{{Literature |The Origins of the State |English |26 February 2024 |Gubrin (Goober)
Introduction
As anarchists, self-proclaimed or not, it is very important that we focus on the roots of the state's existence and what specifically led to it's monopoly on violence. Without knowing the source of something it's impossibly to tackle it, I believe this to be common knowledge. In this historical analysis I shall explain the origins of the state from early civilisations to today through an anarchist's point of view.
Early civilisations
The state is a direct byproduct of civilisations. A civilisation, in general sense, is a group of people with a shared landmass, shared language and a shared culture that didn't specifically have a united state.
Today this term is mostly out of use, relegated to history books. But it's wrong to ignore the knowledge of it's formation.
In short, civilisations were formed by bread. Before the agricultural revolution people all around the world lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Most of the time they constantly switched their area of living because, logically, you go where the food goes. However, this lifestyle caused problems, especially in regions with more harsh conditions. It is impossible for the human body, including the consciousness, to always be on the move.
However, as people found out they can settle and live a general area if they retain a sustainable crop farm, the hunter-gatherer lifestyle died out in areas with lots of water, mainly rivers: Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, China.
This change to a settled lifestyle, however, formed a clear hierarchy. Those that either were capable of defending a larger portion of land or had a large family that could work more land than others, became a proto-elite. People that either didn't have good harvests or had little land, or none at all for that matter, would flock to these more successful families, doing basic services for a pay in crops. This in turn formed the first form of currency.
As this continued, large cities formed, most people had jobs in building or farming, and eventually basic bread trade began being replaced with certain objects that could be exchanged for food later - the first monetary systems. The families around which these cities formed became royals - they had enough influence over people to form stable governments, create the first judicial systems, and even expand into other cities. The first ever empires in Mesopotamia could even barely be called empires - it was cities or provinces paying tribute and swearing loyalty to a bigger, central city. Because of that since the dawn of Persia it's emperor's were called "kings of kings". They allowed local rulers and royals that had the most influence to rule as long as they swore royalty. Thus religious freedom appeared for the first time.