The civilization of Ancient Mesopotamia grew up along the banks of two great rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris. In the midst of a vast desert, the peoples of Mesopotamia relied upon these rivers to provide drinking water, agricultural irrigation, and major transportation routes. Over centuries, the flood pulse of the Euphrates and Tigris left the southern plains of what is now Iraq with the richest soil in the Near East.
Mesopotamia, centered in modern-day Iraq, is regarded as the birthplace of civilization. While the region was widely occupied by humans as early as 12,000 B.C.E., historians believe that large civilizations began in Mesopotamia between 4,000 and 3,000 B.C.E. Mesopotamia's development in this period was supported by a series of geographical factors, including rivers and fertile lands.
THE FERTILE CRESCENT
Mesopotamia's soil was uniquely fertile, which gave humans reason to settle in the region and begin farming. As early as 5,800 B.C.E., people were living in the area known as the "Fertile Crescent" to take advantage of the rich soil. The soil's richness came from runoff from nearby mountains, which regularly deposited nutritious silt onto the river floodplain. This region stretched from modern-day Kuwait and Iraq northward to Turkey. Before the settlement of Mesopotamia, neolithic humans were largely hunters and gatherers who did sporadic farming. Mesopotamia's unique fertility allowed humans to settle in one place to farm.
TRADE ROUTES
Mesopotamia's rivers and location in central Asia supported extensive trade routes. In the time of Mesopotamia, smaller civilizations existed to the west in Europe and North Africa and to the east in India. For these regions to trade, they needed to traverse Mesopotamia's territory between them. This allowed Mesopotamia to access resources not native to its region, like timber and precious metals. In turn, Mesopotamia developed key aspects of civilization, like a token system to keep trading records.
TIGRIS AND EUPHRATES
While Mesopotamia's soil was fertile, the region's semiarid climate didn't have much rainfall, with less than ten inches annually. This initially made farming difficult. Two major rivers in the region -- the Tigris and Euphrates -- provided a source of water that enabled wide-scale farming. Irrigation provided Mesopotamian civilization with the ability to stretch the river's waters into farm lands. This led to engineering advances like the construction of canals, dams, reservoirs, drains and aqueducts. One of the prime duties of the king was to maintain these essential waterways.
FLAT WITH FEW MOUNTAINS
The Mesopotamian region is relatively flat with few mountains and few forests. This made the people who lived there vulnerable to foreign invasion and conquest, because there were few natural places to hide. Vulnerability spurred the development of major organizational aspects of human civilization like government, professional warfare and concepts of empire. By the first millennium B.C.E., the region was home to the world's first multinational empire, the Assyrian Empire. Assyria introduced government innovations such as dividing its empire into provinces. Mesopotamia's geography also made governance challenging, and numerous rebellions occurred in the early millennia.
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