Mesopotamia and Indus River Valley

Questions for Crash Course 1-11

Mesopotamia (Crash Course #3)

Consider: What role did government, religion, trade, and language play in early civilizations. How does a government’s type of rule determine specialization of labor and overall success of a civilization?

1. (0:56) When did Mesopotamian cities begin forming and what does the name of this civilization mean?

2. (1:13) How was Mesopotamian society an early form of socialism?

3. (2:36) Mesopotamia was divided into city-states (a city that had control over the surrounding countryside) and one of the earliest of these was Uruk. What were some of the characteristics of this city-state?

4. (3:07) Why were the two main rivers of this civilization both beneficial and problematic for the people of Mesopotamia?

5. (4:03) Why were the priests at the top of the Mesopotamian social structure for so long? How did the palace and rulers (men) take over from the temple and priests (gods)?

6. (4:29) How do we know so much about the civilization of Mesopotamia?

7. (5:32) What was the most likely reason why the Mesopotamians created cuneiform?

8. (6:28) Why did the city-state change around 2000 BCE? How did this change affect the governmental structure of the city-states?

9. (7:34) Who was Hammurabi and why is he important to the story of Mesopotamia?

10. (8:09) Why were territorial empires vulnerable (easier) to conquest?

11. (9:52) Why were the Assyrians so good at conquering

1. What was the advantage of the flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers? Why is Mesopotamia known as the "cradle of civilization"?

2. Where was Sumner in Mesopotamia and what language was used and in what two ways did they use writing?

3. Why was Sargon of Akkad important and how did language play a role in the Akkadian empire?

4. Where was the Assyrian Empire, its capital, and how did Assyria become a empire in Mesopotamia?

5. How did Babylon emerge as powerful city state and later control much of Mesopotamia?

6. Why did Mesopotamian rulers decide to build ziggurats if they required such massive amounts of human labor?

7. How did trade with faraway civilizations likely impact Mesopotamia's’ views of the world?