Essay Sample on Early River Civilizations

Geography is the study of the Earth’s features and how they interact with human life. Geography is one of the most important factors in day to day life let alone an early civilization. It can be the difference between life and death especially before the invention of more complicated structures and medicines. However, Geography can also act as a major advantage. It can place one region ahead of another simply because it gets more sun for farming. Geography is such a flexible factor that it can affect any factor of life at any point in time. One example of this is in the early river civilizations. These civilizations faced many geographical and political obstacles setting the standards for what we modernly address as a “civilization”. 

Mesopotamia is one of the 5 river-civilizations, specifically that of which is situated between the Tigris and the Euphrates in modern day Iraq. Its geographical situation has two rivers causing the land around the rivers to be fertile for farming. Resource #3, a Cuneiform tablet that dates back to the Late Uruk period ,depicts in cuneiform how the distribution of barley was that year. This is clear evidence that, geographically, Mesopotamia was able to harbor fertile soils and use that as a source of food. However, Mesopotamia’s land isn't all fertile. This river-civilization was at one point divided into three separate regions. Akkad, Sumer and Assyria. Assyria was located within the region of the fertile crescent, and therefore had very fertile soil and perfect conditions for farming. Sumer also had fertile land, but it was plagued with droughts and unpredictable floods making the land and the harvest unreliable. The third region, Akkad, was a central river plain. It was very dry with only a small flood plain. According to resource #4, one solution to the consistent droughts and dry lands was irrigation canals. The proof of this was a map of irrigation lines written on a clay tablet with reeds. This displays that however many geographical hurdles and advantages were thrown at Mesopotamia, they came up with innovative solutions to allow their up-and-coming river-civilization to thrive. 

Another one of the river-civilizations that dealt with geography as a factor was the Indus river valley. The Indus river valley didn't just have the advantage of fertile land, they had natural protection. It is located in the Northwest section of modern day India, and henceforth, it was protected by mountains on almost every piece of connecting land. In comparison to Mesopotamia, a flat desert landscape, The Indus valley had the advantage of not needing to  worry about conflict with other nearby civilizations. The Indus river civilization is the civilization that we know the least about, but the lack of evidence can speak for itself. For example, there is no evidence of war, andthis may have been why they were so advanced in their time. Nonetheless, this assumption does not take into account the constant battle with mother nature. The mountains didn't just protect them, but it cut them off from trade routes making it hard for them to interact with the other civilizations. Furthermore, the rain in the region could also be deadly. To deal with the heavy rains and seasonal monsoons the Indus valley people created things that would help weaken the blow that this natural disaster took on their civilization. According to resource #25, they built a few of their cities ,including Harappa, man-made hills to cause a struggle for the floods to reach them. Other creative solutions they came up with were water management systems for floods and indoor plumbing. According to resource #24, their cities, specifically Mohenjo-Daro, were able to successfully install water management systems to clear the flood water and keep their city clean from waste. The houses in Mohenjo-Daro were also facing the opposite direction of the seasonal monsoon winds allowing the people to continue their day-to-day lives, to an extent, during these aggravating storms. 

Shifting the gears from a civilization with a high precipitation rate to one with a relatively low one. Egypt is also another river-civilization whose focal point is the Nile river. Egypt was relatively lucky to have fertile land in the Nile Delta and surrounding the river itself. Without this fertile land this area would’ve been virtually uninhabitable. According to resource #12, Egyptians built farm fields right next to the river ,and in the delta so their crops would be able to sustain themselves in what little sliver of fertile land they had between the hot and dry sands of Ancient Egypt. Despite having little fertile land, Egypt made do with their clever use of stone. They built many pyramids and housing areas out of sand and limestone. This was one thing they had plenty of and they were able to use it for the better good. This is shown in resource #18, where the Pyramid of Khufu is shown. Egypt was also relatively close to Mesopotamia that allowed for trade but also for war. Egypt’s climate in the dunes was a good war barrier, but it was also relatively flat which meant that barbarians could attack. However, early Egypt didn't have much war during their earlier times. This allowed for early unification of Upper and Lower Egypt which in turn allowed for unification of the fertile lands. Their lack of rainfall made their harvests unpredictable during times of drought which increased their reliance on trade. Altogether Egypt made it work, but in the end they still ended up being conquered as an indirect consequence of geographical reasoning.     

The last river-civilization is China. China is situated along the Yellow “Huang” river. China had the advantage of not only one river but a series of large and small rivers to provide them with the fertile land that they needed. China had a variety of climates to match the picturesque landscape. Just like the Indus river valley, China had natural isolation which limited trade but also protected from invaders(for the most part). China had flood issues just like the Indus river valley, Drought Issues like Egypt and war issues like Mesopotamia. In a way it is a bit of a mix of all the civilizations into one. Their river, the Huang, often flooded or changed course at any given time. This system of rivers may have given them the resources they needed but it also destroyed them in the consistent unpredictable floods. According to resource #31, “We would’ve all become fish, if not for Duke Yu’s measures”.  This quote is a representation of how one man, Duke Yu,an ancient Chinese nobleman, was able to create an anti-flood system that in a sense tamed the river,but this wasn’t their only issue. China had a war streak but they didn't have horses like the Mongols, their neighbours and symbiotic enemies. When they went to war with the Mongols they only had a few horses that they had bought from their enemy which left them with a major disadvantage. China did however have an excess of barley, fish and bamboo. They used the bamboo to keep records of important facts and events. An example of this is in resource #36 where writing is shown on bamboo reeds. 

In conclusion, all of these civilizations are in many ways very different but also very similar. They all overcame or fought geographical differences that brought them down or brought them to their best potential. Geography is a hit or miss type of concept that has so many factors it is almost impossible to count or predict. With the right measures, all of these civilizations were able to innovate and broaden their horizons to shake the looming danger of geographical uncertainties,and become strong and stable ancient-river-civilizations.