In the beginning...
First, let's think about a few questions while we begin to learn about the origins and development of humans and government: Why do governments form? What purpose do they serve? Are they necessary? What is the best form of government?
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Generally speaking the first form of what we would identify today as government formed about 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia (present day Iraq) by the Sumerians. As humans began to learn how to farm and live in one place, they eventually learned to survive at a much more successful rate thus the population grew. As population grew, it became apparent to the citizens of highly populated urban cities that some form of organization was needed to ensure that those cities would survive. Anytime you get a large group of people together, organizing becomes a next step in the evolution of the group.
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What resulted in the formation of government = the development of agriculture. When humans learned to grow crops they no longer had to travel great distances to find food, this allowed them to stay in one place and grow small communities into cities. In order to have plentiful crops, one must have fresh water, fertile soil, and temperate climate. Mesopotamia was just such a place (not so much today though, lol). The first civilizations in Mesopotamia were Sumer, Babylon, and Assyria. As one civilization developed and peaked, another began to threaten the power of the former power. This led to the need of forming some type of national army for civilizations for protection, another step in developing a complex government. Another development was the creation of written laws, credited mostly with the Babylonian leader Hammurabi who felt that written laws would the people of Babylon understand the rules and punishments of breaking the rules.
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The earliest forms of government were usually made up of a single ruler (many times based on the idea that the ruler had powers from or was part of the god or gods they people worshipped). These single rulers usually had absolute power. Their goals were usually to take city-states (small civilizations were usually centered around a single city and did not belong to a bigger group or government than the city itself) by force or by diplomacy (diplomacy is convincing other parties to join or do as you wish through talking and making agreements) to join their own emerging empire. An empire is a group of city-states or countries that merge under one leader.
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Around 630BC (about 2600 years ago), the Greeks began to merge many of their city-states into a loose alliance to form a larger government or empire. 800 years later the Romans, under one ruler expanded their power by forcefully conquering neighboring countries and territories until they became the largest empire in the world up to that time. For years Rome was ruled by a dictator or single leader. Some dictators tried to do good and were largely accepted by the people, other dictators, called, tyrants, ruled very harshly and cruelly. When dictators exercise harsh treatment of the people long enough, the people become restless and sometimes revolt. One of the things that can make people of civilizations become unhappy and seek to remove their leaders was when tyrants made the people pay high taxes they could not afford. Taxes are money or goods paid to the government by the citizens in order to pay for the things the dictator sees fit to spend the tax money on. A good dictator uses the money to build roads, bridges, and public buildings. A bad dictator (or tyrant) uses the money for himself to build lavish and large temples or fight wars to gain more money and power.
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After several hundred years of bad leadership in which much of the citizens of Rome suffered, the people led a revolt and ousted the dictator of Rome in order to form a Republic, or a government that operates based off of representatives of the people. Rome then went through a series of wars and eventually the Republic was again replaced with a dictator which the Romans called an emperor. By this time the empire had reached a population of 60 million people.
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While this was going on, other regions such as India, China, Africa, and even in the Americas with Native Americans developed civilizations of various forms. After the fall of the Roman Empire in the 400s (about 1600 years ago), almost all of Europe returned to small civilizations that were centered on city-states. For the next 700 years these city-states began to join other city-states either by force or by choice and countries were formed that we know of today and each one was led by a king or emperor. The system of rule in Europe that developed was the monarchy. A monarchy is usually led by a king and/or queen in which power becomes determined through bloodlines. The first born son of a king was not only a prince, but the next in line for the royal thrown when the king passed away or decided to step down.
Modern Europe
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During the 1500s, the population of Europe grew and trade, also known as commerce, grew. European nations began to expand their trade routes and discover new lands. This led to an increase in the production of goods. Merchants, business owners called entrepreneurs, and bankers emerged with increased influence and power on commerce. European economies became based on capitalism or an economic system based on private ownership of business. This led to higher economic status that was under the king but above the peasant or poor class.
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This growth of government and power in Europe led to European nations wanting to expand their horizons and explore new trade routes across the ocean. Soooooo, in 1492, that is what Christopher Columbus was doing when he discovered the West Indies, aka, the Caribbean which led to the discovery of Central, South, and North America. With the arrival of Spanish explorers, England wanted in on the race for new lands and ended up settling North America at Jamestown and Plymouth, thus we find ourselves as Europeans and later African-indentured servants and slaves, in America, and that's how colonial Americans looked at British history to form their new government (next Unit).
