Ancient States
Ziggurat at Warka
Probably the first states began in Sumer, around 3500 BC. There were also early states in Iran, India and Egypt. States are mostly bigger and more complicated forms of chiefdoms: while in a chiefdom there is a super-chief, a chief, and then the chief's friends who help him out (3 levels of government), in a state there are usually at least five levels of government: like a king, generals, governors, mayors, and the mayor's assistants.
There are a lot of different kinds of states. The Greek
philosopher Aristotle
was the first to divide the kinds of states up into different categories,
and we still pretty much use the categories that Aristotle thought of.
One kind of state is a monarchy, which means
it is ruled by one man or woman: a king or queen.
Another kind is an oligarchy, where several
men or women get together in a council and decide what to do. Oligarchy
means the rule of the few.
States may also be tyrannies, which are ruled
by one man but one who rules somehow outside of the law, by force or
by charm.
Some states are democracies, ruled by the
people, who vote on what to do.
And some ancient states were republics, where
people vote for other people to represent them in a council, like Senators.
Many states mix more than one of these together, too.
Chiefdoms
Complex Chiefdoms
Empires
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