Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Geography and early civilization
Mesopotamia and Egyptian societies
Mesopotamia and Egyptian societies
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Geography and early civilization
The historical land of Mesopotamia significantly contributed to early civilization in relation to its close proximity to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and rich fertile land it provided. The rivers offered the people of Mesopotamia fertile soil, irrigation water for crops and fishing, and also supplied an abundance of wild barley and wheat for food or could stored as a food supply.
The first settlers of Mesopotamia learned to cultivate and harvest crops, which would provide a bountiful supply for food. This enabled the people to settle and create villages, which eventually led to larger communities and cities. People no longer had to move throughout the land hunting animals in order to feed but instead could live off the land and in turn learned to domestic their animals for multiple uses (Easeen, 12/2007).
Though the river had many benefits it also had, it’s disadvantages such as flooding and water shortages related to droughts (Soomo, 2013). Mesopotamians had to be inventive and so created levy’s, canals and irrigations systems to help them adapt to the river’s challenges. They learned how to live with these environmental factors and came up with inventive strategies to overcome obstacles.
For the people of Mesopotamia living near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers created many achievements to the settlers lives. They built homes, shops and had a temple for worship and as the population grew so too did the need to create a civil existence. The Priest and Kings held hierarchy and then eventually came the written law for people to follow (Easeen, 12/2007).
It also provided many of the social fundamental values that still carry on in societies today. Their innovations of government, commerce, taxes farming, town...
... middle of paper ...
...rom http://history-world.org/mesopotamia_a_place_to_start.http://history-world.org/mesopotamia_a_place_to_start.htm
Mesopotamia. (2013). In Soomo. Retrieved from http://courses.soomopublishing.com/context/77b7f503-dee2-4f23-9cdd-41e483edf615/tocs/51db14842e0b830002000001/chapters/51db149e2e0b8300020001ed/assignments/51dd94375dbc824a7d000042
Mesopotamia. (“n.d.”). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia. (“n.d.”). Retrieved from http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/menu.htm
Sederquist, B. (2013). The California Gold Rush of 1849. Retrieved from http://www.coloma.com/california-gold-discovery/history/california-gold-rush/
The Gold Rush of 1849. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/gold-rush-of-1849
Trueman, C. (2000-2013). The Great Famine of 1845. Retrieved from http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/ireland_great_famine_of_1845.htm
During the years of 3500 BC to 2500 BC, the geography of a land often impacted a civilizations development in great measures. Depending on the resources available or the detriments present due to certain topographical characteristics like rivers or deserts, a civilization could flourish or collapse. By studying the geographic features of growing societies like the Nile, Euphrates, and Tigris Rivers as well as the Mediterranean Sea of Egypt and Mesopotamia, the link between developing cultures and geography will be examined through sources, including Egypt: Ancient Culture, Modern Land edited by Jaromir Malek and Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization by Paul Kriwaczek. To determine the extent of its influence, this investigation will attempt to compare and contrast the role of geography in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, focusing on the civilizations’ various periods of development and settlement.
Before the beginning of history, people from across the land gradually developed numerous cultures, each unique in some ways while the same time having features in common. Mesopotamia and Egypt are important to the history of the world because of religious, social, political and economic development. Mesopotamia was the first civilization, which was around 3000 B.C., and all other countries evolved from it. Mesopotamia emerged from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The soil was rich and agriculture was plentiful. The Semitic nomads occupied the land around Akkad. The Sumerians established the city-states. Villages became urban centers. Because of the formation of the city-states everything flourished. However, Mesopotamian agriculture lacked stones; therefore mud brick became their major building block. Their diet consisted of fish from the rivers. The rivers were flooded frequently destroyed the cities. Mesopotamians made their living from crops and pottery.
Before the beginning of history, people from across the land gradually developed numerous cultures, each unique in some ways while at the same time having features in common. Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Israel are all important to the history of the world because of religious, social, political and economic development. In the first civilization, both Mesopotamia and Egypt relied on a hunter-gatherer economic system, during that time, every country in the world strived on it. Mesopotamia has rich soil for agriculture, but experiences floods. For the Mesopotamians, these floods would destroy major cities, but for the Egyptians it would keep the soil rich all year long without the damage that the Mesopotamians had experienced.
The Mesopotamia was in between to very important rivers, which were the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Being between two rivers had some advantages, as well as disadvantages. Some of the advantages meant that they could produce enough food to support the people that lived around that area. Some of the disadvantages were that they had some flood problems. Sometimes the rivers would over flow, which caused floods that destroyed crops and villages. Considering that their main source for anything was agriculture, floods really brought chaos. After some time the Mesopotamian people learned different ways
...d and write for kings and become vassals. Local priests were appointed by local lords, and were expected to uphold their wishes. Thus, the role of the church, government and the economy became interconnected.
