THE URBAN REVOLUTİON

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The Main Reasons For The Urban Revolution

Cem Candemir

English 101-37

Bilkent University

November 3 , 2002

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The Main Reasons For The Urban Revolution

Today, no one can explain how the first men began to live on earth and how the first groups

of men came together or separated from each other. It is possible that in the future scientists,

archaeologists and historians will find out the unknown origins of human past and its

revolutions throughout history. The only clues, that we have today, are the inheritance of

our very early ancestors. Those clues are found more easily when they usually come closer to

our time. That is not because they are newer. Today, we can see the wild tribes (of Africa or

Australia) that are nomadic and that do not make any change in their environment; in other

words, they leave no evidence about their life behind them. However, the prehistoric clues can

be found a bit easily, because they came from the eras of sedentary life when people made

several tools and buildings. We can still see some of these prehistoric implements and learn the

lives of their owners. The eras before those implements were made and the revolutions between

these eras can still be discussed today. One of them is the revolution which made a change in

the life of early man, The Urban Revolution and its main reasons like the human’s natural

needs, problems, the growing populations and the revolutions that took place before.

First of all, it would be better to define the prehistoric eras in order. In 1965, J. D. Bernal

wrote a book about the origins of science and arranged the eras in a chronological order. Old

Stone Age (paleothic) is the first age when people were in small groups, hunting and gathering

food (8000 BC). Then comes The Stage of Village Agriculture (Neolithic) when a village is a

unit of the era and when the first agriculture, weaving, pottery and religion started and

improved (8000-5500 BC).The last era we will examine is The Stage of River Culture (Bronze)

when cities were founded, metals were treated and the basics of society such as economy,

politics, transformation and trade were developed(5500-3000 BC).

Bernal has divided primitive life into two parts: The material basis of primitive life

(science) and the social basis of primitive life (Bernal, 1965). Another author, V. Gordon

Childe, examines the subject in three chapters: Neolithic revolution, Second revolution,

Urban revolution ( 1951).

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It’s still not exactly decided why these revolutions happened. According to the theory of most

scientists and historians, early man was living in nomadic tribes and hunting animals. Tribes

were small and so were the populations. They used to hunt and eat at the same time. Then some

wild plants and roots were found to eat and the first cultivation began. These plants were

domesticated so people entered the sedentary life. In nomadic life when a child grew up, he

would compose a family and left the tribe. However, as the sedentary life started, growing

children stayed with the family and learnt the techniques of growing plants. So the population

increased and the needs of human became important. The Neolithic revolution started like this.

Villages were founded, agriculture, domestication of animals began. As the population

grew, problems like crimes, possessions, thefts occurred. Also, people wanted to control

nature with the power that they got by uniting themselves and working together. Before that

happened, they were living in villages or sites with their own self-sufficing economy, but then

they united and formed a big city. For example, in The Nile Valley of The Ancient Egypt the

floods had to be controlled so that people had to be controlled too.(Childe, 1951). So the urban

revolution, when big cities were founded, started like this.

Some of the institutions of the urban revolution are religion, warfare, magic, monarchy,

government. To serve the human needs, people had to be domesticated. As the sedentary life

continued, traditions became so important that they ruled over people and told them what is

right or wrong. It was because of the fear of the society since no one could live alone. Later,

religion was also used to intimidate people. Priests of the gods became leaders, to control

people.

As population grew in cities and needs increased too, big armies were developed to gain

more lands and supplies. So warfare began and a king and a government became necessary.

In ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh was the king, the priest and the god at the same time. However

none of these institutions were the reasons for the urban revolution, they were only the

consequences of it.

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So, what are the main reasons of the urban revolution; in other words, why have people

come together and live together? It was, of course, because of the necessity of power to control

nature. There were a lot of natural sources so they united to gain food and other needs from the

sources that were hard to control. (Childe, 1951). Early man also needed religion and warfare to

prevent the anarchy.

In fact revolutions came after each other. When a big problem of the society is solved,

another problem exists. This is the nature of human or any living thing. Revolution is

something necessary and natural. For example, after the Neolithic revolution villages were

founded and populations increased. There were people who had to feed their families. They

needed more food and to get that they needed more power. So they built big cities where

everyone had some work to serve human needs. By looking at this example, it can easily be

seen that the consequences of the preceding revolution form the reasons for the next one. As a

result, history of human being is composed of these revolutions and their effects to each other.

Today we are living in a society that our ancestors caused. According to Bernal :

Even our social institutions have not changed to an extraordinary extent – far less

than the change between the institutions of primitive communities and of the first

cities. We have merchants, magistrates and soldiers just as they had; and the

political troubles of our time were not unknown to them. In other words, most of

us are still living in the class society that originated with the first cities.(1965)

As a conclusion, human needs were the reasons for the urban revolution. It is exactly the

same as the necessity of science which gave man power to control over nature and also which

can be learnt and taught with the existence of society.

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Reference List

Bernal, J. D. (1965) . Science In History, Cambridge, Mass., M.I.T. Press

Childe, V. Gordon (1951) . Man Makes Himself , New York, Mentor Books