1) Human population began to create groups about 11,000 years ago. They started to produce food through agriculture and farming instead of simply gathering fruits and vegetables and hunting animals. This innovation was brought by the necessity of people to face the scarcity of food, especially during the winter periods.
According to Levack (2010), human society received a major impact by the development of agriculture and farming. In particular, people tend to form communities in order to increase the production and develop new techniques in order to avoid the shortage of food during winter periods. Moreover in this way, people that gathered in communities felt the necessity to create a different system from the one it was common when humans were basically just hunters or gatherers and their action were targeted mainly to provide food for themselves for the following days. Several characteristics were developed which are common also to modern civilization.
In particular, those communities founded villages and then cities. Also, people started to become specialist in some related fields (like farmers or artisans) and develop in their community some form of social hierarchies. Moreover, those new-born societies felt the need to give a first rudimental law system, in order to create an equilibrium inside the community. Finally, the development of new techniques allowed people from different communities to create supplies of goods to exchange for other kind of goods; this can be seen as the first development of Economic Theory.
Besides the development of agriculture and farming, the main breakthrough that the development of the society due to the shortage of food allowed human beings to develop, is clearly the development of human languages. This skill allowed humans to hold in collective learning not simply sharing ideas or information between different communities, but especially leaving different information and knowledge to the next generation.
2) The Bronze Age is a historical period which is characterized by the development of bronze tools like manufactures or weapons thanks to the use of copper. This period is characterized by the use of bronze tools in several part of the world, especially among Mediterranean Populations and those from the South-West Asia.
In particular, the first civilizations of Mediterranean Europe were the so called Minoan and Mycenaean civilization and they developed in Greece. In the southwest region, the main communities developed during the International Bronze Age where the Phoenixes, the Hittite, the Mesopotamia and especially the Egyptian Empire. The interactions among Mediterranean and Southwest communities favored cultural bond thanks to diplomacy and sharing of knowledge. In this way, multiethnic reigns developed. One of the main Empires that benefited from the assimilation of different cultures during the International Bronze Age is definitely the Egyptian Empire.
According to Levack (2010), Egyptians developed modern military technologies thanks to the creation of an empire with was considered to be multi-ethnic. Moreover Egyptians developed an international trading commerce as well as an efficient network of diplomacy with other empires. Instead Hittites developed their Empire through military actions, but also developing several administrative centers. Thanks to their multiethnic culture, Hittites manage to develop a prosperous commerce which was also long-distance oriented. In particular thanks to diplomacy skills they manage to create stable and peaceful conditions in order to grow their commercial trade.
The communities of the South Europe developed several modern and efficient agricultural techniques and they manage to develop a long-distance trading network. Entering in contact with other Mediterranean communities, they manage to create an efficient diplomacy system, especially towards Egyptian and Hittite empires.
References
Drews, Robert. The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe Ca. 1200 B.C.. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1993.
Levack, Brian, The West: Encounters & Transformations, (New Jersey: Pearson College Div,
2010).
