Section+2-1+City+States+in+Mesopotamia

Section 2-1: City States in Mesopotamia

Geography of the Fertile Crescent - great farming land between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea - got it's name because of it's curved shape and rich soil - when rivers flooded it left mud behind perfect for grain ad rice. - the surpluses in food allowed the villages to grow.

Bold: Fertile Crescent- what farmers called a land that had a curved shape and rich soil. Mesopotamia- lands that faces the Mediterranean Sea. in Greek this word means "land between the rivers." city-state- Similar to a state where there were boundaries and each city state was ruled by different individuals and often ran by a different government. dynasty- when a ruler of a city-state is the heir of the previous ruler culture diffusion- the process in which a new idea or a product spreads from culture to another. polytheism- the belief in more than one god. empire- bring together several peoples, nations or previous independent states under control of one ruler. Hammurabi- a ruler of an empire.

Important People: Hammurabi- a ruler of an empire. Sargon of Akkad- a conqueror and also the ruler of any empire. His dynasty lasted only 200 years.

Key Events: -Sargon created the world's first empire - Trading of grain and rice let the Sumerians get some raw materials that were scarse where they lived.

Environmental Challenges: - random flooding and droughts could seriously affect the crops. - no natural barriers protected the villages. - natural resources were limited, some that were needed couldn't be found.

Solving Problems Through Organization: - to fix some problems irrigation ditches were built to water crops - to protect themselves they built city walls out of mud bricks - to get some of the raw materials they needed they would trade their grain, cloth and crafted tools for things like stone, wood and metal.

Sumerians Create City-States Sumerians are know for becoming one of the first civilized cultures. They did things like building advanced cities, they had specialized workers, they built complex institutions, they kept records and they improved technology. As time when on people who lived in these areas innovated more. Over time more cities were built each with fields of barley and wheat. These cities were calle city-states.

Priests and Rulers Share Control: -Early governments were controlled by priests, because farmers thought crops froth depended on the blessings on the gods and priest were communicators with the gods. - The preists use to collect some of the the farmers crops for taxes. - when war started a tough soldier would take ore the citie-towns. - as tine went on some tough men became the perminate ruler. - the tough men passed their job to their sons and create dynasty.

The Spread of Cities: -the cities grew because of the surplus of food from their crops. - all the crops allowed then to trade more and get more things they needed. -more cities were made

Sumerian Culture The Sumerians way of civival made living in the dry environment possible at those times.

A Religion of Many Gods: -The Sumerians were polytheism so they believed that many gods existed and controlled the powers of nature. -the most powerful gods were the gods of air and storm. - they said their gods were like humans by falling in live, having children, quarreling and so on. - they though humans were nothing but their gods servants. - to keep the gods happy they gave them animals, food and wine. They also made ziggurants. - they didn't believe ina place like heaven but a dark gloomy place where dead human's souls would go.

Life in Sumerian Society: - they had classes of society. Preists, kings and landholders were part of the highest class. - the middle class was the pork who worked k. The feilds and workshops. - the lowest class was the slaves - slaves were foreigners they captures or other Sumerians who were sold into slavery. For their parents who were in dept. Eventual urge slaves could have bought their freedom. - women worked as mechants, farmers or artisans they learned how to read and write.

Sumerian Science and Technology: - Sumerians used asthmatics and geometry to help build structures. - they created a writing system, maps and wrote records of astronomy, chemistry, and medicine.

Sargon of Akkad: - was a conqueror defeated the city- states of Sumer. - helped press Sumerians aspects and culture. - create world's first empire. - Sargon's dynasty lasted about 200 years.

Babylonian Empire: - Around 2000 B.C. Amorites invaded Mesopotamia. The slowly won the war and made their capital Babylon. - reached it's peak during the reign of Hammurabi.

Hammurabi's Code: - laws to help unify diverse groups within Hammurabi's empire. He took already existing laws an put them together to form the code of Hammurabi. - he had the laws put all over the empire - the code listed 282 laws - punish for breaking the laws were different depending how rich you are.