Civilization

A civilization is a complex society where many people live together in organized groups. It has a government, different levels of society, big cities, and special ways to share ideas. This often includes writing to keep records and share knowledge.

Civilizations are centered around busy areas where people live, work, and trade. They are usually split into different social groups, with some people leading and others working on farms, in mines, or making goods. These societies grow lots of food, build structures, and create new tools and technologies. They also use money, collect taxes, and have rules to keep order.

Historically, the word civilization comes from the Latin word for "city." This is why one simple way to define a civilization is "a society made up of cities." The first civilizations began in West Asia during the later part of the Neolithic Revolution, when people started living in cities and forming governments with leaders.

History of the concept

The word civilization comes from the French word civilisé, meaning "civilized." It is related to Latin words for "citizen" and "city." A famous book called The Civilizing Process from 1939 looks at how social manners changed over time. Another book from 1923 talks about two ways people think about civilization: one just about things we can see and touch, and another about those things and what is right and wrong.

The word civilization started being used in the 1700s to mean becoming more advanced. During the time of the French Revolution, people used the word to talk about how all of humanity was improving. Later, people used the word to talk about many different kinds of societies. Some thinkers, like Rousseau, thought that being too civilized was not always good because it did not match what feels natural to humans.

Characteristics

Civilizations are special kinds of societies with many unique features. They often have cities where lots of people live close together.

Farming is a big part of civilizations. Growing food helps feed many people, so some can do other jobs like building, trading, or leading. Sharing jobs is important in a civilization.

Civilizations also have ways to keep records, like writing, which helps leaders and traders. They usually trade goods and services, and many make their own money. Over time, civilizations have made advances in art, science, and technology.

Cultural identity

Further information: Cultural area and culture

A civilization is also about the culture of a complex society, not just the society itself. Every society has its own special ideas, customs, and ways of making things that make it unique. Civilizations often develop rich cultures, including ways that leaders make decisions, writing, art, buildings, organized beliefs, and special traditions.

The rich culture of a civilization often spreads to and influences other cultures. A good example is how Chinese civilization influenced nearby places such as Korea, Japan and Vietnam. Many civilizations are large cultural areas that include many nations and regions. The civilization a person lives in is their broadest cultural identity.

Protecting cultural identity is very important today, both within countries and around the world. Groups like the United Nations and UNESCO work to create and follow rules to help protect cultural treasures.

Historians have studied these large cultural areas and often think of civilizations as separate groups. Philosopher Oswald Spengler believed that each civilization is held together by one main cultural symbol. Historian Arnold J. Toynbee also studied civilizations in his book A Study of History.

Samuel P. Huntington described civilization as the highest level of cultural identity that people share.

Complex systems

Some thinkers see a civilization as a complex system, meaning a group of parts that work together to make something bigger. Civilizations are like networks of cities that grow from small villages. They are linked by many kinds of connections, such as trade, culture, politics, and military actions.

These connections can be big or small. For example, long ago, trade routes like the Silk Road connected places far apart, such as Central Asia and the Indian Ocean, even when those places didn’t share much in politics or culture. Trade has often been a bigger connection than other types of links.

Many believe that today the whole world is linked together in what is called a “world system”. This linking is called globalization. People debate when this global linking began and what kind of linking—cultural, technological, economic, political, or military—is most important. Some say that thousands of years ago, the linking of early civilizations like Mesopotamia and Egypt created what one scholar called the “Central Civilization”. Others think major global linking started much later, during times like European colonialism.

History

See also: Human history

The idea that human history is made up of "civilizations" is a modern idea. During the European Age of Discovery, people in Modernity began to look differently at the Neolithic and Mesolithic times in the cultures they found.

Urban Revolution

Main articles: Neolithic, Bronze Age, Cradle of civilization, Classical African civilization, and River valley civilization

The Natufian culture in the Levantine corridor shows one of the earliest examples of the Neolithic Revolution, with the planting of crops around 11,000 BCE. The earliest Neolithic ways of life began first in Western Asia (like at Göbekli Tepe, around 9,130 BCE), then in the Yellow River and Yangtze areas in China, and spread from there across Eurasia. Mesopotamia is where the earliest civilizations developed, about 7,400 years ago. This area helped create important advances for humans, like the wheel, the first cities, and writing.

