I deeply agree with Jared Diamond’s ideas on the relationship between geography and history. Geography has had a lot to do with the way early civilizations grew and developed over the course of history. In this essay, I will explain in detail how and why certain civilizations grew quickly. Through my studying and interest in history I can see that it’s very clear that certain civilizations grew faster than others based on geographical location. There is a strong and clear link between geographical location and the history of early civilizations. Agriculture and geography are very closely linked. In our modern civilization with advanced agricultural innovations, geography no longer plays as large of a role. In arid climates, crops can grow with the right irrigation systems and are now much more predictable with pesticides and genetic engineering. In ancient times however, if the landscape wasn’t farmable, it generally stayed that way. Irrigation has been around since 6000 BC but generally depended on the flooding of nearby river systems. The area between the Tigris and Euphrates River was known by the Greeks as Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia was located in the heart of the Fertile Crescent, an extremely abundant …show more content…
Through radiocarbon dating early villages, there is a clear link between the end of the drought and the emergence of early civilizations. I strongly believe there is a connection between the end of the draught and emergence of a substantial civilization in Mesopotamia. The area became more hospitable after the drought and because of that, people were able to flourish and set roots. With agriculture, Mesopotamia grew into a larger civilization. Though the area didn’t have everything needed for a city, the people of Mesopotamia were very innovative; using mud to build their buildings since wood and stone materials were not
During the years of 3500 BC to 2500 BC, the geography of a land often impacted a civilizations development in great measures. Depending on the resources available or the detriments present due to certain topographical characteristics like rivers or deserts, a civilization could flourish or collapse. By studying the geographic features of growing societies like the Nile, Euphrates, and Tigris Rivers as well as the Mediterranean Sea of Egypt and Mesopotamia, the link between developing cultures and geography will be examined through sources, including Egypt: Ancient Culture, Modern Land edited by Jaromir Malek and Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization by Paul Kriwaczek. To determine the extent of its influence, this investigation will attempt to compare and contrast the role of geography in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, focusing on the civilizations’ various periods of development and settlement.
Before the beginning of history, people from across the land gradually developed numerous cultures, each unique in some ways while the same time having features in common. Mesopotamia and Egypt are important to the history of the world because of religious, social, political and economic development. Mesopotamia was the first civilization, which was around 3000 B.C., and all other countries evolved from it. Mesopotamia emerged from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The soil was rich and agriculture was plentiful. The Semitic nomads occupied the land around Akkad. The Sumerians established the city-states. Villages became urban centers. Because of the formation of the city-states everything flourished. However, Mesopotamian agriculture lacked stones; therefore mud brick became their major building block. Their diet consisted of fish from the rivers. The rivers were flooded frequently destroyed the cities. Mesopotamians made their living from crops and pottery.
The first civilization to rise was the Mesopotamia, located in present day Iraq, between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and Egypt, along the Nile River. It’s split in two ecological zones. In the south Babylonia (irrigation is vital) and north Assyria (agriculture is possible with rainfall and wells). By 4000 B.C.E., people had settled in large numbers in the river-watered lowlands of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Archaeologists have shown that large-scale irrigation appeared only long after urban civilization had already developed, meaning major waterworks were a consequence of urbanism (population). Mesopotamia cities were made of people called the Summerians in the land of Sumer located on the south of Babylonia. The Summerian city was one of
Geography has provided natural resources and boundaries for cultures continuously over many generations. The topography led civilization to have protection from other cultures and plentiful natural resources that they used for human survival or for an economic profit. With a good amount of resources available, cultures like India and China thrived in the creation and expansion of their civilizations. Geography helped India and China civilization develop their culture, spread their religion, and determine the rate at which each civilization’s ideas were transferred. The physical features that India and China lived on helped their cultures form and thrive into their current form.
Mesopotamia’s climate consisted of temperatures rising from 110 to 120°F in the summer. This led to many dry days that eventually led to a severe drought. Basically, there was little to no rainfall from the months of May until October. This led to the devastation of agriculture. Not only did the Sumerians have to deal with the effects of the droughts, they had to deal with the consequences of flooding as well. The Tigris and the Euphrates surrounded Mesopotamia thus when it would overflow more devastation would occur such as the washouts of embankments. (Hause, 2001, pg. 7)
Agriculture plays an enormous part in having a functioning society. The farming fields in the
As the empire expanded, there was a need for more farmland, but there was not always a water source available. The Incas grew corn, cotton and squash. Garciasco de la Vega, speaking about the farming in the Incan Empire, said, “The engineers showed great cleverness and skill in supplying water for the crops since only scattered sections of the land could grow corn” (Document 4). Their success with irrigation helped them expand their empire. Without it, it would be more difficult for them to subsist in a growing empire.
The Mesopotamian geography affected their society because Mesopotamia was located on an open plain without protection from foreign intrusions. Egypt, on the other hand, was centered on the Nile River ad protected by natural boundaries. This allowed Egypt?s kingdom for prosper and last for thousands of years. Mesopotamia was not considered a nation or country, it was considered a region between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers that established a number of highly organized city-states. Since each city-state was independent there was no capital of Mesopotamia.
