Comparison of Major Ancient River-valley Civilizations: Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and China - Term Paper Example

Introduction The ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia (largely modern-day Iraq), Egypt, India and China were the first to qualify as civilizations as presently defined today. However, it is only China which has managed to still exist up to the present, with the three other civilizations had just left us with their vestiges through archaeological remains. Historians are generally agreed with what qualifies as civilization, which is defined as “the process by which a community is run from a city” which implies a citizenry living in a city. By the same definition, the ancient Greeks will have qualified themselves as a civilization too and with one remarkable difference which was being untrammeled by a dominating priesthood that claims a monopoly on the sole lines of communication with the powers of mystery. The word “civilization” itself derived from the Latin word “civitas” which means city and “civis” which means citizen. An ancient civilization qualifies as such when it has cities in it which implies the existence of some major characteristics. These include a high agricultural development, a manufacturing base, division of labor, a centralized government, legal codes, social stratification, a written language, science, technology, philosophy and the arts. There are remarkable coincidences which allowed these ancient societies to attain the high degree of development which qualified them to be called as civilizations. It is the aim of this paper to give a brief overview of the similarities and differences between these 4 ancient civilizations in terms of the major characteristics mentioned earlier above. Discussion Geography – it is no mere coincidence that these four ancient civilizations rose up in a good geographical environment. By this, all four were located in a fertile river valley. This is a strategic similarity because without the fertility of the soil, these ancient civilizations would not be able to develop much further from their previous precarious existence. Being located in a fertile area allowed for agriculture to develop sufficiently from a hunting or gathering way of life (from transitional or nomadic to the more permanent urban or agrarian settlements). Mesopotamia itself lies between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates that encompass parts of northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran. Both rivers have origins in the Armenian region of modern-day Turkey fed by tributaries from the Zagros mountains also. The early people of Mesopotamia can harness the fertility of the soil only if they build along the rivers a system of irrigation with good drainage. Further, the system of dikes allowed them to also build dams to control flooding to some extent and the use of aqueducts to irrigate lands farther from the river banks which are normally arid to allow farming activities. The Egyptian civilization arose primarily in the area known as the “black land” which is the flood plain along the Nile River delta. The ancient Egyptians called the desert portions of their country the “red land” to distinguish between the two. A major problem was flooding; this is a problem that beset and challenged the other ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, that of India and China too. Although civilized to an extent, their primitive technologies precluded any solution to the perennial floods which destroyed crops and even entire cities at times. The Nile River delta in Egypt forms part of the so-called “Fertile Crescent” in the Middle East; it had included the River Jordan valley where lands nearer rivers are largely fertile. The ancient Chinese civilization likewise started along a fertile river valley along the northernmost Yellow River valley; down to the south is the Yangtze River and further the West and Red Rivers. The fertility of the land, ironically, also contributed to the eventual decline of these ancient civilizations (with the sole exception of China). Initially, the soil was able to support a population increase which stabilized societies and enabled them to develop substantially. But the population explosion was based on exploitation of the land’s resources to the point where it became unsustainable and eventually caused their collapse. Their collapse holds new lesson for the present human race in terms of global climate change today. Economics – the ancient Sumerians are said to have developed the first large-scale economy based more on a free market system. On the other hand, the ancient Egyptians had a command economy (centralized under the authority of the pharaohs) and strictly controlled by the pharaohs, their families and overseers. Unlike in Mesopotamia, the old Egyptian economy did not use coins or any form of currency but rather relied more on the barter system. There existed a middle class which was the largest economic class who were mostly farmers and the workers but they had very little money; they were better off than the slaves who not only had no money but also no personal freedoms as well. The Chinese believed in the three mythical heroes who each individually invented the hallmarks of a great civilization; namely: Fu Hsi (writing, hunting & fishing), Shen Hung who introduced agriculture and mercantilism and lastly, the Yellow Emperor (at around 2700 B.C.) who invented the system of government and Taoist philosophy. To a large extent, China was able to develop economically independently of the complex societies in the Middle East and that of the Indus Valley because of the high mountains and vast deserts in the north and west. Politics – all the four ancient civilizations had come under the great influence of the priests of those times. This strong hold on power reached its pinnacle in Egypt where priests controlled all aspects of everyday life and even the Pharaohs. There is a sharp contrast within China because there was no strong religious caste that exerted considerable political power. It seems to be an exception in this case. In both Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley civilizations, there existed a clergy that wielded tremendous political power, similar to the papacy in the old Western civilization and also very similar to Islam today where politics and religion are one. Legal Codes – ancient Chinese civilization heavily relied on the teachings or Analects of Confucius. There was a set of codes to govern civil life, such as between parents and kids, between citizen subjects and the emperors or between husbands and wives. Mesopotamia had relied on the Code of Hammurabi which is considered to be the first written code of laws in all recorded history. It was a strict set of code delineated the types of punishment based more on the social classes to which wrongdoers belonged. It also famous for the phrase “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” which had been adopted into the bible (Matthew 5:38). Egypt did not codify its ancient laws except what can be seen in funerary texts, court documents and hieroglyphic inscriptions on monuments and pyramids. Punishment included the families of an offender, such as exile or prison for the entire family (kids included) for army desertion. Social Stratification – these four ancient societies have a social hierarchy based on the economic and political powers of an individual. Of the four, India had the most rigid type of social stratification which persisted even today – its caste system. In general, people have the chance for upward mobility through education, hard work and economic wealth. Read More