Compare And Contrast Mesopotamia And Nile River Valley Civilizations

There were four main ancient River Valley civilizations: the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia, the Nile River of Egypt, the Indus River of India, and the Yellow River of China. These civilizations showed specific similarities and contrasting differences. Many of these differences and similarities showed up in the three categories of the technological advances, the types of government, and the geography of the civilization. Two civilizations that are very interesting to delve deeper into and study the contrasting societies are China and Egypt. Since China and Egypt were both isolated from the outside, they developed with a strong focus on technology and learning with strong governments to hold the nations together.

The earliest forms of civilizations were said to be located on the three river valleys of the Tigris-Euphrates River in ancient Mesopotamia, the Nile River in ancient Egypt and the Huang He and Indus River in ancient India and China. These three river valley civilizations had many differences yet still lived common life styles. Although the civilizations are located on different continents, they share similar social, political, and economic beliefs from their intellectual developments to types of government to religious beliefs and trading systems.

When you look back in history to the development and the contributions of both the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations, you see that there was a lot accomplished, as well as a lot created. The earliest forms of writing developed in Mesopotamia, while Egypt was referred to the “Gift of the Nile” by traveler Herodotus (McKay,42). Development of cities was another major marker, especially in the “old world”, of how people eventually determined civilizations and what they represented. According to McKay, civilizations were determined by people who considered themselves more “civilized”, urban people mostly. Made up of cities, written rules of law, and social justice codes, Mesopotamia and Egypt would develop into two of the largest civilizations in history.

This can be seen when looking at the geography of where these civilizations originated. Just like the other three societies, Chinese civilization grew among the Huang He River, or the Yellow River. The river supplied water for the Chinese to be able to practice agriculture. The river also gave them a mode of transportation to move goods from place to place, just like the Harappans. Another characteristic of the Chinese that is similar to the Harappans was the fact that we do not know much about them because they did not leave any records behind. Life along the Yellow River was also similar to life along the Nile. The people of both civilizations built ditches and canals in the rivers in order to use them for transportation and irrigation. They both used water to feed their people, and cattle as they raised them along the river, and to use for their crops, as both rivers were fertile. Unlike the Nile, the Yellow River brought both positive and negative consequences. The Yellow River was also given another name by its people, the River of Sorrows. This was because the Yellow River did not flood regularly like the Nile, it was irregular. Some years the Yellow River would not flood at all, and in other cases it would flood and bring devastation to its people. The Egyptians luckily did not experience this with the Nile River, instead they celebrated it and called it their giver of

Ancient civilizations surrounding Egypt and Mesopotamia during this time period had similar political and social structures to either of the civilizations. Most societies with a centralized government did not see their rulers as divine as pharaohs. Some civilizations, like the Chinese rulers and their Mandate of Heaven, ruled with a power similar to the Egyptian pharaohs. However, the Chinese empire could also be overthrown if they were a bad ruler. The Greek city-states also constantly fought each to gain power over all of Greece. Socially, ancient civilizations were not as lenient towards their women. Since social inequalities developed starting around the development of agriculture, women of ancient times were

The ancient cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt develop into successful civilizations by having floods from the nile river that provided water, food and fertile area in the middle of the desert as document 1 states. In document 2 it says that they also had rivers that provided many resources such as transportation, trade as well as plants, the rivers were surrounded by deserts.

Ancient Mesopotamia and the Indus River Valley civilization were two incredibly productive and successful empires. While Mesopotamian politics were slightly less focused on religion and more on other aspects, the two societies shared many social characteristics. They both had defined social hierarchies, as well as similar views on gender roles. These traits are helpful in explaining the similarities and differences between the two cultures.

I chose the Mesopotamia and the Nile River Valley. These two civilizations are two of the most favorable ancient civilizations. Although these civilizations are similar in many ways, the small, but impacting differences it what makes these two civilizations stand out the most. The Nile River Valley was located in northern Africa in a country called Egypt. Mesopotamia was located in modern day Iraq, Iran, Syria, Kuwait, and parts of Turkey. The origin of Mesopotamia comes from the meaning “between two rivers.” The land is between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Defining moments for human civilization began within these two.

