The Bronze Age and the Collapse of Civilization
Bronze Age marked the first time humans started to work with metal. Earlier, humans used stones to make tools and weapons, but the advent of the Bronze Age saw a transition from using the stone to metal. Most of the life patterns that exist today are attributed to the Stone Age people. It is in the Stone Age that saw the evolution of hierarchy as well as the invention of agriculture and domestication of animals. Civilization took place when people started agriculture and domesticating animals as there was the need to settle down at one place and practice agriculture. For the first time, there were permanent communities, and some grew into cities and empires. As the population grew, civilization began to take root as people invented new ways of simplifying work and producing surplus food. For many decades, some researches argued, first, that the Bronze Age civilizations from Greece to Mesopotamia to Egypt to Cyprus and Crete were, for the most part, isolated from each other However, as cities grew and civilization progressed, the Bronze Age got disrupted, and culture came to a halt. Researchers argued that a group called the sea people caused a collapse of civilization at the end of the Bronze Age. This essay will analyze how Bronze Age civilization took place in the different cities and empire and how the sea people caused the collapse of the culture at the end of the Bronze Age.
Agriculture led to the rise of Cities in Mesopotamia as Mesopotamians sought ways to irrigate their arid flatlands with water from rivers Tigris and Euphrates (Hunt et al. 2017, 6). Mesopotamians devised new technology where they used canals to divert water from the rivers and irrigate their land. Rulers took charge of the farmland as well as the irrigation systems which led to the centralization of authority. Mesopotamia stands out as a pioneer of civilization since the Mesopotamia City-States were independent and competed with each other for land and resources (Hunt et al. 2017, 5). Civilization saw the need for new and stronger tools and weapons which saw the craftsmen invent bronze, a copper-tin alloy that was strong enough to produce reliable and durable weapons and tools. Equipped with stronger and sharper weapons, Mesopotamian rulers expanded their territories by invading other regions and building empires. All this time, Mesopotamia continued to exist as independent city-states that continually struggled to maintain a monopoly over resources. Egypt, on the other hand, remained unified, unlike Mesopotamia which lived in separate city-states. Although Egypt was located close enough to Mesopotamia to learn them, the two empires were geographically apart to allow each of them to develop their own distinct culture (Hunt et al. 2017, 12). Egypt rose as an Empire during the Bronze Age due to the technology they used to divert the waters of river Nile to irrigate their arid lands. Also, the deserts in Egypt had large deposits of metal ores that were useful in forging tools and weapons. The Hittites, the Minoans, and the Mycenaeans also made up the first societies in western civilization in the central Mediterranean region. The Hittites, like the Egyptians, created a unified state under a single central authority while the Minoans and the Mycenaeans, like the Mesopotamians, established separate city-states (Hunt et al. 2017, 21). All three communities contributed to the Bronze Age by practicing agriculture as well as trading activities. Evident from the history of western civilization, it is clear that civilization began in Mesopotamia and Egypt and later influenced civilization in Greece. Although the civilization got disrupted by repeated raids and violent disruptions, the accomplishments of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece paved the way for even higher and more stable civilization later.
Researchers argue that a group known as the sea peoples caused the collapse of civilization at the end of the Bronze Age. The “Sea Peoples” was a mysterious band of maritime warriors that wreaked havoc on the Mediterranean. Before the invasion by the Sea People, the empires in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Greece had grown tremendously, and the realms interacted with each other through trade, royal marriages, and diplomatic contacts. Although they sometimes engaged in wars and raids, it was not meant to extinct each other but, it was a way of increasing territories and gaining taxable populations. The cities in Mesopotamia, Greece and the Egyptian empire enjoyed the fruits of civilization between 4000-3000 B.C.E up until the empires were destroyed by the Sea People (Hunt et al. 2017, 29). To this date, the origin or the motivation of the Sea People remains unknown. The Sea People began by attacking Egypt from the sea, and no one could withstand their warships. The Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III had just ordered the construction of a grand palace where he even contracted architects from Crete to design the palace (Cline 2014, 14). As such, Egypt was at the hem of civilization and diplomatic contacts when the Sea People warriors attacked them. Although the Sea people came in small fleets, they attacked with so much precision that even a vast empire like Egypt could not defend their cities.
The twelfth century BC got marked by destruction (Cline 2014, 108). There were shipwrecks, war and violent disruptions among the great empires of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Greece. However, the destructions and disruptions did not ruin the interconnection between the realms, which strengthens the theory that the Sea People were indeed responsible for ending the civilization during the Bronze Age. In addition to the Sea People, several other inevitable calamities contributed to the end of the culture during the Bronze Age. The empires faced earthquakes, drought, and famine as well as internal rebellion (Cline 2014, 140-147). Internal resistance from private merchants resulted in the decentralization of authority which in turn weakened the organization of the empires. Therefore, when the Sea People attacked, they conquered the empires quickly since the realms were also facing other calamities. The Sea People crippled civilization by attacking conquering Egypt, an empire that was the heart of civilization (Larsson 2015, 8). Egypt played a significant role in civilization because the Egyptian empire was a source of agricultural products and valuable minerals. As such, the Sea People stopped civilization by conquering one of the empires that played a vital role in civilization. The Sea People continued their conquests, and by the time they got defeated by Ramesses II, the Sea People left the once great empires in ruins.
In conclusion, the Bronze Age was an essential phase in the history of human beings as it ushered a new wave of technology. The Bronze Age also saw the rise of empires that kept diplomatic contacts despite their distant geographical positions. The end of the Bronze aged was marked by calamities that saw halted civilization during the era. One of the causes of the collapse of civilization was the Sea People, a mysterious warring band that conquered the great Bronze Age empires. Even though the Sea People were eventually defeated, their origin remains mysterious, and the destruction they caused during the Bronze Age remains in the books of history.
References
Cline, Eric H. 1177 BC: The year civilization collapsed. Princeton University Press, 2015.
Larsson, Stina. “The Sea Peoples: The Creators of History: a Study of Influence.” (2015).
Lynn Hunt, Thomas R. Martin, Barbara H. Rosenwein, Bonnie G. Smith. The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures, 5th edition. Boston/ New York: bedford/st Martin’s Macmillan Learning, 2017.