Final answer:
The first civilizations, Mesopotamia, the Indus River Valley, Egypt, and Shang China, all developed a system of writing, which facilitated the management of their complex societies and allowed them to maintain social stratification and centralized government.
Step-by-step explanation:
The first civilizations like Mesopotamia, Indus River Valley, Egypt, and Shang China shared several common features in their development. One significant commonality among these civilizations was B) they all developed a system of writing. In Mesopotamia, for example, the invention of a writing system called cuneiform facilitated the development of complex culture and administration.
Similarly, Egypt developed hieroglyphs, and in China, the Shang dynasty left inscriptions on oracle bones. While the script of the Indus Valley Civilization remains undeciphered, their cities featured well-organized urban planning and potentially some form of written communication.
These civilizations, situated along major river valleys, harnessed the fertile lands to sustain their populace and used agricultural surpluses to develop a social stratification, facilitated by their redistributive economies. All of these cultures adopted some form of centralized government to manage this complexity, though the structure and nature of governance varied.
From the temple-based bureaucracy in Sumer to the more unified state under the pharaohs in Egypt, and from the potentially republic-like states of the Indus Valley to the centralized control exemplified by early Chinese dynasties, governance was a central feature necessary for managing the affairs of state and the coordination of large-scale agricultural production and urban centers.