The first topic of comparison is the prospect of culture and environment in each society. Due to cultural diffusion amongst the civilizations, except geographically isolated China, among other factors, it can be deduced that the civilizations had many similar practices. However, each society boasted distinctive qualities. Early Mesopotamia, known by the moniker of “the land between the rivers,” was a fertile plain settled near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers located in the Fertile Crescent. All of the river valley civilizations settled near a river. Egypt settled near the Nile; the Indus Valley

The civilizations of the Nile River valley, the Mesopotamia valley, and Indus Valley marked human progress toward fixed settlements and the development of a rich culture. These civilizations shared many characteristics that contributed to their success. What made these civilizations unique were the contributions that each one gave to the world. They contributed their own ideas and accomplishments in the areas of religion, science, and mathematics. These contributions defined each civilization and how they would be remembered, as well as, their importance to the world.

Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian agricultural lives were highly differentiated due to their contrasting geographical situations, and also differences in technological processes and developments. Only a small area of Egyptian land (the Delta and Nile Valley) was fertile during the annual inundation of the river Nile. Moreover, harsh natural circumstances created a famine risk for the entire population, thus restricting the freedom to decide for a common citizen. To illustrate, an uneven spillage of the river Nile, when there were insufficient water resources for the agriculture or floods threatening corps, required a unified, or communal, water regulation and distributional system. So, a

These early civilizations experienced similar environmental situations that contributed to the shaping of their societies because both societies were built around two river valleys. Mesopotamia was located between the Tigris and Euphrates river, but their river valley societies were surrounded by a desert that was easy terrain. While the first Chinese civilization developed along the Huang he (Yellow) and Yang Zi rivers, but this society was isolated from the rest of the world. Ancient China was surrounded by various environmental barriers; deserts from the north and west, the surrounding oceans from the east, and mountainous valleys from the south limited this societies interaction. Even though these civilizations had different environmental surroundings, they both had to adapt to their situations. These societies were located in fertilely rich lands that were great for agricultural lifestyles,

The first civilizations and the rise of empires began with small groups or villages existing with the use of hunting, fishing, and foraging. (William J. Duiker and Jackson J. Spielvogel, World History, vol. 1, 1) Within a few thousand years, people learned how to cultivate food crops and this led to an increase in population. Increased food production resulted in larger communities. The cities began to expand their cultural and religious developments leading to the beginnings of civilization. (Duiker, World History, 1) The first civilizations emerged in Mesopotamia and Egypt during the fourth and third millennia B.C.E and had various components in common. Each of these civilizations was established in a river valley so they were able to provide and produce the agricultural resources needed to survive and uphold the population. (Duiker, World History, 1) Mesopotamia developed in the valley between the Tigris and Euphrates River known as “the land between the rivers.” These rivers provided irregular and catastrophic flooding for the city-state. They created an intensive irrigation system to improve their agriculture. The first people to create Mesopotamian civilization were known as the Sumerians. These people were the first city builders and created the major city’s named Eridu, Ur, Uruk, Umma, and Lagash. These cities were built with surrounding walls and defense towers. A six-mile-long wall enclosed the city of Uruk. Mesopotamia lacked

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 had 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.

Through the archeological discoveries, we can infer some details into the lives of the people who originated in the cities of Mesopotamia. The root word of Mesopotamia refers to ‘between rivers’, this infers to the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, figure 1. Because the environment influenced people to settle, we can see a change in their political, social, and economic structure as they begin to form a complex society. This is the period where we see a complex engineering system as people started to develop canals and other technologies for a more efficient agricultural development. An early culture to settle in the lowlands of Mesopotamia were the Hassuna culture, their civilization were characterized by “small settlements with a few hundred inhabitants, who lived in rectangular houses with several rooms” (Feuerbach, 2015). Another culture to settle in this area were the Samarran culture; even