Comparing Ancient Egypt And Ancient Mesopotamia

With governmental machinery that brought political and social order to their territories, effective political and military power enabled them to build regional empires and expand their authority to neighboring people. Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia were two great civilizations among the earliest to emerge in the Middle east and North Africa. Both made significant contributions in areas such as mathematics, medicine, agriculture, astronomy, technology, architecture, art and writing. They had differences as well, including their political structures. Most importantly is that Egyptians were under a centralized government, and the Mesopotamians had self-controlled city state governments.

The /Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations developed many differences. The geography, culture, and religion are all different and play a huge role in history.

Egypt developed around the Nile River, while Mesopotamia developed between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Egypt and Mesopotamia grew into complex civilizations. Politically, both Egypt and Mesopotamia had a government with one main ruler, but Egypt had a centralized government with a pharaoh, while Mesopotamia had a decentralized government with a king. Socially, both civilizations were patriarchal, but Egypt was more lenient towards women while Mesopotamia was stricter. The political and social structures of Egypt and Mesopotamia both similarities and differences.

Economically, these two civilizations both shared prosperous success in similar manners. One connection between Mesopotamia and Egypt is that they both manipulated their designated rivers to perform critical trade operations by using them as routes. They were able to communicated and send goods with other civilizations in a farther location via the river system. Also, these two civilizations were very productive in the agricultural field due to the strategically created irrigation systems that provided water to their fertile soils to provide lush vegetations in Nile and Sumer. The one difference between Mesopotamia and Egypt in terms of economy is that the Nile government controlled most if not all of the trading monopoly, and they had their citizens pay substantial taxes.

Even though both prospered after a devastating drought, they both had different approaches in which they traded goods. I think that the approach, Egypt took, made it more unified than Mesopotamia. One reason is that, according to them, they wanted nice things to put into their tombs to use in the afterlife. The nice things were like furniture, and coffins that were constructed from wood that was imported in from Phoenicia. (text, 107) A second reason is that when ever the Egyptians colonized a new area they would build stationed forts to broaden trade routes. (text, 107) Plus, in Egypt, they traded goods for goods. (text, 107) In contrast, I believe that most of Mesopotamia’s businessmen were concerned with just getting the money and nothing else, because money was so much easier to transport than heavy loads that were being traded. (lecture, Dr. Kaz , Feb 9th 2009) When Mesopotamia recovered from the

Mesopotamia was divided into city-states. They saw each city-state as a divine copy of heaven on earth. They viewed kingship as divine in origin. One could also view Mesopotamia as a primitive democracy. They had a consul responsible for everyday affairs and a government to administer

Mesopotamia and Egypt were very different because of their geography and world view. Mesopotamia was often flooded because of their bad geography, but the land around the Nile river was built well so the Egyptians didn 't have to worry about the river flooding as often. The land in Mesopotamia was often attacked and invaded. Ultimately the geography of Egypt was significantly better than Mesopotamia because of the benefits of the nile river created a positive world view, a strong government and a universal religion.

The most apparent difference was these civilizations’ distinct type of rule. Egypt had pharaohs as their kings or rulers. Pharaohs were seen as holy figures and treated as gods, which allowed ancient Egypt to have a single, unified governing body, combining church and state. Mesopotamia was divided into city-states with a ruler governing each area independently. This led to a more fragmented political structure with recurring clashes and wars. The story of the Mesopotamian era is one of war, feud, and collapse; whereas ancient Egypt was mostly unified, sustaining a stable and well-structured

Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia present a valuable area of historical research. They are of great importance mostly because of their ethnic kinship (Watson, 2017). In such case, comparison and contrast essay is very promising as causal relationships can be formed based on a mutual starting point. This comparison-contrast essay focuses on differences and similarities in these societies’ economic, political and cultural life in order to make further implications regarding the circumstances the peoples of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia faced.

Throughout the history of Earth, there have been many fascinating developments, the most prominent being the first civilizations, Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. They had many similarities, such as characteristics of early civilizations and social structures, but they also had their differences. The most embossed differences included the divergent geography, prior belief, trade, relations with other civilizations, and politics.

Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt are both cradles of civilization. Both contributed greatly to human development through their achievements, failures, peoples, scientific accomplishments, philosophies, religions, and contributions.

While describing the cultural among the people of Mesopotamia and Egypt, I learned the differences and similarities in culture. The birth of Mesopotamian Civilization began in c. 3000 B.C.E., in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers of Southwest Asia. Mesopotamia is a Greek word and it means ‘between the rivers.’ In contrast, the birth of Egyptian Civilization began in c. 3100 B.C.E., in a valley of the Nile River in Northeastern Africa. Egypt is a Greek word and it means ‘House of the Spirit of Ptah.’ Since there are several categories in the cultures of the Mesopotamians and the Egyptians, I decided to narrows it to three categories: Religion, Writing, and Geography. The three categories will present the basis to compare cultural differences and similarities.

Mesopotamia and Egypt stand to be two of the oldest civilizations in history. Both were founded with a comparable social caste system, a polytheistic religion, and an agricultural economy. However, their political structure, architecture, and geography differed. While both societies developed similar social, cultural, and economic concepts, historical evidence shows that Mesopotamia and Egypt, due to various distinctions, are contrasting societies. Both civilizations had some resemblance and divergence of dividing structures in their community.

Today we answer the age old question, did Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia really have similarities and differences? All around the world people walk around not knowing that their ancestors and maybe a friends ancestors had something in common or something not in common. As most people know Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt were both located near a river of some sort. As many may also know the economy, politics and the way society was of these two places were very similar and different to each other in their own ways.

Egypt and Mesopotamia Egypt and Mesopotamia were both very complex empires. Every aspect of Egyptians life was based around religion, Mesopotamian religion explained everything about life and death. Social classes in both civilizations were based on a pyramid like social structure. Egypt never developed any major cities but, Mesopotamia developed many major cities. These three elements of civilization helped Egypt and Mesopotamia grow into thriving civilizations.