Jackson J. Spielvogel's Western Civilization

With all these surrounding them, invasion wasn’t such a prime concern, so they evolved a complex and hearty view towards the afterlife. Religion was then tied into government, making it all the more significant because pharaohs were viewed as god-like and were considered to be ultimate rulers. Citizens then realized that much more is at stake for an act of wrongdoing. However, in Mesopotamian culture, death was simply foreseen as an eternal sleep and was the given the name “Land of No Return” that held no importance and did not have any affect when involved with government. All in all, geography affected the natural occurrences to the civilizations as well as the frequency of invasion, the evolvement of strong cultural beliefs, and self-sufficiency.

Western Civilization from 1589 to 1914 had many specific changes that contributed to the structure of the western world before World War I. In the absolutism state sovereignty is embodied in the person of the ruler. Kings were absolute kings and were resposible to no none except god. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries absolute rulers had to respect the fundamental laws of their land. They had to control competing jurisdictions, institutions or groups that were interested in their territory. They regulated religious sects. France of Louis was the classic model of absolutism. Louis XIV, " the sun king," was a devoted Catholic who believed that god had estalblished kings as rulers on the earth. The French language and

Civilization: The West and the Rest, presented by Niall Ferguson, is a documentary in which Ferguson reveals what he calls the six killer applications which has helped Western civilization dominate over everyone else. These six applications are competition, science, property, medicine, consumerism, and work. Ferguson asks many questions over the course of the series as well as provides examples as to how Western civilization has surpassed other nations and empires. Ferguson’s main question in each episode is, “If we lose our monopoly over apps like these, could Western civilization be consigned to history.” This paper will analyze Ferguson’s questions and the examples he provides for the killer applications of competition, science, property, medicine, consumerism, and work, as well as his conclusions as to why the West has risen to the top, how the rest are passing up the West, as well as his conclusions to if the West can remain above the rest.

Most societies that developed in ancient civilizations were centered around their belief systems. The Egyptians and the Mesopotamians were no different in this sense. Both civilizations were polytheistic and built elaborate temples to praise their gods. Additionally, the leaders in both regions were believed to be related to the gods because of the great power they held and the wealth under their control. However, the Mesopotamians had a pessimistic outlook on life because of the unpredictability of their environment. The Egyptians, on the other hand, had an optimistic outlook because the Nile River inundated their region regularly, which could be predicted by the stars. The similarities and differences in the religions of these two

It is undeniable that the natural environment of ancient Mesopotamia had a profound effect on the earliest civilizations known to the world. Humankind’s ability to control irrigation waters directly correlates with the rise of mass agriculture. With this mastery of their river environment, early farmers were capable of supporting large urban populations. However, in Mesopotamia the Tigris and Euphrates rivers were both a source of life as well as destruction for early societies. In many ways, the geography of ancient Mesopotamia fostered a sense of catastrophic determinism within the Sumerians, Akkadians, and Babylonians. The scarcity of resources as well as the untamable nature of their deluge environment led these early people to

Egypt and Mesopotamia were successful civilizations because they were able to adapt to their harsh surroundings because of the influence of their powerful leaders. This is first example of this when it mentions that their only building tool was mudbrick due to their lack of resources(document 1). They were able to brilliantly adapt to their surroundings and were able to invent things like the arch and the dome out of hardened mud. Mud brick was also used to create the ziggurat(document 7). Mud brick was their only resource because they were so isolated from everything else. They also could really only inhabit the euphrates river because the Tigris river would flood a lot, so that’s why all of the cities are on the Euphrates (document 2).

“The condition that exists when people have developed effective ways of organizing a society and care about art, science, etc.” This is the definition of civilization. So when I explain the different characteristics of the western civilizations, which is mainly made up of all the countries in the world that have roots that go way back to ancient Greece. Although western societies have a lot of similarities as todays and other civilizations, it’s still tend to be known to as pretty rare, mainly in the way “western” think and believe. Western people thinking investigates something that is thought to be true and questions it, they were the type of humans to heavily test everyone’s mind. They would challenge one another to think outside of what

The earliest civilization in Asia arose around 3500 BCE in Mesopotamia meaning "land between the rivers" because of its convenient location between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This river valley region's rich soil and access to waterways made early civilization thrive on agriculture and trade. Although much has changed since its beginnings, the Mesopotamian River Valley has continued to grow and develop as a civilization to this day. During the time period 2000 BCE to present, Mesopotamia has changed geographically, religiously, and economically, but the rich resource of the Tigris and the Euphrates river has stayed the same.

