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Two civilizations (Egypt-America)
Introduction: Had the life been that easy, long ago? That’s a tough question to answer because if you thought a little bit, you would find out that you know very little about your past. No one can deny that your ancestors had done a lot of work to make their huge civilization and get us where we are standing right now. Our past is a result of fight and struggle for many years by our ancient Egyptians in order to get luxury and prosperity. This fight and struggle is a very useful lesson for today’s generations to take up. The past shows them how to depend on themselves and how to make their future with their own hands. So, we shouldn’t all depend on our past. We should follow in their footsteps. Remembering that previous civilization helps a lot to make the future. And we should also know that we wouldn’t go any further unless we work hard. So, in order to broaden our knowledge and information about our history, we decided to start this project to let everyone knows how interesting our civilization was, and still is. We will tell you about its history, how did it start and what it had left to us. On the other hand, we will talk about the pioneer American civilization and how did it take its place on the top of the world’s modern civilization. In the end, we will try to mix the two civilizations and show some ways to exchange ideas between them.
Ancient Egyptian civilization: When most people think of Egyptian history, they think of the pyramids, mummies and the pharaohs. But there is so much more to the story of Egypt’s history. Egypt has a longer written history than any other nation. Ancient Egypt is perhaps the most fascinating of the ancient civilizations. Even the ancient Greeks thought themselves to be a young and inexperienced society compared to the Egyptians. Indeed, the splendors of the ancient Egyptian civilization have been a source of inspiration down through the ages. Since the Greek historian “Herodutes” first wrote about his travel through Egypt in the fifth century B.C, people have always speculated about how the Egyptians built their massive monuments, and marveled at the beauty of their art and architecture. From time immemorial, humanity has searched for the meaning of life, trying to reconcile its mortality with a profound desire to attain immortality. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in ancient Egypt. The pharaohs’ journey to eternity has been preserved in their writings, arts and culture. But, of course, one must wonder how did the Egyptian civilization started ?Some people claim that the Egyptian civilization started suddenly, and it was in a complete form when it started. Based on this assumption, they further assume that someone else handed over to the Egyptians “The Secrets of the Universe” We say that this all wrong because the Greco-Egyptian historian “Mantho”(3rd century B.C), under the early Ptolemies, wrote the only substantive history of Egypt to come down to us. He gathered his information from Egyptian records, but all were incomplete, because of their remote age. However, because of the overwhelming task, he chose “Menes” as a starting point, about 3000 years earlier. Also the Egyptian language “hieroglyphics”, as an example, represents images from the Egyptian natural world, and therefore, it was of an Egyptian origin, and not imported or influenced by other cultures. Moreover, when anyone of us traces back his ancestry, one will reach a point where one can’t go any further. Some can identify five generations and others maybe ten generations. No one ever suggests that your ancestry ended because you couldn’t trace the prior generations. Likewise, for ancient Egypt, the records can only take us back to a point. However, this doesn’t mean that nothing existed beyond that point.
The earliest stages of Egyptian history can be divided into seven stages. An Egyptian priest named “Manetho” wrote a history of Egypt dividing its past through Greek rule into 31 Dynasties. We will try to organize those dynasties into the various stages of ancient Egyptian history, mentioning the great rulers. The earliest period is known as the Archaic or Early Dynastic Period (3100-2686 B.C). This consists of Dynasties 1 and 2. Most of the rulers and events of this time are somewhat shadowy. We learn of a certain ruler named “Narmer”, who unified Upper and Lower Egypt. Dynasties 3 through 6 are known as the Old Kingdom (2686-2181 B.C). The Old Kingdom is know also as the Pyramid Age, because it is the time when many of the great pyramids were built including the ones on the Giza Plateau. The Old Kingdom gradually collapsed due to foreign pressures, economic collapse and ineffective rule. Egypt lapsed into a disunited country again, with successive rulers in the north and in the south. These periods of Egyptian history are known as Intermediate Periods. The First Intermediate Period (2181-2050 B.C) lasted from Dynasties 7 through 10. Around 2050 B.C a king from “Thebes” named “Mentuhotep” crushed “Herakleopolis” and became king of a unified Egypt. This assured in a new period know as the Middle Kingdom (2052-1786 B.C), Dynasties 11-12. This kingdom reached its high point during the reign of “Amenemhat III”.
