Early River Valley Civilizations

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Chapter 2

• Early River Valley Civilizations

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Early River Valley Civilizations

• Fertile Crescent Mesopotamia
• Between Tigris Euphrates Iraq
• Problems
• Unpredictable flooding
• No natural barriers for protection
• Natural resources limited

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Mesopotamia cont.

• Solutions
• Irrigation ditches
• Mud brick defensive walls
• Traded grain, cloth, tools with others for raw
  materials (wood, stone)
• Organized into city-states
• Dynasty (single family of rulers)
• Cultural diffusion spread of ideas to other
  cultures

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Other Empires

• Polytheistic belief in many gods
• Sargon Akkadians conquered Sumer
• Adopted many aspects of culture
• First empire brings several groups under one
  ruler
• Babylonians Hammurabi
• Hammurabis Code eye for an eye
• First written code of law

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Egypt

• Nile River gift of the Nile regular flooding
  left fertile soil
• Predictable but changes led to drought or flood
• Upper Lower Egypt
• Flows north delta
• Old Kingdom about 2,600 2,100 BC

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Egypt

• Pharaohs ruled as gods theocracy
• Belief in afterlife built pyramids
• Mummification
• Economic strength, technology, public works,
  strong government
• Polytheistic

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Egypt

• Women had many rights
• Writing hieroglyphics developed papyrus (paper
  from plant)
• Calendar, engineering, architecture, medicine,
  surgery

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Egypt

• Invaders weakened Old Kingdom
• Middle Kingdom (2,000 1,600 BC) restored
  prosperity
• Didnt last Hyksos took over
• Rosetta Stone interpreted hieroglyphics

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Indus Valley

• 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

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Indus

• 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

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Section 4 - China

• 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

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China cont.

• 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)!

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China, cont.

• 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 kings land in
  exchange for service
• Nobles protected rulers peasants got much
  power over time and fought constantly