> In a world where everyone is a hunter gatherer, how did the first small and outnumbered proto-state have the power to coerce them into settling? I read that

> In a world where everyone is a hunter gatherer, how did the first small and outnumbered proto-state have the power to coerce them into settling? I read that in Mesopotamia what came first was an economy centered around the temple, kings and state were a later invention. so it was probably a gradual build up. The temple economy may have been slightly less coercive, Also there is the curious tale of Urukagina and his reforms - (has some parallels to the story of Akhenaten in Egypt) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urukagina https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urukagina ; incidentially the reformer guy Urukagina was not quite as tough as his predecessor and lost out to his external competitors. Having been seen as a lenient ruler was probably not a winning strategy