After the falling of the dynastic 12 around 1775 B.C, there was a lot of fighting over the kingdom between ministers and high ranks in the army. This age is know as the Second Intermediate Period (1775-1570 B.C), Dynasties 13-17. As a result of this fighting, turbulence, disorder and weakness prevailed all over the country. This allowed the “Heksos” to occupy the middle and he northern parts of the country, while the “Nubians” controlled the southern parts. “Thebes” woke up after a while to get their kingdom back under the command of “Ahmos”. The following age is known as the Kingdom (1571-1098 B.C) lasted from Dynasties 18 through 20. In this age Egypt realized the importance of having an army to protect the country from any invasion. Many great kings ruled Egypt during that period like “Tehotmes III” and “Ramses II”, who signed the first written peace treaty in the world. The last period of Pharahonic history is known as the Late Kingdom (1098-300 B.C), Dynasties 21-30. It was an age of weakness and poverty. The ages of glory had ended and began the ages of weakness and foreign invasions, except for a short period when the Egyptians tried to have their glory back.
* The way ancient Egypt affected the modern: After all these years of welfare and prosperity, The ancient Egyptians left us the remains of their great civilization. They left us a lot of monuments that show clearly their struggle to make their huge civilization. These monuments tell us how the ancient Egyptians turned the land of Egypt from yellow sand to green fields. The pyramids, as a pharahonic monument, are very important to Egypt, nowadays. They are one of the seven wonders and they are well known all over the world. They are a symbol of Egypt everywhere. Beside the pyramids, there are also many great monuments such as the temples and the tombs in Luxor and Aswan. Those cities are full of tombs in the valley of kings and the valley of queens. Everyday, we learn a new lesson from these monuments to know how to make our future with our hands. These monuments also teach us that by will and hard work everything will be possible. The ancient Egyptians also left us many traditions and customs. . For example, in our world now there are many celebrations that have a pharahonic origin like the New Year celebration. The ancient Egyptians used to celebrate the New Year in great festivals like we do, nowadays. These customs and traditions gave us a lot of useful values like love and peace. These traditions were carved into the Egyptian character because of many reasons. One of these reasons is the geographical location. The location of Egypt in the meeting point of Asia, Africa and Europe made the Egyptians peaceful because from this location they could have invaded the entire ancient world, but they didn’t do so because of their character. We have known most of these traditions and customs from the writings and the papyrus that where found in their tombs and temples.
In our world today, we feel that we need to be like the great pharaohs. We should learn something from their history that was full of wonderful lessons. We feel very proud of our past. We are proud of our ancestors and their wonderful civilization. When we remember our, we feel some kind of strange feelings. We feel that we were one day a part of a great civilization and that we have the responsibility to rebuild that great history and make it once again. We really miss that great history. Everyone wishes he could have taken part in writing this great history. We know that the ancient Egyptians built their huge civilization with their own hands, their strange ability to work hard no matter what the stumblings were and their strong will, which made them the leader of all the ancient civilized world. So, we are all trying to work hard to try to achieve just a part from their civilization. We hope one day to show the world how great we were. We hope that Egypt will cope with the world and join the party in order to renew the victories of the past.
The Founding of the United States: A little less than 500 years ago, North America was a vast wilderness only inhabited by Indians. Then in 1942, Christopher Columbus, an Italian sailing under the Spanish flag, set out for Asia and discovered a “New World”, for gold and 0riches, for honor and glory. The first settlers arrived later. They came in search of different goals-economic opportunity and religious and political freedom. In 1607 some English settlers built the first permanent village called “Jamestown”, after their King “James I” of England. More and more immigrants soon founded colonies all along the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to Georgia. Over time, settlers from many other nations joined the English in America. German farmers settled in Pennsylvania and Swedish settlers founded the colony of Delaware. Dutch settlers purchased Manhattan Island from local Indians in 1626. The French settled Canada and Spanish explorers established missions in Florida and the American Southwest. Africans were first brought to Virginia as slaves in 1619. By 1733 European settlers occupied 13 colonies along the Atlantic coast. The French controlled Canada, Louisiana and the entire watershed of the Mississippi River. A series of conflicts between the British and the French culminated in the “French and Indian war”(1754-63) in which Britain, with its American colonial allies, emerged victorious. France ceded Canada and the Ohio territories east of the Mississippi river to Britain in the “Peace of Paris of 1763” The colonies gradually developed into an economical and political shape. The British started imposing new taxes on goods. These measures seemed quite fair to British politicians, who had spent a lot of money to defend their American colonies during the war. But the Americans feared that the new taxes would make trading difficult and thought that the British troops were trying to take control of the situation. So, they refused. Soon all British taxes were removed except on tea. Over time, the relationship between Americans and British started to fade out. Colonists began to organize militias and to collect and store weapons and ammunition. In 1775, the “American War of Independence” began. In 1775, the Congress founded a continental army and navy under the command of George Washington, printed paper money and opened diplomatic contracts with foreign powers. Thomas Jeffer son of Virginia drafted a Declaration of Independence, which the Congress adopted on July 4, 1776. The Declaration presented a public defense of the American Revolution. Most importantly, it explained the philosophy behind the revolution - that men have a natural right to life. The war, at first, went badly for the Americans. The British captured New York and Philadelphia. The tide turned in October 1777, when the British army surrendered at Saratoga. Encouraged by that victory, France seized an opportunity to humble Britain, her traditional enemy. A Franco-American alliance was signed in February 1778. In 1781, 8000 British troops under Lord Cornwallis’ command were surrounded at Yorktown, by a Franco-American troops, under George Washington’s command. They surrendered and afterwards the British government asked for peace. The colonies were now free but they hadn’t yet forged a united nation. George Washington was chosen to be the first president of this united nation.
