A.

INTRODUCTION:
- Civilization as we know today begin off with writing, irrigation, trade, laws and many
other. Little did we know, rivers play a huge part on actualizing civilization. It all began
8000 years ago with the Nile River in Egypt, the Yellow River in China, the Tigris and
Euphrates in Mesopotamia, and the Indus River in Pakistan. These rivers bring a huge
impact on improving civilization from the ancient times until today.
- Main idea: What are the relevancies of rivers in ancient civilization? What positive and
negative impacts does rivers bring to civilization?

B. What are the relevancies of rivers in ancient civilization?

- Rivers that began with flooding a bland area of land result in fertile soil of Mesopotamia
that are excellent for farming wheat, barley and dates. These fertile soils that made
marshes became food sources for fish and birds.
- Commodities that rose from fertile soil around the rivers became great value to the people
of Mesopotamia that they made trade routes to the north.
- People of Egypt learned to make irrigation systems and used the increased amount of
farmland to cultivate more crops that became great value for trading in forms of finished
goods.
- The river responsible for valuable commodities also served as a trading route that linked
several regions and unified the land surrounded by the flowing water.
- Egyptian calendar based off its counting by referring to the river’s annual floods.

C. What positive and negative impacts does rivers bring to civilization?

- Human and other living species rely on the river for keeping them alive, such as source of
food for animals, fertile soil for various plants to grow in, and transportation route for
human.
- The river unified various regions that was geographically surrounded by the flowing
water and protected the regions from invading armies to march through.
- Not only that, finding solutions to an inconsistent existence of water that flooded and
dried uncertainly, people learned how to make irrigation systems that would meet their
 necessities and result in an increase of commodities produced from the fertile soil left
behind.
- However, these irrigation systems that resulted in an increased amount of farmland
available for cultivation resulted in disputes over land and water.
- On the other hand, these disputes drove people to develop writing and laws as a solution
for the conflict.

D. CONCLUSION

The river is where civilization begin and people started to search for solutions regarding the
problems arising. Water has been a significant part of a civilization ranging from its ability to
unify regions, provide sources of food for living species, grow commodities ready for trade,
and many more relevancies. Although the existence of these notable rivers may bring serious
conflicts, the solutions that are brought upon have made man improved up until today,
civilization as we know.