Part two to Chapter three

During the time of the second and third waves of the civilization. The emperors continue to control the new civilizations as rulers. The social hierarchies still remain strong. For instance, the Caste System in India grew stronger than before. There is still a very clear line between the elite class and the “lower class” people. The practice of slavery also can be seen everywhere. Women also considered lower than men in terms of their social status. Also, “No technological or economic breakthrough occurred to create new kinds of human societies as Agricultural Revolution had done earlier or as the Industrial Revolution would do much later.” (98)

From what has been discussed so far, the societies in the second and third waves of the civilization seems not much different from the first civilization. But, if we take a closer look, many significant changes can be indicated. For examples, the growth of the population was way faster than ever before during the second and third waves of the civilization. Even though the human population grew faster than the paleolithic era but much slower than in the twenty century. The reason why the growth of population no as fast as the later civilization is that lack of any "fundamental economic breakthrough which could have supported much larger numbers." (99)

Besides the growing size of the population, the growing size of the states or empires that structured civilizations also is a significant achievement in human history from that period of time. It also nurturing a lot of important innovations such as the “Wisdom traditions” which is the great philosophical system-Daoism and Confucianism.