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Government between Mesopotamia and Egypt
Mesopotamia and Egyptian governments
Differences between ancient egypt mesopotamia government
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Mesopotamia is located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The Fertile Crescent is also a part of this area. This is an area of land from the Eastern Coast along the Mediterranean Sea, through Mesopotamia, and the Persian Gulf. Since the rivers along the civilizations it made agriculture possible because of the rich soil. The oldest civilization was Sumer which appeared around three thousand three hundred B.C. The Sumer civilization ended around one thousand nine hundred B.C. Then it was taken over by the Babylonians and the Akkadians.
There are many forms of government in Mesopotamia from all different types of civilizations. The Sumerian government had city-states that had a system of groups that were known as a hierarchy. They had
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The Sumerians hierarchy included highest class, middle class, and the poor. The higher class included ruling families, leading officials, and high priests. The middle class had people like scribes, merchants, and artisans. The poor included people like farmers and peasants. The women in society changed throughout time. Goddesses were worshiped in religious practice. Women were treated well in some cases. For instance, if you were a wife of a ruler or king then you had a say in a lot of things. Women were also educated. On some occasions women were allowed to inherit property from their husbands. All of the other civilizations had the same …show more content…
Such as the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Aryans, and New Babylon. Their religion consisted of being Polytheistic, believing in more than one god. They thought that their gods lived normals lives like them. Sumer and the rest of the civilizations believed in afterlife. They thought after death you lived in the underworld.
All of the Civilizations in Mesopotamia had many achievements. The Sumerians had cuneiform which was the first form of writing. They had a system of pictographs, Mathematics, and Astronomy. Their technology had, the wheel, irrigation, bricks made of clay, Bronze, swords, plow, clothing, and boats. The Akkadians had achievements like being the first empire. Babylon had achievements such as the codes and laws. They Aryans had an extensive library. New Babylon had eighty-five feet high walls, hanging gardens, and they also rebuilt a much better
Mesopotamia was the first primordial, and influential cradle of civilization. Nestled in the valleys of the vehement Tigris-Euphrates Rivers around the time of the Lower Paleolithic period
Imagine a world without the wheel. Picture a world without math. Now, without knowing time. Well, these are some of the many contributions that the Mesopotamians made to society.
The first civilization to rise was the Mesopotamia, located in present day Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and Egypt, along the Nile River. It’s split in two ecological zones. In the south Babylonia (irrigation is vital) and north Assyria (agriculture is possible with rainfall and wells). By 4000 B.C.E., people had settled in large numbers in the river-watered lowlands of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Archaeologists have shown that large-scale irrigation appeared only long after urban civilization had already developed, meaning major waterworks were a consequence of urbanism (population). Mesopotamia cities were made of people called the Summerians in the land of Sumer located on the south of Babylonia. The Summerian city was one of
The ancient cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt are a factor of the evolution of civilizations in present-day. Though, it wouldn’t occur if both of these ancient civilizations didn’t develop into successful ones. There are three similar components that led Ancient Egypt and Ancient Mesopotamia to become prosperous. These are the locations, their way of life, and their beliefs. All of these elements will be explored more thoroughly throughout this essay.
What similarities and differences did Egypt and Mesopotamia have and why was Egypt more politically unified than its neighbor, Mesopotamia? I think in order to answer these questions it is important to look at how both societies lived. Egypt and Mesopotamia were two civilizations existing during the time period of 2000-1200 BCE.(text, 97) These civilizations were shaped by their environment, involved with trade, and faced changes in government after the 100 year drought; however, they differed in that Egypt was shaped by the Nile, traded goods for goods and changed their outlook on the pharaoh who was ruler of all; whereas, Mesopotamia was shaped by the Tigris and Euphrates, traded money for goods, and had a ruler over rulers. The governed harmonic life style of Egypt led this society to be more politically unified; whereas, Mesopotamia’s government led to many different ways of structure, thus creating a less unified society.
Mesopotamian society was stratified into classes and social differences. It was composed of nobles, free clients of the nobility, commoners and slaves. Slave women participated in the textile industry. Free women did exist, however, men dominated the women in Mesopotamia. The nobles consisted of the king, his family, the chief priests, and high palace officials. The king was a war leader elected by the citizens. He established an army and led it into battle. Kingship was hereditary. Commoners were free citizens.
In 6000 BC farming and irrigation were on the rise. Since there was little rain in Southern Mesopotamia they created irrigation which lead farmers to settle in Southern Mesopotamia. With the large increase in population in Southern Mesopotamia, things quickly changed. There were new inventions and ideas, which led to the exchange of those inventions and ideas- known as trade.
All three societies had some form of belief in higher powers such as gods and other polytheistic beliefs. Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt had more duties involving their beliefs compared to Greece because both of those societies had ways of taking care of their religious sites such as feeding the gods daily or cleaning the temple area daily whereas there was not a huge emphasis on daily chores for Greece. Each society had originated around an ecologically useful area. Greece had a better advantage when compared to Egypt and Mesopotamia because both were prone to flooding. The Nile in Egypt constantly overflowed or ran dry causing harm to those who lived off of the river. The laws of each society were very male centered. Men were dominant over women in each society, but women in Egypt and Greece had more rights than those of Mesopotamia. Egyptian women could sue and file for divorce while Greek women could get jobs and retain property. The men gained more repercussions in Greece seeing as how rape and adultery would initiate a fine in Athens and not joining the army in Sparta would make you lose citizenship and the right to marry. Each society was also governed in some way making them similar, but the way they were governed makes them different. Mesopotamia was ruled by whoever conquered them, Egypt was ruled by a king, and Greece also had a king or an elected official. Each society did have slaves in some way, along with lower class. Egypt and Greece gave the middle lower class the option to become somewhat of a higher class through education and money. Power was determined mainly by wealth, birth, and income in the societies in some shape or form. Military was more of an important focus in Egypt and Greece than in Mesopotamia. The family structure of each civilization is still male centered and the male typically controls the family. Marriage and divorce is common in all
The Mesopotamian and Greek societies had the same type of government within city-states, they were both theocracies. A theocracy is a government centralized or ruled by divine power. ...
The ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt began to develop circa 3,000 B.C. Located near rivers, the lands offered fertile soil and an excess of crops that drew in many people. As more people arrived, the small settlements flourished into large, thriving civilizations. Many aspects of Mesopotamia and Egypt, such as their cities, their strongly organized government, and their religion, greatly contributed to the success of these two civilizations.
The first group of people to take over the Mesopotamia region was the Akkadians. They took over around 200 BC and they were lead by their leader Sargon the Great. Sargon was not a good leader and Akkad the empire they built was not organized at all. It had no society and no civilization.
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 first feature of all civilizations is cities. Next, all civilizations had organized governments. In early civilizations, the government dealt with flooding of the rivers and maintaining a steady food supply. When governments became too big, bureaucracies were created so rulers could know what was happening in their civilization. This increased efficiency.
Mesopotamian civilization exercised profound and cultural influence throughout west Asia and beyond for about 3,000 years. Mesopotamia had many independent city-states with its own government and ruler. Priests ruled these city-states with other administrators such as organizers and managers. Since turmoil and tension would often arise between the city-states, Mesopotamian Political Unification was rarely achieved. Mesopotamia was constantly invaded by foreigners who would incorporate their culture into newly society and form a new one by force.
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.