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10,000 Years in 20
minutes
Early Civilization -->
Enlightenment
Key events to the building of
Democracy
Coming out of the Ice Age
• 10,000 BC world started to warm up.
• Man was basically Hunters and
Gatherers, lived a nomadic lifestyle.
• 7,000 BC introduction of the idea of
Agriculture. With this came Surplus of
food, calendars, irrigation,
specialization of skills, trade, need for
protection from invaders)
• 5 major civilizations throughout the
World: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus
River, Yellow River Valley and the
Americas.
• All Civilizations had same basic
characteristics and started in river
valleys.
Sumerians
(one of the first)
3000-900 BC
• Mesopotamian city-states were in
constant warfare.
• Definite class structure.
• Babylonians emerged as strongest
• 1792 King Hammurabi gave people a
code to live by Hammurabi’s Code; 282
laws
Hammurabi’s
Code is the best
preserved legal
document
reflecting the
social structure
of Babylon rule.
Hammurabi’s Code
p 33
Series of decrees to create civil order
• “If a man has knocked out the eye of a
patrician (free man), his eye shall be
knocked out.” Eye for an Eye!
• If a builder has built a house for a man
and the builder has not made the house
sound, and the house he has built has
fallen and caused death the builder will
be put to death”.
• Other codes awarded $’s to the victims.
• Example of Hammurabi’s code:
• How is the truth determined when one
man brings an accusation against
another?
• If any one bring an accusation against a man, and
the accused go to the river and leap into the river, if
he sink in the river his accuser shall take
possession of his house. But if the river prove that
the accused is not guilty, and he escape unhurt,
then he who had brought the accusation shall be
put to death, while he who leaped into the river
shall take possession of the house that had
belonged to his accuser.
Applying Democratic Principles
• Which of the democratic principles do you
think is best demonstrated with this
information? Write a paragraph with
supporting details to support your position.