Spatially, it is helpful to divide the world before modern times into four
separate world zones. The Afro-Eurasian world zone includes the African
and Eurasian continents and offshore islands such as Britain and Japan. It
was the most ancient zone because this is where humans evolved. It was
also the largest and most varied world zone, which may explain its dominant
role in world history. It was where agriculture and Agrarian civilizations
¿ rst appeared. The American world zone was the second-largest world
zone, though it was settled late, probably within the last 13,000 to 15,000
years. This was the second zone in which Agrarian civilizations evolved
independently. The Australasian world zone includes modern Australia and
Papua New Guinea, as well as offshore islands such as Tasmania. Though
agriculture did appear in Papua New Guinea, Agrarian civilizations did
not evolve independently in this world zone. The Paci¿ c zone was settled
within the last 4,000 years by seafaring communities from Southeast Asia,
who brought agriculture with them. Here, some
elements of Agrarian civilizations did appear
by diffusion on some of the larger islands such
as Hawaii. But no island was large enough to
support large Agrarian civilizations.
Not everyone lived within Agrarian civilizations
even in the era of Agrarian civilizations. Beyond
their borders were regions inhabited by peoples
regarded, at least by the rulers of Agrarian
civilizations, as “barbarians.” In some regions,
such as Australia, most people continued to live in foraging communities like
those of the Paleolithic era, and many lived in such communities until the 20th
century. Many people lived in small farming communities with rudimentary
political structures like the villages of the early Agrarian era. In arid regions
of Afro-Eurasia, there were communities of pastoral nomads, some of which,
like the Mongols, posed serious threats to neighboring Agrarian civilizations.
Finally, there appeared the Agrarian civilizations that are the main subject
of this lecture. This list provides a rudimentary, four-part typology of pre-
modern human societies that reminds us of the great variety of adaptations
developed by our species.
At the core of all
Agrarian civilizations
were tribute-taking
states. States
exacted resources in
labor, goods, or cash.