Civilization #6: Elite Overproduction and the Bronze Age Collapse

Mycenaean Greece, Hittite Empire, Egypt, Canaan, Cyprus, Crete, plus distant partners in Britain, Iberia, Afghanistan, and India formed interconnected trading civilizations around 1200 BC. These societies engaged in trade, piracy, and warfare simultaneously.

Sea Peoples, mysterious raiders documented in Egyptian records, attacked Bronze Age civilizations around 1200 BC. Mycenaean Greece, Hittite Empire, Canaanite cities all fell within decades. Only Egypt survived but lost hegemonic status permanently.

Societal elites across civilizations, from Bronze Age palatial economies to Mayan societies, consistently follow this pattern. The theory applies universally to complex societies where hereditary or rent-seeking elites control resources.

Elites extracted rents and taxes from populations in exchange for providing public goods: temples, feasts, infrastructure, and protection. When elites failed obligations while increasing extraction, populations rebelled, overthrew kings, and abandoned societies.

Landlords, kings, and hereditary elites extracted wealth through land ownership and taxation without productive contribution. Farmers and laborers produced crops and goods while elites collected portions as rent, creating asymmetric wealth flows.

Farmers and peasants borrowed from landlords and elites during bad harvests or economic downturns. Inability to repay created cascading debt cycles, eventually forcing borrowers into slavery or servitude when obligations became unpayable.

Warrior elites descended from Yamnaya culture controlled Mycenaean Greece and Hittite Empire through palace-centered economies. Kings and palace administrators collected, stored, and redistributed all economic production through centralized authority.

Societies with permanent hereditary elites—those where elite status passes through families rather than merit—dominated Bronze Age world despite eventual collapse. Egalitarian societies existed but couldn’t compete at scale with hierarchical kingdoms.