Similarities Between Ancient Egypt And Mesopotamia
People of the ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia lived in two different locations and interacted with two different environments. Both places were affected by water in different ways. Euphrates and Tigress rivers shaped the development of Mesopotamia whereas, the Nile, shaped the development of Egypt. At the end, the people of these lands were able to use this water to their benefit.
Mesopotamia is the land between the rivers Euphrates and Tigress. In the time when the first people arrived at Mesopotamia, it had a very severe climate with inadequate rainfall but also the two rivers would flood and destroy the crops before the people had a chance to collect them. However, this did not discourage the people from settling here. They adapted the environment
by making canals for irrigation and for controlling the movement of water during floods.
The development irrigation systems to control water and introduction of more advanced farming tools with time, resulted with emergence of farms capable of producing great amounts of food. As a result, the people were able to build city states like Uruk that depended on the food coming from such farmlands as long as they provided protection to farmers. As one can see, the people of Mesopotamia have established their civilization and its interaction with the environment has defined itself.
Although the Egyptian Civilization existed around the same time as Mesopotamian, its unique environment has made it different. The Egyptian farms needed irrigation systems not to save them from the floods, like the ones in Mesopotamia, but to compensate the lack of enough rainfall. Once this irrigation system was functional, the Egyptians were able to grow sufficient food on the black soil created by the floods to fuel their workers that worked on great projects like pyramids or their troops who unified Egypt.
Egyptians and Mesopotamians may have lived around the same age but, due to the environment in which they flourished, the impact of their environments on their civilizations varied. In the case of Mesopotamia, the rich farms promoted city states (later on unified by Sargon of Akkad) that depended on them. Whereas, in Egypt, the valley and the river Nile, has given the people a central government. With the natural barriers protecting Egypt, the kingdom was able to extend to far lands and establish a strong government. Therefore, we can see how the two different environments gave rise to two different settlements.
Mesopotamia is the land between the rivers Euphrates and Tigress. In the time when the first people arrived at Mesopotamia, it had a very severe climate with inadequate rainfall but also the two rivers would flood and destroy the crops before the people had a chance to collect them. However, this did not discourage the people from settling here. They adapted the environment
by making canals for irrigation and for controlling the movement of water during floods.
The development irrigation systems to control water and introduction of more advanced farming tools with time, resulted with emergence of farms capable of producing great amounts of food. As a result, the people were able to build city states like Uruk that depended on the food coming from such farmlands as long as they provided protection to farmers. As one can see, the people of Mesopotamia have established their civilization and its interaction with the environment has defined itself.
Although the Egyptian Civilization existed around the same time as Mesopotamian, its unique environment has made it different. The Egyptian farms needed irrigation systems not to save them from the floods, like the ones in Mesopotamia, but to compensate the lack of enough rainfall. Once this irrigation system was functional, the Egyptians were able to grow sufficient food on the black soil created by the floods to fuel their workers that worked on great projects like pyramids or their troops who unified Egypt.
Egyptians and Mesopotamians may have lived around the same age but, due to the environment in which they flourished, the impact of their environments on their civilizations varied. In the case of Mesopotamia, the rich farms promoted city states (later on unified by Sargon of Akkad) that depended on them. Whereas, in Egypt, the valley and the river Nile, has given the people a central government. With the natural barriers protecting Egypt, the kingdom was able to extend to far lands and establish a strong government. Therefore, we can see how the two different environments gave rise to two different settlements.