All societies, large and small, develop some form of government.

Over time, some farming villages grew into cities and city-states.

Around 3000 B.C.E., the first city-states arose in Sumer, a region located in what is today southern Iraq.

Governments arose to resolve issues pertaining to the fair and orderly distribution of water. They also provided protection by building walls around their cities and organizing armies to ward off invasions by nomadic tribes.

Gradually, power in many city-states became concentrated in the hands of a single ruler. The strongest of these rulers conquered neighboring city-states to create the world's first empires.

Sargon, whose name is thought to mean “the true king,”

The Athenians reorganized their city-state as a direct democracy.

When Pericles spoke of government being in the hands of “the whole people,” he meant in the hands of male citizens of Athens. Women, slaves, and foreign-born people living in Athens were not allowed to participate in government. For those who did qualify, however, they participated on a scale that was unique in the ancient world.

Our constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people. When it is a question of settling private disputes, everyone is equal before the law; when it is a question of putting one person before another in positions of public responsibility, what counts is not membership of a particular class, but the actual ability which the man possesses.

—Pericles, Funeral Oration, 431 B.C.E.

Our constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people. When it is a question of settling private disputes, everyone is equal before the law; when it is a question of putting one person before another in positions of public responsibility, what counts is not membership of a particular class, but the actual ability which the man possesses.

—Pericles, Funeral Oration, 431 B.C.E.

Our constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people. When it is a question of settling private disputes, everyone is equal before the law; when it is a question of putting one person before another in positions of public responsibility, what counts is not membership of a particular class, but the actual ability which the man possesses.

—Pericles, Funeral Oration, 431 B.C.E.

For a time, Rome's emperors ruled an empire that included most of Europe, as well as North Africa and western Asia. In 476 C.E.,

In parts of Europe once ruled by mighty Rome, the empire broke into tiny districts, each ruled by a duke, lord, king, or other noble.

It often made sense for weak nobles to look to a nearby, more powerful neighbor for protection.

By the 700s, many lords acquired more land than they could manage.

This system of exchanging the use of land for military and other services became known as feudalism.

Europe's parliaments developed from meetings of vassals summoned by a lord or king.

By the 1700s, several European countries had become nation-states headed by absolute monarchs. These all-powerful rulers based their legitimacy on the divine right of kings theory.

Growing dissatisfaction with this form of government triggered a series of world-altering revolutions, first in Europe and then in the American colonies.

The Glorious Revolution, also known as the Bloodless Revolution, led to the creation of Europe's first constitutional monarchy.

The American Revolution led to the creation of the first modern constitutional democracy.

At first the French Revolution seemed likely to produce another constitutional democracy. Instead, the fighting led to chaos. In time, Napoleon Bonaparte restored order, but only by establishing an authoritarian regime.

Some historians argue that Napoleon's approach to governing set the stage for the rise of totalitarianism in the 20th century.

In its place, revolutionaries established the Soviet Union as the world's first state based on communism.

A form of totalitarianism known as fascism first appeared in Italy during the 1920s.

A third type of totalitarianism, Nazism took root in Germany.

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Section 5 Notes TCI