Why do civilizations rise and fall

However, the Gini Index can be misleading as it only measures relative changes in income. Importantly, wealth inequality is even worse.

The reality is likely to be starker as these numbers do not capture wealth and income siphoned into overseas tax havens. The rich are getting richer, which in past civilisations has created additional stress on societies Credit: Getty Images. Studies suggest that the EROI for fossil fuels has been steadily decreasing over time as the easiest to reach and richest reserves are depleted.

Unfortunately, most renewable replacements, such as solar, have a markedly lower EROI, largely due to their energy density and the rare earth metals and manufacturing required to produce them. The energy cliff need not be terminal if renewable technologies continue to improve and energy efficiency measures are speedily implemented.

The somewhat reassuring news is that collapse metrics are not the entire picture. Societal resilience may be able to delay or prevent collapse. Nations are, on average, less reliant on single types of exports than they once were.

For example, a nation that had diversified beyond only exporting agricultural products would be more likely to weather ecological degradation or the loss of trading partners. The ECI also measures the knowledge-intensity of exports. More skilled populations may have a greater capacity to respond to crises as they arise.

Similarly, innovation — as measured by per capita patent applications — is also rising. In theory, a civilisation might be less vulnerable to collapse if new technologies can mitigate against pressures such as climate change. Our technological capabilities may have the potential to delay collapse Credit: Getty Images. Still, when we look at all these collapse and resilience indicators as a whole, the message is clear that we should not be complacent.

There are some reasons to be optimistic, thanks to our ability to innovate and diversify away from disaster. Yet the world is worsening in areas that have contributed to the collapse of previous societies. The climate is changing, the gap between the rich and poor is widening, the world is becoming increasingly complex, and our demands on the environment are outstripping planetary carrying capacity.

That's not all. Worryingly, the world is now deeply interconnected and interdependent. In the past, collapse was confined to regions — it was a temporary setback, and people often could easily return to agrarian or hunter-gatherer lifestyles. For many, it was even a welcome reprieve from the oppression of early states.

Moreover, the weapons available during social disorder were rudimentary: swords, arrows and occasionally guns. Today, societal collapse is a more treacherous prospect. The weapons available to a state, and sometimes even groups, during a breakdown now range from biological agents to nuclear weapons. New instruments of violence, such as lethal autonomous weapons , may be available in the near future. People are increasingly specialised and disconnected from the production of food and basic goods.

And a changing climate may irreparably damage our ability to return to simple farming practices. Think of civilisation as a poorly-built ladder.

As you climb, each step that you used falls away. A fall from a height of just a few rungs is fine. Yet the higher you climb, the larger the fall. Eventually, once you reach a sufficient height, any drop from the ladder is fatal.

Any collapse — any fall from the ladder — risks being permanent. Nuclear war in itself could result in an existential risk: either the extinction of our species, or a permanent catapult back to the Stone Age. A woman walks in the ruins of a town in Syria following conflict between fighters Credit: Getty Images. While we are becoming more economically powerful and resilient, our technological capabilities also present unprecedented threats that no civilisation has had to contend with.

For example, the climatic changes we face are of a different nature to what undid the Maya or Anazasi. They are global, human-driven, quicker, and more severe.

Assistance in our self-imposed ruin will not come from hostile neighbors, but from our own technological powers. Collapse, in our case, would be a progress trap. The collapse of our civilisation is not inevitable. History suggests it is likely, but we have the unique advantage of being able to learn from the wreckages of societies past.

We know what needs to be done: emissions can be reduced, inequalities levelled, environmental degradation reversed, innovation unleashed and economies diversified. The policy proposals are there. Only the political will is lacking. We can also invest in recovery. There are already well-developed ideas for improving the ability of food and knowledge systems to be recuperated after catastrophe.

Avoiding the creation of dangerous and widely-accessible technologies is also critical. Such steps will lessen the chance of a future collapse becoming irreversible. We will only march into collapse if we advance blindly.

We are only doomed if we are unwilling to listen to the past. He tweets lukakemp. If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.

