Four River-Valley Civilizations

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the earliest civilizations in history, such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and India, were found near rivers because, when rivers flooded, people could grow more food for themselves and for trade. This system, the basis of all these early civilizations, is called the "river-valley civilizations." The author points out that these civilizations arose independently of each other and shared certain generic features, but each people produced unique characteristics based on the environment, especially in their religious and social structures. The paper concludes that all these civilizations began to decline because of the lack of power in the ruler, which resulted in many wars or disunity within a civilization.

From the Paper:

"Mesopotamia, meaning "the land between the two rivers," was found within the rivers of Tygris and Euphrates, near modern day Iran and Iraq. Mesopotamians had a wedge-shaped writing, and they were great in mathematics. They were the ones who founded that one minute equals to sixty seconds and that sixty minutes equal to one hour. Moreover, days of the week, weeks, calendars were established by Mesopotamians.
When it comes to their political system, Mesopotamians had independent city-states, in which the city controlled its surrounding countryside. There was a huge power struggle between these numerous city-states in order to gain political and military control over others. They had similar type of government and they were governed by the system called "polytheistic theocracy," ruling by many gods and priests. In this system, gods owned everything within those city-states, and priests simply provided the connection between the gods and people."

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