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The rise and fall of civilisations

Soils and water have a role to play in the development, and

ultimately the failure, of societies and civilisations through
history.

Of course, there are always many factors contributing to the success

or failure of a civilisation but soil is surprisingly important and in this
context and the human cost of soil mismanagement is readily
apparent. Soils have also played an important role in shaping society.

Read the examples below.

Mesopotamia
Agriculture with domesticated livestock and cultivated crops was
already common in the Middle East by 5000 BC and there was
increasing pressure for food to support a rapidly growing population.
The population needed to grow into areas where rainfall was too low
to support crops and this led to a revolution in agriculture -
irrigation. Irrigation, combined with the fertile soils of the region,
permitted the rapid growth and development of land in Mesopotamia
allowing cities to develop and society to evolve so that not everyone
needed to farm. By 1800 BC this region was part of the Babylonian
Empire.

However, the irrigation that permitted the population growth in the

region was also part of its downfall. The groundwater used for
irrigating the crops in this region contained a lot of dissolved salt. In
hot climates, where evaporation rates are high, salt in irrigation water
can be problematic because the water evaporates leaving the salt
behind. Over time this salt accumulates in the soil, a process
called salinization.
In Mesopotamia centuries of irrigation and intensive crop production
had led to a build-up of salt and eventually the previously productive
land could no longer produce sufficient food for the population.

Silt also built up in the irrigation ditches preventing water getting to the

land. Between 1300 and 900 BC, as salinization spread agriculture
collapsed in the region and the population could no longer survive.

The French Revolution

Many of you will know that it was a lack of food and consequent high
food prices and poor quality produce that was an important factor in
the French revolution. This lack of food was at least partly driven by
issues with soil management.

Europe in the mid-18th century was developing rapidly and the

demand for land for farming was high. This led to peasants moving
into hilly regions bordering the Alps and clearing large areas of forest.
The removal of these forests produced fertile soil rich in organic
matter and produced good crop yields but on the steep slopes the
soils were very vulnerable to erosion.

Erosion is the process of soil being transported away by wind or

water faster than it can form, we will look at this issue in more detail.
Erosion and landslides resulted in the removal of soil from the upper
slopes and buried fields on the lower slopes under sand and gravel.
Between 1742 and 1752 area of cultivated land fell by a quarter as a
consequence of landslides and erosion which caused food shortages.

The American Dustbowl

In 1937 Franklin D. Roosevelt said “A nation that destroys its soils,
destroys itself” - something that America was learning the hard way.
The American dustbowl in the 1930s is perhaps the most famous
example of soil mismanagement leading to social problems.
At the turn of the 20th century increased use of mechanisation was
allowing farming to spread into new areas. Large areas of the great
plains were being brought into cultivation, this was encouraged by
people selling the land despite low rainfall and fragile soils in the
region. For example, a land rush in Oklahoma during this period led to
40 million acres of prairie being ploughed up.

The potential for problems with the soil was recognised but nothing
was done to stop the spread of agriculture and when a drought hit the
area, growing crops became very difficult. Massive areas of land were
left bare and with the first high winds the soil was literally blown away
leading to massive dust storms.

By the end of 1934 dust storms had destroyed an area larger than the
state of Virginia. The drought and high winds combined to devastate
farming in the region leading to a great deal of poverty. Three quarters
of a million farmers were displaced from the great plains during the
1930s and more than three million people moved out of the region.