Mesopotamia Human Environment

How does the environment shape our lives?

Considering the environment as everything around us, nature probably has the biggest impact on life in recent time as well as in Mesopotamia. In ancient Mesopotamia, the Tigris and Euphrates river provided sources of life in an otherwise desolate area of the world. The people would use the tough reeds to build many things, ranging from boats to houses. The fertile silt from the rivers' flooding provided land that was very good for agriculture, which led to many thriving empires. Those are definitely the most prominent and easy to explain interactions between humankind and nature in ancient Mesopotamia.

The environment had (and has) a big effect on all people, whether good or bad.

Nowadays, we are

We all should learn from them and their view of nature.

Why do we get wars and conflicts between groups?

One of the main reasons we get wars is a fight over land and its ownership.

Land represents wealth, power and status in a society.

The more land someone owns, the richer and higher social status they have.

The same applies for groups and empires, therefore from the beginning of time, people, empires and city-states fought to enlarge their land.

Another reason for conflicts is religion. Different groups have different beliefs and ideas and want to prove that theirs is the best.

When two groups don't agree, the common solution (though not the best) is war.

Connecting to the idea of land, groups always fight over resources. Resources are necessary for the survival of any group and therefore winning over another group means taking their resources. Another less common reason for conflicts is revenge.

Wars are still common and have passed on from olden days.

Conflicts still happen to this day, but I think that we should not solve it like the Mesopotamiams, by war. We need to learn from those mistakes and stop fighting over religion, land and