Question

Why do we say that it wasnot natural fertility and high levels of food production that were the causes of early urbanisation?

Answer 1

The development of Mesopotamia from a prosperous village to a city proves that natural fertility and high levels of food production were not the only factors responsible for urbanisation. There were other factors as well that caused urbanisation, two of which have been explained below.

1) Growing demands: Besides food, a growing population needs several other goods and commodities (such as weapons, agricultural tools an, potteries.) to fulfil their needs. For this, an agrarian village had to either produce these goods on its own or rely on other villages for these needs via trade. This definitely calls for the need of manufacturing facilities within the village along with well-developed trade network and transportation. Thus, it can be said that the fulfilment of growing demands facilitated urbanisation if Mesopotamia.

2) Division of labour: Over time, production expanded in order to meet growing demands; this resulted in different people specialising in specific tasks. This, in turn, helped them to tap and fulfil the growing demands efficiently. However, to sustain this division of labour, a proper organisational framework was essential. This framework included a class of men who could supervise the work of others. Thus, this organisation created a class of administrators and supervisors along with the already existing class of labourers.