In Hansen's "The Open Empire", Hansen states that before 6 B.C.E. the traditional way in both Greek and China to wage war was with "Chariot warfare led by aristocrats", how was this paradigm established? How was this seen as more effective than infantry composed of peasants and skilled men?

by GMJack

He goes on to say that chariots had an incredible amount of problems, they were time consuming to build, they were incredibly hard to control and they would easily get bogged down in mud. I can't help but wonder how effective these formations were.