Chapter%202%20

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Chapter 2 Early Civilizations (4000 1000 B.C.)

• Section 1 The Nile Valley

2
A River Valley and Its People

• The Egyptian civilization in the Nile River
  valley is probably the most well-known of the
  four early river valley civilizations.
• Egypt receives very little rainfall, so its
  people relied on the Niles predictable yearly
  floods to bring them water.

3
A River Valley and Its People (cont.)

• Around 3000 B.C. a king of Upper Egypt invaded
  and conquered Lower Egypt, setting up the first
  government that ruled the entire country.
• Historians have organized the dynasties that
  ruled ancient Egypt into three periods
• The Old Kingdom
• The Middle Kingdom
• The New Kingdom

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The Old Kingdom

• The Old Kingdom lasted from about 2700 B.C. to
  2200 B.C., during which Upper Egypt and Lower
  Egypt combined to form a strong national
  government and developed the basic features of
  the Egyptian civilization.
• The Egyptian government was a theocracy, in which
  the same person serves as both the religious
  leader and the political leader.

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The Old Kingdom (cont.)

• The king delegated many responsibilities to a
  bureaucracy, including the control of trade, the
  collection of taxes, and the building of the
  nations infrastructure.
• To honor their god-kings and to provide them with
  an eternal place of rest, the Egyptians of the
  Old Kingdom built the Pyramids.

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The Middle Kingdom

• The Middle Kingdom, which lasted from 2200 B.C.
  to about 1800 B.C. and was brought on by a period
  of upheaval and violence against the Old Kingdom,
  was based in the city of Thebes.
• In the 1700s B.C. the Theban kings faced
  challenges to their authority from local leaders
  and were conquered by a people from western
  Africa called the Hyksos, who then ruled for
  about 110 years.

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The New Kingdom

• An Egyptian prince named Ahmose overthrew the
  Hyksos in about 1600 B.C.
• Around 1480 B.C. Queen Hatshepsut came to power
  in Egypt, carrying out an extensive building
  program.
• Queen Hatshepsuts stepson Thutmose III, who
  claimed the throne at her death, established an
  empire by conquering Syria and moving the
  Egyptian frontier to the northern part of the
  Euphrates River.

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The New Kingdom (cont.)

• The Egyptian Empire grew rich from commerce and
  tribute from the conquered territories and also
  benefited from cultural diffusion.
• Ramses II, who ruled during the 1200s B.C.,
  erected large statues of himself and built many
  temples and tombs.

9
Life in Ancient Egypt

• Royalty, nobles, and priests formed the top of
  the social order the majority of Egyptians,
  including farmers, belonged to the lower class.
• The status of Egyptian women, who in the Old
  Kingdom were treated as the property of their
  husbands, improved somewhat as the centuries
  passed.

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Life in Ancient Egypt (cont.)

• The worship of multiple deities guided every
  aspect of Egyptian life because their religion
  stressed an afterlife, Egyptians devoted much
  time and wealth to preparing for survival in the
  next world.
• The earliest Egyptian writing system, called
  hieroglyphics, consisted of carved picture
  symbols.

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• Section 2 The Fertile Crescent

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The Twin Rivers

• Around 5000 B.C. migrants began to settle in the
  Fertile Crescent, which included parts of modern
  day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, and
  Syria.

13
The Twin Rivers (cont.)

• Many of these peoples chose to settle in
  Mesopotamia, between the Tigris and Euphrates
  Rivers, but the twin rivers did not provide a
  regular supply of water, and their strong flood
  sometimes swept away entire villages and fields.
• To meet the rivers challenges, the early
  Mesopotamian villages cooperated to build dams,
  escape channels, canals, and ditches.

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The Sumerian Civilization

• Around 3500 B.C. a people called the Sumerians
  arrived in Mesopotamia and built what historians
  consider the worlds first city-states.
• Each Sumerian city-state usually governed itself
  independently and selected a military leader to
  serve as king and high priest.

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The Sumerian Civilization (cont.)

• Sumerian law extensively regulated family life,
  in which men exercised great authority over their
  wives and children.
• The Sumerians developed a system of writing,
  cuneiform, so that they could keep accounts and
  prepare documents relating to commerce and trade.

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The Sumerian Civilization (cont.)

• The Sumerians practiced a polytheistic religion
  and pictured their gods and goddesses as
  unpredictable, selfish beings with little regard
  for human beings.
• Historians credit the Sumerians with numerous
  technological inventions, including the wagon
  wheel, the arch, the sundial, and bronze.

