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History · Key Stage 2 · The School
Where cities began
Around 3000 BCE, four river valleys grew the first cities: the Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), the Nile in Egypt, the Indus in modern Pakistan and India, and the Yellow River in China. Rivers gave water, fertile silt and transport. Farming came first; cities were what farming made possible.
What a civilisation needs
A food SURPLUS — more than the farmers themselves eat — is the key. Surplus frees people to be builders, priests, soldiers, potters and scribes instead of all farming. From that follows specialised work, trade, laws, taxes and rulers. Every early civilisation shows the same chain.
Writing
Writing appears in Mesopotamia around 3200 BCE, first for accounts — counting grain and goods. It changed history in the most literal sense: before writing we have only objects, after it we have people's own words. The line between PREHISTORY and HISTORY is drawn exactly there.
Draw a line from 3500 BCE to 1000 BCE. Sumer: from about 3500. Ancient Egypt: from about 3100. Indus Valley: from about 2600. Shang China: from about 1600. Now look at the overlaps — Sumer, Egypt and the Indus Valley were all going at once, thousands of miles apart, mostly without contact. They are not a relay race. Civilisation started in several places independently.