Civilization is the way of life that began by those who live in cities. Civilization comes from the word civis, which comes from Latin, and means citizen of a city. Civilization is characterized by everything that makes up the way of life in a city. This includes form of government, arts, customs, and technology. Civilization is similar to a culture except that civilization is more advanced and complex. Culture is any way of life . Everyone has a culture but not everyone is in a civilization. The increase in agriculture and domestication of animals were major steps in civilization. This supported everyone in a small town. Trade was involved in which they exchanged grain, pottery, and various raw materials. Everything in the town was supported as much as possible to make life easier. This was what a civilization was.

Some of the first civilizations were in Ancient Egypt. Ancient Egypt had a good centralized rule or government. Pharaohs or strong kings were in control of Egypt during the Middle Kingdom (2040-1786). This made a stable government and made cultural life and economics better. Trade was carried on between Egypt and Palestine, Syria, and Crete. Around 1800B.C. The strong kings began to weaken. The nobles began to gain some of the power. Egypt was invaded by the Hyksos, which were mixtures of the Semites and Indo-Europeans. They were not driven out until 1570B.C. Then a new and revived empire began. Egypt was not interested in the development of their civilization or the progress of it. They were mainly interested in the stable and long lasting terms of civilization. They wanted to keep it long lasting and permanent.

The Egyptians were smart people. Egyptians built pyramids to put the dead pharaohs in and painted the tombs and decorated them with gold and other valuables. Their paintings were lively and colorful. They did not learn how to show distance making their paintings flat. Egyptian sculptures were massive and square. They built things with stone. They learned to handle and be able to move huge masses of stone with ease and skill. The Egyptians believed in gods that ruled different things such as sky, earth, water, and the sun. This gave answers to the Egyptians about why the weather changed consistently and why the earth changes. They contributed to different things in our life today such as paper, surveying, the calendar, and they tamed the cat. Religion was a big part of society in Egypt. Religion was the basis for all of Egypt s arts and government. Literature was mainly used in religion and the basis for education came from religion. They worshiped animals like the cat. They believed in an afterlife, which made them try to preserve the dead. The Egyptians had answers to everything whether it was right or not they believed strongly in their answers. All this made their civilization as a whole much more stable and permanent. This all helped them to maintain it and preserve it.

Egypt s economics were fairly stable also. Trade was involved tremendously in Egypt. Foreign trade was done only according to the kingdom s needs. A group of government officials was elected by the pharaoh s and the officials were the ones who collected all the taxed, looked over the construction, checked all the irrigation, done the surveys, kept records, kept the government warehouses up, and conducted all the foreign trade. The government warehouses was where all the grains were kept. The peasants were not wealthy people. They were just the pharaoh s people and responsibility. All the wealth of Egypt was given to the pharaoh s either alive or dead.

Every aspect of Egypt contributed to their success in civilization. I think the Egyptians had one of the easiest lives of all Ancient Civilizations. I think this is due to their religion and beliefs. They also respected and worshiped their gods which was what they wanted to do. They believed that the gods always did what was best for them. If I had the choice of living in an ancient civilization it would most definitely.

Bibliography

Western Civilization, A Brief History, Third Edition, by Marvin Perry

copyright 1997 by Houghton Mifflin Company

Sources Of The Western Tradition, edited by Perry, Peden and Von Laue, Volume II, Fourth Edition.

copyright 1999 by Houghton Mifflin Company

The World Book Encyclopedia

copyright 1982 by World Book