Deep Civilisation Risk. Are we on the road to civilisation collapse? Share using Email. By Luke Kemp 19th February Studying the demise of historic civilisations can tell us how much risk we face today, says collapse expert Luke Kemp. Worryingly, the signs are worsening. Great civilisations are not murdered.

Instead, they take their own lives. Credit: Nigel Hawtin Collapse can be defined as a rapid and enduring loss of population, identity and socio-economic complexity.

Collapse may be a normal phenomenon for civilisations, regardless of their size and technological stage. While there is no single accepted theory for why collapses happen, historians, anthropologists and others have proposed various explanations, including: CLIMATIC CHANGE: When climatic stability changes, the results can be disastrous, resulting in crop failure, starvation and desertification. Measures of resilience The somewhat reassuring news is that collapse metrics are not the entire picture.

The rungless ladder That's not all. Use the videos, media, reference materials, and other resources in this collection to teach about ancient Greece, its role in modern-day democracy, and civic engagement.

A civilization is a complex human society that may have certain characteristics of cultural and technological development. Join our community of educators and receive the latest information on National Geographic's resources for you and your students.

Skip to content. Twitter Facebook Pinterest Google Classroom. Article Vocabulary. Civilization describes a complex way of life that came about as people began to develop networks of urban settlements. The earliest civilizations developed between and BCE, when the rise of agriculture and trade allowed people to have surplus food and economic stability.

Many people no longer had to practice farming, allowing a diverse array of professions and interests to flourish in a relatively confined area. Civilizations first appeared in Mesopotamia what is now Iraq and later in Egypt. Civilizations ultimately developed on every continent except Antarctica. All civilizations have certain characteristics. These include: 1 large population centers; 2 monumental architecture and unique art styles; 3 shared communication strategies; 4 systems for administering territories; 5 a complex division of labor; and 6 the division of people into social and economic classes.

Rural residents of civilizations may include farmers, fishers, and traders, who regularly sell their goods and services to urban residents. The huge urban center of Teotihuacan, in modern-day Mexico, for example, had as many as , residents between and CE.

The development of the Teotihuacano civilization was made possible in part by the rich agricultural land surrounding the city. As land was cultivate d, fewer farmers could supply more food staple s, such as corn and beans, to more people.

Much of the wealth and power of Teotihuacan was due to excavating and trading the rich deposits of obsidian around the city. Obsidian is a hard volcanic rock that was highly valued as a cutting tool. Teotihuacano merchant s traded exported obsidian to surrounding cultures in exchange for goods and services imported to Teotihuacano settlements.

All civilizations work to preserve their legacy by building large monument s and structures 2. This is as true today as it was thousands of years ago. For example, the ancient monuments at Great Zimbabwe are still consistently used as a symbol of political power in the modern nation of Zimbabwe.

Great Zimbabwe, constructed between and , describes the ruins of the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe. At its peak, Great Zimbabwe was inhabited by more than 10, people and was part of a trading network that extended from the Maghreb , through the eastern coast of Africa, and as far east as India and China.

Great Zimbabwe is a testament to the sophistication and ingenuity of ancestor s of the local Shona people. Buildings are not the only monuments that define civilizations.

The distinct artistic style of Great Zimbabwe included representations of native animals carved in soapstone. Shared communication 3 is another element that all civilizations share. Shared communication may include spoken language; alphabets; numeric systems; signs, ideas, and symbols; and illustration and representation.

Shared communication allows the infrastructure necessary for technology , trade, cultural exchange , and government to be developed and shared throughout the civilization. The Inca civilization, for example, had no written script that we know of, but its complex khipu system of accounting allowed the government to conduct census es of its population and production across the vast stretch of the Andes mountains.

A khipu is a recording device made of a series of strings knotted in particular patterns and colors. Written language in particular allows civilizations to record their own history and everyday events—crucial for understanding ancient cultures.

