Rivers and Geography

Egypt Nile, desert barriers, northern africa

Mesopotamia Tigris + Euphrates, no natural barriers

India Indus + Ganges, many mountain barriers

Environmental Flooding Flooding Flooding, Challenges (regular), dry (unpredictable), dry seasons seasons dry seasons Solutions Cities Nothing, irrigation (name main) Dikes / Dams, irrigation (describe citystates) Nothing. irrigation Highly planned: grid system, plumbing, wide roads, water system Maybe centralized, not sure but assumed because of extensive planning. (one person dictates)

China Huang He (yellow), Chang Jing, Yangtze Mountains + Deserts FLOODING, Chinas sorrow, dry seasons, Dikes, irrigation wood

Government

Pharoahdivine leader, considered a god. Highly centralized

Starts as an independent unit. Because of lack of barriers, taken over by Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians. Under rule of many empires such as Babylon, from whom they got the laws of Hammurabi:

Dynasties, starting with shang. Under the Qin, they got a centralized government.

Culture Religion

Writing

Papyrus, Cuneiform, hieroglyphics clay tablets Hierarchy, big difference between upper and rigid

Social Structure

Polytheistic, Daoism, Hinduism, Confucianism, buddhism nature gods, various philosophies ???, Chinese pictographs, characters on later on: paper, sanskrit Chill until rigid Caste system!.

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STAY GENERAL, BUT MENTION EXAMPLES RELIGON, WRITING, SOCIAL STRUCTURE : ALL CULTURE The four great river valleys are significant because these civilizations are based heavily on the way that they are geographically situated. The rivers provided fertile soil, means of transportation, and possible defense from attackers. These four civilizations are among the earliest civilizations in history. They all depended on a water source to prosper. Geographically speaking, each civilization had natural barriers, whether it is the mountainous in India and China or desert in Egypt in China, except for Mesopotamia, which had no natural barriers, which meant that man-made walls needed to be built around the civilization. Another thing around these civilizations was a water source. The rivers of these civilizations are the Nile River in Egypt, the Tigris-Euphrates in Mesopotamia, the Indus + Ganges in India and the Huang He (Yellow), and Chang Jing in China. These rivers made it possible for people of these civilizations to develop agriculture, farming and trade. The rivers not only brought good things, but also bad. Every river in these civilizations flooded whether it was normally in Egypt, a little less normal in Mesopotamia, a lot in India or a HUGE problem in China. Indians and Egyptians did not do anything to try and stop flooding, but the Chinese and Mesopotamians built Dykes and Dams. Another environmental challenge includes dry seasons, which also occurred in every civilization. Every civilization also succeeded in finding the answer to their problem: irrigation. Each civilization ended up with very rigid, centralized government. The only exception was the Mesopotamian government because it started out as a free and independent unit, but as it got taken over (by Assyrians, Babylonians, persians, etc) because of the lack of natural barriers, new rules were made and it became very centralized. One of the people who had taken over Mesopotamia were the Babylonians, who brought Hammurabis code which many laws are based off of today. The chinese were rules with dynasties. Under the Qin dynasty, the Chinese developed a centralized government. We are not completely sure that the Indian government was centralized, but we assume so because of how much planning went into the cities, which included wide streets and water systems. The Egyptians were rules under a Pharoah, a divine leader who was considered a god. The writing in these civilizations were important because many languages today are based on them. In Egypt, the written language was in Hieroglyphics written on papyrus, the paper that they created form the papyrus plant. The mesopotmians wrote on clay tablets in cuneiform, with triangular shaped wedges. The chinese wrote in chinese characters on paper which later

became an art. We are not sure what the Indian written language was at first, but they later wrote pictographs and sankskrit.