Mesopotamia Code Of Laws Essay

Mesopotamia was a decentralized civilization, and resulted with many rulers leading the many city-states within the empire. Due to the many wars occurring within, kings were originally war leaders, and the function of defense and war, including leadership of a trained army, remained vital. Due to being many rulers within the empire, there were many internal conflicts, let alone the outside ones, which resulted in Mesopotamia further advanced its empire by developing ideas for a bureaucracy and laws, by using Hammurabi’s code. It laid down the procedure for law courts and regulated property rights and duties of family members, setting harsh punishments for crimes. This focus on standardizing a legal system was one of the features of early civilization. Also, the political structure there was enforced by none other than the Sumerians, which can be seen in many similar ideas and traits passed on today’s modern

In regards to interactions between humans and the environment, Mesopotamians were superior in not only utilizing their environment in agriculture, but also in metallurgy. Soon after 6000 BCE, humans in Mesopotamia began using irrigation techniques to improve agriculture in the region, and started working particularly with bronze and iron in the formation of tools and weapons. The people of early Mesoamerica began experimenting with the cultivation of things like squash and beans by

The first civilizations and the rise of empires began with small groups or villages existing with the use of hunting, fishing, and foraging. (William J. Duiker and Jackson J. Spielvogel, World History, vol. 1, 1) Within a few thousand years, people learned how to cultivate food crops and this led to an increase in population. Increased food production resulted in larger communities. The cities began to expand their cultural and religious developments leading to the beginnings of civilization. (Duiker, World History, 1) The first civilizations emerged in Mesopotamia and Egypt during the fourth and third millennia B.C.E and had various components in common. Each of these civilizations was established in a river valley so they were able to provide and produce the agricultural resources needed to survive and uphold the population. (Duiker, World History, 1) Mesopotamia developed in the valley between the Tigris and Euphrates River known as “the land between the rivers.” These rivers provided irregular and catastrophic flooding for the city-state. They created an intensive irrigation system to improve their agriculture. The first people to create Mesopotamian civilization were known as the Sumerians. These people were the first city builders and created the major city’s named Eridu, Ur, Uruk, Umma, and Lagash. These cities were built with surrounding walls and defense towers. A six-mile-long wall enclosed the city of Uruk. Mesopotamia lacked

From Document 6, it is known that the ancient Indus Valley created cities that were, “... laid out along a precise grid with a fortified citadel and a separate section for residential housing.” This great amount of urban planning contributed to humanity by being a model for city layouts later in time. Like the cities along the Indus River, densely populated locations such as New York City use the same type of grid city design. From ancient Mesopotamia, the Code of Hammurabi made a lasting impact on humanity. As said in Document 2, “This provided a model for other far-flung empires.”

The Law Code of Hammurabi is a native Babylonian text that served as the basic law code of society. The way of life was of the former Babylonians culture is totally different than what we are used to today. The text gives readers a vision of how ancient societies lived in these times. This law code gave society a diverse arrangement for citizens to follow. The social structure isn’t about wealth, they are judged by different standards (such as trial by ordeal). The husband is the dominant role of the house. The family structure is a patriarchal household and the power of the father is absolute. The Law Code of Hammurabi gives readers a clear thought of how unfair the earlier civilization of Babylonians existed through class structures, gender relations, and family structures.

Social Class is a big part of Mesopotamia. Standard of Ur has three levels; top levels with kings and big people, middle level with well rounded people, and bottom level with slaves and scrawny people. If a freed man strike the body of another freed man, he shall pay ten shekels in money. Meanwhile, if a slave of a freed man strike the body of a freed man, his ear shall be cut off (Hammurabi’s Code). That's saying a freed man has to pay, but a slave has to cut off his ear. Mesopotamia had a lot to do with social

The Mesopotamian people valued a strict, rules-oriented society. This can be seen by examining the Mesopotamian social classes, government and job specialization. In The Code of Hammurabi, created by the King of Babylon in 1780 B.C.E. it was evident that there were rules for every thing, and every thing you do has a consequence. The Mesopotamian life style was very rigid; this lifestyle can lead to disputes and outbreaks, which can have negative consequences in society.

