Karl Wittfogel

Wittfogel, any culture having an agricultural system that is dependent upon large-scale government-managed waterworks—productive (for irrigation) and protective (for flood control). Wittfogel advanced the term in his book Oriental Despotism (1957). He believed that such civilizations—although neither all in the Orient nor characteristic of all…

…(what the German American historian Karl Wittfogel called hydraulic civilization) accounted for the founding of the ancient Chinese, Egyptian, and Babylonian monarchies on the banks of rivers. The monarchs also had to prove themselves as state-builders.

… (1957), historian and political scientist Karl Wittfogel presented a general theory of the development of ancient civilizations. He found examples of large-scale systematic organization of work, the emergence of social classes, and widespread specialization. Wittfogel believed that the development of irrigation projects in such areas as Mesopotamia and Egypt led…