Early Civilizations

The first civilizations that appeared on earth all shared humble beginnings. Their initial development of agriculture that worked with their local landscapes and geography, the creation of local community systems for education, health and rudimentary forms of government seemed to be borne out of a desire to make our lives far more comfortable and secure than they had been as nomadic tribes. In each civilization of the world, it seems that after initial gains in the overall well-being of the populace, that the benefit of selected individuals and selected aspects of the state were put ahead of the general populations needs. The one constant that can be derived from most early civilizations, regardless of their local environments and issues to due with agricultural development and potential invasions, is that each society created or allowed the creation of ruling or organizational class to engineer the construction of local irrigation schemes and road development. While the effects of this newly created "upper class" vary case by case, for the most part, this selected group of people created a society and a culture that permitted them to control the majority of the populace while reaping the rewards of the greater good for themselves.

How could such a small group of people gain such control for themselves? In ancient Egypt, the people there were polytheistic. They had different gods that controlled forces of nature or luck. As well, individual villages would worship their own gods that were relevant to them and their surroundings. With the creation of an upper class that would originally serve to provide and organize protection, the early Egyptians permitted some people to obtain a degree of respect and authority within their social groups. What occurred, however, was that Egyptian rulers began to acquire great power. The name of the Egyptian ruler was Pharaoh, meaning "Great House", which symbolizes more than a single ruler of the people, but rather an entire family that has been put into this position of ultimate power.

But how to convince a population to accept a new leader, perhaps the son of the previous leader, without anyone being able to judge him as meritous of this appointment or not. This was facilitated by the High Priests of the kingdom. These religious leaders, respected by the population for their ability to speak with the

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