In: Economics
How did the Ancient Egyptians relationship to their river valley shape their civilization? In what ways did the elements of Egypt's geography (the Nile River, etc.) help the Egyptians to develop their economy, their religion, their culture, or their identity? How does this compare to that of the other ancient civilizations we've studied?
Ancient civilisations have been contributed by a large scale by the geographical attributes that were present during those times. The development of Egyptian civilisation and its economy is no different. The presence of the Nile river was a major reason for the cultural and economic expansion of the Egyptian civilisation. Now, considering all other expansions of civilisations from across the world, we can see the same effect. For example, the Indus valley civilisation grew around the Indus river. The reason for the same being the fertile natural tract of land availability that were present in the regions around the water body. The fertile land is one of the major requirements for the expansion of cultivation which was the major sustenance factor of those times. This in turn helped in the development of settled agriculture since there were availability of water and fertile land throughout the year. Thus, the nomads of those times became settled around the water body. This settlement gradually introduced variations in the living style and gave more time to indulge in other activities
The presence of the water body and the geographical advantage was the major factor that resulted in the development of trade during those times. The water body helped in the transportation of goods to distant locations and import of goods that were not available. This resulted in the intermixing of cultures which made substantial contributions to the development of cultural variations in the civilisations. The predictable flooding and the controlled irrigation besides the valley helped in the production of surplus crops which were able to feed the dense population and to the development of culture. With more and more resources to spare, the administration during those times took initiative for the mineral explorations and thus the other sectors of economy were also developed in the longer run.
The Greek civilisation, Roman civilisation, Mayan civilisation and the Chinese civilisation also grew on similar lanes. The Roman civilisation and economy grew along the banks of the river Tiber which was at the crossroads of trade and international traffic. The contribution of geographical attributes to the expansion of Greek civilisation was a bit different as it was the land that helped more in the development of the civilisation as it was more concentrated around the development of cities which provided an expansion of trade and finally brought in economic benefits to the civilisation in the longer run. The Chinese civilisation began on the banks of the Yellow river which was again a water body. Thus, we can see that all the civilisations and the economic developments were influenced by the inherent geographical factors of which major contributions were made by the water bodies as they helped in the expansion of the basic agricultural development and thus made provisions for the development of a settled system.