Collpase of Societies

In the American Southwest, an ancient city of marvellous masonry is erected from the floor of a dry, infertile canyon. In the lone continent located in the southern hemisphere known as Australia, rabbits compete for little vegetation in vast, empty prairies that were once lush with grasses and plants only two centuries ago. An incomplete but visual Norse church located above a valley in Greenland reminds us of a Christian colony that flourished for hundreds of years; but not a single soul remains. In Rwanda and Haiti, overpopulation, environmental degradation has led to astounding violence. What do all these scenarios have in common? The collapse of societies and civilisations is a result of twelve key factors that can be seen through the three main categories of economic issues, uncontrolled human population growth and the slow but steady deterioration of the earth and its resources.

The collapse of societies can be seen through the economic problems and challenges that it faces be it loss of trading partners, hostile neighbours, lack of beneficial resources or just isolation. An economy is the backbone of any society or civilisation. Without an efficient, prosperous and working economy, there will be no way that a society can survive and thrive. There are several examples of civilisations that have collapsed because of economic struggles. One of these civilisations was Ancient Rome. Rome was a prosperous empire that forced people to trade with them, fight along them and live with them. Eventually after many years of “unchallenged” success, the central economy along with many other factors initiated the collapse of Rome. Trading partners started to trade more and more with the East. The lack of production from Rome was starting to catch up with their import economy and with the weakened militaristic force due to interior political corruption ; the enemies of nearby lands began to gain more and more territory. Ancient Rome’s internal corruption arises from the excessive use of slaves , the lack of exporting and the overdependence on imports. As production decreased even more, spending remained the same and this ultimately led to the collapse of Rome. The Norse and the settled land of Greenland is another example of collapse. Greenland was first settled when Erik the Red was exiled from several places including Norway and Iceland. Greenland functioned like a typical colony with farmers that grew crops as well as farmers that raised animals. The main and cheapest animal was Seal. Because the farms were divided into richer and poorer farms, the poor farm’s yearly harvest would be around 85% seals, 6% goats, 5% from caribou, 3% sheep and 1% beef compared to the rich harvest of 32% caribous, 17% beef, 6%sheep, 6% goat leaving only 39% seal harvest . Farming was the only source of primary income. However there was a branch income like trading goods with Norway and Iceland. The eventual collapse of Greenland came from the lack of trade and ability to learn from the Inuit. The kayak created by the Inuit could be compared to “long, narrow, fast battleships of the U.S.S. Iowa class built by the American navy during World War II” . The Inuit’s persistence in raiding the Norse eventually proved successful just like the continuous barbarian invasions of Roman borders. The loss of trade with Iceland and Norway also proved fatal as the bitter cold winters came in and the seals didn’t arrive. The existence of island colonies relies heavily on the efficiency of their overseas trade system; with the loss of trading partners, Norse Greenland was scheduled for collapse even sooner. There is no doubt that economic problems are a key factor that contributes to the collapse of societies.

Another factor in determining whether or not a society or civilisation will collapse is uncontrolled human population growth. In many societies across the world and over the course of history, we have seen successful management of human overpopulation and not so successful ways of controlling human overpopulation. We can see China’s “One Child” plan which is taking full effect across all of China have significant impact on China’s population growth. An ancient world example is the Greek city states. Athens, after exceeding its population growth decided to make colonies and settle them outside of their current territory. This was later controlled with the protection of Athens through naval dominance and a huge wall . Uncontrolled population growth can lead to collapse. This can be seen with the overpopulation of cities in medieval times. Not only were cities places where crimes were committed more often, it was also a breeding place for disease. In the late 1340’s the Black Plague struck killing 1/3 of Europe’s population . The plague hit stronger in urbanized and populated regions because of the close contact, the lack of cleanliness and with more