Early River Civilizations

573 Words3 Pages
The four Early River Civilizations were each unique in their own way. Some have similarities and some don’t. For example, Egypt and Mesopotamia, both powerful civilizations and both have their similarities and differences. However these two Early River Civilizations, Egypt and Mesopotamia had more similarities than differences in government, Social Structure and religion. There were some differences between these two early civilizations. The two civilizations had strong governments. Egypt had a highly centralized government where the pharaoh was the main leader that was in charge of everyone and everything. The people believed that the king was more than a man, they believed that he was a god. This gave him absolute control over the matters of the Empire and its people. Mesopotamia was a decentralized civilization where there were city-states unlike in Egypt. Different city-states had different rulers with separate laws and their own armies. Women had a higher status and respect in Egypt then in Mesopotamia. In Egypt there was at least one female pharaoh that was in charge and they were also allowed to become merchants, artisans, and priestesses. In Mesopotamia women sometimes worked as slaves and even prostitutes and were not respected by men and society as much as they would in the Egyptian civilization. This shows us that women were respected and were put on an equal or close to equal spot as men in Egypt. Even though there were some differences between the two civilizations there were more similarities. Both Egypt and Mesopotamia had believed in a few gods which made them polytheistic states. The Egyptians had as many as 2000 gods. They believed that the environment, plants, animals, the sun, had something that made them living but they considered their pharaoh/king as their main sacred god. The pharaohs where very important to Egypt because they pleased
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