Early European History Part 9

CHAPTER II

THE LANDS AND PEOPLES OF THE EAST TO ABOUT 600 B.C. [1]

7. PHYSICAL ASIA

GRAND DIVISIONS OF ASIA

Ancient history begins in the East--in Asia and in that part of Africa called Egypt, which the peoples of antiquity always regarded as belonging to Asia. If we look at a physical map of Asia, we see at once that it consists of two very unequal divisions separated by an almost continuous ma.s.s of mountains and deserts. These two divisions are Farther and Nearer, or Eastern and Western, Asia.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, PHYSICAL MAP OF ASIA.]

FARTHER ASIA

Farther Asia begins at the center of the continent with a series of elevated table-lands which rise into the lofty plateaus, known as the "Roof of the World." Here two tremendous mountain chains diverge. The Altai range runs out to the northeast and reaches the sh.o.r.es of the Pacific near Bering Strait. The Himalaya range extends southeast to the Malay peninsula. In the angle formed by their intersection lies the cold and barren region of East Turkestan and Tibet, the height of which, in some places, is ten thousand feet above the sea. From these mountains and plateaus the ground sinks gradually toward the north into the lowlands of West Turkestan and Siberia, toward the east and south into the plains of China and India.

CHINA

The fertile territory of central China, watered by the two streams, Yangtse and Hoangho, was settled at a remote period by barbarous tribes.

The civilization which they slowly developed in antiquity has endured with little change until the present day. The inhabitants of neighboring countries, Korea, j.a.pan, and Indo-China, owe much to this civilization. It has exerted slight influence on the other peoples of Asia because the Chinese have always occupied a distant corner of the continent, cut off by deserts and mountains from the lands on the west. As if these barriers were not enough, they raised the Great Wall to protect their country from invasion.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA The wall extends for about fifteen hundred miles along the northern frontier of China. In 1908 AD it was traversed for its entire length by an American Mr. W. E. Geil. He found many parts of the fortification still in good repair, though built twenty one centuries ago.]

Behind this mighty rampart the Chinese have lived secluded and aloof from the progress of our western world. In ancient times China was a land of mystery.

INDIA

India was better known than China, especially its two great rivers, the Indus and the Ganges, which flow to the southwest and southeast, respectively, and make this part of the peninsula one of the most fertile territories on the globe. Such a land attracted immigrants. The region now known as the Punjab, where the Indus receives the waters of five great streams, was settled by light-skinned Indo-Europeans [2] perhaps as early as 2000 B.C. Then they occupied the valley of the Ganges and so brought all northern India under their control.

INDIA AND THE WEST

India did not remain entirely isolated from the rest of Asia, The Punjab was twice conquered by invaders from the West; by the Persians in the sixth century B.C., [3] and about two hundred years later by the Greeks.

[4] After the end of foreign rule India continued to be of importance through its commerce, which introduced such luxuries as precious stones, spices, and ivory among the western peoples.

NEARER ASIA

Nearer, or Western Asia, the smaller of the two grand divisions of the Asiatic continent, is bounded by the Black and Caspian seas on the north, by the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and Indian Ocean on the south, eastward by the Indus River, and westward by the Mediterranean and the Nile. Almost all the countries within this area played a part in the ancient history of the Orient.

COUNTRIES OF NEARER ASIA

The lofty plateaus of central Asia decline on the west into the lower but still elevated region of Iran. The western part of Iran was occupied in antiquity by the kindred people known as Medes and Persians. Armenia, a wild and mountainous region, is an extension to the northwest of the Iranian table-land. Beyond Armenia we cross into the peninsula of Asia Minor, a natural link between Asia and Europe. Southward from Asia Minor we pa.s.s along the Mediterranean coast through Syria to Arabia. The Arabian peninsula may be regarded as the link between Asia and Africa.

INFLUENCE OF GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS

These five countries of Nearer Asia were not well fitted to become centers of early civilization. They possessed no great rivers which help to bring people together, and no broad, fertile plains which support a large population. Armenia, Asia Minor, and Syria were broken up into small districts by chains of mountains. Iran and Arabia were chiefly barren deserts. But two other divisions of Nearer Asia resembled distant India and China in the possession of a warm climate, a fruitful soil, and an extensive river system. These lands were Babylonia and Egypt, the first homes of civilized man.

8. BABYLONIA AND EGYPT

THE TIGRIS AND THE EUPHRATES

Two famous rivers rise in the remote fastnesses of Armenia--the Tigris and the Euphrates. As they flow southward, the twin streams approach each other to form a common valley, and then proceed in parallel channels for the greater part of their course. In antiquity each river emptied into the Persian Gulf by a separate mouth. This Tigris-Euphrates valley was called by the Greeks Mesopotamia, "the land between the rivers."

PRODUCTIONS OF BABYLONIA

Babylonia is a remarkably productive country. The annual inundation of the rivers has covered its once rocky bottom with deposits of rich silt. Crops planted in such a soil, under the influence of a blazing sun, ripen with great rapidity and yield abundant harvests. "Of all the countries that we know," says an old Greek traveler, "there is no other so fruitful in grain." [5] Wheat and barley were perhaps first domesticated in this part of the world. [6] Wheat still grows wild there. Though Babylonia possessed no forests, it had the date palm, which needed scarcely any cultivation.

If the alluvial soil yielded little stone, clay, on the other hand, was everywhere. Molded into brick and afterwards dried in the sun, the clay became _adobe_, the cheapest building material imaginable.

