Early civilizations (I). Mesopotamian civilization.

Early civilizations The river civilizations.

History began when writing appeared in Mesopotamia around 3000 BC in order to store information about resources, taxes and population.
The first historical civilizations grew up among rivers because they provided water to the cities and were trade and communications routes:

1. Mesopotamia developed between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates.
2. Egypt  grew around the river Nile.
3. Chinese civilization grew between the Yellow river ( Huang -He) and Blue river  (Yangtze ) in China.

All these civilizations had similar characteristics.

1. Strong political power. The king governed over the whole country . He made laws , led the army and usually had religious power.
2. Society was hierarchical. There was a minority of privileged people that owned most of the land and wealth and had main charges in public institutions there were large buildings as temples, palaces, tombs and canals.
3. Economy was based on irrigated agriculture ( wheat, rice...)