How Did Geography Affect Mesopotamia

The location of the river valley civilizations of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Mesopotamia impacted economics, religion, and culture. Where Egypt and Mesopotamia were located impacted economics due to the flooding of the rivers, which increased agriculture and trading. Religion was impacted from the rivers and economics. Culture was changed from foreign trade.

During the third millennium, early civilizations began to expand. These civilizations started evolving from simple farming and trade to advanced governments, economies, and cultures. The Nile river valley civilizations of ancient Egypt and the early civilizations of Mesopotamia near the Tigris and Euphrates River had many similarities and differences in political, economic, and cultural aspects. Both the Ancient Egyptians and the Mesopotamians had rich, fertile soil for agriculture; they also had very similar religion. However, Mesopotamia had more abundant trade opportunities, a city-state style government, and less gender equality.

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.

How did geography impacted Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt? The places that we are talking about is Egypt and Mesopotamia. The cataracts and the Nile river and the deserts around Egypt and Mesopotamia for when people attack them they have a lower chance on taking over.

Geography affected the development of early civilizations in many ways. Some civilizations had no natural barriers, allowing invaders and other outsiders were able to take over the certain civilization. However, other civilizations did have natural barriers that allowed them to stay distant from intruders and foreigners, allowing their civilization to grow. Lastly, as civilizations settled along the rivers, it would constantly flood, but some civilizations predicted the flooding and some actually didn’t. These are some of the reasons how geography affected the development of settling civilizations.

Throughout world history, geography affected the history of the Mesopotamia civilization, the flooding was unpredictable, the land was unprotected, and there was limited resources. The flooding from the Tigris and Euphrates River was unpredictable and that made the land sometimes like a desert. For that reason, Mesopotamia had to create dams, reservoirs, and canals to help grow food. The people of Mesopotamia also built irrigation ditches in order to carry the river water to their lands. This allowed Mesopotamia to produce an abundant amount of crops. In addition to the rivers being unpredictable, there were no natural barriers surrounding the land. As a result, the people were defenseless. Since nothing could protect the population, the land

Which means that most of their populations were located near rivers. Although Ancient Egypt only relied on the Nile River, which was separated into the lower kingdom and the upper kingdom, while Ancient Mesopotamia relied on two major rivers, the Tigris River and the Euphrates River. These provided food, water, and transportation within the region. Both of these civilizations also counted on the mountains, like the ones located on the Eastern Desert in Egypt, and the Taurus and Caucuses mountain’s located in Mesopotamia used to create borders to prevent

In ancient civilizations, rivers were very important for the survival of the population in an area. They were crucial for many things: fertile soil, a steady water supply, and transportation were all advantages of rivers. Mesopotamia and Egypt are both good examples of ancient river civilizations that were successful for many years. Both of the civilizations had many similarities and differences that enabled them to be advanced and unique ancient civilizations.

Others came from the Mediterranean. Equally important were peoples who trekked northward from Nubia and central Africa. Ancient Egypt was the melting pot where immigrants blended cultural practices and technologies. Most people back in around 3500 BCE were either farmer or hunters. They relied mostly on the river for fresh water and to help them irrigate the land for growing crops. Mesopotamia, whose name is a Greek word meaning “place between two rivers,” used to be the place where people had been living close to the land in small clans and settlements, was the place were world’s first complex society arose mainly because of the rivers. Mesopotamia had a lot of challenges including the unpredictable flooding, dry summer months, no natural barriers for protection, villages lying in the open were defenseless, and the limited natural resources including stone, wood and metal. They had to invent solutions for these problems. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers are wild and unpredictable, flooding in periods of heavy rainfall and snow, and drying up during the parched summer months.

Because of the different geography, different degrees of exposure to outside invasion and influence, and different prior beliefs, Egypt and Sumerians were in contrast to one another in many ways. Geography impacted the development of past civilizations because it determines how successful they become and how much they benefit from their geography or suffer from it. Early civilizations like the Sumerians and Egypt, were greatly affected by geographic features. The geographic features of the land determined the daily tasks in many people's lives. Many early civilizations settled by rivers because rivers supplied people with the essentials that they needed to survive, water and food most importantly.

Lastly, the greatest dichotomy between the two was in fact their rivers, both of which functioned differently and had different effects on their inhabitants. The Tigris and Euphrates had an unpredictable flooding pattern, which not only caused ma¬¬¬ssive damage, but led its people to believe in “rough gods” that were sentient over the rivers. The Nile, on the other hand, had a predictable flooding pattern and was easily navigable, which in turn allowed for easy agriculture and trading and the belief in a “helpful god”. Having a reliable river allowed the Egyptians to focus on other things, whereas in Mesopotamia the river was the main focus, and every citizen pitched in to maintain the rivers and their canals, since arduous the task of maintaining

Egypt and Mesopotamia both have similarities & differences. The civilizations have similar geographical origins for being river valley societies. However, qualities differ such as religion, like Egyptian pharaoh’s claim godliness and the Mesopotamian are scared of the gods, creators. The fear of the gods probably started up because the floods of Mesopotamia were erratic, unlike Egypt’s floods that followed cycles, annual. Economics was considered a difference, especially when it came to the amount of trade.

Geography played a major role in the development of the first civilizations. Geography was a deciding factor in where the first civilizations would be established. The geography of the Middle East, specifically the Mesopotamian area, was key in the survival of the first civilizations. The easy access to water, specifically the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, as well as the Nile, made sustainable farming possible. With sustainable farming came the settlement of a group in one area and over time, developed into a society. The grassland regions in the Middle East was also an extremely important factor in the development of the first civilizations. The nutrient rich land made the concept of herding possible as animals could graze on fields and be

Geography has impacted many cultures and religions, as well as where people settle down to grow a civilization. Geography has impacted may civilizations throughout the years such as but not limited to, the Incas, the Mayans, the early hunter gatherer societies, the Chinese, the Egyptians, as well as the Indians. Civilizations tended to grow near mountains, rivers, and coastlines, most notable civilization that grew on the river was the Egyptians.