Ancient Mesopotamian Civilization Historical Essay Sample

📌Category: History, Mesopotamia
📌Words: 853
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 09 February 2022

There were many ancient societies that were impacted by other natural situations, such as being landlocked, or bad terrain. The ancient civilization of Mesopotamia was a bit different. It was surrounded by two bodies of water. The Euphrates, and Tigris. There was constant flooding, and this problem needed to be addressed fast. Though some may say that a civilization should not have been created there, the need for a steady supply of water and constant irrigation, was a positive impact to the political, economic, and technological development of ancient societies.

The political impact of the need for water was positive, as a good leader was needed to oversee the building of the irrigation systems, and to keep people under control peacefully. As stated in Document 10, “He finished the drainage canal, which was three miles in length, partly by leveling and partly by tunneling a mountain, a greatest work of difficulty requiring eleven years, although he had 30,000 men at work all the time without interruption.” Claudius vastly improved the irrigation system of the water, and with this, he brought the idea of stone arches to improve the technological build of the system. This helped to make an aqueduct which distributed the water into “many beautifully ornamented fountains”(Doc 10), and after this was such a success, it was even named after him. The Claudiun aqueduct. As well as Claudius, engineer Zhengguo persuaded the King of Chin to “open a canal from the Ching River, from Chung-san and Hu-kkhou in the west, all along the foot of the northern mountains..” (Doc 9), and this project was also an extreme success, earning Zhengguo the canal named after him for being such a good leader in creating such a huge accomplishment. As proven, the political impact was positive, when investigating the political aspect of the development of ancient societies. 

The economic impact of the need for water, as well as the political impact, was successful. In Document 8, Hammurabi’s (King of Babylon) code, it is not taken lightly if the irrigation of one's neighbor is tampered with, on accident or on purpose. Two examples from Document 8 state this. “If a man neglects to maintain his dike and does not strengthen it, and a break is made in his dike, and the water carries away the farmland, and the man in whose dike the break has been made shall replace the grain which has been damaged.” Hammurabi was a man of fairness, whether it was violent or a payment back to a man whom he owes. There were also many expensive irrigation systems built to maintain this water control. The system that looked the most complicated, and that cost the most, was probably the Saqiya (Document 5). It involved gears, a bucket, a well, a worker, and a large animal to pull this water. All of these objects, and the worker needed to be paid, and the large animal that was capable and strong enough to pull the water was needed to keep the irrigation system up and running, or else everything would go downhill. The Square-Pallet Chain Pump  (Document 6), also was one of the more expensive systems to irrigate the water. Though this did not require an animal, it required two people, and not just one. The work to maintain it in the picture looks like it was a lot of heavy work, and this heavy work was worth it because it looks like one of the more advanced irrigation methods.

The technological development was positive, and crucial to the maintenance of the irrigation systems built to keep steady water supply and control. Without a good system, Mesopotamia would get flooded because of the location between the two rivers. Document 13 explains that “If there are canals for irrigation, then the salt is washed down to the marshy ground and the spreading of the silt increases fertility.” Fertile land was a great resource that the Mesopotamians had and if there wasn't a good technique to prevent flooding, the soil will be over watered, and this soil will ruin crops for the citizens. For this reason multiple mediums were built to try and prevent this catastrophe from happening. The most technologically advanced, and that didn’t require human labour, was called the Noria (Doc 7). It was a water mill that required moving water to help move the water into the small aqueduct. Document 11 also includes a leader named Shao Xinchen of the Han Dynasty, who opened eyes to more advanced ways of irrigation. As well as canals, he “dug...ditches and built water gates and dikes in several tens of places in all to expand the irrigated land, which increased year by year by as much as 500,000 acres.” There were many benefits that profited off this, and it produced boundaries so there would not be “disputes over the distribution of water.” Therefore, there were many good methods of irrigation that had a positive impact technologically, on good, steady, water supply.

There were many good impacts politically, economically, and technologically that improved, and advanced the ancient civilization Mesopotamia, by creating better irrigation systems to improve the steady supply of water. Whether it was with a good leader, or a good system to prevent costing so much, or using so many materials, they got it done. In conclusion, some may continue to say that a civilization should not have been created there but, the need for a steady supply of water and constant irrigation, was a positive impact to the political, economic, and technological development of ancient societies.

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