Thyra Juffs
Countries all around the world have advanced significantly in many different areas. The 5 main areas of civilization are advanced technology, complex institutions, specialization and division of labour, written records and advanced cities. I have chosen to show the similarities and differences between Ancient China and Ancient Egypt through advanced technology. Although Egypt and China are located in very different parts of the world, they both developed similarly. With China and Egypt both being river valley civilizations, it allowed them to advance in technology such as agriculture, metallurgy and astronomy because it allowed them to gain food surplus leading to population growth and allowing many different people to learn and create different things.
Ancient China and Ancient Egypt had very similar ways of agriculture. Like ancient China, the Egyptians domesticated various animals, “sheep, goats, cattle, pigs and geese were raised from earliest times and supplied milk, wool, meat, eggs, leather, skins, horn and fat” (Lowell N. Lewis, Agriculture & Horticulture in Ancient Egypt). They did not only use these animals for their products but also to help with their farming. China and Egypt are both river valley civilizations, allowing them to have a consistent amount of fresh water to drink as well as silty soil to grow crops on. Egypt had the Nile River, one of the most fertile places on the planet, while China had the Huang He or yellow river, which deposited large amount of dusty yellowish silt (McDougal Littell, 46). In northern China, people grew crops such as wheat and millet, while in the south, people grew rice. Other crops were grown such as tea, sugar and cotton. As China was equipped with many rivers, it also allowed the Chinese people to fish. Unlike China, Ancient Egypt produced the annual amount of approximately between 1.5 and 2.5 million tons of corn (Lowell N. Lewis, Agriculture