> [!infobox] <s class="aside-in"><em>mentioned in 7 evergreens</em></s> #### [[Empires are born through conquest and maintained by bureaucracy]] The ways to maintain control over large swaths of people is not a problem that can be solved by any one solution. Understanding [[social order]] is the quest of almost any great mind. Yet it seems that bookkeeping and [[bureaucracy]] may have been the key difference that allowed for the developments of [[history]]'s first major empires. This power of [[bureaucracy]] may not just be in holding and storing [[information]], but also in providing stability. Mildness and tolerance seem far more effective at maintaining a long-term empire than [[violence]]. - part of:: [[What maintains our social order]] - why:: [[The first recorded name might have been an accountant]] - explains:: [[Sumerians invented writing to store large amounts of data]] ##### Counterpoint:: Only empires *we know of* were maintained by [[bureaucracy]] [[Hunter-gathers were capable of mass cooperation]], perhaps the *true* first empires didn't need [[bureaucracy]], thus we have no physical records of them. This would be supported by [[The Inca empire was maintained without a full script writing system]]. ### <hr class="footnote"/> **Status**:: #EVER/SAPLING *edited 7:35 AM - July 08, 2022* **Topics**:: [[bureaucracy]], [[society]], [[history]] #### References ![[Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari#citation]] > ![[10_Sources/books - Sapiens#^298648742]] > ![[10_Sources/books - Sapiens#^299572961]] > ![[10_Sources/books - Sapiens#^299110281]]