There are several changes that would be necessary for a rural society to transform into an urban society. Examples such as control of water, establishment of a government and laws, the invention of new technology and money, the construction of walls, and unfortunately slavery and social stratification. These would all benefit the establishment of an urban revolution
One of the major necessities for development of rural societies into urban would be water. According to Reilly, the first cities in the world were found in Eurasia around 3500 BCE (26). A pattern seen in the development of the first cities from a rural society was that they were found along major river systems. This was advantageous for agricultural societies to feed their people or trade with other cities (26). The river valleys around Mesopotamia produced some of the earliest cities in history and were found along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers (35).
Some river valleys, like those found around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers were so muddy that they had to be constantly irrigated in order to utilize the rich soil (36). This gave citizens opportunities at employment because teams of workers had to organize and build dry land on the muddy swamps (36). Egyptian civilizations were also some of the earliest cities on the map. In Egypt, water was also a major necessity for the development of their urban revolution. Their river valleys also provided sufficient amounts of water and silt for an agricultural development (41). The nature of the Egyptian’s rivers differed when compared to the rivers of Mesopotamia which could have caused the development of different types of civilization (41).
Government is another necessity for the development of an urban society. An organized and disciplined government was necessary to create laws and provide security for itself and its citizens (26). According to the textbook, the organizational