Geography and the Development/Diffusion of Human Society
Veronica Morales
Western Governor’s University
Geography and environment plays a significant role in the development of early societies. The development of the early societies occurred as people from different regions interacted with one another as they shared and extend acquired knowledge. As a result, primitive people began to establish and populate regions of the ancient world forming structures of the early society. As societies expand, they form into civilization with sophisticated form of communications and development of technologies. Physical geography as well as natural resources can shape the cultures and societies around us. We know that early societies have adapted their ways of life for survival. The success or failure of the society can lead to expansion or downfall of a civilization. Environmental and geographic factors are known to contribute in the development of early civilizations such as Mesopotamia as well as the development of the United States through the process of diffusion from people and ideas over time.
In the early civilizations, the presence of water symbolized life. Mesopotamia was the birth of early civilization due to its significant geographical characteristics, the rivers. The accessibility to water source from the Euphrates and Tigris rivers provided the early civilization with the knowledge to bring forth dependable food source. Mesopotamia was located in between two rivers (Soomo, 2013a). The Tigris River, which is shorter compared to the Euphrates River, has deeper channels, which can accommodate more water. The Euphrates River begins in the mountain of the Eastern Turkey. It is longer compare to Tigris River; however, water loss occurs through evaporation due to its hot & dry climate. "The Tigris runs almost parallel with the Euphrates and together they form a great, agriculturally productive alluvial plain" (Hollar, 2011). The early society used this knowledge to create technology such as irrigation to control the overflow of water as they battle environmental challenges to grow food. Though the land itself it fruitful, Mesopotamia was built on a plain of mud and clay deposits because of the two rivers. With limited rainfall, hot, and dry climate, the water from the two rivers brought the gift of life to the land of Mesopotamia. The Sumerians were the first society to embark in the knowledge of irrigation through the creation of canals and ditches (Hollar, 2011). Consequently, the two rivers gave rise to the success of the early settlement of Mesopotamia. The Sumerians developed the earliest form of agriculture by controlling the abundance of water and used it to grow their food. Because of the bountifulness of their harvest and the success of their new technology, the early settlement created larger scale of irrigation work, which necessitates more people to maintain and work the land. Because of this favorable outcome, travelers became settlers and more villages were built in Mesopotamia, which in turn gave rise to its well-defined civilization through the development of cities, government, and power to control the irrigation system inspired by the two rivers. Naturally, water brought the travelers to settle in Mesopotamia. In this early civilization, the river was the key for survival.
History has proven that people will travel far to survive. We know that prior to settlement way of life, primitive societies were travelers and wonderers. As people traveled to different parts in the ancient world, ideas and concepts were diffused among the divergent societies and the exchange of knowledge took place. It is evident that early civilization shared knowledge in creating their technology. The invention of technology in the early civilization such as chariot came through the process of diffusion as people migrated from different regions over a period of time. Today, we portrayed chariots as