Four Great River Civilizations
Agricultural History of the Four Great River Civilizations
Introduction
The four great river civilizations involved four rivers; Yellow River, Indus River, Tigris and Euphrates River and Nile River. The people that were involved were the Chinese, the Mesopotamians, Egyptians and Indians of the Indus valley. The civilizations were characterized by their specific forms of literature, their modes of agriculture, their forms of governance and the art that was involved. The main reason for the birth of these civilizations was the fact that there was ready water to irrigate the crops and for human consumption. The other reason was the fact that the soils were rich with minerals because of the year in year out floods in the four great rivers. Lastly, …show more content…
Though they had use of such tools like the hoe and slough, there was no water system to channel the river water to the crops that were farther away. Water was majorly drawn from the river by containers and then irrigated to the crops. In a situation that there was no siltation in the farm, the farmers would have to use other alternatives to fertilize their crops. The most common fertilizer that was used was dung from the pigeons (Janick, 2014). Egyptian agriculture involved the growth of radishes, beans, lettuce and leeks, amongst a handful of other crops. The land had was majorly suitable for legumes with had abundant nutrients in the soil. The legumes were rotated with the other crops in the farms so as the plants could absorb nitrogen from the soil. The unification of the south and the north kingdoms was made necessary through the water transport that was created by the Nile River by 3000 BCE (Janick, …show more content…
The horticulture civilizations occurred before 2100 BC. The farmers were initially engaged in a nomadic lifestyle. The culture of cultivating grains was imitated from the early inhabitants of the Yellow River (Lavelle, 2014). The nomadic life did not provide a sustainable source of food to the Zhou tribe. The tribe was forced to only feed on meat and milk. When cereal agriculture was engaged, then the tribe could have a consistent and more variety of food. The Chinese people associated the new cereal agricultural skills with help from Hou Ji who was their God. Hou Ji gave farmers the skills on how to cultivate, harvest and store their crops. Also, He helped them to select quality seeds that sow very high yields. Farming skills were mainly learned through apprentice from those that who had invented the various skills. The learned skills incorporated innovating better farm equipment and breeding quality seeds (Lavelle, 2014). It took a very long time for the Zhou tribe to leave nomadic and settle for cereal cultivation
Introduction
The four great river civilizations involved four rivers; Yellow River, Indus River, Tigris and Euphrates River and Nile River. The people that were involved were the Chinese, the Mesopotamians, Egyptians and Indians of the Indus valley. The civilizations were characterized by their specific forms of literature, their modes of agriculture, their forms of governance and the art that was involved. The main reason for the birth of these civilizations was the fact that there was ready water to irrigate the crops and for human consumption. The other reason was the fact that the soils were rich with minerals because of the year in year out floods in the four great rivers. Lastly, …show more content…
Though they had use of such tools like the hoe and slough, there was no water system to channel the river water to the crops that were farther away. Water was majorly drawn from the river by containers and then irrigated to the crops. In a situation that there was no siltation in the farm, the farmers would have to use other alternatives to fertilize their crops. The most common fertilizer that was used was dung from the pigeons (Janick, 2014). Egyptian agriculture involved the growth of radishes, beans, lettuce and leeks, amongst a handful of other crops. The land had was majorly suitable for legumes with had abundant nutrients in the soil. The legumes were rotated with the other crops in the farms so as the plants could absorb nitrogen from the soil. The unification of the south and the north kingdoms was made necessary through the water transport that was created by the Nile River by 3000 BCE (Janick, …show more content…
The horticulture civilizations occurred before 2100 BC. The farmers were initially engaged in a nomadic lifestyle. The culture of cultivating grains was imitated from the early inhabitants of the Yellow River (Lavelle, 2014). The nomadic life did not provide a sustainable source of food to the Zhou tribe. The tribe was forced to only feed on meat and milk. When cereal agriculture was engaged, then the tribe could have a consistent and more variety of food. The Chinese people associated the new cereal agricultural skills with help from Hou Ji who was their God. Hou Ji gave farmers the skills on how to cultivate, harvest and store their crops. Also, He helped them to select quality seeds that sow very high yields. Farming skills were mainly learned through apprentice from those that who had invented the various skills. The learned skills incorporated innovating better farm equipment and breeding quality seeds (Lavelle, 2014). It took a very long time for the Zhou tribe to leave nomadic and settle for cereal cultivation