First Civilizations: the Peoples of Western Asia and Egypt

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.

Ancient Egypt was a captivating and intricate civilization. Over the years, historians have found it easier to study this civilization, rather than other historical civilizations, because the Egyptians went through great lengths to record their history. Besides being decent record keepers, they were very religious, and “ahead of their time,” due to their technological and economic breakthroughs. Because of the aspects of this culture, it has to be one of the greatest civilizations of the world.

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.

Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and China all are the four main ones that brought hope to establishment. They all share their areas of discovers in common, as they were all discovered by a river. The four are not the only cradles of civilizations either, as new discoveries emerge, so do signs of settlers in new societies. Military and religions are prime examples of characteristics of complex societies or civilizations. They are both hard to maintain and control under a land of people, especially as they make advancements and discover new types to improve the previous one. Cradles of civilization are not the easiest task or title to

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.

Most people believe that all ancient civilizations were the same: they all lived with a steadfast loyalty to their one and only king that ruled all of the lands, civilizations only achievements were monumental buildings, and they vacuously attacked neighboring societies to gain more land for millennia. While some of this knowledge is true to an extent, civilizations accomplished an abundance more than some realize. Some fail to register that early civilizations are unique from each other. Egypt and Mesopotamia were two distinct civilizations. Despite similarities such as both being river civilizations, Egypt and Mesopotamia contrasted with each other in the areas of, type of ruling, religion, and

During the old kingdom, Ma’at was part of the peoples’ everyday life, was not just a false façade and advocated social justice and equality.

cilvilizations and ancient cultures were able to be successful in their way of life. Ancient cultures in this case Mesopotamia and Egypt were sucessful in both their different and same unique ways, weather it'll be in term of their beliefs, way of life, or how the civilization were being govern, each have their own ways to sucess and are able to pass on that knowledge to the future generation. Ancient cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt are able to develop into sucessful civilization by their governors being able to create a laws for civilians to follow, geographic luck of how Fertile Creasant and Nile river help out each civilizations to survive and grows, and beliefs of how in order to be happy and successful with their way of life, each culture must keep their gods happy in many uniqe ways, which all these points were the reason why the Mesopotamia

Many of the early world civilizations had similar experiences when evolving to become the influential societies that affected other societies. They were called the first civilizations because they were able to form the first functional communities, successful systems of organized laws over people, the distinction of social classes, economic income, and development of arts and educations. Two of histories well-known civilizations, Mesopotamia and Ancient China had similar experiences in the beginnings of their histories, they still have a different cultural and political views.

A civilization refers to “a particular and distinctive type of human society” (Strayer, pg. 90). Civilizations aren’t always different from one another nor are they the exact same. Each civilization has some form of a unique characteristic that differentiates itself from the rest. For example, the Ancient Egyptians and the Hindus from Ancient India. They both have a permanent arrangement of societal roles, yet they aren’t constructed or operated in the same manner. These two locations are the main topics of this discussion/comparison.

During ancient Egypt, civilization was brought about because the people picked a ruler, or king. “Two of the most important sources of life for the ancient Egyptians were the Nile River and the Pharaoh” (William). At the time, society was very hierarchical; the society was divided into two groups: the privileged people and the majority. The king kept control and managed everything ranging from politics to religion.

Civilization is the period in which humans develop and organize their community in an advanced form in different aspects. As time was fleeting the ancient Greek civilization was starting to shape and adopt many alterations which started to center a more stable community. Just as the Greeks there were other civilizations developing some similar to the Greeks attributes and some differing them in different aspects.

Have you ever wondered how Ancient Egypt helped shape the world today? Ancient Egyptians were a group of folks who were heavily influenced by religion. They feared dying anywhere but Egypt. The Egyptian Empire held a fascinating and very distinctive culture. Being one of the world 's most advanced cultures and creating tons of wealth is what separated them from everybody else. Between the outstanding artwork, teaching methods, and amazing pyramids is what helped their society advance altogether. No other civilization of the ancient world history had such a popular appeal and none as important as human society and its organization. Egyptians have made great steps in shaping the world we all know today, which have made studying their culture and society easier than some previous historical eras.

I believe Ancient Egypt in a civilization because it has all seven indicators! It has Complex religion, social classes, specialized workers such as craftsmen & artisans, organized government, long-distance trade, cities & methods of record keeping.

Ancient Egypt was one of the greatest ancient civilizations in human history. Ancient Egypt was the longest lasting civilization in the ancient world and lasted for about 2,500 years. ancient Egypt was able to last so long because of their many great accomplishments. The most important thing that lead to the accomplishments and success of ancient Egypt was The Nile River. Ancient Egypt is often referred to as the “Gift of the Nile” because of how important the Nile River was to the success and longevity of ancient Egypt. Without the Nile River, ancient Egypt would have never been able to things like farm, use papyrus, build boats, trade or fish. The Nile River was the sole reason as to why ancient Egypt was able to become so successful.