Riordan Keiran Berti

Summary Question 1
When looking at Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece you find that they have
many differences whilst also sharing some similarities. Lets first take a look at
Mesopotamia; Mesopotamia was located near rivers, these rivers were very
unpredictable and led to a lot of flooding. This flooding led to failed crops and
having to rebuild homes. The Mesopotamians believed that their Gods' were
always angry (hence the flooding), they were afraid of death and had to deal
with violence and people trying to take over because of their location. Their
rulers had to fight to stay in power which made them very politically unstable.
This society was dependant on farming which meant they were dependent on
their environment.
Now let's look at Egypt; like Mesopotamia Egypt was by a river, the Nile
river, unlike Mesopotamia the Nile river was predictable which made Egypt a
more stable society because they would know when to farm and harvest. The
rulers in Egypt were very different from Mesopotamia. The rulers were called
Pharaoh's, they were seen as the reincarnations of Gods'. Because of this they
were not contested for power. The Egyptians believed that death was just
another step to a better life, because of this they did not fear it but actually

were excited to die. The Cult of the dead was their religious body, they were the
history keepers and the undertakers. Because of the predictability of the Nile
the Egyptians became very stagnant and tradition bound.
Now Greece was very different from both Mesopotamia and Egypt
because they were mostly an island nation made up of city-states. They had the
freedom and isolation to develop independent ways of life. This led to most of
the city-states being different from each other although some things were the
same through all of them like language, individuality( except in Sparta), myths,
oracle, Olympics, pride and fear. Athena, one of the Greek city-states, is where
we started to build up the idea of democracy. Greece had less economic
stability then Egypt which led to less chance of invasion. All three of these
societies were polytheistic, aside from the nomadic Hebrews.
Egypt and Mesopotamia were very dependent on the environment
around them. They used the rivers around them for faming and domesticating
their animals. The Mesopotamians were at the mercy of the unpredictable
rivers while the Egyptians lived in harmony with theirs. The Greeks were
dependant on their environment because it was also their protection.
These civilizations formed separate and different political, economic, and
social system because they were, at the base of it, very different societies. Their

cultures were different as were their religious beliefs. This led to different
governments and economies.