Mesopotamia Geography Dbq

Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt were two early human civilizations that lived during the bronze age in harsh desert environments located not far from each other. Both civilizations were built around rivers that they depended on for survival. There is evidence that these rivers had great influence on both the societies politics and culture. Egypt was built around the very strong and reliable Nile River. Ancient Mesopotamia was established in the fertile crescent between the less reliable Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. During the bronze age both Ancient Mesopotamians and Ancient Egyptians developed forms of religion that highly reflected their habitat. They had many similarities in their politics even though they had completely different forms of government. Both societies were also known for their discoveries in art and technology. They developed their own forms of writing, different tools and architecture.

Throughout time, geography have affected many countries and affected things like the way they develop. Geographic factors have had a huge role in countries cultures and the lifestyle of the people. A country like Egypt have developed during the years because of their geography. They developed in many ways as advanced systems for building pyramids, natural resources. They thrived economically because of this and culturally.

Ancient Mesopotamia was impacted as result of geography because they gained fertile land and transportation by being located between the Tigris and Euphrates river. Know to be the Fertile Crescent. Mesopotamia literally translates to, “the land between two rivers.” This name shows the value of the rivers and the resources that it allowed for. As a result of the land being fertile, crops were easily grown and the civilization was able to grow a food surplus. Because of this food surplus, job specialization was able to form, creating a division of labor and social class. Furthermore, Mesopotamia had unpredictable flooding, which meant they had to find ways to cope with that issue. They learned to develop irrigation ditches, which would evenly

Mesopotamia is one of the earliest civilizations in the world; hence it is called the cradle of civilization. Located between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, Mesopotamia is the perfect word for this region since Mesopotamia also means the land between rivers. These two rivers created the Fertile Crescent which was surrounded by barren territories. People in this area gave up hunting and gathering and instead slowly shifted into agricultural means of getting food to help them survive. They started domesticating animals and planted their own crops. They began building houses for themselves which were primarily composed of reeds or mud bricks. Granaries, built by the people in Mesopotamia, were the place where they stored extra grains from their

Geography can have many major effects on the historical development of empires, nations, and people. Two river valley civilizations that were greatly affected by geography were Egypt and Mesopotamia. Geography had a large part in shaping the civilizations in both Egyptian and Mesopotamian river valleys. Geography had a large part in shaping the civilization in the Egyptian river valley. For example, the Nile River provided fertile soil and a good living environment, which could not be found anywhere else in the desert.

The civilizations from ancient Egypt and the Indus River Valley were highly complex and successful for thousands of years. Ancient Egypt was located in Northeastern Africa and was mainly comprised of dry desert. The Indus River Valley civilization was located in present day India and Pakistan. The geography of the Indus River Valley was very similar to that of Egypt, containing some farm land that is surrounded by desert. Both civilizations were dependent and influenced by nearby water sources, like the Nile(Egypt) and Ghaggar-Hakra(India and Pakistan) rivers.

Egypt, Mesopotamia, Shang/Zhou dynasties/China, and the Indus Valley are all different ancient river valley civilizations. All have different aspects of civilizations. Some aspects of civilization include technology, writing/language, specialized jobs, government, etc. These decisions were made based on the climate and biome the civilization was located in. These things needed to be taken into account because certain aspects of civilization were not suitable for every civilization.

Egypt influenced a lot of cities, countries , and our society today, along the Nile River. Egypt could have affected cities by how they took advantage of the Nile River, so they other people near the Nile could have made their lives easier by following the Egyptians’ transportation, technology, and irrigation systems. These advances helped farmers be more successful, because they grew more crops from using irrigation systems.. Irrigation is the way of watering crops. They also used a shadoof, which is a bucket on a long pole, so that they could get water from the Nile, to the basins.

Mesopotamia, the earliest of civilizations in the region between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Civilization developed in Mesopotamia because the soil provided a surplus of food. This surplus allowed people to settle down to village life and with these new settlements, towns and cities were created, a process known as urbanization. With settlements and a surplus of food came an upsurge in the population, a distinct division of labor, organization, mutual aid and monarchy.

First the Nile Valley is home to the Valley of the Kings, the iconic Pyramid. In fact Nile River was significant to Egyptian life because it provided the people fresh food, water, and many resources. The Egyptian’s life had more advantages than the Mesopotamian life because Egyptians had good defence and workers together. Eventually, Egyptians had multiple dilemmas with flooding in the Nile River. On the other hand, flood would lead the destruction of their homes and crops.

To begin, typically between June and September, the river would flood its banks. Since there is little rainfall in Egypt, this yearly flood would allow moisture back into the soil, improving the conditions for farming. This area of land “along the banks of the Nile [is called] the Kemet, or Black Land.” It is noted that “the land along the banks of the Nile River were extremely fertile.” In addition, the Nile River acted as a natural highway, creating opportunities to trade goods by water.

The Savanna, Sudan, and the Sahara desert all created a beneficial long distance trade and agriculture system, while the rain forest carried disease and flood. Since there were rough conditions leading with these, they had to educate themselves fully on agriculture and

Ancient egypt and Mesopotamia both were on river valleys and they relied in it for their everyday lives. They both resided on river valleys Mesopotamia on the Tigris and Euphrates while Egypt on the Nile river.Although, they share the river characteristic the difference lied in the way each civilization views the river.

In source one it states,” Egyptians used the Nile’s floods to become better farmers.” That meant that the Nile would flood and leave fertile mud for the farmers to grow their crops. Unlike other rivers the Nile’s floods were all similar. Also in the first source it says,” One reason for their success was irrigation. Egyptian farmers first dug basins, or bowl shaped holes, in the earth to trap flood waters. The farmers then dug canals to carry water from basins to fields beyond the rivers reach.”

The flood brought rich black soil and revived the farmlands. The Nile River also provided a lot of building materials. They used the mud from the riverbanks to make sun dried bricks. These bricks were used in building homes, walls, and other buildings. Since most of the major cities of Ancient Egypt were built along the Nile River, the river could be used like a major highway throughout the Empire.