Ancient Civilizations Governance - Essay Example

Running Head: Ancient Civilizations Governance Ancient Civilizations Governance s: Course: Date: Abstract The paper has focused on the ancient progression of governments in relation to the development of various ancient governments on how the rights and duties have evolved in different regions of the world up to the Middle Ages and how they exercised their rule over their citizenry. Differences between Ancient Mesopotamia and Pharaonic Egypt Mesopotamia was the region in within the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, where the ancient Mesopotamia existed during the "Bronze Age" which was ruled by the Assyrian empire. The region is believed to be one of the four valleys accredited as the cradle of civilization where the first writings were found. The habitants of Mesopotamia had a polytheistic religion, with same belief that the world was surrounded everywhere by water and it was a flat disc. As a region they had the same beliefs on the universe but they differed from one city state to another, where they refer to different gods and goddesses. The city states of the Sumerian people thrived independently of each other, where the larger cities would try and conquer the whole region to unify it under the latter's rule, where this was met with great resistance breaking down the empire most of the times (Clare, 1906). The Mesopotamian's believed that the authority of their rulers ( kings and queens) were anointed by their Gods, giving them total control over the populace as it was legitimized by the religion of the land. Other rulers were believed to be as gods being more than two-thirds gods and lesser human. The empire was divided into the city states which were known as provinces and were headed by a governor who made sure that people paid their taxes, gathered soldiers for war, supplied workers for building temples and was entirely in responsible for law enforcement in his state. Some of the early city states were Samaria, Damascus, and Nineveh and later there was Babylon which expanded much during the times of Hammurabi's rule (Collingwood, 1946). Though the rulers in Egypt did exercise power under such titles as the shepherd or the king of the universe, they were never believed to be real as it was the case in Mesopotamia. The period of the Pharaohs started when the Lower and Upper Egypt were unified under the same state. Same us Mesopotamia the Nile was the only source of livelihood in Egypt as were Tigris and Euphrates. There were royal governors appointed to national administrative centers by the pharaoh who were worshiped as the god. During this period of the fourth dynasty it was strong than ever and it's when the pyramids were built to bury the pharaohs (Clare, 1906). They had a centralized form of government to organize the vast kingdom and hold on together, where they used slave labor from around Egypt. They are also known to be the cradle of civilization as their counterparts in Mesopotamia, who also had specialist in writing, stone cutters for pyramid construction as well as mathematicians and painters. The kingdom came to for fall during the fifth dynasty when civil wars arose and the regional governors revolted against the royal family which undermined the unity of the government (Alcock, 2001). Ancient Hebrews of Israel and Judah Israelites are traced in the book of genesis, with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as their leaders in the beginning, where Abraham lived a nomadic lifestyle and bore the royal family of Israel that was later led by his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob. The history of Israelites and Judah is mostly found in the Bible conceptualization in the Old Testament, dedicated to the Bronze Age. After living in the desert, they conquered cities in Canaan such as Jericho, Hazor and Ai. The structures of Israelites were conforming to those of Canaanites states in their monarchial government, religion, economy and social structures, where they improved on these structures to establish a strong kingdom (Collingwood, 1946). The Israelite Kingdom was strong than that of Judah which was more politically stable. Israel thrived on a populist leadership with merit and ruling families (Collingwood, 1946). Classical Greece It had one of the most sophisticated and advanced cultures' of the ancient times which have highly influenced modern politics, science and philosophy. It was formed on a centralized system of government that was hegemony in the region with a strong military presence to conquer it neighbors. Greece culture predominantly influenced the Roman Empire as well as the foundation of the western civilization (Collingwood, 1946). Greece consisted of many city states which were not wholly independent and divided by rivers and mountains. They had the same religion, culture and language within the city states which were known as poleis and were neutral in most wars involving Athens. (Clare, 1906) Republican and Imperial Rome Republican Rome started after the overthrow of the Roman Monarchy, it was a republican form of government with a complex constitution involving checks and balances, as well as separation of powers. It was controlled by aristocratic individuals with a history of the kingdom ancestry, but the dominant laws were repealed to form a societal directed structure than a dominating one, to avoid a revolution and the vast expansion of the republic (Alcock, 2001). The Imperial Rome came to form after the crushing of the Republican Rome; it had an autocratic government, large territory and holdings all over Europe and other parts of the world. It was ruled through a senate and assemblies but the Emperor could declare war, discuss treaties and agreements with foreign leaders. His main power was footed in the strong military that were loyal to him. There were Imperial cults that enhanced loyalty to the empire; they evolved from small cults up to the introduction of Judaism to offer freedom of expression that later culminated with the death of Jesus of Nazareth for the emergency of Christianity up to date. With the third century crisis which led to the near crumbling of the empire as there were two effective emperors making it ungovernable, and leading to political and social-economic crisis for the eventual fall of the empire (Collingwood, 1946). Post-Roman Western European Growth and prosperity in this period was stagnant as a series of plagues and famines had reduced the populace almost by half leading to peasant revolts and social unrest. This also threatened the Catholic Church's unity. Though this period was problematic to the government and society as a whole, there was great inventions in the fields of arts and science (Clare, 1906). References Alcock, Susan E.; Terence N., D'Altroy; Terence N., Morrison et al., eds. (2001), Empires: Perspectives from Archaeology and History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.546. Clare, I. S. (1906). Library of universal history: containing a record of the human race from the earliest historical period to the present time; embracing a general survey of the progress of mankind in national and social life, civil government, religion, literature, science and art. New York: Union Book. Page 1519 (cf., Ancient history, as we have already seen, ended with the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Collingwood, R. G. (1946). The Idea of History. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Read More