Sarah Rashid
Asia 20200 “Contemporary Asia: World Systems in Transformation”
Drew Hopkins
March 30, 2014
China as Hydraulic Civilization
Karl August Wittfogel was a philosopher during the early part of the 20th century Europe. He was known for his belief that the ancient civilization of Egypt and Mesopotamia was unable to reach their full potential because of their lack of knowledge about irrigation systems. The theory of “Hydraulic Civilizations” was developed by Karl Wittfogel and in his book “Oriental Despotism”. Hydraulic Civilizations was described as places of agricultural system that was dependent on the crucial government, directed water systems for irrigation and flood management. Wittfogel described Egypt, Mesopotamia, Northern China, India, and pre-Columbian Mexico and Peru as Hydraulic civilizations. The hydraulic theory of civilization was a foundation stone in the cultural ecology movement.
The Hydraulics of civilization was the river systems of ancient china. Wittfogel belief for his theory of “hydraulic civilizations”, was influenced from the idea, civilizations wer...
...ry, creating a writing system, building roads and digging canals and making water wheels to grind their grain. Without the Huang He Civilization we probably wouldn’t have some of the stuff we have today. So in conclusion, without the ancient civilizations – all of them –, we wouldn’t know half of the stuff we know now.
In today’s world there are many people that believe that the domain we live in today has flourished in wealth, and come a long way since the early ages. In the book “From the Tigris to the Tiber” Jones goes through the Roman, Greek and Egyptian Empires. He feels that if the these empires would admire the opportunities we have today and that they most likely would have taken better advantage of it than we do. In this paper, I will be discussing the Riverine Civilizations, the Mesopotamian civilizations, the beliefs, cultures, and developments of the Egyptians, and the advances of the Roman Empire.
Around 3500 B.C.E to 3000 B.C.E., civilizations emerged in many places. Egypt and Mesoamerica are distinctive two of them. Considering the different aspects of civilization, historians can find some same characteristics and differences which are valuable for historians to understand civilization in-depth.
The river societies of Egypt and Mesopotamia had much in common, since both relied on irrigation as the chief means of wheat production. However, differences in trade routes and means of production resulted in various social stratifications for the societies in question.
Hyma, Albert, and Mary Stanton, Dr. Streams of Civilization: Earliest times to theDiscovery of the New World. Vol. 1. Arlington Heights, IL: Christian Liberty, 1976. Print N.D
In conclusion, it is easy to how civilizations are shaped by the geography and environment of the land around them. For some, such as Egypt and Ur, it pervades all aspects of life, while for others it can merely act as an influence. The amount of time left for artistic, scientific, and religious specialization in a civilization is directly connected to the success or failure of agriculture in that area, as well as whether there is a need to develop a strong military. Since the dawn of mankind, all cities and civilizations must find a way to work with or around the geography of the land where they are located.
The four river valley civilizations, formed in Mesopotamia (Tigris Euphrates River), Egypt (Nile River), the Indus River basin (Indus River), and China (Huanghe River), all had common features as well as distinctly different ones. When comparing these four civilizations, one may notice that each of their governments were run by kings. The difference though, is that China, Egypt, and India’s kings came from dynasties, whereas Mesopotamian rulers were chosen by their importance and strength as military leaders. They were also similar because of their reliance on agriculture and the river they built their civilization along. The river provided food, water for agriculture, and was a means of transportation and communication. The four civilizations
The four Ancient River Civilizations share similar core features within their societies; however, their cultures are still distinct and unique. In the Ancient World (±3500 BCE – ±500 BCE) there were four major river civilizations: Mesopotamia (±5000 BCE - ±33 BCE), the Indus Valley (±2100 BCE - ±1750 BCE), Egypt (±3100 BCE - ±323 BCE), and China (±2100 BCE - ±1368 CE). All four river civilizations’ core features are similar in their social structure, leadership, and agriculture. The differences between the river civilizations began in the geography of their placement, whether it is the rivers or the trade made possible through the geography. The river civilizations were distinct and
Similar to Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley; China also developed along a river. China’s civilization developed between two rivers that brought water and silt to make farming possible. Cities began to grow along the banks of the river. The two rivers are the Chang Jiang, also known as the Yangtze, which is located in central China. The other river is the Huang He, which is to the north and is also known as the Yellow River. In about 1766 B.C., Shang family kings started to control some cities. They set up a dynasty. In the Shang culture, respect for their parents and ancestors was extremely important. Family was closely bound to religion. The Chinese believed that their ancestors' spirits could bring good fortune to the family. In order to receive messages from the gods and their ancestor’s spirits, they communicated through oracle bones. These are animal bones or turtle shells where Shang royal priests would scratch questions on it. Next, they touched the bones with heated rods to make them crack, and if it cracked on one of the answers then that would mean that that is the answer.
In Egypt, almost 68 percent of the landmass is covered with sand. This vast area of space goes on for many acres. The Nile river is a resource that many nomads and farmers rely on in order to survive. The first major migration project to places in 3100 BC created under the rule of Kingman. In ancient Egypt dams and canals were used to divert flood waters of the Nile River. However problems regarding the unbalanced flow of the Nile was being recognized. “During low flows, the land did not receive water and no crops were able to grow”. (Document 1) Change was needed to be done in order to prevent dikes from being washed away and villages from being destroyed. In order to terminate the situation that they were facing, the Egyptians used the irrigation system. This system was of great significance to the early
Arguably some of China’s most important Geographic sights were the two rivers the Yellow river in the north and the Yangtze river in the south. The Yellow River, mostly referred to as “the cradle of Chinese civilization” or “the Huang He River” stretches 3,395 miles long making this river the sixth longest river in the world. The Yangzte River, just South of the Yellow river stretches an impressive 3,988 miles making it the third longest river in the world. Just like the Yellow River the Yangtze River Flows in the same direction [west to east] and played an important part in the rise of ancient China. Many farmers who lived by the river took advantage of the rainy weather and warm climate by using it to grow rice. Later on this land became
Drower, M. S. A History of Technology, from Early Times to the Fall of Ancient Empires, Chapter 19: Water supply, irrigation, and agriculture. Edited by Singer, Holmyard, and Hall. Oxford Clarendon Press, 1958.
Spielvogel, Jackson J. Western Civilization. 8th ed. Vol. 1. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.
Water is one of the most unique molecules known to man and also one of the most important to biological systems. Not only does water exist in nature in all three states of matter (solid, liquid, gas), it also covers 75 percent of the earth and composes roughly 78 percent of the human body.
Water is a vital part for the function of organisms, as it is involved in the “energetics” of molecular interactions and conformational adaption of macromolecules in animal and plant cells, due to its structure, flexibility and several unique properties (Rand, 2004). In an organism’s cell, various types of water are present. They are known as bound, hydration, vicinal and bulk water. 95% of watery body fluid is composed of bulk water, since they function as “space filling medium”, which supports life and creates an aqueous medium for cellular reactions (Watterson, 1987).