Early Civilizations And Empires Essay

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.

Hammurabi improved on the measures implemented by Sargon through his idea of “centralization”. Instead of controlling trade routes and resources like Sargon, Hammurabi institutionalized regular taxation for all the territories. Hammurabi also ruled from within Babylon while extending his authority to other territories through the use of deputies placed in each territory. (Bentley and Zeigler, p. 29)

All the way from the start of civilization through to the Early Christianity there has been a pantheon of; destruction, recognition, wars, cultural diffusion, religious breakthroughs, laws that have been established, kings and queens crowned and dethroned. The Mesopotamian Civilization it was the land between two rivers the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers that civilization first began.

Known as one of the earliest civilizations, Mesopotamia and Egypt both share set amounts of similarities along with a share of striking distinctions. Environmentally, these two civilizations were formed in similar surroundings, yet their weather patterns show distinctions. Politically, both governments derived from a monarch, yet their laws and punishments distinguished the two’s court systems. Economically, they both shared prosperous success in similar manners. Socially, although the two lands followed a hierarchy, the value of women contrasted. Culturally, they both believed in a higher order of creation; however, their views of them were polar opposites. Intellectually, these two societies developed skilled abilities and creations that

In 1750 B.C. a new king of babylonia arose by the name of Hammurabi. He continued his reign up until 1792 B.C. but most importantly his reign did not go unforgotten. During his reign he was in charge of giving punishments to the wrongdoings of his citizens. As he conquered other cities and his empire grew he saw the need to unify groups he controlled, he was concerned about keeping order in his kingdom. In order to achieve this goal, he needed one universal set of laws for all the people he conquered thus he created the Hammurabi code.

Geography had a tremendous impact on early civilizations, the topography of the different regions played a key role in their development and formation. This statement by Fernand Braudel “ Geography is the stage in which humanity’s endless dramas are played out” (Getz et al., Exchanges, 26) is a very moving and telling description. The terrain, whether it is natural or man made is not the end all, be all. It does however affect the stage a great deal. Mountainous areas act as blockades, which keep the societies independent, plains open up the area, and rivers enable everything to move around freely. 2

There is lots of strategies that have led the ancient empires to their success and staying strong. .Geography was a huge part of history, this is because many people live upon geography. They rely on geography to live. To add on, the success and failures all come from geography, which is very important. Ancient Egypt had many ups and downs through their empire, geography helped them a lot for planting crops and getting resources. Ancient Greece was affected by the geography near their location a lot. The Aksum empire heavily relied on the geography near their empire, it helped them a lot with the way they traded with other empires. In all of the empires, geography was the breaker or the winner and determined whether the empire would fall or

Civilization. The word “civilization” comes from the Latin term for “city.” The first civilizations were the river-valley civilizations, so-called because they all developed alongside major rivers to secure an adequate water supply for agricultural production. 2 of the greatest river-valley civilizations were Mesopotamia and Egypt. All though they both supported having a patriarchal leader or king, Egypt had a strong, centralized government, whereas Mesopotamia was decentralized, and built based on small city-states operating independently.

Hammurabi ruled the First Babylonian Empire from 1792 to 1750 BCE (class discussion, 08/29/17). Before Hammurabi, law code was understood among citizens, most likely, through oral retellings and interpretation. With the writing of these laws in circa 1780 BCE, citizens could understand what they could and could not do and provided the king with better regulation of the Babylonian people. This regulation was also provided through their belief in divine right, a concept where the king is given the throne through the approval of the gods.

At the time of the Sumerians, religion was polytheistic, meaning the people worshiped multiple gods. They prayed and performed rituals in order to keep the gods happy. When the Persians conquered an empire, monotheism was introduced through their religion of Zoroastrianism. Zoroaster founded the ancient Persian religion that influenced modern day Christianity and Judaism. God came down to Zoroaster many times through the leader of the good forces called Ahura Mazda. Zoroaster tried to spread the message of Ahura Mazda but few listened. Scribes wrote down everything Zoroaster said in the sacred text Zend-Avesta. Pleasing God or the gods remained an important aspect of religion. However, religion changed through the idea of worshiping one God and the establishment of sacred

     Early American civilizations were composed of four different groups of people. These four groups were composed of the Mayas, Aztecs, Incas, and the North Americans. These groups were the same in many ways, but had some differences that would distinguish their group from the others. These civilizations ruled the Americas for long period of time. These civilizations were the same in almost every way, but they had their differences to show that they were a totally different group of people.

Ancient civilizations have impacted modern civilizations in many ways. Sumer, Babylon, Persia, and Hittites were a few of those ancient civilizations. They each developed their own set of characteristics that social, governmental, and economic structures as well as distinct religions and innovations. These civilizations and empires existed between about 3300 b.c to 539 b.c, and most of them had notable rulers.

In the year 1792 B.C. Babylon introduced their sixth king of Babylon Empire, King Hammurabi who assumed the throne from his father Sin-Muballit. The rule of Hammurabi and his strict, often extreme no tolerance policy had begun. Though his punishments of the accused and guilty occasionally seemed appropriate, many felt Hammurabi’s methods were inhumane although his intentions give the impression that it was in good spirit. As the sun began to set behind the temple to Marduk the induction ceremony of the new King of Babylon presented his power to rule by introducing the list of laws that were set to be effective immediately. Here, Hammurabi proclaims that he wants "to make justice visible in the land, to destroy the wicked person and the evil-doer, that the strong might not injure the weak." He goes on to say that “the laws themselves uphold compassion, and protect widows, orphans and others from being harmed or exploited by those seeking to take advantage of those who may not be able to defend themselves. Hammurabi clearly understood that to accomplish his goal, he needed one universal set of laws for all of the diverse peoples he conquered. Therefore, he made aware to his subjects that prior to his ascension to king that he sent legal experts throughout his kingdom to gather existing laws. These laws were revised and some were changed or disregarded before compiling his final list of 282 laws. Hammurabi made known

Ancient Egypt, located in the North-East end of Africa, was a complex civilization because it had all of the important civilization indicators. Ancient Egypt used the seven indicators regularly, which are well-organized government, complex religion, specialized skills and jobs, long-distance trade, social classes, record keeping, and cities.

Welcome to Crash Course Civilizations 101! Today we will discuss one of the most prominent civilizations of the middle kingdom, the Eltanin civilization. Now before we jump in let’s talk about what exactly is a civilization. Textbook definition defines it as: the process by which a society or place reaches an advanced stage of social development and organization, but a civilization is more than just that. It is the culture a group of people possesses which is sustained over a period of time which shapes history in one way or another. Most civilizations all stemmed from one life changing event, the agricultural revolution. As the first agricultural revolution occurred from 10,000 BC to 2000 BC, people started to settle and cultivate land by planting crops and raising animals. Although blossoming from different areas around the world, they all had certain similar aspects such as developing unique ways of supporting  themselves and upholding their society. The start of this transition is  known as the middle kingdom. Today we will be discussing one of the most prominent civilizations of the middle kingdom, the Eltanin civilization, who lasted  what scientists like to call, A LONG TIME..Before we dive into who they were and how they impacted history, let’s talk about how they originated.