History Week 4

The Birth of Civilisations in Mesopotamia & Egypt

What factors were responsible for the development of civilisation in both Mesopotamia and Egypt? Assess the significance of these factors in determining the rise and fall of these civilisations.

(Bible History Online n.d., 'Ancient Trade Routes')

The development of the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilisations began mainly because of their proximities to water; Egypt built on the Nile and Mesopotamia was built between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates (Greenwood n.d., ¶7). Access to water allowed both civilisations to cultivate farmlands and provide ‘sustenance for large and growing populations’ (Brown 2006, ¶11). The rivers also provided an opportunity for technology to develop further, ‘creating irrigation systems’ as well as ‘complex system of canals, dikes, ditches, and reservoirs’ that helped predict the natural rise and fall of the rivers’ water level (Greenwood n.d., ¶7; Brown 2006, ¶11). Egyptian and Mesopotamian lives were beholden to water; the rise and fall of the rivers determined the quality and amount of food they were able to harvest. Climate also played an important part in both regions as it ‘alternated between the hot and the dry and the very wet, the latter producing flooding of the rivers and swamps’ which played havoc on the predictability of their water systems (Brown 2006, ¶10). Unfortunately in Mesopotamia, a combination of a ‘drop in water levels’ and over irrigation ‘led to a progressive salinization of the soil’ creating a lack of food from the poisoned fields in the region and forced the Mesopotamians to migrate elsewhere (Bakshi 2010, ¶2). Egypt also suffered a similar fate as ‘famine gripped the country and paralysed the political institutions’ due to low floods and in turn incited desperation and atrocity never before seen in the region with so much starvation that ‘those who remained habitually ate human flesh; parents even ate their own children’ (Hassan 2011, ¶8). Both civilisations, although extremely powerful and relatively astute in technology, ‘fell prey to the devastating effects of the very water that once supported [their] lavish existence’ (Bakshi 2010, ¶2).

References

Bakshi, G 2010, Water In The Middle East - Shaping Civilizations Of The Past And Future, http://www.countercurrents.org/bakshi080610.htm, [Accessed 3 November 2012]

Brown, R 2006, Ancient Civilizations to 300 BC Introduction: The Invention and Diffusion of Civilization, http://www.uncp.edu/home/rwb/lecture_ancient_civ.htm, [Accessed 3 November 2012]

Greenwood, N n.d., Early River Valley Civilisations, http://old.clevelandstatecc.edu/courses/ngreenwood/history%201110/online_presentations/first_river_valley_civilizations.htm, [Accessed 3 November 2012]

Hassan, F 2011, The Fall Of The Egyptian Old Kingdom, http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/apocalypse_egypt_01.shtml#five, [Accessed 3 November 2012]

Images

Bible History Online n.d., ‘Ancient Trade Routes’, picture, http://www.bible-history.com/maps/maps/map_ancient_trade_routes_mesopotamia.html, [Accessed 3 November 2012]