Mesopotamia and Egypt Essay

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AP Essay

Of the first civilizations to emerge, Mesopotamia and Egypt were the most remarkable. Mesopotamia and Egypt both developed from an agricultural revolution with their similar purpose for farming, however their reasoning to worship their gods were distinguishable from one another and their way of creating order in the societies were based on different concepts. As the first civilizations to progress from hunting and gathering, Mesopotamia and Egypt both were driven by climate change to develop into the methods of pastoralism and agriculture. Dry climate and population growth stimulated the production of food. Mesopotamia’s dry and unstable landscape lead to the development of an artificial irrigation system to carry water from the Euphrates and Tigris rivers to fields. Egypt’s gift of the Nile River resulted into a natural irrigation system that traveled to far areas suitable for farming; the river made the land rich and determined the abundance of the following harvest. With the production of produce, settlement started to occur and populations increased, creating small city-states resulting into the structures of belief and constitutional order. The reasoning for worshiping the gods of Mesopotamia and Egypt were different because of their agricultural differences and their isolation from one another. Mesopotamian gods instilled fear on the people and Egyptians worshiped their gods because of the gifts they bestow on them. Mesopotamians feared that their gods would alter the landscape to punish them. Mesopotamian religion thought that humankind’s only purpose was to please the gods. Egyptians believed their gods were created to unify and strengthen the monarchy. Egypt’s beliefs evoked the land of the Nile and the vision of cosmic order. Egyptians believed in the afterlife and prepared the dead for a safe passage; they perfected the mummification technique to help preserve the corpse for the afterlife and encased the mummies in pyramids. While both religions were polytheistic, Mesopotamian kings were the intermediate between
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