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First Mesopotamian Empires

• When Sargon I assumed power, his people, the
  Akkadians, launched a military campaign of
  expansion and eventually united the city-states
  of Mesopotamia under one empire.
• During Sargons rule, the Akkadians and Sumerians
  adopted aspects of each others culture.

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First Mesopotamian Empires (cont.)

• The Amorites, a Semitic people from western
  Syria, overran many Sumerian centers and founded
  a dynasty in Babylon ruled by Hammurabi.
• Hammurabi eventually brought the entire region
  under his control, organizing a strong government
  and increasing the prosperity of his people.

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First Mesopotamian Empires (cont.)

• Historians consider Hammurabis greatest
  achievement to be his written law code, which
  assigned a specific punishment for each
  violation.
• The development of written law in Mesopotamia was
  a major advance toward justice and order.
• After Hammurabis death, the Babylonian empire
  declined, and his dynasty was destroyed when the
  Hittites raided Babylon about 1600 B.C.

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• Section 3 Early South Asia

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The Subcontinent

• The Indus Valley civilization, larger than either
  Egypt or Sumer in land area, reached its height
  between 2500-1500 B.C.
• Three modern nations India, Pakistan, and
  Bangladesh that lie on the subcontinent of
  South Asia trace their roots to the Indus Valley
  civilization.

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The Subcontinent (cont.)

• Natural barriers, including water to the east and
  west and mountain ranges to the north, separate
  the South Asian subcontinent from the rest of
  Asia.
• Three rivers in South Asia, fed by rain and
  melting mountain snows and flowing across the
  plains located to the south of the mountains,
  have supported large numbers of people over the
  ages.

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The Subcontinent (cont.)

• The northern mountains ensure generally warm
  weather in South Asia, but two seasonal winds
  called monsoons shape the pattern of life on the
  subcontinent.
• The northeast, or winter, monsoon brings dry air
  from the mountains, while the southwest, or
  summer, monsoon brings wet air off the ocean.
• The people of the plains are dependent on the
  monsoons for the growth of their crops.

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The Indus Valley Civilization

• The Indus Valley civilization, also known as the
  Harappan civilization, had two major cities,
  Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro.
• The ruins of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro are
  outstanding examples of urban planning.

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The Indus Valley Civilization (cont.)

• Most of the Harappan people worked the land, but
  Harappan city dwellers engaged in industry and
  commerce.
• Scientists have yet to decipher the written
  language of the Harappan civilization.

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The Indus Valley Civilization (cont.)

• The lack of written records has made it difficult
  to learn as much about the Harappan civilization
  as is known about the Egypt or Mesopotamia, but
  artifacts have provided some clues.
• Historians are not sure why the Harappan
  civilization disappeared by 1500 B.C., but
  massive flooding and hostile invasion are two
  theories for the collapse.

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• Section 4 Early China

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Chinas Geography

• Chinas lack of outside contacts allowed the
  Chinese to develop one culture across many
  regions and a strong sense of identity.
• Chinas rugged physical features hindered
  cultural diffusion both into and out of China for
  many centuries.
• For centuries large numbers of Chinese have
  farmed in the regions North China Plain, which
  is drained by three major rivers.

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Chinas Geography (cont.)

• The Huang He, or the Yellow River, is known as
  the Great Sorrow because of the tragedy brought
  by its floods but its silt deposits have also
  made the North China Plain a rich agricultural
  area.
• Farmers of the North China Plain region have long
  depended for their success on the favorable
  seasonal rhythms of temperature and rainfall.

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The Shang Dynasty

• Little is known about the origins of Chinese
  civilization, but archeological finds make it
  clear that the Huang He valley was settled very
  early.
• Over the centuries, the Chinese developed many
  myths to explain their remote past, including one
  about a ruler named Yu the Great that may have
  reflected an actual attempt to channel the
  floodwaters of the Huang He.

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The Shang Dynasty (cont.)

• The first dynasty in China t be dated by written
  records is the Shang, which ruled from about
  1700-1000 B.C.
• The Shang kings were both political leaders and
  high priests.
• Because Chinese written language consisted of
  many characters, few people in ancient China
  could read or write.

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The Shang Dynasty (cont.)

• The Chinese of the Shang period were accomplished
  artisans and artists.
• Although the Shang kings eventually conquered
  much of the Huang He valley, the dynasty lacked
  strong leaders and was overtaken around 1000
  B.C., by the Wu, whose Zhou dynasty then ruled
  China for 800 years.

33
Many Centuries of Dynasties

• Western historians have followed the Chinese
  practice of dividing Chinese history into periods
  based on dynasties.
• The Chinese believed that their rulers governed
  according to the Mandate of Heaven, which allowed
  rulers to remain in power only as long as they
  were just and effective.