Civilization in Mesopotamia, Egypt and China - Essay Sample

Introduction

Bureaucracy and priestly classes are not modern inventions since they have been in existence in the Egyptian and other cultures for more than 500 0 years ago (Tucker). The development and adoption of bureaucracy theory in the past was a critical element in the inception of the Egyptian, Mesopotamia, and China civilization. For instance, in the Egyptian Empire, the king was considered the supreme head of the state, followed by the Vizier, who acted as the executive head of bureaucracy.

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Mesopotamia Emergency

Mesopotamia is a Greek word, which means a land between the two rivers, and the east side is mostly sandy and dry (Tignor). However, Mesopotamia is unique because river Tigris and the Euphrates have been continuously supplying the region with floods, contributing to the fertile nature of the land. By the 7th century, BC people had already begun to settle around the two rivers since farming was the main economic activity happening during that period (Tignor). However, in southern Mesopotamia, individuals started to practice irrigation agriculture instead of relying heavily on the flooding of the two rivers in the region, which contributed to the rise of civilized towns such as Uruk and Eridu. Through irrigation, the two towns decided to improve their irrigation techniques so that they will be able to produce enough food items to meet the demands of the public.

Factors Influencing Mesopotamia Emergence

Mesopotamia is believed to be the pioneer of two types of civilization: the Akkadians in the north side and the Sumerians in the southern region. However, there were other vital civilizations in the area; the Babylonians and Chaldeans, but the Sumerians were recorded as the first group of individuals to develop a significantly stronger culture that led the region from 3500 BC to almost 2350 BC when the Akkadians interfered and defeated their leadership (Tucker). Uruk became one of the most considerable capital globally. Still, through the defeat of the Sumerians by Akkadians, the Akkadians brought most of the towns, and the cities were under the single administration (Boltz). Also, the Akkadians decided to control the Mesopotamia region by introducing the Akkadian language as the official language to run different activities in the area such as trade and so forth.

However, the Akkadians did away with the Sumerians language because they decided to make it the dominant language among the locals to be used for trading purposes. Through the absorption of the Sumerians civilization by the Akkadians, they formed the new culture known as Summer-Akkad. For about 100 years of Akkadian rule, there were some changes in the Sumerian city of Ur (Maisels). This made them overpower the Akkadians and established a robust Sumerian kingdom under the authority of King Ur-Nammu. Through the reign of King Ur-Nammu, the Sumerian language was reborn, and they constructed many apartments and buildings, and the popularly known is Ziggurat, which was used as a temple and shrines for their gods.

Mesopotamia Belief System

The Mesopotamia individuals believed that water was the essential element for the survival of many communities, and that is why they had a lot of support and respect for the rivers that were found within their ecosystem. Besides, the cities had a strong belief in the god of water who controlled their water streams and that people should work for the gods who created them. For instance, the gods expected human beings to cultivate the land and later offer the fruits of the crops to their gods as a sign of appreciation.

Moreover, the gods were being represented in the world through the kings and their nobles, and that is why they were the ones receiving sacrifices from the citizens on behalf of the gods. The citizens believed that it was the duty of the kings and the nobles to utilize the gifts by creating big palaces and even the temples for their worship. For instance, Enki is one of the primary God who the people of Mesopotamia believe to be the creator of fertile land.

Egypt Emergence

Most of the concepts in the current bureaucracies are traced back to the Egyptians. Moreover, the code of ethics and the hierarchical style of the current Egyptian bureaucracy being echoed in most modern governments by the way they get honor and respect from their servants. After the 100 years of Mesopotamians introducing the farming settlement, the Egyptians also decided to teach high Neolithic farming as one path towards civilization.

The traveling traders decide to set out separately from each other to try to accomplish their dream of advanced irrigation and writing.in the modern society Egypt is being referred to as the “gift of the Nile” whereby the phrase “gift” means that the Egyptians are lucky according to their behavior and the location of their river (Tignor). Just like the Mesopotamians, the Egyptians used river irrigation methods to meet the demands of their people so that there is the improvement of civilization. Generally, the floodwaters from the river Nile fertilized and moistened the other bordering fields, which made the irrigation to be much easier since it required less engineering as compared to that of Mesopotamia.

