ABSTRACT
We have suggested that the first great transformation of the planet arising from the evolution of people was their capacity to adapt to different environments and to improve and consolidate their strategies for procuring food. Dependent upon these developments, but deriving from them only partially, some human societies evolved social and economic systems of relative complexity that allowed them both to consolidate within ‘national’ boundaries and simultaneously to enlarge political control over non-contiguous territory. In the process of enlargement cultures inevitably came into conflict and out of this conflict they began slowly to homogenize. Smaller and less well-organized cultures effectively disappeared; larger and more powerful ones steadily extended their spheres of influence and control. The focus for cultural conflict lay in a variety of apparent ‘causes’: religious belief; perceived population pressures; the pursuit of economic gain; and so on. For whatever reason or combination of reasons, in different places on earth, and at different historical phases, dominant cultures arose and under their influence global demography changed; biomes were transformed, and the relationships between the governed and the governing were inevitably contested.
