Chapter 2 -Early River Valley Civilizations

Section 1 - City-States in Mesopotamia

Section 2 - Pyramids on the Nile

Section 3 - Planned Cities on the Indus

Section 4 - River Dynasties in China

Section 1 – City-States in Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia

Agriculture Revolution

A. The Tigris & the Euphrates flooding let rich mud, which helped the settlers of Mesopotamia, grew wheat & barley.

1. It was here that the first civilization began in 3300 B.C.2. The Sumerians dug irrigation channels to bring water to

their crops. 3. They built walls around their villages for defense & traded

their crops extra with other groups. 4. Several large city-states had controlled over the area, BUT

acted independently, like a country.5. Slowly, some people rose to power & became rulers, as

did their children after them, creating dynasty.6. As population & trade grew, Sumerians traded ideas other

groups.7. They believed in polytheism, or many gods. 8. Each god had power over different forces of nature or

their lives, b/c people are servants of the gods.

The King

• The priests• Wealthy• Merchants

• Workers in fields & • workshops. • Women could have careers &

own property

• Slaves made up the lowest level.

Samaria

B. Sumerians invented the sail, the wheel, & the plow.

1. They were the first to use bronze, developed the first writing system— on clay tablets, invented arithmetic & geometry.

2. In 2350 B.C., Sargon conquered Sumer & captured other cities, & built the world’s first empire.

3. A few hundred years later, another group conquered the Sumerians & built a capital at Babylon, establishing the Babylonian Empire.

4. They were led by a king named Hammurabi. He is famous for his code of laws.

a. It was a harsh code that punished people for wrongdoing.

b. It made it clear that the government had some responsibility for taking care of its people.

Section 2 - Pyramids on the Nile

By Jose Rosario

Page 12

A. Another civilization arose along the banks of the Nile River of East Africa.

1. The ancient Egyptians worshipped the Nile as god.

2. Egyptians lived in 2 kingdoms:

a. Upper Egypt extended from the Nile’s rapids to its delta.

b. Lower Egypt began which continued north to the Mediterranean.

3. By 3000 B.C., the king, Narmer, united the 2 Kingdoms.

4. Between 2660 - 2180 B.C., their culture arose.

5. Ruling over the land was the Pharaoh, king & god or atheocracy.

6. Pharaohs believed they would rule after their death. So they built huge tombs, or pyramids made out of massive limestone blocks.

Pharaoh

Cleric

Military

Scribes

Merchants

Artisans

Farmers

Slaves

B. Egyptians believed in many gods and in an afterlife.

1. One god, they thought, weighed the hearts of each dead person, judging sin.a. Good people, with featherweight hearts, would live forever in a

beautiful Other World.

b. To prepare after life, they mummified the dead person’s body.

2. The pharaoh & his family were at the top of Egyptian society.

3. Their writing system was the hieroglyphics, pictures that stood for sounds & ideas, written on a paper made of the papyrus plant.

4. They invented a system of written numbers & the calendar, which had 12 months, each of which had 30 days.

5. They were famous for their ideas in medicine.

6. After 2180 B.C., the pharaohs lost power & Egypt went through a time of troubles. They fell to invaders in 1640 B.C.

Section 3 - Planned Cities on theIndus

By Jose Rosario

Harappan Civilization

The First Indian Civilization

A. South Asia is a subcontinent, separated from the rest of Asia by tall mountains.

1. Ganges & Indus rivers flowed over the 2 large plains whilethe high mountains protected them from invaders, and the sea proximity helped them to trade over water.

2. The Indus faced flood, each spring, the winds brought heavy rains on the area, or monsoons.

3. Historians cannot understand the writings of the people who settled in the Indus Valley.

4. They do know that they were farming along the river by about 3200 B.C.

5. The culture is called Harappan civilization their culture covered an area larger than either Mesopotamia or Egypt.

The Geography of the Indian Subcontinent

Harappan Cities

B. By 2500 B.C., Indus began building their first cities, & planned their cities with streets, citadels & sewage.

1. Scholars think the Indus didn’t have big differences between their social classes.

2. Historians think that the Indus traded with other region & Mesopotamia.

3. By 1750 B.C., the cities began to show signs of decline.

4. The Indus Valley civilization collapsed around 1500 B.C.

5. Satellite images suggest a shift in the earth’s crust that caused earthquakes, the Indus River may have changed its course stopping the yearly floods.

6. The people may have overworked the land, leaving the soil too poor to produce crops.

Harappan Language & Writing

Section 4 - River Dynasties in China

By Jose Rosario

A. The last of the great early civilizations arose is China, which continues to this day.

1. Invaders to the north & west tried to conquer Chinamany times throughout its history.

2. The two rivers that flood over China—the Huang He& the Yangtze - made the land good for farming.

3. By 2000 B.C., the 1st dynasty brought government to China.

4. Around 1500 B.C., a new dynasty, the Shang, began to rule, leaving the first written records in China.

5. Chinese people built their buildings of wood and surrounded them by huge walls for protection.

B. The king & the nobles were at the top of Shang society.

1. Peasants were at the bottom, they lived in huts outside the city walls. Where they farmed with wooden tools.

2. Shang society was held together by a strong belief in theimportance of the group & not any single person.

3. The Family was an important part of their society & religion.

4. The spirits of their ancestors, were consulted by the Shang using an oracle.

5. The Chinese Writing System stood for ideas, not sounds.

a. The written language had thousands of symbols making it difficult to learn.

b. Very few learned to read & write.

C. By 1027 B.C., the Zhou, took control of China.They adopted Shang culture.

1. The idea of royalty began with the Zhou, they got authority to rule from heaven, or Mandate of Heaven.

2. The Chinese believed in the divine rule.

3. Until the early 1900s, the Chinese had one dynasty after another or dynastic cycle.

4. The Zhou established feudalism - a political system in which the nobles owe loyalty to the king & fight for him & to protect the peasants who live on their land.

5. Eventually the Zhou rulers lost all power & the nobles fought each other for control of China.

GentryWealthy

LandownerStudy Confusion

Ideas Civil Service

PeasantsMost Chinese are peasants

Farmers work the land.Live in small village.

Merchants Some become very rich

Lower status than peasants because riches come from other’s workSome buy land, educate sons to become gentry