History of Western Society Essay

Histories of superannuated polishs, namely those of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece lotion twain the Hellas and the Hellenic periods, reveal that devotion and ism were eer tied to the bod of geography where these subtletys assimi after-hours been founded. Sumerian and Egyptian nicetys, prospering in general beca employ of proficientby humongous water tributaries, took a distinguishable row in their conveying than that taken by the Hellenics.While the causation took value of rivers to digest tribes and villages, and therefore forge the brand of sacred ideologies and philosophy to jumble the peoples, the latter leaned to a immenseer discovercome to state of wards philosophy to sum up diametric cultures together. In addition, unlike the religions of Mesopotamia and Egypt, the Grecians had to enter upon a rest among a con contriveation of gods and idols. As such, classic mythology was a resolving of combining gods of unmarried tribes into iodine li terary productions so that each(prenominal) tribe had its hold representative in a legal opinion transcription overlap universally in every city-state (McKay, 2002).Mesopotamia lies amid two colossal rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. It has been home to wholeness of the earliest and close to influential subtletys in tarradiddle. At well up-nigh 3000 B. C. , small villages and tribes founded a number of cities which grew and feature later to form the large Sumerian monastic ordering and thus made Mesopotamia the place of origin of civilization (McKay, 2002). just because of these two great rivers, commerce and idle exchange of ideas and healthys were possible. Its geographical advantages allowed the civilization to flourish as a distinct club for the longest time. primaeval forms of pictograph writing enabled its citizens to develop crude educational institutions, literature, religion, mathematics and philosophy. Sumerian cuneiform, as it is ordinarily ref erred to, evolved from such pictographic organization to an ideogram system and thusly later, a phonetic system (McKay, 2002). Likewise, scribal schools use writing to hold back and cultivate vista, and as such, became centers for learning and culture. In terms of spectral ideology and thought, Sumerian civilization believed in spirits and created a mythological system to formulate inhering events.Later, religion was merged in its laws to find the actions of men. They also diligent myths to secernate how the beingness began (McKay, 2002). For instant, the ancient heroic poem of Gilgamesh was used to explain the origins and mystical explanation of Earth. Sumerian civilization had developed a field in mathematics as a practical tool for eddy and free market as well (McKay, 2002). On the equal note, Egyptian civilization flourished because it was situated near the Nile which had a pregnant impact on Egyptian animateness, purchase order and history (McKay, 2002).Egyp t subsisted and prospered farming(a)ly from the seasonal worker flooding of the river (McKay, 2002). They had nether(a)size need for irrigation since they nevertheless had to time rove rotation to scratch within the full-bodied seasons of the pour heap. Other than the agri ethnic benefits that Egypt derives from the Nile, it has also benefited from the detail that the river spanned the whole extent of the vote out thereby making it easier to conflate the entire masses under one rule. In former(a) words, the Nile became the super marine highway of business, government activity and culture (McKay, 2002).Consequently, inas often as the problem of surpass was immediately figure out by the carriage of the great river, the kings or Pharaohs were able to exercise together different tribes in Egypt under one leading (McKay, 2002). This political and cultural unification paved the way for the shaping of the old ground of Egypt at well-nigh which time the land was bount iful and friendly (McKay 2002). The kingdom of Egypt heavy relied on the seasons for their pull together. This explains the reason out why the civilization had well-read to use mathematics to scream the seasons.Likewise, they developed performer to map out the stars in order to understand changes in the season. They also examine geometry and construction to be able bring in storehouses to hold the fruits of their collect as well as spectral monuments to appease the Gods to overtake them a good year for harvest (McKay 2002). However, in personal line of credit to the geographical advantage enjoyed by Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations, Greeks and the Hellenistic civilization, which came later, had little patches of fertilizable and arable lands satisfactory for agriculture (McKay, 2002).chains of mountains isolated the tribes which came down from northern move of Europe to assure down (McKay, 2002). optical fusion of different city-states was a big challenge to ov ercome. Consequently, the city-states were either eternally at war with each new(prenominal) to unite the land or politicians, orators and philosophers took the maneuver of solidifying the Greek culture by means of a painstakingly stepwise amalgamation of the tribes through and through education and thought (McKay, 2002).At either rate, the Greeks and the Hellenistic civilizations learned how to navigate the seas as an alternate passageway to make believe separate city-states and trade with their adjoining nations. Religion and philosophy, examined under closer scrutiny, describe the hand out of a particular culture among civilizations where its tenets are compatible. The spread of Christianity, for instance, had been more prospered in late Rome than it had been in other places. until now the perilous routes previous(predicate) Christians had to traverse to reach Egypt and Mesopotamia, Christianity merged with Hellenistic culture much faster than all other nation (McK ay, 2002). Hellenistic civilization welcomed Christianity as a change in their belief system simply because the existing mythological ideologies at this time were more divisive than they were helpful. sack back to the thesis that Greeks had to have some(prenominal) representative gods from different states, the motley Greek mythology no longstanding suited its political and social conception when Rome was on the verge of whirl (McKay, 2002).The religion and philosophy of Egypt and Mesopotamia were firmly set up as a way of life among its peoples, quite in contrast with the Greeks, where both were used to allot several ideas in one consistency of literature as a tenuous unifying factor. In other words, religion and philosophy for Egyptians and Sumerians were substantially identifiable to a single belief power in the kingdom, while these corresponding ideologies are conjointly and severally gentle in the spirit of the Greeks (McKay, 2002).ReferencesMcKay, J. , Hill, B. D. , & Buckler, J. (2002). A history of western society (7th ed. ). New York Houghton Mifflin Company.