Pharaoh Rule

Pharaoh rule is also one of the factors that contributed to the civilizations of the people in Egypt. The citizens believed that pharos was a god representative, and they had all the rights to rule over Egypt for eternity. In addition, the people believed in the rule of the pharaoh because they expected him to act as a representative to their gods and the only way that pharaohs were able to win the people s trust is by maintaining “Ma’ at,” which means the truth and universal order (Maisels). One of the factors that contributed to the long-term rule of pharaohs was because of their geographical position, which had rapid river travel communication and protection from intrusion because of the natural barriers.

Through the strong old Egyptian kingdom is when Egypt built one of the wordlist famous monument known as the pyramid. For instance, the Step Pyramid of Zoser is the first pyramid to be constructed and has the same shape as the Ziggurats of Mesopotamia but had different functions. The elites used ziggurats in Mesopotamia as the house of the temple for the priests and still could act as the place of refugees to the people (Maisels). In contrast, the pyramids in Egypt were to act as safe place or store to keep the bodies of the dead kings or pharaohs so that their spirits could rest well and feel appreciated so that they can protect Egypt’s interests in their afterlife.

The technology of the pyramid contributed a lot to the ruling of pharaohs, and this gave them powers to control massive resources that are labor and goods in and out of the kingdom. The pyramid was simple but still took an enormous amount of human capital to construct many tombs for the few dead kings to be buried. Through the construction of pyramids, the Egyptians believed that the pharaohs were the only family with access to the afterlife and some few elites who were nobles or relatives with the pharaoh. However, in building pyramids, the Egyptians invented a new style of writing known as “hieroglyphics” to record their skills and science of creating the tombs and other symbols.

China Civilization

China dates its name back in history from the Chin dynasty, who were the rulers of the region covering modern china. The Chin dynasty played a vital role in uniting the entire china to be under one emperor. According to most of the studies is that Chinese civilization began around 5000 years ago and invented most of the things that are used in modern china. For instance, most used items such as gunpowder and the compass were in fireworks, and later, Europeans adopted the invention in guns. The Chinese civilizations had a lot of influence on other regions of Asia hence creating the exchange of beliefs. For instance, there was the development of Buddhism in India (Boltz). Moreover, Chinese civilization had to depend on more long-distance trade and irrigated farming.

China had many cultural groups since they were a combination of different ethnicities, and the large groups absorbed the smaller groups. For instance, China is divided into inner Chinese and outer Chinese, whereby the inner Chinese is represented by the eastern region of China near the coastal areas. Through the help of the two primary rivers in the region with the combination of other rivers, they ensure that there is plenty of water to maintain good fertility of the soil. The outer china is in the western area of the highest part of China, and that is why the area is sparsely populated because it is in the highland.

The dominant religion in China is Buddhism, which was started by the Indian prince Siddhartha Buddha. Despite the spread of the Buddhism religion in most regions of china, some communities still held to their traditional beliefs, such as worshiping their ancestors and nature worship. Most Chinese emperors motivated their people to adopt the idea of God sent heavenly emperors and semi-divine, which gave the emperors power to continue defeating other independent ethnic societies in china.

Most of the beliefs of Chinese are still being applied to modern society, and that is why Chinese civilization is the only ancient civilization that has a significant influence on the new generation. Chinese were able to interact with Indians through their trade, and that is why most of the inventions from India and China are related (Boltz). The Chinese had to get their Buddhism religion from the Indian prince and beliefs, whereas the Indians had to adopt the fashion and living style of the Chinese societies.

In conclusion is that the bureaucratic and priestly classes contributed heavily to the growth and civilization of significant regions in the world, which is Mesopotamia, Egypt, and china. As mentioned above is that different societies or groups had some influence from environmental resources such as their geographical location of being next to grand rivers, which made the irrigation activity faster and efficient. For instance, in the case of Mesopotamia and Egypt is that they had to rely a lot on water from their rivers so that they could have fertile soil and practices their irrigation with little challenges. Through some engineering done on the farm by Egypt, the other societies decided to adopt such kind of farming to continue meeting the demand of their people.

Conclusion

Thus, Mesopotamia and Egypt share some common characteristics, such as their dependence on the floods since Mesopotamia is located within the Fertile Crescent among rivers Tigris and Euphrates (Tucker). On the other side, Egypt is found on the Nile River, which provides the country with valuable natural resources along its delta such as grains and other crops (Tucker). Through the trading of farm products for other goods, there was the growth of commerce and population followed by early religious practices such as priestly classes by china to ensure the flow of floods that provide quality crops yearly. This paper will compare the importance of priestly and bureaucratic classes in the rise of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China.