Egypt Vs Mesopotamia

Fiona McCormack

9/22/16

AP World History E

Egypt vs. Mesopotamia

        Egypt and Mesopotamia were two of the most famous of the First Civilizations. They are alike in many ways, however they each have many significant differences. During the period of the first civilizations, both Egypt and Mesopotamia depended greatly on agriculture, and had periods of peace and conflict. However, Egypt had a more positive outlook on life, used an agricultural system that was relatively harmless to the environment, and had natural barriers to keep invaders away.

        Both Egypt and Mesopotamia based their societies off agriculture. They relied greatly on it and it became part of their lifestyle. For example, both of their lands provided fertile soil with which they could harvest many different crops to help the people survive. They were both known as agricultural societies, which means that they not only depended on fertile soil, but they also depended on climate change and where water was. They also both received technological advances from neighboring peoples, such as tools needed to harvest crops and to plow fields. One example is the chariots that they obtained from the Hittites.

They were both located on rivers, where the soil was the most fertile. However, Egypt and Mesopotamia were located on two very different rivers. In Egypt, the people depended on the Nile River, which provided predictable flooding that the people were able to figure out. Knowing when the river was going to flood helped them to know when to harvest. They had an organized calendar, and seasons to know when to harvest and when the floods were. Mesopotamia, on the other hand, was located on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, whose floods were very unpredictable. The Mesopotamians often became frustrated with the flooding because they never knew when a good time to harvest their crops was. Their soil would become unfertile after the flood and they were not able to provide as much crops as Egypt was.

Egypt and Mesopotamia both experienced periods of peace and conquest. Often, both civilizations were very peaceful and only cared for their agriculture. However as their societies grew, they started to develop hierarchy, and organized people into classes. The wealthy, landowning people were upper class, and peasants and slaves were the lower class. Women and men were equal most of the time, but soon men started to become more superior and patriarchy formed. With patriarchy, came rulers and with rulers came conquest. Egypt conquered civilizations around its general area, such as Nubia. Mesopotamia mostly conquered small territories, and was later often found fighting with Persia, until it eventually was conquered.