Education in the USA: Over 58 million students are enrolled in American schools, which range from kindergartens to high schools, small colleges and large universities. Americans place a high value on education for themselves and their children. Education has been one of the nation’s historic goals. More than 100 years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, European settlers in Massachusetts passed laws requiring all communities to hire a schoolmaster, larger towns had to establish grammar schools to train children. The first American college, Harvard, was founded in Massachusetts in 1636; the second, William and Marry, was established in Virginia in 1693. Perhaps the most note worthy feature about American education is the absence of a national administration or structure. Each of the 50 states controls and directs its own schools. Most states require that children should attend school from the time they reach six or seven years old until they are 16 or 17. Educational requirements are set by the state legislatures, and public schools are managed by local communities, divided into about 15600 state school districts. About 85 percent of American students are enrolled in public schools, which are supported by state and local taxes. The other 15 percent chose to attend private schools, for which their families pay special tuition fees. Four out of five American private schools, are run by churches, synagogues or other religious groups. Agriculture in the USA: American farmland is among the richest and most varied in the world. In part, this is due to the United States’ vast size; in part to nature’s generosity. Deserts exist only in a relatively small area of the west. Elsewhere, rainfall ranges from modest to abundant, and rivers and underground water permit extensive irrigation. The United States today has 2176000 farms, of which more than 88 percent are owned by the people who operate them, with their effective use of machines, fertilizers and chemicals. American farmers are virtually unraveled in producing crops cheaply and in quantity. Just 50 years ago a farmer fed 10 persons; today the average farmer feeds 75. Yet the number of farmers decrease annually. There were 15.7 million people living on farms in 1960; by 1980 that total had decreased to 6.1 million. The US farm population today is under 5 million. The number of farms has also dropped over the years, from 3969000 in 1960 to 2176000 today. However the American farmers rely a lot on their government, which try to help them occasionally. The USA today produces as much as half the world’s soybeans and corn for grain, and from 10 to 25 % of its cotton, wheat, tobacco and vegetable oils. Indeed, one third of the farmland in the US produces crops for exports to Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. US farm exports reached a high of $43.3 thousand million in 1981. Agricultural imports lag far behind, leaving a surplus in the agricultural balance of trade.
The U.S. economy: The American income and productivity have risen enormously over the past 70 years. In this period, the money for personal consumption tripled in real purchasing power. The gross national product (GNP) per capita quadrupled, reflecting growth in worker productivity. Together, all sectors of the American economy produce almost $4,527 thousand million dollars worth of goods and services annually, and each year they turn out almost $251 thousand million more. The consumption of these goods and services is spread widely. Most Americans consider themselves members of the middle economic class, and relatively few are extremely wealthy or extremely poor. According to U.S. Census Bureau figures, 20.7 percent of all Americans families make more than $50,000 a year; 4.7 percent of all American families have incomes less than $5,000; and the median annual income for all American families is about $30,853. No body can deny that the government plays an important role in the U.S. economy. From the founding of the Republic, for example, the federal government has strongly supported the development of transportation. It financed the first major canal system and later subsidized the railroads and the airlines. It has developed river valleys and built dams for power stations. For farmers, the government has provided electricity, scientific advice and a guaranteed minimum price for basic food crops. For all citizens, it checks the purity of food and drugs, insures bank deposits and guarantees certain types of loans for housing. Despite the fact that the U.S. government supports many segments of the nation’s economy, economists estimate that the public sector accounts for only one-fifth of American economic activity, with the remainder in private hands. Unemployment in the United States is six percent. The government provides short-term unemployment compensation (from 20 to 39 weeks depending upon economic conditions) to replace wages lost between jobs. Over 80 percent of all wage and salary earners are covered by unemployment insurance. In addition, both the government and private industry provide job training to help unemployed and disadvantaged Americans. The population in U.S.A: America has long been known as an ethnic “melting pot”. Its current population is 243.4 million, made up of immigrants or their descendants from virtually every country in the world. It’s believed that the first people to arrive- from Siberia, 10,000 to 20,000 years ago- were the Native Americans or the American Indians. Today, about 1.5 million American Indians and Eskimos live in the United States, many in tribal lands set aside for them in 31 states. Europe, the major source of U.S. immigration, began sending colonists to America in the early 17th century, primarily from its northern and western regions. Immigration peaked in the period from 1880 to 1920, when tens of