The Law Code of Hammurabi was created by the ruler of Babylon, King Hammurabi, around the 18th century BCE (Law Code of Hammurabi, 30). It was written in the cuneiform script of the Akkadian language, which was the universal language of diplomacy at the time (Lecture 2 & 5). The efficiency of cuneiform and the growing use of the international Akkadian language led to the rapid spread of literacy which subsequently led to heightened government regulation (Lecture 5). The law code emerged in the midst of the growing importance of codified laws to maintain structure and regulate order in society. It disclosed the manifold inequalities functioning in Babylonian society at the time. However,

Mesopotamia is a rich flat plain created by deposits from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. At the southern end of this plain developed the first recognizable civilization, in the area known as Sumer. In 3000 B.C. Sumer contained a dozen or more city-states, each ruled by its own king and worshiped its own patron deity. The citizens of these city-states were classified into three classes: nobles and priests, commoners, and slaves. In the center of a

A need for social interaction, the ability to trade goods, and a place to worship would develop and cities would form. The first written languages called Cuneiform, were established by the Sumerians, which consisted of symbols and were used for record keeping with trade deals (Steele 12). Throughout the modern world, people are required to pay their taxes to the government, well you can thank the first rulers from Mesopotamia. Although they did not have a currency system set in place, so taxes were paid with livestock and grains (Steele 13). Government and religion would play off of each other. It was believed by the people of Mesopotamia that the humans were to serve the gods, Anu, was considered the Chief Sumerian god, and Inanna was the goddess of love and war ((Hunter, Corbishley 48). A much later time Hammurabi would be considered a fair ruler, but harsh ruler of the land. While other states had their own beliefs and rituals, they respected him. The Code of Hammurabi was carved into stone for all to see. The statue stood about seven feet tall, and consisted of 272 laws but, what made this different from prior rulers is the laws were passed down from the sun god, Shamash, and not from man (Kerrigan 25). If someone broke the law, there was no way around saying, I did not know. Punishment could vary depending on your status within the community. A surgeon would be held responsible, and his punishment would be

On Friday March 11, 2011 at 2:46pm, an earthquake struck Fukushima, Japan. The earthquake had a magnitude of 9.0 and did considerable damage in the region. This was a rare and complex double quake that lasted only about 3 minutes. Some events that happened that occurred after the earthquake are as followed: loss of power, loss of cooling, core damage, reactor pressure damage, and hydrogen explosion. This earthquake caused a 15-metre tsunami to strike the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Japan’s Tohoku coast. The tsunami caused much more damage than the earthquake. The tsunami resulted in 19,000 human deaths and destroyed millions of buildings.

As PBS (2007) reports, a new legal revolution is underway in China which promises a new form of interest articulation and perhaps aggregation: "Today's way forward is to build the idea of individual rights of the citizens…and that means changing the habits of the last few thousand years," The People's Court documentary states. What it essentially shows is a kind of democratic transformation in Communistic China. Indeed as nations become increasingly capitalistic (even in supposedly socialistic societies), the trend towards political democracy increases. India and China are both examples of such a trend. This paper will analyze the political systems of the two nations, including their political environments, structures, and functions; their political cultures, including their process and policy levels with an illustration of how political socialization occurs and the agents of that socialization; how interest articulation and aggregation occur; how public policy is crafted; why it seems the direction both nations are headed for is one that is more democratic; and what the future holds in store in terms of political culture, public policy and interest aggregation for both India and China.

The Mesopotamian laws, in contrast, were hard and unfortunate, which were set by King Hammurabi himself during his long reign of Babylon. In Hammurabi's court, it did not matter if you were rich or poor, if you broke the law, and were found guilty, you would be punished and required to follow the laws and punishments that were clearly written in stone (the code of Hammurabi).

| Most of the settlements began along the borders of Mesopotamia and date from the 10th to the 9th millennium BC. Because of the dry climate and flooding of the river, farmers had to adapt and eventually began to grow crops of fruits and vegetables.

Mesopotamia was a successful farming community early on. Utilizing the Tigris and Euphrates rivers this community was able to create a successful way of farming through the use of irrigation and drainage ditches (Duiker & Spielvogel, 2010). Once the use of irrigation became large scale and widely used it was possible to support a larger community base and thus encouraged expansion throughout the civilization.