Egypt and Mesopotamia can easily be compared to socially, economically and politically. Socially both civilizations had similar social statuses for women and men, but distinctions in social classes in Mesopotamia were much greater than in Egypt. Economically both societies had important irrigation sources for example the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates, although Egypt traded within a closer range than Mesopotamia. Politically Mesopotamia used a strict law code where as Egypt had no type of impersonal law code, but kingship was the dominant political form. There are many similarities socially, economically and politically.
The flooding was very unpredictable and could cause mass destruction. Too little rain and they could end up with famine, too much and everything was destroyed. Menes was one of the great pharaohs that this documentary talks about. He is credited for uniting Upper and Lower Egypt and is the founder of the First Dynasty. He built the first damn to protect the city from the flooding which required extreme labor.
Egyptians used this very frequently because it is freshwater resource in the country and due to their lack of precipitation, they can use the river to their advantage. In Mesopotamia, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers were used as an excellent transportation system, the water was for growing crops and drinking. But one thing different from the Nile, is that it once or twice a year the rivers would flood and the Mesopotamians then used the extra water for irrigation on the land. Egyptians invented a written language known as Hieroglyphs. They used pictures to interpret what they were saying when trying to communicate.
The subjects worshipped the Pharaoh and were all united under him or, in a few rare cases her. There was a Social Hierarchy with the pharaoh at the top, and stair-stepping down to peasants and farmers. This civilization and way of life was very organized in Ancient Egypt. In Ancient Mesopotamia it was split into city-states which were each ruled by their own head or king-like figure, who all governed their own city-state. They were not united with all other cities unlike the Egyptians, and they based their laws off of Hammurabi’s Code.
Egypt had much more of an advantage then Mesopotamia with their geography because this would lead to better development. The reasoning for this first off is because Mesopotamia had very flat land and they were surrounded by things which caused their development to later fall apart. This is a negative effect because later on in Mesopotamia the nomads end up invading them and taking over. Which caused their development to drop as I said before. Also, the Tigris and Euphrates river being very unpredictable with flooding or droughts made living difficult in Mesopotamia.
The Egyptian society tended to think of themselves as superior to other people, so Egyptians frequently eyed foreigners with unwelcomed glares. Another comprises the political development and characteristics. Both ancient Mesopotamia’s and Egypt’s government were ruled by some sort of king. For Egypt, the highest place of the government was the pharaoh, who was not only
The Maya and Shang relied on similar agricultural methods and political structures with small kingdoms and one ruler; however, they differed culturally since the Shang had no religion and the Mayans did. Both civilizations organized into hierarchies of power, although the Mayan small city-kingdom system worked better than the Shang decentralized states. Unlike the Mayans, the Shang had many governors and trusted them to carry out the orders. However, the governors were not hundred percent loyal to their king and rebelled a lot. The only reason they stayed in power for a certain time was that they could monopolize their bronze.
Because of this, both of these civilizations depended on rivers to sustain a productive agriculture. This is especially important to both because they lived in arid lands. However, the rivers that the Egyptians and Mesopotamians used were far different from each other. The Egyptians lived near the Nile
Trade was an essential part of these societies. The bazaars and town markets where this trading took place was a place rich with many different cultures, foods, farming supplies and techniques, the latest weaponry, politics and news. Without this, these civilizations would’ve advanced slower and there would’ve been a high possibility that they would’ve become ethnocentric much like the early Chinese civilizations were. But trade was inevitable where the Egyptian and Mesopotamian societies grew. They each lived on flat planes around large rivers where it would be pretty easy to communicate to the other societies around them.
The rivers would easily flood at unplanned times that would result in devastations and floods that made it harder for the civilization to develop. Mesopotamia also didn’t have any natural barriers to prevent from attack and invasion of foreigners, and was constantly being taken over and occupied by different people groups. Due to Mesopotamian civilization being the first, Egypt was influenced by the Mesopotamian culture and revised many of the ideas and developments created there. Due to the time that these civilizations surface, both of the civilizations were Polytheistic; meaning that they believed in several gods. In the earlier times all of the religions were focused around the strength and power of the gods, which they inferred to be a part of nature.