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Early River Valley Civilizations: 3500 B.C. – 450 B.C.
Chapter 2, Pages 26 to 57
World History: Patterns of Interaction
McDougal-Littell 2007
Early civilizations began near rivers, where there was a source of water for
agriculture, a source of fish, and the possibility of barges for transportation.
Dynasties – royal families – ruled ‘city-states’ which were cities functioning as
countries. Priests often had political influence. City-states often included a few
small villages and the farmland surrounding them.
The ‘Fertile Crescent’ is Mesopotamia plus the eastern edge of the Mediterranean
Sea. In Mesopotamia, city-states like Babylon, Akkad, Ur, Ninevah, Ebla, and
Haran dealt with unpredictable rains and floods by digging irrigation ditches, dealt
with their landscape’s lack of natural defenses by building walls around their cities,
and dealt with a the region’s shortage of natural resources by trading with distant
peoples. As goods were imported and exported, people learned about other types of
music, food, and art – cultural diffusion. Around 2350 B.C., a ruler in Akkad
named Sargon united the city and region of Akkad with the region of Sumer.
Sumer’s area included several city-states in the southern end of Mesopotamia;
Akkad was northwest from Sumer. Sargon created an ‘empire’ – a collection of
kingdoms. This empire became known as the Babylonian Empire, with its capital
city in Babylon. In 1792 B.C., Hammurabi became king of Babylon, and issued
one of the earliest known law codes. A written law code is important because the
crimes and their punishments are clearly defined so that everyone knows them. The
details of Hammurabi’s code give us insights into Babylon’s culture.
In Egypt, the Nile river flooded predictably. Famine was rare and the food supply
was steady and plentiful. Deserts served as a natural protection from military
attack. At the northern end of the Nile, where it empties into the Mediterranean
Sea, it forms a large delta; the city of Memphis is located there. South of Egypt, the
Nile flows through an area which has been called Nubia, Ethiopia, or Cush.
Originally two kingdoms – Northern Egypt and Southern Egypt – the Egyptian
Empire arose around 3000 B.C. when a king named Narmer united the two. The
kings of Egypt were called ‘pharaohs’ and Egyptian culture believed them to be
gods. They organized the building of the famous massive pyramids. Egyptians
mummified their dead. Their system of writing – ‘hieroglyphics’ – was recorded
both with inscriptions on stone and on papyrus. Egyptians were good at
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mathematics and astronomy, and these helped them predict the Nile’s floods.
India’s two main rivers are the Ganges and the Indus. In addition to unpredictable
flooding, India’s weather is governed by monsoons – winds which bring hot dry
weather for half a year, and then rainy weather for half a year. The earliest culture
in India is the Harappan culture. Not much remains of it, because around 1750
B.C, a Sanskrit culture – called the ‘Aryans’ – invaded India; this later culture
would almost completely replace the Harappan civilization.
China’s geography is defined by two large parallel rivers, both flowing eastward to
the sea. In the north is the ‘Huang He,’ also called the ‘Yellow River.’ In the south
is the ‘Yangtze,’ also called the Chang Jiang. The first Chinese dynasty was the
Xia, led by a ruler named Yu; he designed irrigation projects to prevent the
dangerous flood of the Yellow River. This made for a steady food supply. The next
dynasty was the Shang dynasty, from around 1700 B.C. to 1027 B.C., also in the
north. From 1027 B.C. to 256 B.C., the Zhou dynasty ruled. The Zhou organized a
type of feudal system, in which the king lent land to nobles, who farmed it; in
return, they owed the king part of the crops, and owed him military assistance in
times of war. The Chinese developed coins to improve business, and developed
techniques to make iron, which is stronger than bronze. They used the phrase
‘Mandate of Heaven’ to describe a good king’s right to rule; an unfair king would
lose the mandate. As different dynasties came and went, a pattern developed: new
dynasties brought prosperity and justice and became strong, but eventually became
corrupt and were overthrown, making room for another new dynasty. In the last
years of the Zhou dynasty, the emperor had little control, and China became a
collection of independent kingdom competing with each other. This is called the
era of the ‘Warring States.’
In their early stages, all these river valley civilizations conducted human sacrifice,
hoping to appease their idols, to bring good weather and avoid famine and
starvation, and to gain military victories.
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