Kimberly O. answered 09/13/15
Credentialed Teacher in special education, math, and social studies
As humans settled down they became sedentary. They forgot the nomadic ways and adapted techniques to allow them to increase their agricultural output. First, utilizing human power for agriculture and later domesticating animals and utilizing their power. Rivers were important because they allowed for a source of water as well as irrigation for farming. As food supply allowed for a larger population the population increased. Thus making it even harder for humans to give up a sedentary life-style and return to a nomadic one.
As the population expanded humans increased the boundaries of their settlements. Making larger villages that allowed for specialization of resources. Specialization led to some people having more of certain necessities (such as food). This gave them more “power” and allowed for the rise of a wealthier class. These people who had more often became “big man” (reference to a practice in Polynesia) and these positions developed into the nobility that we are familiar with in Europe. Specialization and an abundance of resources also meant that people could specialize in jobs; such as religious persons (shamans and the like).
There is a good book (though a high level) that gives an overview of history from the “big bang” to present day. It is good in seeing different theories on how civilization developed. The book is: Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History, by David Christian (who is a history professor).