The success of the Indus River Valley, Ancient Greece, and Aksum was all based on their geography. They faced some difficulties, but still managed to maintain the empire in order to create the best empire possible. Despite mountainous land in Greece, hilly land in Aksum and unpredictable flooding in Indus, all of these civilizations were able to benefit from the geography and become the best civilization possible. All of the ancient empires were amazing and adapted to their landscape in spectacular ways, but these 3 civilizations highlight the significance of the phrase, “geography is the mother of history.” We can learn from all of these civilizations to improve our community by using some of the ancient methods to adapt to the geography of the location.
Millions of years ago the procreant low lands in the river basins of Euphrates and Tigris was probably the home of some animal life, but no great civilizations. However, things change over time, and just a few thousand years ago the same fertile low lands in the river basins of Euphrates and Tigris became the home of a very rich and complex society. This first high society of man was located in what some still call "Mesopotamia". The word "Mesopotamia" is in origin a Greek name meaning "land between the rivers." The name is used for the area watered by the Euphrates and Tigris and its tributaries, roughly comprising modern Iraq and part of Syria. South of modern Bagdad, this alluvial plain was called the land of Sumer and Akkad. Sumer is the most southern part, while the land of Akkad is the area around modern Bagdad, where the Euphrates and Tigris are closest to each other. This first high, Mesopotamian society arose as a combined result of various historical, institutional, and religious factors. The reality of these factors occurring at a specific place within the fabric of space / time indeed established the basis for this first high civilization. Items like irrigation, topography, and bronze-age technical innovations played a big part along with the advent of writing and the practice of social conditioning (through the use of organized religion) in this relatively early achievement of man.
Agriculture began approximately 12, 000 years ago and became the most important human advancement because it necessitated human settlement at specific areas. Apart from freeing man from hunting and gathering, advancements in agriculture accelerated the development of man, because of the availability of enough food, making man to diversify. Gorlinski writes that early forms of agriculture link to Fertile Crescent, which is the land that runs from South Turkey into Iraq, Syria, and finally to Lebanon and Israel (34). Moreover, it is apparent that agriculture enabled human civilization because it required extensive and organized human labor compared to hunting and gathering. In this way, agriculture was important in Rome, despite the fact that
The blessing and curse of the Agricultural Revolution is advocated with its augmentation and dissemination. Taking the stipulative definition of “blessing” and “curse” from the original premise, one can only superimpose the layman’s terms of “negative” and “positive”. Upon examination of the two classifications within the Neolithic Period and ancient Mesopotamian civilization one can confirm the premise. Therefore, the agriculture revolution was a blessing and a curse for humanity. Human society began to emerge in the Neolithic Period or the New Stone Age. This new age began around 9,000 B.C.E. by the development of agriculture in the region surrounding the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and what is commonly referred to as “The Fertile Crescent” located in West Asia.1 The very development of agriculture had benefited humans by no longer having to move about in search of wild game and plants. Unencumbered by nomadic life humans found little need to limit family size and possessions and settled in a single location for many years. One negative aspect of this settling is that the population increased so much so that wild food sources were no longer sufficient to support large groups. Forced to survive by any means necessary they discovered using seeds of the most productive plants and clearing weeds enhanced their yield.2 This also lead humans to develop a wider array of tools far superior to the tools previously used in the Paleolithic Period or Old Stone Age. The spread of the Agricultural Revolution in the Neolithic Period also cultivated positive aspects by creating connections with other cultures and societies. Through these connections they exchanged knowledge, goods, and ideas on herding and farming.3 Another major positive aspec...
Societies and the environment have long had a powerful relationship with each other, one in which the environment held a large influence over the location and prosperity of a society, and societies in turn have put a lot of energy into shaping the surroundings to their advantage. One of the first ways this will be illustrated is in the tendency of geographical characteristics to attract people to certain localities and push them away from others. Secondly, taking it a step further, which civilizations became trade centers is shown to be directly connected with their geographical position, demonstrating the environment’s profound effect on trade and prosperity. Then, diving into the contrasting side, how societies responded to and, in turn,
In ancient civilizations, geography affected them in so many ways, like the climate, resources, and the landscape that they use. The climates affect them because monsoons were offend common that brought heavy rain and wind to the area. The mountains provided them with protection against invasions, but the mountains were also used for trading with other to get the resources that they needed.
Above, is a quote from a man recovered from an article of writing back in the ancient Egyptian times. Irrigation is a form of re-routing water, to parts of land that the water is needed, in farming terms. For Example, there are two crops, one crop is getting all the water, and it’s flooding. With irrigation, the farmer will re-route the water towards the other crop, as well as sharing the water with the crop that was being flooded. So now, both crops are getting enough water and they are not flooding nor suffering from drought.