The Indus Valley, The Early Indian Civilizations

The Indus Valley was the earliest Indian civilization. This civilization flourished for about a thousand years, then disappeared without a trace. Even though archeologists have no solid evidence, they know that it covers the largest area than any other civilization until the rise of Persia a thousand years later.

The Indus Valley had well-planned cities, such as Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, which were so carefully planned. Houses were built in a modernly fashion, which surprises us today. From the conclusion that the archeologists made, the Indus Valley cities had a well-organized government; the powerful leaders made sure that their people had good supplies. Some say that the government planners must be experts when it came to mathematics because of how they lay out the cities so precisely.

The citizens of this civilization were predominately farmers, growing loads of various crops, such as wheat, barley, melons, and dates. They were even the first to associate with cotton by weaving the fibers into cloth. Some were even merchants and traders, their ships that carried cotton cloth, grain, copper, pearls, and ivory combs to lands that were quite distant from them. Since they were pretty familiar with the sailing from the Arabian Sea coast and the Persian Gulf, they came in contact with Sumer, developing

The Shang Dynasty developed a more centralized government, but as the Zhou Dynasty took over, they ruled on the Mandate of Heaven. This “Mandate” meant that heaven would grant the Zhou power only as long as its rulers had governed wisely, if they had the support of heaven. The Zhou Dynasty contained the most feudal ruling. The king ruled the empire, but China was too big for one ruler so the king had nobles with land and power over it. As their wealth and power developed, China’s complex kingdoms developed officials. The Indus valley never let their regions gain too much power, unlike