The world's oldest known written language is Sumerian, which developed in Mesopotamia around BCE. The most familiar form of early Sumerian writing was called cuneiform , and was made up of different collections of wedge triangle shapes. The earliest Sumerian writing was record-keeping. Just like written records of modern civilizations, Sumerian cuneiform kept track of tax es, grocery bills, and laws for things like theft. Written language was a key part of shared communication during the Islamic Golden Age , which flourished in southern Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia from the seventh to the 13th centuries.

All civilizations rely on government administration —bureaucracy. To rule an area that large, the Romans, based in what is now central Italy, needed an effective system of government administration and infrastructure. Romans used a variety of methods to administer their republic and, later, empire. Engineering , for instance, was a key part of Roman administration.

Romans built a network of roads so that communication between far-away territories was as efficient as possible. Roads also made travel by the Roman military much easier.

Romans built structures of their civilization everywhere they went: aqueduct s supplied freshwater to towns for improved sanitation and hygiene , for example.

Language also played a part in Roman infrastructure. Romans spread the Latin language throughout southern Europe. The so-called "Romance languages" Spanish, French, Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan, and Italian are called that because they all developed from the Roman language: Latin.

Having a similar language made communication and leadership easier for Rome in its far-flung territories. Roman leaders relied on a series of legal codes for administration. These codes helped structure laws between different parts of Roman territory, as well as between rich and poor, men and women, slave and free.

Roman laws included restrictions on marriage, ownership of land, and access to professions such as priesthoods. Roman law was largely public , and jurists created such formalities as legal language and procedure that would define European law for centuries.

Finally, Romans used local leaders, as well as Romans, to administer the law in their territories. Residents were more familiar with their own leaders, and more likely to follow their announcements. Israeli leaders worked with Roman authorities in the Roman territory of Palestine, for example, while British leaders often worked with Romans on the island of Great Britain. Some people born in Roman territories eventually became Roman emperors: The emperor Constantine, for instance, was born in what is now Serbia; the emperor Hadrian may have been born in what is now Spain.

This interaction reduced conflict between Rome and its territories. Civilizations are marked by complex divisions of labor 5. This means that different people perform specialized tasks. In a purely agricultural society, members of the community are largely self-sufficient, and can provide food, shelter, and clothing for themselves. In a complex civilization, farmers may cultivate one type of crop and depend on other people for other foods, clothing, shelter, and information.

Civilizations that depend on trade are specially marked by divisions of labor. The city of Timbuktu, in what is now Mali, was an important trading center for several African civilizations. Residents of Timbuktu specialized in trading such goods as gold, ivory, or slaves. Other residents provided food or shelter for trade caravan s traveling on camels from the Sahara Desert.

The urban center of Timbuktu was also a center of learning. Its division of labor included not only merchants, but doctors, religious leaders, and artists. The last element that is key to the development of civilizations is the division of people into class es 6. This is a complex idea that can be broken down into two parts: income and type of work performed. Changing classes has traditionally been difficult and happens over generation s.

Classes can mean groups of people divided by their income. In medieval civilizations of Europe, there were fewer economic classes.

Kings and queens had enormous amounts of money and land. Serf s, or people who worked the land, had almost nothing. Eventually, a merchant economic class developed. Class can also refer to the type of work people perform. There are many divisions of social class. Social class is often associated with economic class, but not strictly defined by it. In the ancient civilization of China, there were four major types of social classes. Scholars and political leaders known as shi were the most powerful social class.

Farmers and agricultural workers nong were the next most-powerful group. Artists gong , who made everything from horseshoes to silk robes, were the next order of social class. At the bottom of the social classes were the merchants and traders, who bought and sold goods and services. Civilizations expand through trade, conflict, and exploration.

Usually, all three elements must be present for a civilization to grow and remain stable for a long period of time. The physical and human geography of Southeast Asia allowed these attributes to develop in the Khmer civilization, for example. The Khmer maintained vibrant trading relationships throughout East Asia, the Indian subcontinent , and even Europe and Africa through the Silk Road , a collection of both overland and maritime trade route s.

The Silk Road linked the spice and silk markets of Asia with the merchants of Europe. In addition to material goods, the Khmer civilization facilitated a powerful trade in ideas. In particular, the Khmer were instrumental in spreading the influence of Buddhist and Hindu cultures from the Indian subcontinent to Southeast and East Asia.