BABYLONIA AN EARLY CENTER OF CIVILIZATION

In Babylonia Nature seems to have done her utmost to make it easy for People to gain a living. We can understand, therefore, why from prehistoric times men have been attracted to this region, and why it is here that we must look for one of the earliest seats of civilization. [7]

LOWER AND UPPER EGYPT

Egypt may be described as the valley of the Nile. Rising in the Nyanza lakes of central Africa, that mighty stream, before entering Egypt, receives the waters of the Blue Nile near the modern town of Khartum. From this point the course of the river is broken by a series of five rocky rapids, misnamed cataracts, which can be shot by boats. The cataracts cease near the island of Philae, and Upper Egypt begins. This is a strip of fertile territory, about five hundred miles in length but averaging only eight miles in width. Not far from modern Cairo the hills inclosing the valley fall away, the Nile divides into numerous branches, and Lower Egypt, or the Delta, begins. The sluggish stream pa.s.ses through a region of mingled swamp and plain, and at length by three princ.i.p.al mouths empties its waters into the Mediterranean.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PHILAE The island was originally only a heap of granite bowlders. Retaining walls were built around it, and the s.p.a.ce within when filled with rich Nile mud, became beautiful with groves of palms and mimosas. As the result of the construction of the a.s.suan dam, Philae and its exquisite temples are now submerged during the winter months, when the reservoir is full.]

EGYPT THE GIFT OF THE NILE

Egypt owes her existence to the Nile. All Lower Egypt is a creation of the river by the gradual acc.u.mulation of sediment at its mouths. Upper Egypt has been dug out of the desert sand and underlying rock by a process of erosion centuries long. Once the Nile filled all the s.p.a.ce between the hills that line its sides. Now it flows through a thick layer of alluvial mud deposited by the yearly inundation.

ANNUAL INUNDATION OF THE NILE

The Nile begins to rise in June, when the snow melts on the Abyssinian mountains. High-water mark, some thirty feet above the ordinary level, is reached in September. The inhabitants then make haste to cut the confining dikes and to spread the fertilizing water over their fields. Egypt takes on the appearance of a turbid lake, dotted here and there with island villages and crossed in every direction by highways elevated above the flood. Late in October the river begins to subside and by December has returned to its normal level. As the water recedes, it deposits that dressing of fertile vegetable mold which makes the soil of Egypt perhaps the richest in the world. [8]

EGYPT AN EARLY CENTER OF CIVILIZATION

It was by no accident that Egypt, like Babylonia, became one of the first homes of civilized men. Here, as there, every condition made it easy for people to live and thrive. Food was cheap, for it was easily produced. The peasant needed only to spread his seed broadcast over the muddy fields to be sure of an abundant return. The warm, dry climate enabled him to get along with little shelter and clothing. Hence the inhabitants of this favored region rapidly increased in number and gathered in populous towns and cities. At a time when most of their neighbors were still in the darkness of the prehistoric age, the Egyptians had entered the light of history.

9. THE BABYLONIANS AND THE EGYPTIANS

INHABITANTS OF BABYLONIA

The earliest inhabitants of Babylonia of whom we know anything were a people called Sumerians. They entered the Babylonian plain through the pa.s.ses of the eastern mountains, three or four thousand years before the Christian era. Here they formed a number of independent states, each with its capital city, its patron G.o.d, and its king. After them came Semitic tribes from the deserts of northern Arabia. The Semites mingled with the Sumerians and adopted Sumerian civilization.

HAMMURABI, KING OF BABYLONIA, ABOUT 2000 B.C.

Of all the early Babylonian kings the most famous was Hammurabi. Some inscriptions still remain to tell how he freed his country from foreign invaders and made his native Babylon the capital of the entire land. This city became henceforth the real center of the Euphrates valley, to which, indeed, it gave its name. Hammurabi was also an able statesman, who sought to develop the territories his sword had won. He dug great ca.n.a.ls to distribute the waters of the Euphrates and built huge granaries to store the wheat against a time of famine. In Babylon he raised splendid temples and palaces. For all his kingdom he published a code of laws, the oldest in the world. [9] Thus Hammurabi, by making Babylonia so strong and flouris.h.i.+ng, was able to extend her influence in every direction. Her only important rival was Egypt.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TOP OF MONUMENT CONTAINING THE CODE OF HAMMURABI (British Museum, London) A block of black diorite nearly 8 feet high, on which the code is chiseled in 44 columns and over 3600 lines. The relief at the top of the monument shows the Babylonian king receiving the laws from the sun G.o.d who is seated at the right.]

The origin of the Egyptians is not known with certainty. In physical characteristics they resembled the native tribes of northern and inhabitants eastern Africa. Their language, however, shows of Egypt close kins.h.i.+p to the Semitic tongues of western Asia and Arabia. It is probable that the Egyptians, like the Babylonians, arose from the mingling of several peoples.

MENES, KING OF EGYPT, ABOUT 3400 B.C.

The history of Egypt commences with the union of the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt under Menes. An ancient tradition made him the builder of Memphis, near the head of the Delta, and the founder of the Egyptian monarchy. Scholars once doubted these exploits and even regarded Menes himself as mythical. Recently, however, his tomb has been discovered. In the gray dawn of history Menes appears as a real personage, the first of that line of kings, or "Pharaohs," who for nearly three thousand years ruled over Egypt.