How Did Early Humans’ Transition to Farming Lead to the Formation of Governments Around 5,000 Years Ago? — Here’s What Historians Suggest

For most of human history, our way of life was nomadic, living as hunter-gatherers. Our ancestors hunted animals and gathered wild plants, mainly because they had not learned how to grow their own food yet through farming and agriculture. But around 12,000 years ago, the environment shifted, the ice age ended, and certain resources became more abundant.

Soon, early humans who had been unintentionally domesticating plants and animals for thousands of years began to deliberately but gradually plant seeds and take care of livestock. Once that shift happened, nearly everything about how people live also changed, and one of the results of it was laying the foundation that would eventually lead to the formation of governments. But, how exactly did a simple change in lifestyle to farming make it happen? Let’s find out by looking at the past.

To understand how a government was formed in the first place, we have to go back thousands of years, to a time when early humans were only transitioning to farming after living for so long as hunter-gatherers. Before, our ancestors solely relied on what was readily available to them, found in nature. Whether it’s the animals they hunted or the wild plants they collected.

But when agriculture developed, they were able to learn how to grow their own food instead of just relying solely on nature. This resulted in the production of more resources than they can consume at the moment. It created a surplus that could be stored for times of scarcity or for trading with others.

However, an abundance of resources was not always just positive; it also brought some problems with it. The early human groups had to decide who managed, controlled, and stored these food supplies. This is to avoid internal conflicts and fighting. Thus, the need for these specialized roles emerged, especially now that farming does not require everyone to work in food production anymore. Those who proved capable and competent enough to take on these roles became some of the earliest leaders.

Soon, it led to a semblance of governments, where there was a person or group in charge of controlling and distributing the resources and food supply that the whole community worked hard to achieve. But their jobs or responsibilities are simple and nowhere close to how a formal government will eventually be.

Read more: National Geographic

Population Growth, Settlements, and Scale

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As farming and agricultural practices became more reliable and the leading source of food supply, the population grew. More people began to live in one place, building their own permanent homes near the lands where the crops and livestock are, so they could easily tend to their jobs.

Then from these settings over thousands of more years, humans began to create bigger and bigger communities, starting from a simple village. Then it turned into towns and eventually, cities. However, this comes with more complex social interactions that could easily lead to a conflict if not managed.

With the surplus of resources and the increasing importance of food-producing lands, the concept of ownership became a source of dispute. There are fights or disagreements over land boundaries, the use of water, and the allocation of supplies. To handle these challenges, human societies have to make formal structures that would be able to settle disputes, organize labor, and coordinate the protection of the territory. That need pushed toward the formation of the earliest official governments.

Elites, Social Stratification, and Authority

The people who were able to prove their capability and competence to manage, control, and distribute the accumulated supplies gained more power and wealth. Some individuals, too, who have specialized roles that the community viewed as highly valuable, became higher in the social ladder and were able to demand more resources.

Examples would be the best warriors who were both good at fighting and organizing the whole community to defend their territory when an invader attempts to seize their lands. Another would be a person who is great at managing people to make sure their food production is reliable and efficient enough to feed the whole community.

Over generations, families who were in these key roles were able to pass down the prestige, ownership, and status to their offspring. This meant that some people develop higher social standing than others, giving rise to inequalities.

This group of people became elites, and they utilized their control over resources, such as food, land, or storage, to be able to command laborers and commoners. It created a social stratification and hierarchy where those with power and authority governed over those who followed and obeyed.

In other words, farming enabled the rise of leaders who could rule over others, unlike hunter-gatherer societies, which were primarily thought to be egalitarian, which meant minimal differences in social standing and wealth. The leadership structure of those ancient human groups was also task-specific, such as individuals who were good at hunting leading the hunt, but in agricultural societies, those who controlled and owned the resources became the leaders.

Read more: Kelogg Insight

Conflict, Administration, and Institutional Rules

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Governments were not only formed in order to handle conflicts and disputes within the community. It also dealt with external challenges such as raids, rival groups, or environmental disasters. To be able to defend the whole territory, organize a large number of people to work for a common like building a wall or irrigation system, communities needed to develop an administration.

Then, early governments soon imposed more and more rules, as societies became more complex and the population grew. They put regulations on the use of the water supply, ownership of land, tributes, and labor. This led to bureaucracy and official systems that would eventually develop a tax payment system to manage larger-scale public works like roads and canals.

One of the earliest known civilizations with a formal government was Mesopotamia around 5,000 years ago. Their remains and artifacts showed signs of ruling elites, differences in social status, bureaucracy, and centralized authority that governed the agricultural production and distribution.

Author's Final Thoughts

Farming changed the way we live, but it did not come without any problems. It brought us the challenges arising from a rapidly growing society. It gave birth to land and resource ownership, specialized roles, inheritance, inequalities, and soon social hierarchies.

It started with a small village where an informal leader was selected based on their proven capabilities and competence to manage, control, and distribute the resources. But as food production multiplied, and the people along with it, the social interactions became too complex, and it bred disputes and conflicts all around the community. This led to the formation of a simple form of government that laid the foundation for the city-states and nations that we know of today.

Read next: How Did Early Farming Around 10,000 Years Ago Lead to the More Complex Social Hierarchies of Humans? — Here’s What Researchers Found

References & Further Reading

Carneiro, R. L. (1970). A theory of the origin of the state. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.169.3947.733

Algaze, G. (2001). Initial social complexity in southwestern Asia: The Mesopotamian advantage. Current Anthropology. https://doi.org/10.1086/320005

Styring, A. K., et al. (2022). Urban form and scale shaped the agroecology of early cities in Mesopotamia and beyond. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9580239/

Kohler, T. A., et al. (2017). Greater post-Neolithic wealth disparities in Eurasia than in North America and Mesoamerica. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature24646

Kennett, D. J., et al. (2006). Early state formation in southern Mesopotamia. Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15564890600586283