The primary conflicts of the Khmer civilization were waged with neighboring communities—the Cham, the Vietnamese, and the Thai. The Cham were a collection of kingdom s in what is today central and southern Vietnam, while the ancient Vietnamese influence extended through what is today northern Vietnam. Thai kingdoms such as Sukothai and Ayutthaya flourished in what are now Thailand, Cambodia, and Malaysia. The Khmer civilization was founded on the consistent resistance of political pressure from the Cham and Vietnamese, but it ultimately could not withstand pressure from Thai civilizations.

Thousands of Thai peoples migrate d from the north what is now the Yunnan region of China , establishing small kingdoms in the southwest of the Khmer Empire. The Khmer civilization relied heavily on rice farming, and developed a complex irrigation system to take advantage of the rivers and wetland s that dotted their territory.

An efficient series of irrigation canal s and reservoir s, called barays, allowed fewer farmers to produce more rice. This, in turn, allowed more people to pursue non-agricultural lifestyles and migrate to great urban areas, such as Angkor. Angkor, the capital of the ancient Khmer civilization, is home to one of the largest most distinctive religious monuments in the world, Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat was originally constructed as a series of shrine s to the Hindu god Vishnu in the early 12th century, although it became a Buddhist temple complex less than a hundred years later.

Angkor Wat and its sister complex, Angkor Thom, are beautiful examples of classic Khmer architecture. The thousands of square meters of wall space at Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom are decorated by thousands of bas-relief s and sculptures depicting Hindu stories and characters. The Khmer monument at Angkor Wat helps define the modern nation of Cambodia today. Many civilizations have flourished and then failed or fallen apart.

There are many reasons for this, but many historians point to three patterns in the fall of civilizations: internal change, external pressure, and environmental collapse. The fall of civilizations is never the result of a single event or pattern. Population dynamics are the most pervasive forces of internal change to a civilization. Populations may grow, due to migration or a period of unusual health.

Populations may shrink, due to disease , extreme weather , or other environmental factors. Finally, populations may redefine themselves. As civilizations grow, cities may grow larger and become more culturally distinct from rural, agricultural areas. Internal changes contributed to the collapse of the Maya civilization, which had thrive d in Mesoamerica for more than a thousand years.

Diseases such as dysentery and lethal hemorrhagic fever s killed and disabled thousands of Mayans. Millions more were forced to relocate from cities to more rural area s. Such huge population shifts reduced the ability of the Maya to communicate, administrate, and unite against outside forces and natural disaster s such as drought. The clearest example of external pressure on a civilization is foreign invasion or sustained warfare. External pressure can lead to the relatively abrupt end of a civilization and, often, the adoption of another.

The fall of the Aztec Empire with the arrival of European conquistador es is such an example. External pressures can also lead to the gradual diminish ing of a civilization. Egypt had faced longstanding, intermittent conflict on its borders, with competing civilizations such as the Nubians to the south , the Assyrians in the Middle East , and the Libyans to the west.

Later, Egypt encountered the civilizations of Ancient Greece and Rome, and eventually became part of the Roman Empire. Ancient Egypt also faced external pressures not directly associated with armed conflict. The powerful forces of Christianity and Islam influenced the eradication of both hieroglyphics , the writing system of Ancient Egypt, and its polytheistic religion. Some anthropologist s think that both natural disasters and misuse of the environment contributed to the decline of many civilizations.

Natural hazards such as drought, floods, and tsunami s, become natural disasters as they impact civilizations. Drought contributed to the fall of civilizations such as the Maya and the Indus Valley or Harappan civilization. The Indus Valley Civilization depended on seasonal monsoon rains to supply water for drinking, hygiene, and irrigation. Climate change made monsoons much more unpredictable and seasonal flooding less reliable. Harappans suffered from water-borne diseases and were unable to effectively irrigate their crops.

The collapse of Minoan civilization, a major influence on Ancient Greece, is often associated with a catastrophic eruption of the Thera volcano on the island of what is now Santorini.