Unit 3 - Geography & Culture Reflection
Listen to ALL of the comments on the VoiceThread. Describe the impact of geography of on the history, culture and society of Southwest Asia and North Africa. Be sure to support your answer with specific examples from the activity and our studies.
The geography has greatly impacted the peoples in the Middle East and the development of civilization. To start, the location of the Middle East is crucial to the civilizations. This region is at the crossroads of different continents and cultures, with many waterways that support life and trade. The locations gave birth to agriculture, cities, writing, and religion. Oil also influences these societies and brings wealth to the nation. However, there are also many bad aspects of this location. People fight over fresh water sources and are constricted to places where fresh water is available. Wars are also fought over oil and the wealth that comes from it, while the majority of people do not benefit from this great wealth and live in poverty.
ReplyDeleteThe geography of the Middle East has caused for early development. The freshwater sources allowed for civilizations to form and for government and religion to be created. The oil has caused for many wars to occur throughout the countries and for there to be groups that control vast amounts of oil such as OPEC. The Middle East is also the crossroads of the world, and is right in between Europe, Asia, and Africa, which causes for vast cultural differences and large points of trading. Finally, with civilizations starting so early in the Fertile Crescent, the people were able to advance early and create large cities and structures early, as shown by the Great Pyramids.
ReplyDeleteIn Southwest Asia, the geography heavily impacts the cultures, including water, oil, and early civilizations. First, this region has many waterways. Civilizations develop here, including agriculture. This also leads to urbanization, which can pressure the environment. Because of the fertile soil and cities, this region gave rise to many early civilizations. Characteristics included writing, citizens having rights, religion and monotheism, and a center around water resources. This is important because water is relatively scarce, so people must adapt. They adapt by desalinization of water to make it drinkable, having camels instead of pigs, and changing population patterns to live near fresh water sources. The scarcity also gives rise to wars over who gets the water. Another geographic element of the region is oil. It is concentrated around the Persian Gulf, and many of the countries are part of OPEC, which regulates the price and quantity of oil worldwide. Oil is both a blessing and a curse. It brings great wealth, but that wealth is unevenly distributed and also involves conflicts.
ReplyDeleteThe geography of the Middle East has greatly impacted the wealth as well as history, culture, and society. With the emergence of good areas to grow crops and oil fields, many people have gathered in those areas and created societies and cities. Also people who gain control of these oil fields and food supplies gain wealth from the need of other people in the society. With the different water supplies in different areas have emerged, people have settled in different places and their culture is changed and created due to how well they can adapt to different climates. All in all the water and food supplies, oil fields, and geography of the Middle East have contributed to the history, culture, and societies of our times.
ReplyDeleteGeography has determined much about Southwest Asia and North Africa, which is, both culturally and geographically, the crossroads of the world. Most notably, people congregate around areas with freshwater as that resource is scarce in this region. It is at these freshwater locations that agriculture and cities develop and that the seeds of civilization are sown. Wars have been fought between ethnic groups over areas with freshwater. Additionally, oil is a major export in this region. It is a great help because it brings in great wealth, but it also causes conflict over how the wealth is used. As a result of this resource and the aforementioned freshwater, early civilization developed in this region, with the first writing systems, cities, and religions.
ReplyDeleteIt seems geography causes history to happen the way it had already happened. Geography and history make it possible to almost foresee the future. For example, wars have already happened over oil and water in the Middle East, so why can they not learn from their mistakes? Also, civilization has always been formed around freshwater sources so it must be safe to assume that only certain locations are perfect for civilization. Finally, if there are viable resources concentrated within one country's boundaries, there must be internal struggles or problems gripping the resources with an unstable government.
ReplyDeleteSouthwest Asia and North Africa is unique because despite its lack of fresh water, it contains the Fertile Crescent, the birthplace of agriculture and civilization. Most of the wars between ancient empires and recent countries are about who controls the fresh water an the oil reserves. Oil can bring much wealth to a country, but this wealth mainly goes to the leaders, leaving the rest of the country poor. This region is and was important to the rest of the world because it links Africa, Asia, and Europe.
ReplyDeleteGeography in the middle east was a big factor in the formation of early civilization. Many civilizations had to be near freshwater systems, or near an area in which you could farm, such as the fertile crescent. More recently, the middle east is affected by the large amounts of oil and as fields. The oil/gas fields are thought to be a blessing and a curse because they bring lots of wealth, but it brings much more conflict, especially around the Persian Gulf. OPEC is a organization that regulates the distribution and prices of oil an gas. The Middle east is in the center of Africa, Asia, and Europe which is unique because it is the only place in the world that connects three continents
ReplyDeleteThe geography of southwest asia has greatly influenced the culture of the region. Southwest Asia is the crossroads of three different continents and it includes many important waterways and rivers. The fertile crescent is also located here, which brings the emergence of agriculture and civilization (cities). The lack of water has also greatly influenced the culture of the region. There is a change in agriculture; people use camels instead of other animals. Also, population centers are determined by the availability of freshwater, which causes conflict over water sources. The high quantity of oil causes conflict in the region. Oil brings tremendous wealth to the region, but there is an uneven wealth distribution, which causes poverty. This region was also the place of the first civilizations. There was an emergence of writing, government, and religion.
