Question

Why did agrarian civilizations like the Mongol empire tend to grow? Why was this so Important. (Please don't answer if you don't know......)

Answer 1

The first agrarian civilizations developed at about 3200 BCE in Mesopotamia, in Egypt and Nubia (now northern Sudan), and in the Indus Valley. More appeared in China a bit later and in Central America and along the Andes Mountains of South America at about 2000–1000 BCE. Why and how did this occur?

For a meaningful discussion, definitions of the key words city, state, and civilization must be clear. A “city,” with tens of thousands of people, is larger than a town (thousands) or a village (hundreds). But it is also different in nature, with people specializing in some particular aspect of work instead of being farmers and being supported by surplus food grown by farmers nearby.

A “state” is a city, or several cities, plus the surrounding villages and farms. A state would include tens to hundreds of thousands of people, even millions. It would have political, social, and economic hierarchies, meaning that a few elite people at the top, maybe about 10 percent, had more wealth and power than the remaining 90 percent. A state was ruled by elites who exercised the right to use force to ensure order and who maintained the right to collect taxes/tribute, by force if necessary.

Out of states arose imperial states, or empires, in which a single ruler controlled large territories of cities and farmland. These large states are often called “civilizations.” This word has previously been used to imply superiority or advancement; historians now try to use it simply to mean that civilizations have certain characteristics, primarily density of population and control by elites. This does not mean they are better than other kinds of societies, but they are, by definition, more complex. Since these early civilizations always depended on the farming around them, we call them “agrarian civilizations.”

Answer 2

Agrarian civilizations like the Mongol Empire tended to grow simply because civilization and agriculture are closely related, in fact, civilization only emerged when agriculture became the main form of food supply.

The reason is that agriculture produces more food (not necessarily a better diet) than old nomadic, and semi-nomadic lifestyles. This surplus food could be used then to increase the economic power of the population as a whole, creating what we know as a civilization.