In the period 6,000 B.C.E-1000B.C.E, economically agriculture by the Nile was different from agriculture by the Tigris and Euphrates, and culturally the Nile impacted religion differently than in Mesopotamia which religion was impacted by the Tigris and Euphrates, while interactions between humans and the environment where the same. Economically agriculture by the Nile was different from agriculture by the Tigris and Euphrates because agriculture by the Nile depended on helpful floods while agriculture by the Tigris and Euphrates depended on luck with the vicious rivers. Culturally the Nile impacted religion differently than in Mesopotamia while their religion was impacted by the Tigris and Euphrates.

According to Hammurabi's Law Code and the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Mesopotamian society valued and strong central authority to ensure prosperity through hard work and vigilance, while Egyptian’s emphasis on faith required humility and submission to one’s superiors to create a stable society. Hammurabi’s Law Code reveals the Mesopotamian values of hard work and self-vigilance while advocating a powerful central authority. Historically, Babylon, as well as all of Mesopotamia, needed to build strong and complex irrigation systems along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for farming, due to their wild and unpredictable nature. Without such canals, the river’s random flooding rendered farming impossible, and the large scale of this project necessitated a strong central authority to monitor food production. The

Mesopotamia and Egypt both bordered rivers. Mesopotamia is translated as “the land between two rivers.” This name is suiting, because Mesopotamia was located in the fertile crescent, surrounded by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Egypt was located in the desert, but bordered the Nile River, the land’s only water source. The Nile served as not only a water source, but a God that Egyptians worshipped. In Mesopotamian culture, the Tigris and Euphrates were not considered Gods, but the people prayed for successful harvest seasons. The bodies of water surrounding Egypt and Mesopotamia benefitted and challenged the lands in different ways, as the Nile benefitted Egypt by acting as a means of transportation which lead to the unification of the kingdoms in Egypt, and challenged the Egyptians by sometimes having shallow floodwaters leaving thousands starving. In Mesopotamia, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers benefitted civilization by luring the first settlers (the Sumerians) to the fertile crescent with the land’s rich soil provided by the rivers, but the rivers challenged Mesopotamians by flooding inconsistently leaving farmers guessing when the ideal time to seed was

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

The region between the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers was home to an original civilization, Mesopotamia. They knew of few cultures other than themselves and had no basis for what their lives should be and therefore developed their own way of life. They developed their own religion and laws to follow, they were building civilization. Out of their religion, gods and goddesses emerged

In order to understand a society, with the religion that it follows and the social structures that are set, we need to understand the place that it lies, which is their geographical influences. The geographical influences hold a tremendous impact on the people that it consumes. Evidence has shown that the physical and emotional attributes imposed upon a person are dictated by the geography that surrounds them. Adaptations are made to survive within the standards set by the geography of a certain place. In example, a person living in a climate with a significant amount of sunlight, compared to a person living under little sunlight, will have darker skin to prevent harm from the rays of the sun. Both Mesopotamia and Egypt were dependent upon a source of water; the Nile for Egypt and the Tigris and Euphrates for Mesopotamia. The difference between the two lands is that Egypt took place on either side of the Nile, whereas Mesopotamia was a valley laid between the Tigris and Euphrates. Sitting on

Early cultural development of Mesopotamian cities and their religions, rituals and resources of civiliztion subsist and Hebrew religion, and the Code of Hammurabi. Between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which is now known as Iraq, civilization written history of (Sumerian, Amorite, Babylonian, Gutian or Guti, Kassite, Assyrian), sources dated back around 3000 B.C.E. Mesopotamian Civilizations, (GVRL) Page 81. One of the oldest evidence of written from the Uruk Period, and Early Dynastic Period. However, Kingship governed the people and their rules mediate between the different social groups are proof that they represented relationship with the gods. Yet, the King would establish the law and one of the “law codes,” include the Code