On the Rise of Cities and Civilization It can be argued that our
planet is undergoing its third great revolution, i.e., the
process of becoming industrial and modern. 1. The first great
transformational moment in human history occurred when human
beings first emerged on the planet, probably some two hundred
thousand years ago. Among the various human-like species, homo
sapiens achieved biological dominance probably due to their
manual dexterity, their ability to produce and use tools which,
in turn, probably affected their brain development enabling the
growth of spoken language skills and the intelligence needed to
pave the way for the cooperation necessary to labor together in
order--eventually--to engage in agriculture and transition from
the tirbal, hunting gathering lifestyle of the Paleolithic and
Neolithic ages to the sedentary agricultural lifestyle of
villages. 2. This was the second great revolutionary
transformation that occurred around 9,000 years ago when
organized, settled agriculture came to be