What circumstances and geographical conditions allowed civilizations to develop in Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt and in what ways did those circumstances affect the character of those civilizations?
Need drove the inhabitants of Mesopotamia and Egypt to create the first civilizations in the world. They established two distinct civilizations because the needs of Mesopotamian and Egyptian communities, which appeared under different geographical conditions and circumstances, were different from each other.
The place between Euphrates and Tigris rivers was a good agricultural place because it had rich and easily cultivated soil. However irregular floods which arrived about the harvest time made agriculture a hard work without irrigation systems. These systems were to maintained regularly, because the alkaloids gathered in them were harsh materials reduced the fertility of the earth. Moreover, there were no metals, stones or valuable minerals available in Mesopotamia. To be able to live a sedentary life under these conditions, people had to cooperate in order to plan and execute new irrigation systems which could be achieved by mobilization of huge man power. So they formed towns.
Proliferating population increased pressure on the region’s food supply, hence cities supplemented their resources by raiding over their more prosperous neighbors. Because of these attacks people made great walls to protect themselves such as the ramparts of Uruk. The population of towns rose along with their towering temples, largely at the expense of countryside, and big cities like Ur, Uruk formed.
Since Mesopotamian people lacked many natural resources, they started trading these necessities. Merchants sailed through network canals which is again an invention of Mesopotamian civilization. They traded surplus food for metals and tools.
Egyptians had Nile instead of Euphrates and Tigris. The great river provided everything that was needed to create their own unique civilization: food, water, communication, and transport. Unlike Mesopotamia regularly flooding Nile and flat, fertile vast lands provided them good agricultural products. They also built complex irrigation systems to bring the water to distant places. Besides, to know exact time of floods they needed to know time, so they observed stars, sun, and celestial objects. They invented the lunar calendar. Moreover, since they needed to rearrange their buildings and boundaries they created geometry.
Egyptian civilization developed rather isolated from other civilizations because of the Sahara desert surrounding Egypt. Unlike the rulers in Mesopotamia, the kings of Egypt were not warriors, but they were divine administrators, because they had no external enemies and no standing army. Constant raiding of the neighboring cities affected the people of Mesopotamia to create well-maintained armies. This period of the history is known as ‘heroic age’ because the meaning of life was connected with heroism. For example in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk , before the combat with fierce dragons, says I will go ahead of you(referring to his friend) and if I die I will at least have the reward of people.
Thus, while trade, communication, and violent conquests characterized the Mesopotamian civilization , Egypt is known as the place of self-sufficiency, developments in arts, political structure, society, and religion. the Egyptian world was static. Nothing was ever to change.
Since Egyptians had a sufficient source of stone they were able to build the most amazing and elaborate religious complexes up to their time. These buildings were called as pyramids. One of them, the Great Pyramid of Khufu (2600 BC) , stood 481 feet high and contained 6 million tons of stone, in comparison to Ziggurat of Ur which was only 120 feet. Construction and maintenance of these vast complexes focused the organization and production of Egypt’s economy and government.
In conclusion, abundance of natural resources, different geographical conditions and the urge for needs and desires under different circumstances allowed these two unique civilizations to develop in Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt.