Chapter 2 Essay From Nothingss

Mesopotamian geography affected the history, religion, and government to base on controlled. Mesopotamia was located between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers. Both of the rivers had unpredictable flood, which destroyed crops and killed many people. So, the Mesopotamians created irrigation system for the water domestication. Then the irrigation brought fertile soil and that area became cradle of life and the Fertile Crescent.
Mesopotamia had a controlled history. City states of Sumer; Ur and Uruk were formed. Soon, the first empire in the world rose to power. Akkadian empire under the ruled of King Sargon conquered the surrounding land because they want the fertile soil. Soon, a new empire called the Babylonian Empire defeated the Akkadian empire. Babylonian was ruled by King Hammurabi. Later on, Babylonians were defeated to Assyrian Empire. Assyrian dominated the area by conquering many land. However, the Assyrian Empire came to an end and Persian Empire rose to power again. Persian Empire was ruled by King Cyrus, known as the merciful king.
Religion and government were controlled. The Epic of Gilgamesh was the domestication of the wild man and Epic of Gilgamesh showed that Mesopotamians believed that water is destructive. Gods are furious and angry. During the Babylonian Empire, people were ruled by the Hammurabi’s code which is another example of human domestication. Hammurabi’s code was about justice, retribution, and deterrence. The Assyrian Empire was ruled by terror. It caused people to live in fear, so there are no rebels and troubles.
Egyptian geography affected the history, religion, and government to become regular, stable, and predictable. Egyptians lied along the Nile River. The Nile River had a predictable flood, so it brought fertile soil regularly. Therefore the people don’t need to create irrigation system. Then the people believed that the Nile River is their god and they start worshipping the river and create religious story about the river.
The regular history of Egypt consists of three major parts: The Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and the New Kingdom. Each kingdom was ruled by pharaoh, vizier, and bureaucracy. The Middle Kingdom was the highest peak of Egyptian. They expanded the land widely. However, the Egyptians were defeated by Hyksos. But Egyptians were smart enough to learn the war strategies of Hyksos, so they were able to recover their kingdom again. Even though, the new kingdom was formed, it was never as powerful as the Middle Kingdom.
The Egyptian government and religion were predictable. They created the story the Miracle of the Nile. The Miracle of the Nile was about Osiris resurrection and the predictable flood that brought fertile soil. The Egyptians were also theocratic and polytheistic.
Central Asian nomads’ geography affected the history, religion, and government to become chaotic, less stable, and less regular. The Central Asian nomads lived in an arid climate where there is no river, which was a lot different from Egyptian and Mesopotamian. They were also in between the Egyptian and Mesopotamian, so they were forced to move constantly. Therefore, they were pastoral nomads (not hunter-gatherers) and stateless wanderers.
Central Asia Nomad (chaotic)
The history of Central Asia Nomad was chaotic. Canaanites were the first people to live there. Then the Hebrew that escaped from Egypt by the helped of Moses united with other Hebrew tribes and attack Canaanites. At the same time, Sea People from the Mediterranean came and fight the Canaanites. The Hebrew became the United Kingdom and the Sea people became Philistines. After King Solomon’s death, the United Kingdom was split into two kingdoms: Kingdom of Judah and Kingdom of Israel. Kingdom of Israel were attacked by the Assyrian Empire, which there were 10 lost tribes that escaped. The Kingdom of Judah was attacked by the Second Babylonian Empire and was enslaved. However, after the rose of Persian Empire, King Cyrus freed the Jews and let them go back and lived at the land.
Geography also shaped the religion and government to be unpredictable. The pastoral nomads need to move constantly, so they need an omnipresent mobile god. They created the religion called Judaism, which was monotheism and Yahweh was their only god. Abraham was the founder of Judaism. He had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. Later on, Isaac on was the founder of Christianity and Ishmael was the founder of Islam. Another famous prophet in Judaism was Moses. Moses helped the Hebrew slaves in Egypt to escape. Yahweh also gave Moses the Ten Commandment and every Jewish people need to follow it.
Geography mostly affected Thailand same as Egyptian. Thai history, religion, and government mostly were regular.