ReplyDeleteGeography has had a major impact on the culture and society of Southwest Asia and North Africa. The people of these regions have to adapt to a lack of water and an abundance of oil. The civilizations that began here all formed near or on the banks of a river. The religions of the region (Islam and Judaism) both forbid the consumption of pork with the intention of preventing pig farming and a waste of water on the pigs. The contemporary Governments of the region now have an abundance of the world's oil supply, and use it to achieve great personal wealth and to impoverish the masses.
ReplyDeleteThe geography in Southwest Asia has influenced the way people live. Southwest Asia (Middle East) is the crossroads between Europe, Africa, and Asia. Civilizations have had to adapt to live with a lack of water. This makes civilizations live around bodies of freshwater. The need for freshwater has created the need for desalinization. Desalinization and the oil fields in Southwest Asia, are the ways that the government makes the most money. Although, these oil fields and freshwater sources are not the greatest places. There are wars fought between countries and ethnic groups over the possession of the land .
ReplyDeleteThe history, cultures, and societies of Southwest Asia and North Africa are heavily dependent on the geography of the region. The societies developed first in this region due to the fertile crescent, which allowed for agriculture and settlement. It should be noted that cities first began around freshwater sources, because these sources are needed to survive. There are wars fought over these water sources, because the water is so sparse that losing access to one source could destroy an entire population. There is also history of oil in this region. This is an oil rich region, but the wealth from the oil is concentrated in a small group of elites, which leaves much of the population poor. The religion of Wahhabism is used to justify the issues faced by nations here, so that religion shapes the region, especially in Saudi Arabia.
ReplyDeleteThe impact that geography has on the history of Southwest Asia and North Africa is tremendous. Water is probably the most influential factor when it comes to the history of the Middle East. Early civilizations first appeared around sources of fresh water. Since water is such a scarce resource in this area, many conflicts arise from who's water it is. Also, water affects the culture. For example, instead of raising pigs, which are heavily dependent on water, they raise camels, which are meant to survive in dry climates. Also, the society has been impacted by the geography. For example, people are forced to make adaptations in order to survive. This includes using as little water as possible due to its scarcity, among other adaptations to their way of life.
ReplyDeleteThe Middle East region is a crossroad of the continents of Europe, Africa, and Asia. This, along with the waterways that pass through, make it an important center for trade. Also, rivers that pass through the area provide fresh water to the people living there. Next, The fertile crescent was located here, which is what led to the growth of agriculture and eventually cities also. The scarcity of water encouraged people to adapt to the land around them. For example, civilizations developed along rivers, and animals that required less water were often used. However, the limited amount of water created conflict. Similarly, the amount of oil in this area also led to conflict, but it also led to great wealth in the high ranking people of these countries. Lastly, this area had the first development of writing, as well as the religious belief of monotheism.
ReplyDeleteGeography, such as the location of water, oil, and continents has played a major role of culture and society of Southwest Asia and North Africa. Water location is very important, because with water comes life. Conflicts have arisen between countries regarding freshwater sources. There also have been agricultural adaptions for lack of water, such as camels instead of pigs and horses, and even the location of cities depends on water. The oil locations are important also because the oil can bring great wealth to a country. However, the profits are usually unevenly distributed, giving only certain individuals wealth. Oil can also lead to wars or conflicts about which country is able to use the oil.
ReplyDeleteThe geography of this region largely impacted its civilization and development as it was in crossroads of three major continents. Cities locations and agriculture were influenced by fresh water resources because in order for a population to sustain they need a sufficient fresh water supply for drinking as well as irrigation. The development of cities led to the emergence of writing as well as government. Also, oil locations was another factor in the development because as there was a high concentration located near the Persian Gulf, surrounded by many countries, it arose the decision of who should calm or be entitled to control of this natural resource; because oil brings tremendous wealth which many of the countries were interested in as well as the resource itself.
ReplyDeleteSouthwest Asia holds a very unique location such that it houses the primary interaction between three continents. In this area, water sources are more important than any other resource. The Nile, Tigris, Euphrates, and Jordan Rivers are important water sources for the people of Southwest Asia. This is a major crossroad for the connection of cultures. The urban lifestyles that formed here date back millennia. The people living here use camels due to the fact that they can survive long periods of time without water. Conflict arises over territories that include water. There are high concentrations of oil that lie by the Persian Gulf. Oil creates conflict over territory and trade. OPEC formed in order to regulate the oil trade. If Kurdistan were to gain independence, many oil fields would fall within that territory and be lost from the mother countries. As a result of the oil, the wealth is unevenly distributed. Royal families use religion to justify these means and provide promise for more success. Wahhabism blames all of the problems on the Western countries. The first writing system developed in Southwest Asia. Civilizations formed around the access to freshwater. These civilizations established religion to justify beliefs and values.
ReplyDeleteThe land in the Middle East is fertile, which resulted in the development of civilizations. The geography difference caused many areas to start their own cultures. Many civilizations began near freshwater areas. The Fertile Crescent was the first source of agriculture. People raise livestock such as camels that adapt to dry conditions. The oil is mainly being distributed around the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea. It's a blessing and curse because it provides tremendous wealth, but causes many conflicts with neighboring countries.
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