The early civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia were dominated by geography which decided religious and political beliefs. Each society had rivers that helped them complete their daily activities. Their religious beliefs were focused on the rivers that were near them. They seeked order by having Kings and Pharaohs and establishing codes and laws. The Pharaohs and Kings created laws and leaded and protected the city. The Egyptians and Mesopotamian people shared many similarities and differences. These early civilizations revealed the dependency on geography, religion, and their leaders. Accordingly, geography defined each societies physical, social, and religious organizations. In the egyptians civilization they could expect when the river would rise and fall unlike Mesopotamia, they did not know when a flood would happen. Egyptians had more smaller populations compared to Mesopotamia. “ the Nile was the fastest way to travel, making both transportation and communication easier.” (Spielvogel 15) Mesopotamia was located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This determined social, economic, and religious factors.Mesopotamia's geography made them vulnerable to attack which lead them to their downfall, unlike egypt which was protected by …show more content…
The Mesopotamia’s wrote a book of laws that the society had to follow. The laws helped contain order in the city. In Egypt there is a distinct social classes and each class had a certain job they had to do. The code of Hammurabi was a major law that the citizens had to follow. “ If a fire break out in a man’s house and a man who goes to extinguish it cast his eye on the furniture of the owner of the house, and take the furniture of the owner of the house, that man shall be thrown into that fire.” (Spielvogel 12) These laws may appear unreasonable for current times, but in the age of Hammurabi these provided structure and
Egypt developed around the Nile River, while Mesopotamia developed between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Egypt and Mesopotamia grew into complex civilizations. Politically, both Egypt and Mesopotamia had a government with one main ruler, but Egypt had a centralized government with a pharaoh, while Mesopotamia had a decentralized government with a king. Socially, both civilizations were patriarchal, but Egypt was more lenient towards women while Mesopotamia was stricter. The political and social structures of Egypt and Mesopotamia both similarities and differences.
The Mesopotamian laws, in contrast, were hard and unfortunate, which were set by King Hammurabi himself during his long reign of Babylon. In Hammurabi's court, it did not matter if you were rich or poor, if you broke the law, and were found guilty, you would be punished and required to follow the laws and punishments that were clearly written in stone (the code of Hammurabi).
Egypt and Mesopotamia Egypt and Mesopotamia were both very complex empires. Every aspect of Egyptians life was based around religion, Mesopotamian religion explained everything about life and death. Social classes in both civilizations were based on a pyramid like social structure. Egypt never developed any major cities but, Mesopotamia developed many major cities. These three elements of civilization helped Egypt and Mesopotamia grow into thriving civilizations.
Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia were both ancient civilizations that were founded between 3500 BCE to 3000 BCE it was a time where people finally got together and formed a community where people could farm instead of hunting and gathering while wandering from place to place. Egypt and Mesopotamia were also both built upon great rivers for Egypt it was the Nile, and for Mesopotamia it was the Tigris and Euphrates. These rivers is what helped create the civilizations that we know of today because the rivers would flood at least once a year and the flooding of the river would create fertile soil for farmers every year. Both civilizations also had a similar view on religion as well both believing in many gods or polytheism. These two ancient civilizations
Mesopotamia’s safety was lower than Egypt’s. Mesopotamia was out in the open land with no barriers to hinder potential invaders. Egypt was more invader-prone because it was “surrounded by deserts, mountains, seas, and cataracts.” Mesopotamia was pessimistic about life, because they faced violence and invaders more than Egypt did.
Egypt and Mesopotamia had various political and intellectual outlooks that had similarities and differences. Egypt had an absolute monarchy where the pharaoh, or person entitled with kingship, had all control and was believed to be in direct contact with the gods. The pharaoh was seen as being god-like as well. Politically, Egyptians were also focused on their material wealth and the expansion of their civilization. Intellectually, Egyptians were focused on their language and literature.
The Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations were vastly different in environment and culture, although they did share some characteristics. Both were located in river valleys, and both depended on the rivers to help their production of agriculture, especially in desert lands. The Tigris and Euphrates
The social similarities between Egypt and Mesopotamia found its roots in the authoritative religious structure. The Mesopotamian religion viewed people as servants of the gods. Given that Mesopotamia was often affected by terrible weather and devastating calamities, people needed to ensure the gods were always happy to offer protection and shield from such mishaps. Egyptians, on the other hand, believed that the gods were responsible for creating all the humans, but everything was done in order. The cultural difference between the Egyptians and Mesopotamia differed partially due to their geography difference (Haber 250).
Early agrarian civilizations such as Mesopotamia and Egypt, differed in many ways yet similar at the same time. As far as government and laws go Mesopotamia and Egypt were very different. Mesopotamia operated in a way that each city was self-controlled. Each city had its own politics, religious leaders, gods, and places of worship. Egypt organized itself in a way we are more familiar with in that everything was centralized. All the land along the Nile was controlled by one government and one ruler. One of the most significant
The geographical location was an important factor in many of the ancient civilizations. Where the people settled determined whether they would have success at surviving. Both Mesopotamia and Egypt were ancient civilizations founded in roughly the same longitude and latitude area of the world. Hot dry areas full of dessert. What drew early civilizations to settle on these locations was the same for both places, land near water that was good for planting. What is different about each location is what makes these two early civilizations vastly different yet extremely important to our world today, the natural resources and the way the early settlers utilized them. Both Mesopotamia and Egypt were founded near large rivers. To be a farmer and
The Mesopotamian government is different from Egypt in many ways. One way that their
In time, both cultures would create there on form of writing, however, Egyptian writings, or literature, could not compare to that of the Mesopotamians. Political systems existed in both cultures but functioned differentially, thus, Egypt would operate by having a centralized system of government that was governed and controlled only by the Pharaoh, unlike the Mesopotamia which had a system of government that was different and ran individually in every city, even though the country had a king over the lands
The ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations were two of the world's first city-based civilizations. Because of this, they had many things in common such as they both had some form of religion and writing, to codes of laws and politics. However, they were not duplicates of each other. Other things affected the way Mesopotamians and Egyptians lived, such as the geography of their locations, interaction with other neighboring civilizations, and their leaders. By about 8000 years ago, most civilizations, including Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, primarily depended on agriculture to thrive.
Along with the similarities, there are also differences between the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations. “Mesopotamia was not as well protected geographically as Egypt and was thus more open to attack. Its rivers were not as navigable, nor were
Comparative Analysis of Mesopotamian and Egyptian Civilization Civilization is widely defined as an advanced state of human society, in which a high level of culture, science, industry, and government has been accomplished. The Fertile Crescent is a boomerang-shaped region of rich soil that extends from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf (Dowling, 2014). Mesopotamia, made agriculture possible in this Fertile Crescent. The first site of civilization was Mesopotamia, forming around 3500 B.C.E, but there was also another civilization that followed, which was the Egyptian civilization formed after 5500 B.C.E. along the flood plain of the Nile River. They were strongly influenced by geography, natural resources, and social