Mesopotamia And Egypt Compare And Contrast

The political structure of Ancient Egypt was made of a government structure that was more enforced whereas the pharaoh was the Devine ruler, who the people perceived as a god and could not address while directly looking at him in the face (Backman). Noblemen appointed into the political structure were relatives of the pharaoh and upon his death, his son was to succeed him (Connan, 33-50). It was believed that Pharaoh descended from the gods and had the ability to ensure prosperity and controlled rituals which granted continued flow of river Nile that enhanced irrigation (Connan, 33-50). There was a high rate of bureaucracy in Ancient system influenced by this political structure and most people were illiterate peasants, they were highly regulated (Backman). On the contrary, Mesopotamia consisted of states that governed themselves before the proclamation of Sargon the great as the king in 2370BCE (Backman). The king here was not considered as divine and the majority of those who served in the political structure were just noble men from noble families with no blood relations with the ruling class (Connan, 33-50).

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.

In conclusion there is many reasons why Mesopotamia and Egypt develop into a successful civilization some of them are the nile river floods that people depended on for food and water and the rivers that provided resources such as transportation, trade and plants or pharaoh that the Egyptians believed in and thought he had absolute power or the sumerians and akkadians that were polytheistic and believed in many gods and keeping the gods happy for their own happiness, also Hammurabi code that concerned to a daily life laws like making justice or destroying evil and wicked all of these reasons made Mesopotamia and egypt successful

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

Egypt and Mesopotamia, although similar, are different as a result of one major natural resource: a river. Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia were an agricultural based society that believed in the existence of many deities; however, they differed in the aspect of how they evolved as an agricultural society and whether they feared or praised their gods.

Mesopotamia and Egypt are very important to history in many ways such as religion, social, and economic development. All Countries evolved around Mesopotamia which was the first civilization in around 3000 BC. Egypt on the other hand emerged around 3100 BC. To compare both women from each civilization it is important to know the history between the two civilizations. Ancient Egypt gave power to a pharaoh which commanded wealth, and resources to all people in Egypt. Not only that the pharaoh was a lord to both the lower and upper parts of Egypt. The pharaoh was also a temporal and a spiritual ruler. Mesopotamia was somewhat alike; class structure was divided into two classes. The king was at the top with the free commoners on the bottom.

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.

Throughout history, many civilizations have emerged and blossomed, but the ones that could be perceived as prevalent all have one common trait; a form of religion or religious ceremony in their culture. Two of the most religiously influenced ancient civilizations that we know of, Egypt and Mesopotamia, had very dominant and differing religions in the cultures that they inhabited. That being said, a question is to be asked, what was different about the religions that made them contrast? Which religion was healthier for the civilization in terms of spiritual freedom, or the contentment of the collective peoples? What is certain, however, is that the many varying variables of these ancient civilizations religions are based on the habitat that these ancient peoples lived and are directly correlative to how they saw their gods, in an almost psychosomatic sense. A direct relation between geography and the level of fear and worship would be apt to label the cause of the differences between these civilizations.

In the first civilization, both Mesopotamia and Egypt relied on a hunter-gatherer economic system, during that time, every country in the world strived on it. Mesopotamia had rich soil for agriculture, but experiences floods. For the Mesopotamians, these floods would destroy major cities, but for the Egyptians it would keep the soil rich all year long without the damage that the Mesopotamians had experienced.

On the one hand, Mesopotamian realized that drawing pictures was the simpler to record or spread information. Then the cuneiform was used in writing to convey abstract ideas as a Sumerian form of writing. The Egyptian also created their own writing form hieroglyphs. They were symbols and the origins of the Alphabet. Secondly, Mesopotamian also built the first school for male students came from wealthy families to study the Sumerian literature and write compositions of their own. So that we could have the view of their life, mathematical, religious texts today. The rich families in Egypt also had the right of getting education and enjoyed better life conditions than poor or common people. Thirdly, Egypt and Mesopotamia had different religion and beliefs. However, they were both practiced polytheism. It means they believed that more than one god ran the rule of the world. Mesopotamians thought that their gods were like humans and lived in human beings body. Egyptians gods were considered as represents of mental, physical, nature and life. Especially, they thought that “pharaoh as the leader if religious and political life in the old-kingdom. He commanded the wealth, resources and people of Egypt.(19) Pharaoh was thus a guarantee to his people, a pledge that the gods of Egypt (strikingly unlike those of Mesopotamia) cared for their

There are differences and similarities between Mesopotamia and Egypt cultures and one of the differences is there geographical location and what their surroundings consisted of. Egypt location made it difficult for invaders to invade their cities, especially since one side of Egypt was the Mediterranean Sea and the other boundaries was desert. Mesopotamia was more prone to attacks even though they had the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, however, the area around them was more wide open (Matthews, Noble, Platt, 2014). Another area that the two were different was in how they treated their women, for one, Egypt would treat their woman with respect along with the ability to own a business, therefore, they would have a legal status but is was

Each early civilization was different and unique in their own way, they all came up with their own advancements and all created a unique society. However each early civilization wasn't entirely unique, they each learned from the previous societies mistakes and shortcomings. Being the first civilization Mesopotamia acted as the template for all civilizations after it. Mesopotamia established city-states, a monarchy, polytheism, irrigation, and created a currency system as well as a writing system. Despite having a seemly organized society, Mesopotamia was divided and at odds with one another over their water source, and thus the civilization crumbled. In contrast Egypt was unified, albeit forcefully as they were surrounded by nothing but desert,

The dawn of the Mesopotamian civilization was around 3,000 B.C. and lasted till roughly 1,700 B.C. The beginning of the Egyptian civilization was about the same time as the Mesopotamians. However, the fall of the Egyptian civilizations was around 1,200 B.C. The Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations emerged and dominated their areas, which left an impact on our knowledge of Western Civilization.

Comparative Analysis of Mesopotamian and Egyptian Civilization Civilization is widely defined as an advanced state of human society, in which a high level of culture, science, industry, and government has been accomplished. The Fertile Crescent is a boomerang-shaped region of rich soil that extends from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf (Dowling, 2014). Mesopotamia, made agriculture possible in this Fertile Crescent. The first site of civilization was Mesopotamia, forming around 3500 B.C.E, but there was also another civilization that followed, which was the Egyptian civilization formed after 5500 B.C.E. along the flood plain of the Nile River. They were strongly influenced by geography, natural resources, and social