Environmental Factors Leading to Civilization Along the Nile Essay Example for Free

Environmental Factors Leading to Civilization Along the Nile EssayA. ) The cardinal most solid environmental or physical geographic factors that contributed to the development and elaboration of the United states had to be the nones smasher, and the Irish Potato Famine. The Irish potato famine was devistating to Ireland and laid waste to its people, but ended up goading Irish immigration to the United States, leading to both development and expansion. The gold rush that took hold in the United States was whizz of the epicgest factors that pushed people atomic number 74 and lead to a greater settlement of the west swoop and all atomic number 18as between. These ii major shells helped to shape the country that we know today.The Irish Potato Famine was one of the most significant environmental factors that helped develope and expand the United States because it not lone(prenominal) lead to a population swell, but contrubuted to our work force receivable to the large number of immigrants that came to the U. S. as a result of it. in the lead the famine, the Catholic Irish peasents lived a very poor lifestyle and were constantly under fear of world evicted by their land lords as their farms were bluesized and their rents were raised. They grew potato crops in the deep Irish soil and used those crops to conciliate their rents and feed their families.This was many families sole source of income and nutrition. When the potato famine began in September of 1845, the potato crops failed universaly in Ireland, something that had never happened before. The poor Irish had been acustomed to a bad crop in a spot or two and they always had adjusted to circumstances before, and there was little loss of life oer this previously. From 1845 and for the nigh 4 years, the crops would fail repeatedly and this caused wide-spread death, from both starvation and opportunistic infections such(prenominal) as typhus, that mowed people down by the thousands in their hunger weakend condition.There were many theories about just why the crops failed, both irrational and religious, but we know now that it was the fault of a fungus, carried on the winds from England where it had been brough over by the North American ships. This fungus, phytophthora infestans, florished in the damp cool climate of Ireland and consistently ruined the potato crops. By 1847, two years into the Irish Potato Famine, people began to seek greener pastures either as a result of eviction, or the promise of a new and better life in the United States.There had been Irish imigration preliminary to this, but 1847 was really the first year where major waves of Irish families began to come to the United States. This lead to a population explosion on the eastern sloping trough of the United States and the Irish immigrants who lived through and through the voyage put in little welcome, often being taken advantage of and stolen from. The Irish immigrants brough with them new id eas about culture and theology and provided laborers for road work and other tasks that helped expand the United States. The Civil War is another event in wich the Irish took pgraphics.The immigrants joined the Union Army in droves and some atribute the northern victory in that fight to the seemingly endless supply of Union troops, composed largely of the immigrant population flooding into the United States at that time. How different would our country be had the famine not happened and the immigrants not come? The other major event that contributed to the expansion and developement of the United States was the California Gold Rush. The Gold Rush was an raise time in the tarradiddle of the United States.It lead to a huge amount of expansion and settlement of the western-most poritions of the United States that were largely under-explored wild at that time. In May of 1848 gold was found along the banks of the American River close together(p) Sacramento, California. By lofty of that same year the New York Herald published an wileicle about these findings, and so the Gold Rush was born Men flocked to California to seek their fortunes in the hopes of a better life for themselves and thier families. They left their wives and children and came over land and by sea via Panama.Prospectors seeking to strike it rich brought with them their American ideals and values, and are a with child(p) part of the reason that California became a state in 1850. The California gold fields were an exciting and dangerous holding to be, with few laws and really no way to inforce those that they had. Prostitution and drunken brawls and shootings were common place and many-a-fortune was won and lost in gambeling at camp. Most prospectors did not, in fact, strike it rich and left disallusioned to either go back to their families, or to settle the area around San Francisco.As a result of the Gold Rush, Californias population swelled from just 25,000 people to well over 220,000, whe n all was said and done. The population ontogeny helped to settle the area and made San Fransico a major trade port for the Western United States as well as a gateway of sorts for trigger off and immigration. The influx of interest and travel in the west also paved the way for industries such as mining for silver in Nevada and the building of a transcontinental railroad to the west. The Gold Rush played a huge part in the expansion and development of the United States in that it had such an impact on California and the west.California and the west coast as a whole just wouldnt be what they are today had the Gold Rush not taken place. B. ) The most significant environmental or physical geographic factor that contributed to the development of Egyptian society was the Nile river. The area in question is made up of harsh, sandy desert and mountains. The river Nile flows down through this area and, due to the run- out from melting snow in the mountains each spring, carries with it rich , fertile soil that is really the only soil in the area suitable for crop production.The people in the area could use this fertile soil to plant crops and, based this new-found dependability, begin to settle and build permanent dwellings and villages. Since the villagers could count on two harvests per year, in most years, this would create and excess of product that could then be used for trade. The area near the Nile river is the only area that is very suitable for a sustainable way of life. That is why civilization grew up there due to the ability to grow crops, domesticate animals, and build permanent dwellings.People no extended had to be nomadic and search out food, they could grow and raise their own The Nile also had a big impact on the religion of the time. Egyptian religion was ploytheistic and Egyptians worshiped many gods, usually based on nature. They had a sun god, a water god, an earth god, and so-forth. Each year when the Nile river flooded, this encouraged the beli ef in such gods and their devine will. The destruction that the flooding could cause was thought of as punishment for wrong doing and people created rituals to ward off the anger of their gods.A good crop grown from the soil brought down by the flooding was considered a sign of the gods pleasure with their people. The Niles influence could also be felt in its natural ability to be a trade route for Egypt. The arid desert climate makes it anything but an ideal area to travel through, and many found the river was a swift and cool route over wich to do business.The waters brought not only fertile soil for farming, but a measure of wealth and prosperity that contributed hugely to the growth and developement of the civilization. B1. One example of cultural diffusion is the relationship between Egypt and Rome. After being defeated by Rome, Egypt prospered as a province and was the main residence of Augustus Ceaser. This had a huge cultural impact on Egypt because Augustus began to rule th e city under roman print laws and this was a whole new way of doing things. There are also the effects on Rome to look at. Egypt was a boon to the Roman Empire due to the trade routes through the desert, the abundant desert minerals that could be mined and later used to make statues and ornaments, and the scrap that could be found in Egypt as well.One would have to wonder how different Grecian art would have been without the natural contributions that were made by Egypt. There was a natural diffusion that took place solely by co-existence with people of a different culture and background. The depictions of Egyptian people and gods began to look more Roman in dress and features and, likewise, the Egyptian architecture such as Obelisks became popular in Roman art and architecture.