The Neolithic Revolution

The Neolithic revolution is the most important event in the whole history of mankind, which became the first significant step of the primitive man in the scale of world history to turn into a civilized one.

For many millennia a primitive society existed, practically unchanged. Its development was proceeding at such a slow pace that it was almost insignificant. Significant changes in various spheres of society began only in the last centuries, before that the way of life of people has not changed for tens of thousands of years.

The most important event in the era of the primitive communal society, which led to structural changes in people's lives, was the Neolithic revolution, which began about 10-15 thousand years ago. At this time, there is the appearance of grinding tools, the emergence of agriculture and cattle. The productivity of human labor in connection with this increases substantially and begins to exceed consumption, an excess product appears. This means that there is an opportunity for the accumulation of wealth and the creation of stocks. The producing economy makes a person less dependent on nature. The population begins to grow. At the same time, the preconditions for the exploitation of some people by others (those who accumulate wealth) are being formed.

The Neolithic revolution was connected with the development of technologies for cultivation of land and the beginning of agriculture. People first began sowing grains of barley, wheat, beans, millet and other crops and harvesting. If earlier on one hunter to ensure the normal life of the tribe needed about twenty square kilometers of land, now in this territory it became possible to feed hundreds of farmers. Thus, the ecological niche has expanded tens and hundreds of times. People came abundantly, in the history of mankind the "golden age" began.

The Neolithic revolution contributed to the beginning of the decomposition of the primitive communal system and the transition to the first forms of state formations. A new form of development and organization of society was called "proto-state". At this time, large settlements begin to emerge, turning into administrative, cultural and religious centers (cities). While the interests of the leader coincide with the interests of other members of society, social inequality is already emerging, which leads to a gradual separation of these interests.

It is at this stage that the development paths are divided into "western" and "eastern". The reasons for this lie in the fact that communities and public ownership of land have been preserved in the East. This was due to the need for irrigation work, which was beyond the power of individual families. In the West, where such work was not required, the community disintegrated much faster, and the land became private property.

The Neolithic revolution and its consequences

The significance of the changes that have occurred in the life of primitive man is enormous. In the transition to the manufacturing economy, processes were launched that eventually led to a virtually universal change of primitive relations to civilized ones. A whole list of fundamentally new phenomena appeared in the life of man, among them - the division of cattle breeding from agriculture, and in the Bronze Age - and the allocation of crafts; The deepening of social and property differentiation within and between communities; The increasing role of the family; Transition from a clan community to a neighbor; The emergence of a new type of large settlements. The Neolithic revolution marked the retreat of primitiveness, although this process was uneven. At first, only isolated islands appeared, where all the conditions for the transition to civilization developed. Only much later the process has become more stable and progressive.