Even though the Nile River valley, Mesopotamian and the Indus Valley civilizations all surrounded bodies of water, they each had individual geographic characteristics which largely contributed to their development. The Sumerian people of Mesopotamia developed complex irrigation systems in order to control the flow of rivers, due to unpredictable flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers into the regions soil (Duiker and Spielvogel 9). The Sumerians
Mesopotamia remains a region which has a vast amount of different features surrounding the area making it enticing for civilization; for example, there are rivers (Tigris, Euphrates), a valley known as the ‘Indus Valley’, mountains, floodplains, and deserts. However, the most significant being
Egypt, and mesopotamia both have the use of rivers, Egypt can use their river for more trade, and agriculture due to the niles calmness compared to the Tigris, and Euphrates.
Mesopotamia was formed in the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Thus making it a fertile valley, where the early Mesopotamians invented irrigation, so they could water their crops easily. They also worked on a barter system and used the grain and their goats to give and get something back. In the early writings of the Mesopotamian people a lot of what was wrote about had to do with this system of bartering. Mesopotamia was known as the “cradle of civilization” because a lot of what we know today was formed there. The rise of the cities there was due to the flow of water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, things could be exported easily, and the people invented the sailboats to get their commodities to and from places.
Millions of years ago the procreant low lands in the river basins of Euphrates and Tigris was probably the home of some animal life, but no great civilizations. However, things change over time, and just a few thousand years ago the same fertile low lands in the river basins of Euphrates and Tigris became the home of a very rich and complex society. This first high society of man was located in what some still call "Mesopotamia". The word "Mesopotamia" is in origin a Greek name meaning "land between the rivers." The name is used for the area watered by the Euphrates and Tigris and its tributaries, roughly comprising modern Iraq and part of Syria. South of modern Bagdad, this alluvial plain was called the land of Sumer and Akkad. Sumer is the most southern part, while the land of Akkad is the area around modern Bagdad, where the Euphrates and Tigris are closest to each other. This first high, Mesopotamian society arose as a combined result of various historical, institutional, and religious factors. The reality of these factors occurring at a specific place within the fabric of space / time indeed established the basis for this first high civilization. Items like irrigation, topography, and bronze-age technical innovations played a big part along with the advent of writing and the practice of social conditioning (through the use of organized religion) in this relatively early achievement of man.
The Mesopotamians settled in Mesopotamia for many reasons. A reason is that there were two rivers, the Tigris river, and the
The new settlements helped the population to grow quickly. Farmers were able to have and maintain larger families. The changes in technology helped move modern man into the Bronze Age.
The ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt were both facilitated by rivers that ran in their midst. The Mesopotamia was located along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates River and Egypt located in Africa with the Nile River running through it. They both relied heavily on the rivers for the survival of their civilization.
The Mesopotamians had two rivers surrounded them, the Euphrates and Tigris, that were beneficial especially for trade, but also had ups and downs for farming. These rivers were completely unblocked so the people of Mesopotamia could travel without worry of having to be slowed down or stopped. These rivers’ floods were impossible to time and would potentially fatal for the farmers’ crops. If the rivers didn’t destroy the crops, they would leave a substance that was great for the growth of crops called silt and they were also great for irrigation. These rivers were also good for transportation. They could be used for trading or human travel. This meant that they were able to spread ideas domestically or internationally. This was called multiculturalism.
Ancient Mesopotamia was one of the first of the ancient civilizations. It formed in present-day northeastern Egypt, in the Fertile Crescent. The Fertile Crescent is a crescent-shaped region of good farmland created by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The first people to settle in Mesopotamia made important contributions to the world, such as wheeled vehicles, and an early form of writing called Cuneiform. Later, the Phoenicians here developed an alphabet much like the one we use today. Also, the Sumerians of this region developed algebra and geometry. Most importantly, the Sumerians made extensive irrigation systems, dikes, and canals to protect their crops from floods. The Great Hammurabi of Babylon, another empire in the Fertile Crescent, made the Code of Hammurabi. It was the first significant set of laws in history. Also, the Hittites and the Lydians settled in Mesopotamia. The Hittites developed a way to produce strong plows and weapons. The Lydians created a system of coined money. The contributions from the region of Mesopotamia in ancient times are still used today and are very useful.