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Chapter 2
Early River Valley Civilizations
Early River Valley Civilizations
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Fertile Crescent – Mesopotamia
Between Tigris & Euphrates – Iraq
Problems:
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Unpredictable flooding
No natural barriers for protection
Natural resources limited
Mesopotamia cont.
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Solutions:
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Irrigation ditches
Mud brick defensive walls
Traded grain, cloth, tools with others for raw
materials (wood, stone)
Organized into city-states
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Dynasty (single family of rulers)
Cultural diffusion – spread of ideas to other cultures
Other Empires
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Polytheistic – belief in many gods
Sargon – Akkadians conquered Sumer
Adopted many aspects of culture
First empire – brings several groups under
one ruler
Babylonians – Hammurabi
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Hammurabi’s Code – “eye for an eye”
First written code of law
Egypt
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Nile River – “gift” of the Nile; regular
flooding left fertile soil
Predictable but changes led to drought or
flood
Upper & Lower Egypt
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Flows north; delta
Old Kingdom – about 2,600 – 2,100 BC
Egypt
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Pharaohs ruled as gods; theocracy
Belief in afterlife; built pyramids
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Mummification
Economic strength, technology, public
works, strong government
Polytheistic
Egypt
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Women had many rights
Writing – hieroglyphics; developed
papyrus (paper from plant)
Calendar, engineering, architecture,
medicine, surgery
Egypt
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Invaders weakened Old Kingdom
Middle Kingdom (2,000 – 1,600 BC) –
restored prosperity
Didn’t last – Hyksos took over
Rosetta Stone – interpreted hieroglyphics
Indus Valley
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Indian subcontinent
Indus River and Ganges River
Seasonal monsoons (winds) bring dry air
but also moist air – flooding
Floods brought rich soil but were
unpredictable
Indus
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Mohenjo-Daro
Harappa – planned city; brick buildings,
grid pattern, plumbing, sewage
Peaceful, no sharp class differences
Collapsed around 1500 BC – possibly
earthquakes; changed flow of rivers
Section 4 - China
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Isolated – deserts, mountains, ocean
surround
Huang He (Yellow) & Chang Jiang
(Yangtze) Rivers
Shang – first dynasty; first written
records; used wood, not mud-brick; walled
cities
China cont.
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Importance of group, not individual
Family & respect important
Writing – symbols stood for ideas, not
sounds; so many different spoken
languages
Zhou dynasty – took over but adopted
Shang features; 800 years (longest)!
China, cont.
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Mandate of heaven – new theory that rulers got
authority to rule from heaven; divine rule
Dynastic Cycle – rise, decline, replacement cycle
Feudalism – lords & nobles use king’s land in
exchange for service
Nobles protected rulers & peasants – got much
power over time and fought constantly