DGP

In chapter one of Discovering the Global Past we being to learn much about the importance of water in early civilizations. It poses an interesting question, "How did the need for steady supply of water affect the technological, economic, political and legal development of ancient societies?"

In Mesopotamia farmers used lots of different types of irrigation. Land must be irrigated or it was "useless."In Egypt, not getting much rain forced the people relied on the Nile, luckily for them the Nile was predictable. In China the people harnessed the water from the Yellow River.

Irrigation system were started before the people were able to write stuff down, so historians rely on the remains of the land. However once civilizations did start writing things down, early on they mentioned the importance of water and water systems.

The earliest laws and rules were regarding water and/or irrigation. There was so much centered on water, it affected their food, money, and power. Even though at times their were power struggles between farmers, all worked together on canals and the water supple. They were smart enough to realize that water was the most important thing and they were able to work together for water.