Western Civilization I / Unit 1 WC1 0015 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Ur III and the Invention of Bureaucracy
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The idea
About twenty-one hundred B.C.E. Ur-Nammu founded the Third Dynasty of Ur, an empire run by records: three tax regions, governors checked by generals, and unmatched archives. Bureaucracy means rule by office, the system above the person.
In practice
The only method yet found for managing very large groups.
Where people slip
Ur III fell to foreign invasion, not rebellion. Administration solved one weakness, not both.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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