Similar changes happened on their own from 7,000 BCE in northwestern South America (the Caral-Supe civilization) and in Mesoamerica. The Black Sea area was also important for European civilization. The site of Solnitsata is thought to be the oldest known town in Europe, from 5500–4200 BCE.

The 8.2 Kiloyear Arid Event and the 5.9 Kiloyear Inter-pluvial made the land drier and caused the spread of deserts. This climate change changed how people lived, leading some villages to build walls and others to become cities.

This "urban revolution" from the 4th millennium BCE helped economies and cities grow. Urban revolutions were linked to the control of power, the growth of social groups, and the use of traditions.

The urban revolution depended on people staying in one place, growing crops and animals, and building lasting homes. This allowed economies to grow and for some groups to produce more than they needed.

Towards the end of the Neolithic period, advanced Chalcolithic civilizations began to appear around 3600 BCE, starting in Mesopotamia, and later growing into large kingdoms and empires during the Bronze Age.

Outside the Old World, development happened separately in the Pre-Columbian Americas. Cities in the Caral-Supe civilization in Peru began around 3500 BCE. In North America, the Olmec civilization started about 1200 BCE; the oldest known Mayan city dates to about 750 BCE. Teotihuacan near modern Mexico City was one of the world's largest cities in 350 CE.

Axial Age

Main article: Axial Age

Further information: Iron Age, Stoicism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Spread of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism

The Bronze Age collapse led to the Iron Age around 1200 BCE, when new civilizations appeared. This period from the 8th to the 3rd century BCE is called the Axial Age.

Modernity

Main article: Modernity

Further information: Middle Ages, Early modern period, Great Divergence, and Age of Discovery

See also: Culture, Major religious groups, World language, and Clash of Civilizations

A big change to modernity began around 1500 CE in Western Europe. From there, new ideas about science, technology, and law spread worldwide, mixing older cultures into today's technological and industrial society.

Fall of civilizations

Main article: Societal collapse

Civilizations sometimes end in two main ways. They might join a bigger civilization, like when Ancient Egypt became part of the Greek and then Roman worlds. Or they might break down and return to a simpler way of living, like during what some call the Dark Ages.

Many ideas try to explain why civilizations end. Some look at history, while others make general theories. For example, Ibn Khaldun thought repeated invasions could cause a society to fall apart. Edward Gibbon studied the fall of Rome and said it was natural for big empires to decline. Theodor Mommsen saw Rome’s fall as part of a natural cycle. Oswald Spengler believed cultures grow into empires and then fall. Arnold Toynbee thought civilizations fall when their leaders become selfish. Jared Diamond looked at reasons societies fail, like damage to nature and climate changes. Peter Turchin used math to show how too many people can cause a society to collapse. Peter Heather said Rome fell because it had to fight stronger enemies. Bryan Ward-Perkins said the fall of Rome made life harder for people in Europe. Arthur Demarest said things like drought and fighting led to the Maya civilization’s decline. Thomas Homer-Dixon pointed to energy use as important for a society's survival.

Future

Some people think the 21st century will be shaped by differences between groups of people, known as civilizations. Others think this idea is wrong.

One writer thinks that modern society might face problems because of how we live today, with big gaps between rich and poor and damage to the environment.

Some believe future societies will have very advanced technology, using lots of energy. Others think future societies will use technology in smarter ways, using less energy and protecting the planet.

Non-human civilizations

Scientists today think humans are the only animals on Earth that can build civilizations. Some thinkers have imagined finding signs of very old industrial societies hidden in rocks, from times long before the current geological era, the quaternary.

Space scientists also wonder if there are intelligent civilizations somewhere else in space, both inside and outside our galaxy, the Milky Way. They use special math, like the Drake equation, to guess how common such societies might be. They look for signs of technology, called "technosignatures", to find these intelligent beings. A new area of study called "xenoarchaeology" imagines how we could study the remains of alien civilizations if we ever found them.