The assertion that “geography is destiny” is a significantly valid statement that can be said about the shaping of earlier civilizations including Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. In each of these early civilizations, the people that entered into these areas were forced to adapt and build in a certain way due to the geography surrounding them which in return chose their destiny. The Egyptians adapted their way of life by building their civilization around the significant advantages of the Nile River. The Mesopotamians were not as lucky to have a river with such stability as the Nile; they were left with the Euphrates and Tigris River which forced them to alter and build their civilization countering the disadvantages they faced. The Indus Valley also adapted, but took advantage of their location which was surrounded by mountains, ocean and desert opening up many possibilities for trade, growth and urbanization.
According to the journal entry written by J.G Manning, It was once said by a Greek historian whose name was Herodotus that early Egypt could also be referred to as the “Gift of the Nile”. This, in so many ways is very true. When the Egyptians began to build there civilization, they examined the geography around them and all the benefits that the Nile River provided. The Egyptians learned that this river provided very minimal, steady and predictable flooding. They revolved their agriculture patterns around the fact that the Nile only flooded at certain times of the year which happened to be at a very convenient time for their crops and produce. Compared to other early civilizations, the Egyptians did not have to build a sophisticated irrigation system in order to water their crops and bring water to the people. They could rely on the Nile to do this with assurance that nothing catastrophic could happen. The Nile also provided the Egyptians with an easy and safe way of transportation. The wind which blew in the opposite direction to the current, allowed them to drift downriver as well as sail up river against the current with ease. The geography of the Nile was not only important to the way their civilization formed but also to the way they organized their culture. The Egyptians created and formed their calendar correlated to the Nile. According to H.E Winlock in his journal The Origin of the Ancient Egyptian Calendar, “Primitive man in Egypt regulated their lives entirely by the cycle of the Nile’s stages. Nature divided their years into three well-defined seasons-Flood, Spring, and Low Water or Harvest, with the Flood Season, following the hardship of the Low Nile, the obvious starting point for each annual cycle.” The Egyptians way of adapting to the Nile River’s geography and other surroundings chose the direction of their civilization, culture and destiny.
Unlike the Egyptians who were provided by nature with a great beneficial river, the Mesopotamian people had to adapt in a completely different way to the geography around them because of the hardships they faced. The Mesopotamians were surrounded by two rivers called the Tigris and the Euphrates. These two rivers differed from the Nile River because they brought uncontrollable and unpredictable flooding to the areas surrounding them. The flooding could happen at any time and was very catastrophic when it did, ruining crops and other things putting the people in danger. Because of this, they had to build a significant amount of canals as well as a very intensive irrigation system to control the water flow that was happening. They were forced to create totally new structures and ideas to keep their civilization alive. This adaptation to the geography around them brought positive results. According to Joseph Dellapenna in his journal The two rivers and the lands between: Mesopotamia and the international law of transboundary waters, “Had the Mesopotamians people not been between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, they would have never worked together to build irrigation systems and the civilization would have crumbled.” What Dellapenna is saying is that without the flooding of these rivers, the Mesopotamians would have never come together adapting to their surroundings and urbanizing their civilization creating cities and governments. While the Mesopotamians had to accommodate to the geography around them in a completely more sophisticated way than the Egyptians, their destiny was chosen by the way these rivers acted and because of the way they responded, they survived.
The people of the Indus Valley were very similar in ways to the people of Egypt due to the fact that their geographic advantages helped them adapt easier. Their terrain was very stable and housed the Indus River. Luckily, their river did not have intense flooding problems like the Mesopotamians. They were surrounded by highlands, desert and ocean bringing lots of possibilities for trade and growth. The size of the Indus Valley was also a major contribution to its success being one of the largest civilizations of its time. The large population and amount of land made it possible to have several “city-states” in different areas creating diversity in crops being produced and other necessities which opened up trade. The Indus Valley developed into a huge trade market within its “city-states” as well as reaching out to Mesopotamia. Because of these benefits, they were able to focus on the future and how they would advance and urbanize. The people of Indus Valley managed to build a very sophisticated irrigation system. According to the findings from the journal Irrigation and Development in the Upper Indus Basin, “The Indus Valley had snow- and glacier-fed irrigation systems in the tributary valleys and a different system in the main valley, where water is directly abstracted from the Indus River.” (Nüsser, Marcus, Susanne Schmidt, and Juliane Dame, 2012). Technology like this was nothing that you could find in early Egypt or Mesopotamia. They had public baths, homes with toilets and sewer systems; things that were simply unheard of to surrounding civilizations. The beneficial characteristics of the Indus Valleys geography produced the urbanization and successfulness of the people and their destiny.
These examples of early Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley are all great examples of why geography is destiny. The people of Egypt had to adapt and build civilization around the Nile River, the Mesopotamians had to adapt to the Euphrates and Tigris rivers to survive and build civilization together, and the people of the Indus Valley worked with the perfect terrain that surrounded them creating a massive empire full of trade and urban civilization. Not one of these civilizations would have formed and been successful the way they did had they not adapted to the geography that surrounded them.
References:
Manning, J. G. 2005. “[The Gift of the Nile].” Classical Journal 100, no. 3: 322-325. EducationFull Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed February 4,
2013).
Winlock, H. E. 1940. “The Origin of the Ancient Egyptian Calendar”. Proceedings of theAmerican Philosophical Society. 83 (3): 447-464. Education Full Text, EBSCOhost(accessed February 5,2013).
Dellapenna, Joseph W. 1996. “The two rivers and the lands between: Mesopotamia and theinternational law of transboundary waters.” BYU Journal Of Public Law 10, no. 2: 213.Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 5, 2013).
Nüsser, Marcus, Susanne Schmidt, and Juliane Dame. 2012. “Irrigation and Development in theUpper Indus Basin”. Mountain Research and Development. 32 (1): 51-61. AcademicSearch Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 5, 2013).
