River Valley Civilization Similarities/Differences

The early river valley civilizations did many things in their time that affected the future today. The early river valley civilizations were the first to use a written language, develop laws and beliefs, and also had many innovations that affect today's world. All of the civilizations contributed to different categories including writing, laws, and innovation to affect the future with setting their own rules and invention.

China and Egypt required strong leadership to keep their lands and people in order. Without both of these strong, successful governments, both the nations could not have survived or thrived and would have quickly fell into ruins. However, China and Egypt both had contrasting governments. China’s government was feudalistic. Since China was a very vast nation, nobles watched over pieces of the land, and the emperor watched over the nobles. Egypt had a Pharaoh who watched over Upper and Lower Egypt. This is one difference: China had separate rulers reporting to one ruler, while Egypt had one ruler over everyone. The Chinese created an easy, efficient way of keeping track of everything happening in the kingdom. Egypt, however, was not nearly as huge as China, so a Pharaoh helped to unify Upper and Lower Egypt. The pharaoh is considered to be a god in human form. On the other hand, in China, the emperor is simply a normal person with a special right called the Mandate of Heaven, which is sent from heaven. This is the Chinese explanation for wars and rebellion against the emperor. If a ruler is wicked or foolish, he loses the Mandate to Heaven and, therefore, the right to rule. Although very different, both governments base their entire rule on divine forces; the emperor is chosen by heaven and the pharaoh is a

The earliest forms of civilizations were said to be located on the three river valleys of the Tigris-Euphrates River in ancient Mesopotamia, the Nile River in ancient Egypt and the Huang He and Indus River in ancient India and China. These three river valley civilizations had many differences yet still lived common life styles. Although the civilizations are located on different continents, they share similar social, political, and economic beliefs from their intellectual developments to types of government to religious beliefs and trading systems.

This can be seen when looking at the geography of where these civilizations originated. Just like the other three societies, Chinese civilization grew among the Huang He River, or the Yellow River. The river supplied water for the Chinese to be able to practice agriculture. The river also gave them a mode of transportation to move goods from place to place, just like the Harappans. Another characteristic of the Chinese that is similar to the Harappans was the fact that we do not know much about them because they did not leave any records behind. Life along the Yellow River was also similar to life along the Nile. The people of both civilizations built ditches and canals in the rivers in order to use them for transportation and irrigation. They both used water to feed their people, and cattle as they raised them along the river, and to use for their crops, as both rivers were fertile. Unlike the Nile, the Yellow River brought both positive and negative consequences. The Yellow River was also given another name by its people, the River of Sorrows. This was because the Yellow River did not flood regularly like the Nile, it was irregular. Some years the Yellow River would not flood at all, and in other cases it would flood and bring devastation to its people. The Egyptians luckily did not experience this with the Nile River, instead they celebrated it and called it their giver of

Politically, although both Egypt and Mesopotamia had one main ruler, Egypt was centralized and whereas Mesopotamia was decentralized. Egypt centralized government led

The ancient cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt develop into successful civilizations by having floods from the nile river that provided water, food and fertile area in the middle of the desert as document 1 states. In document 2 it says that they also had rivers that provided many resources such as transportation, trade as well as plants, the rivers were surrounded by deserts.

Ancient Mesopotamia and the Indus River Valley civilization were two incredibly productive and successful empires. While Mesopotamian politics were slightly less focused on religion and more on other aspects, the two societies shared many social characteristics. They both had defined social hierarchies, as well as similar views on gender roles. These traits are helpful in explaining the similarities and differences between the two cultures.

Politically, China and Egypt were similar and different. China and Egypt were similar in their type of government because both civilizations had dynasties. Dynasties were a type of government where a civilization only had one leader who when they died would pass on the title of leader to a family member, usually a son. A great example of this in the Egyptian civilization is the Egyptian ruler, the Pharaoh. In the ancient Egyptian government, Pharaohs were their leaders, and was also a title passed down through the family as the previous one died, in fact, ancient Egypt had 31 different dynasties from 3000 BCE to 332 BCE. Just like Egypt, China was ran by a dynastic government, which was made up of a family that rose to power by claiming that they had a “Mandate From Heaven” which was a belief that the leader or family had their gods approval to rule. China and Egypt were different in how they governed their lands because in Egypt, the Pharaoh was the supreme leader and ruled with a cabinet of advisors and helpers who worked together

The river valley civilizations of Sumer, Egypt, India, and China were historical pillars of innovation. Not only were they each responsible for having forged new technological innovations, but they each created their own system of writing as well. Each of them meets the requirements of being labeled as a “civilization” because each had a form of social organization, trade and economic activity, government, division of labor, and some form of record keeping. What sets them apart from one another are the specifics within the similarities they shared. These similarities and differences within their technological innovations and writing are numerous.

I chose the Mesopotamia and the Nile River Valley. These two civilizations are two of the most favorable ancient civilizations. Although these civilizations are similar in many ways, the small, but impacting differences it what makes these two civilizations stand out the most. The Nile River Valley was located in northern Africa in a country called Egypt. Mesopotamia was located in modern day Iraq, Iran, Syria, Kuwait, and parts of Turkey. The origin of Mesopotamia comes from the meaning “between two rivers.” The land is between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Defining moments for human civilization began within these two.

The Neolithic Revolution was the major change in human life caused by the beginnings of farming. This revolution changed people’s lives in several ways. It changed the way people lived because before the Neolithic Revolution they relied on hunting and gathering food. It also changed the way they settled, because of this revolution they were able to live in villages for a long time, unlike before; they had to relocate often because their food source would become scarce.  The way civilizations lived changed because of the Neolithic Revolution. A civilization is a form of culture that consists of cities, advanced technology, specialized workers, complex institutions, and record keeping. The early river valley civilizations; which developed in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus, and China, had more similarities than differences. The river valley civilizations were similar when it came to their writing systems, inventions, and geography. However, they were also different when it came to writing systems and inventions.

The civilizations of the Nile River valley, the Mesopotamia valley, and Indus Valley marked human progress toward fixed settlements and the development of a rich culture. These civilizations shared many characteristics that contributed to their success. What made these civilizations unique were the contributions that each one gave to the world. They contributed their own ideas and accomplishments in the areas of religion, science, and mathematics. These contributions defined each civilization and how they would be remembered, as well as, their importance to the world.

The early cities of Mesopotamia fell from one warlord to another, and were constantly changing, unlike the kingdoms of Ancient Egypt that kept its stability. The Egyptians lived along the Nile River, which probably made it easier to govern the people. The King was the owner and ruler of all Egypt and was considered a god by the people. The economy was a royal monopoly, the peoples duties was to serve the King. In the old Kingdom

Ancient Indus, Egypt, and China civilization share common similarities and differences. Religion Priests were in high social class in the three civilizations. The government in Shang Dynasty hugely relied on oracle bone reading which is somewhat similar to fortune telling. People believed the results of the oracle bone reading was the answer from the god.

The Bronze Era consisted of four major river valley civilizations, the Nile in Egypt, Tigris-Euphrates in Mesopotamia, Huang He in China, and the Indus in India. These civilizations had the advantage of fertile soil and easy transportation due to the rivers that they lived by. All of these civilizations boomed when they began and survived for thousands of years, but one, the Indus Valley Civilization. Although the Indus Valley Civilization declined from 1900 BC to 1300 BC, nevertheless it was far more sophisticated than Mesopotamia because of their planned cities, their advanced drainage system, and their trade with Mesopotamia and within their civilization.