Civilization

A civilization is a complex society with many people living together in organized communities. It is known for having a government, different levels of society, big cities, and special ways to share ideas beyond just talking or using signs. This often includes writing systems to keep records and share knowledge.

Civilizations are centered around crowded areas where people live, work, and trade. They are usually divided into different social groups, with some people leading and others working in farms, mines, or making goods. These societies grow lots of food, build structures, and develop 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 the Latin words for "citizen" and "city." A famous book called The Civilizing Process from 1939 looks at how social manners changed from the middle ages to more recent times. Another book from 1923 talks about two ways people think about civilization: one just about things we can see and touch, and another about both those things and what is right and wrong.

The word civilization started being used in the 1700s to mean becoming more advanced and less rough. During the time of the French Revolution, people used the word to talk about how all of humanity was improving. Later, people began using the word to talk about many different kinds of societies, not just one. 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 that have many unique features. They often have cities where many people live close together. These societies usually have leaders and different levels of people, with some having more power or wealth than others.

One big part of civilizations is farming. Growing food helps support many people, allowing some to do jobs other than farming, like building, trading, or leading. This sharing of jobs is a key part of what makes a civilization.

Civilizations also often have ways to keep records, like writing, which helps leaders and traders manage things. They usually have systems for trading goods and services, and many develop their own forms of money. Over time, civilizations have created many 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, whether it is a civilization or not, 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 for teaching, guiding, and keeping order.

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, especially during times of conflict. Some people believe that attacking a culture’s important symbols is a way to weaken that culture.

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 and that cultures go through stages of growth, life, and decline. Historian Arnold J. Toynbee also studied civilizations in his book A Study of History, looking at how they rise and often fall. He thought that civilizations often decline because a small group of leaders fails to face important challenges.

Samuel P. Huntington described civilization as the highest level of cultural identity that people share, beyond what makes us human.

Complex systems

Some thinkers see a civilization as a complex system, meaning a group of parts that work together to create something bigger. Civilizations are like networks of cities that grow from smaller village cultures. 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 a series of "civilizations" is a modern one. During the European Age of Discovery, people in Modernity looked differently at the Neolithic and Mesolithic stages of 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 the earliest example of a Neolithic Revolution, with the planting of cereal crops from around 11,000 BCE. The earliest Neolithic technology and way 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 (such as the Peiligang and Pengtoushan cultures), and spread from there across Eurasia. Mesopotamia is where the earliest civilizations developed, about 7,400 years ago. This area helped create some of the most important advances in human history, like the wheel, the first cities, and writing.

Similar developments 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 caused drier conditions and the spread of deserts. This climate change changed how groups interacted, leading some villages to build walls and others to become cities.

This "urban revolution" from the 4th millennium BCE started the buildup of resources that helped economies and cities grow. Urban revolutions were linked to the control of power, the rise of soldiers, frequent battles, 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 (Akkadian Empire, Indus Valley Civilization, Old Kingdom of Egypt, Neo-Sumerian Empire, Middle Assyrian Empire, Babylonian Empire, Hittite Empire, and others).

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, with about 125,000 people.

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 by Karl Jaspers, a key time leading to classical civilizations.

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 can end in two main ways. They might become part of a larger civilization, like when Ancient Egypt joined the Greek and then Roman worlds. Or they might break down and return to a simpler way of living, as in what some call Dark Ages.

Many ideas try to explain why civilizations fall. Some look at history, while others create general theories. For example, Ibn Khaldun thought repeated invasions and limited growth could cause a society to fall apart. Edward Gibbon studied the fall of Rome and said it was natural for great empires to decline. Theodor Mommsen saw Rome’s fall as part of a natural cycle of growth and decline. Oswald Spengler believed cultures grow into empires and then fall, leading to democracy and more control. Arnold Toynbee thought civilizations fall when their leaders become selfish and cause problems inside and outside. Jared Diamond looked at five big reasons societies fail, like damage to nature, climate changes, needing faraway trade, violence, and how people respond to problems. 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 from its borders. Bryan Ward-Perkins said the fall of Rome made life much harder for people in Europe. Arthur Demarest said many things, like drought and fighting, led to the Maya civilization’s decline. Thomas Homer-Dixon pointed to the amount of energy a society can use as a key factor in whether it survives.

Future

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

One writer suggests that modern society might be heading toward problems because of how we live today, with big differences between rich and poor and harm to the environment.

Some think future societies will be very advanced in technology, using huge amounts of energy. Others believe future societies will use technology in smarter ways, using less energy and keeping the planet natural.

Non-human civilizations

Scientists today believe that humans are the only animals on Earth able to build civilizations. However, some thinkers have imagined what it might be like to find evidence of ancient industrial societies hidden in rocks, especially from times long before the current geological era, known as the quaternary.

Space scientists also wonder if there are intelligent civilizations elsewhere 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 discovered them.