In certain suitable places in the East, e.g., Asia and North Africa, climate, geography and the inventive genius of man transformed the tribal States into city stales. But, unlike the Greek city States, these oriental city States quickly evolved empires. Such empires existed in ancieot Egypt, Iraq, Iran, and China. They arose in the river valleys of the Nile, the Tigro- Euphrates, the Ganges, and the Yang-tze, which are, therefore, called the “cradles of civilisation” Warm climate, fertile soil, abundance of water and the unbroken plains around these river-valleys enabled a powerful and aggressive tribe or city to conquer vast territories and enslave large populations and thus become an empire. ‘The city is the first condition of empire”. It became a centre of wealth and thereby a centre of power. The early empires of the world, e.g., Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian, Egyptian, Chinese, were established by peoples who had first learnt the art of city-life.<\/p>