gluck 1997, 916).

Larger communities that emerged in Eurasia and Africa fed on animals, which were the main source of food in those areas. The pastoral peoples started migrating from the steppes of Central Asia in the second millennium BCE, and this brought about a major change in the west including Europe, and the Mediterranean basin to India. Spielvogel (2011) writes that these people developed writing and created literature that tells about the culture and societal values of their era. They also constructed monumental architecture which symbolized their power and culture.

It was the era of militarization of some societies and appearance of new kingdoms, in which the main language belonged to the Indo-European family. This era also saw some of the most fundamental inventions, discoveries and institutions of the world, which also formed the basis of subsequent communities and civilizations. 4000 BCE is also famous for its great flood stories whose archeological evidence has been found in 1929, which showed that there was a great flood at Ur near the Persian Gulf in the delta of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

These floods were considered as punishments from God, because they were also talked about in the Epic of