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RIVIER VALLEY AS THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION - w.r.t CHINA

The cradle of civilization is a term referring to any of the possible locations for the emergenceof civilization. Four of the world's ancient civilizations emerged along large rivers in dryclimates, around 6000-4000 BCE, and it was not by chance. The rivers played a key role in theemergence of ancient China, the Indus Valley civilization, Mesopotamia, and ancient Egypt.Broadly speaking, the rivers not only made the civilizations possible by making food plentifulbut also made them necessary by giving the people in those four areas new challenges that only"civilization" could solve.

The world's climate became drier and cooler between about 8000 and 6000 BCE. This ended aperiod of successful hunting and gathering by early humans in places like the Sahara, and

resulted in the global pattern of deserts and fertile areas we are familiar with today. Theprocess was slow, and the people adapted, until they found themselves largely concentratedaround dwindling resources, such as large rivers in dry regions.

In those regions, because of the dwindling opportunities to gather and hunt food, the peoplehad great need of concentrated sources of food, and this is the period of time in which peoplearound the world, in similar circumstances, made the transition from gathering and hunting forfood, to farming and husbandry. These new methods of food production allowed for morepeople to live in a small area than was possible without food production.

The four early river-based civilizations emerged in special cases of this, where the farming andhusbandry was especially productive, and this is because of flooding. The Yellow River innorthern China, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq, the Indus River in Pakistan, and thelower Nile in Egypt are all famous for flooding. The floods were of different characters Chinesehave historically referred to the Yellow (Huang) River as "China's sorrow" for its destructivepower, and the ancient Greek historian Herodotus called Egypt the "gift of the Nile," because itsfloods were regular and fairly gentle. But all of the floods magnified the agricultural advantageby enriching the soil annually, allowing for greater concentrations of population in those fourareas than around other rivers.

Chinese civilization originated in various regional centers along both the Yellow River and theYangtze River valleys in the Neolithic era, but the Yellow River is said to be the Cradle of Chinese Civilization. With thousands of years of continuous history, China is one of the world'soldest civilizations. The written history of China can be found as early as the Shang Dynasty (c.1700 – 1046 BC), although ancient historical texts such as the Records of the Grand Historian(ca. 100 BC) and Bamboo Annals assert the existence of a Xia Dynasty before the Shang. Oraclebones with ancient Chinese writing from the Shang Dynasty have been radiocarbon dated to as

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early as 1500 BC. Much of Chinese culture, literature and philosophy further developed duringthe Zhou Dynasty (1045-256 BC).

The Yellow River or Huang He , formerly known as the Hwang Ho , is the second-longest river inChina (after the Yangtze ) and the sixth-longest in the world at the estimated length of 5,464kilometers (3,395 mi). [1] Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai Province in westernChina , it flows through nine provinces of China and empties into the Bohai Sea . In late Neolithictimes, the Yellow River valley began to establish itself as a cultural center, where the firstvillages were founded; the most archaeologically significant of those was found at Banpo, Xi'an.The Yellow River was so named because of loehss forming its banks gave a yellowish tint to thewater. The Yellow River is notable for the large amount of silt it carries—1.6 billion tonsannually at the point where it descends from the Loess Plateau . If it is running to the sea withsufficient volume, 1.4 billion tons are carried to the sea annually.

The Yellow River is called "the cradle of Chinese civilization" as its basin – specifically,the Wei valley that cuts across the long Ordos loop – was the birthplace of ancient Chinesecivilizations and the most prosperous region in early Chinese history . However, frequentdevastating floods and course changes produced by the continual elevation of the river bed ,sometimes above the level of its surrounding fields has also earned it the unenviable names"China's Sorrow" and "Scourge of the Sons of Han."

River valleys were important to ancient civilizations, and water was essential to thedevelopment and growth of societies. Early civilizations were dependent on river valleys for

survival in many respects. River valleys played a pivotal role in the revolution of foodproduction, population and economic growth, and eventually, structured governments.

The emergence of food production, made possible by a reliable water supply, had a profoundeffect on the evolution of human society. Initially humans obtained food through hunting andgathering methods to meet individual needs. However, when they discovered the usefulnessand practicality of using water to produce and distribute food, relying solely on hunting andgathering was no longer a necessary act to survive.

Since food production is essentially what makes civilization possible due to the fact it opens upavenues for trade and economic development, it is easy to see why early civilizations were sodependent upon the rivers.

The emergence of food production affected the development of societies from a social,economic and political perspective. With the introduction of manipulated food production,avenues of trade opened up, larger societies materialized and the intermingling of diversepeoples.

All of this revolution was made possible because of the abundance of water located in thenearby rivers in ancient civilizations. It's interesting to think about how civilization would haveevolved without the proximity and availability of the river valleys. Water was an essential

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component which initiated the tremendous growth which occurred throughout earlycivilization.