millions of immigrants entered the United States, with the largest percentage coming from southern and Eastern Europe. Black Americans, who today number 29 million, constitute the largest single ethnic minority in the country. They were first brought to the New World as slaves in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries. In the 20th century, large numbers of blacks, who historically lived in the south, migrated to the industrial cities of North in search of jobs and a better way of life. Hispanics, living primarily in the Southwest, are the next largest ethnic minority group in the United States. Sixty percent are Mexican-Americans with the remainder from Central and South America. The Hispanic community is extremely varied and includes large Puerto Rican populations in many Eastern cities as well as a growing Cuban-American presence in Miami, Florida. The U.S. population has also absorbed nearly 3.6 million Asians. Many Asian Americans live in Hawaii, where more than two-thirds of the population claim an Asian or Polynesian heritage. From 1945 to 1964, the number of children born in the United States increased dramatically; a total of 76 million babies were born during these years, now known as the “baby boom”. As this huge group of “baby boomers” has grown to adulthood, they have significantly changed the economic, cultural and social character of the American population. Fashioned out of traditions, customs and institutions of many lands, the American people are united culturally by the English language and politically by a faith in democracy. The U.S. political system: The nation’s capital, Washington D.C., with more than 3.4 million people, is the 10th largest metropolitan area in the country. Laid out by the French architect Pierre L’Enfant in the late 18th century, it was the world’s first city especially planned as a center of government. Under the Constitution, the states delegated many of their sovereign powers to this central government in Washington. But they kept many important powers for themselves. Each of the 50 states, for example, retains the right to run its own public school system, to license its doctors and other professionals, to provide police protection for its citizens and to maintain its roads. In actual practice, and in line with the American tradition of keeping government as close to the people as possible, the states delegate many of these powers to their political subdivisions- countries, cities, towns and villages. Thus, at the lowest political level, residents of small American communities elect village trustees to run their police and fire departments, and elect a board of education to run their schools. On the county level, voters elect executives who are responsible for roads, parks, libraries, sewage and other services, and elect or appoint judges for the courts. The citizens of each state also elect a governor and members of the state legislature. Under the constitution, the federal government is divided into three branches, each chosen in a different manner, each able to check and balance the others. The executive branch is headed by the president, who, together with the vice president, is chosen in nationwide elections every four years (in every year divisible by four). The elective process for a U.S. president is unique. Americans vote for slates of presidential electors equal to the number of senators and representatives each state has in Congress (a total of 535 persons). The candidate with the highest number of votes in each state wins all the electoral votes of that state. The presidential candidate needs 270 electoral votes to be elected; if no candidate has a majority, the House of Representatives makes the decision. (In all other state and local elections, voters cast their votes directly for the candidate or referendum on that particular ballot.) Any natural-born American who is 35 years old or older may be elected to this office. The president proposes bills to Congress, enforces federal laws, serves as commander-in-chief of the armed forces and, with the approval of the Senate, makes treaties and appoints federal judges, ambassadors and other members of the executive departments (the Departments of State, Defense, Commerce, Justice, etc.). Each head of an executive department holds the title of secretary and together they form a council called the Cabinet. The vice president, elected from the same political party as the president, acts as chairman of the Senate, and in the event of the death or disability of the president, assumes the presidency for the balance of his term. The legislative branch is made up of two houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The 435 seats in the House of Representatives are allocated on the basis of population, although every state has at least one representative. Each state elects two members of the 100-member Senate; a senator’s term of office is six years. Both houses must approve a bill for it to become law, but the president may veto, or refuse to sign it. If so, Congress reconsiders the bill. If two-thirds of the members of both houses then approve it, the bill becomes law even without the president’s signature. The judicial branch is made up of federal district courts (at least one in every state), 11 federal courts of appeals and, at the top, the Supreme Court. Federal judges are appointed by the president with the approval of the Senate; to minimize political influences, the appointments are for life. Federal courts decide cases involving federal law, conflicts between states or between citizens of different states. An American who feels he has been convicted under an unjust law may appeal his case all the way to the Supreme Court, which may rule that the law is unconstitutional. The law then becomes void. |
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