MayMester Essay

Geography can have a large role in affecting the way a country/civilization carries itself. Its politics, military strategy, and even religion can be affected by the nature that the civilization is surrounded by. Society’s economy can be vastly affected by geography, especially in the early ages before exploration and the industrial revolution. If transportation was difficult it was hard to trade goods, which could ultimately harm one’s society. Geographic features and the land that surrounds civilizations have great affect on their society. Egypt is a country that is surrounded by desert. It is in the middle of no where, and would normally be an area that civilizations couldn’t live off of. However, there is one geographic feature that Egyptians all depend on, and acts as the heart of the Egyptian society, The Nile River. The Nile is not like most other rivers in the world in that it flows away from the equator, flowing north. It is also the only river in the world that consists of constant winds coming from the northeast. This combination allows people to travel up or down the river, using the winds if wanting to travel south, or the current of the river to travel north. This allows trade to be easy in all ages of the Egyptian civilization. All major cities in Egypt have been located on near or the Nile River. The Nile also has a flooding cycle. Around the same time every year, the Nile floods. This flooding enriches the soil around The Nile, allowing crops to be able to grow and harvested. The people depended on the flooding; it allowed them to grow crops on desert land. The Nile also affected much of the architecture used in Egypt. The temples that were built to gods seemed to be based on that of the Nile River. The dessert that surrounded the Nile and society actually benefited Egypt in some forms. It provided a natural defense from opposing countries. No one wanted to invade because traveling through hundreds of miles through desert, by the time they reached civilization half their army would have died of dehydration and exhaustion. Egypt is a very unique civilization, but because of the Nile, and intelligent people, Egypt has been able to be an extremely productive society. Mesopotamia is the region of land that is located in between The Euphrates and Tigris Rivers. Like the Nile, these Rivers also flood. However, The Nile was very organized flooding, you could set your watch on the flood. The Tigris and Euphrates would flood whenever, and would vary greatly in size. The floods were very unorganized and chaotic. Sometimes they would not flood much at all, other times it would have been consisting of a vast amount of water. This caused the society to be ran like the floods were, in organized chaos. The chaos the rivers caused made growing crops very difficult for farmers. Floods would wipe away crops, or the lack of water would not enrich the soil enough to grow the crops. The two rivers provided Mesopotamia with many hardships and also affiliated with how the country was ran, in organized chaos. India is a country that is surrounded by natural defenses that helped the country be almost invincible to invasions. In the southern part of the country India is surrounded by open sea. In the early ages this was perfect defense due to the fact that no one knew how to travel in open sea. To the east there is the Burmese Forest, a very dense forest that would have been impossible to travel through. To the north was the Himalayan Mountains, the tallest Mountain Range in the world. And to the west was desert. Obviously, India had perfect boundaries protecting themselves from the rest of the world. In the western part of India there is the Indus River, and the east there is the Ganges River. The people of Harappa settled in the western part of India that was known as the Indus Valley Civilization. The Indus River was used by these people, and they were able to effectively use the surrounding geography