Where did civilisation begin?
Over Christmas, I bought “The Times Concise History Of The World” which is a wonderful book to browse, full of colour maps and fascinating facts.
One can see very clearly how civilisation emerged in the so-called “lucky latitudes”. The first civilisations arose in the alluvial basins of four major rivers which drain from the mountain fringes where agriculture began:
- The Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia starting around 3500 BC
- The Nile in Egypt starting around 3200 BC
- The Indus in India starting around 2500 BC
- The Yellow River in China starting around 1800 BC
Many people seem to think that the rise of civilisations is a matter of the superiority of certain races. Actually it is all to do with geography and climate.