Tigris And Euphrate Similarities

Some of the earliest civilizations were similar in many ways, but there were also differences, based on the geography, climate, and culture. One of the more obvious similarities were the location. The first people settled around rivers. Rivers are incredibly important for many reasons, including a source of freshwater, which is essential to survival, a food source, since animals tend to gather around water, and transportation, especially before things like boats and trains were invented. However, the rivers that early humans settled around were very different from one another. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia were even different from each other. The Tigris has a greater volume than the Euphrates, and was more prone to floods. Because of this, the Euphrates was the main source for the Sumerian irrigation systems. All the same, the Tigris was essential. Its greater bulk is caused in part by its higher silt content, which, after floods, allowed the Sumerians to farm. Despite their usefulness, these rivers were harsh to the new inhabitants of “the land between the rivers”. In Egypt, it was a different story. The Nile river was kind to them, with scheduled floods that left behind the rich soil

The Sumerian city-states, though they warred often, were able to trade goods and ideas between themselves, which helped developed their economies and cultures. The Egyptians could trade with other african empires as well. This, along with the number of Hebrews found in the area at points in time, contributed the the Egyptian culture in the same way. The Harappans also had outlying areas similar to the city-states of Mesopotamia, which had a similar impact. The Chinese, on the contrary, were pretty isolated, which forced them to be self-sufficient. It also limited their paradigms, since they believed China to be the center of the world, and everyone else to be