The Impact of Location on the History of the Middle East Region - Essay Example

How the middle Eat contributed into the development of civilization is not questionable. According to Goldschmidt Jr., “many Westerners do not know what they have learned from Islamic culture” (Goldschmidt, 2009). From the clothes that people wear, to the games that people play, to the food that people eat and substances that people drink, the Middle East had given her own share in developing the world’s lifestyle and culture. Take into consideration the root words of cotton, chess, coffee, kebab and pita.

(Goldschmidt, 2009). Looking into the Middle East’s physical setting plays a very big impact on this region’s cultural and historical nature. By definition, Middle East as running from the Nile Valley to the Muslim lands of Central Asia (roughly, the valley of the Amu Darya, or Oxus, River), from southeast Europe to the Arabian Sea (Goldschmidt, 2009). Yet, this region had stretched and shrunk complexly throughout the history over dynasty affairs and world wars. This location makes it more natural for the region to be hot and dry which led into a distinction between nomads, who were not able to live up through the challenge of the climate and farmers who were able to turn the climate challenge into productive agriculture.

The Middle East is the natural crossroads of the Afro-Eurasian landmass and it is also the "land of the seven seas" (Goldschmidt, 2009). This makes the region readily accessible for all traders making the growth of their civilization even more rapid than the others. But the relative growth of civilization in the Middle East different from those that has become a world power in history like China, United States and Britain, who saw themselves as primarily isolated but were able to develop and grow as a civilized nation as well.

But as regards to its natural resources, Middle East’s location, unlike the European Countries and the United States, is not gifted of grassy plains and yet, this location magnified the region’s importance because of the huge petroleum deposits present here. Most importantly, the location of Middle East, as it is, “has contributed to the diversity of its inhabitants”