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From 3000 B.C. to 2000 B.C., the Sumerians were always at war, but they were never defeated.

Sargon of Akkad (2350 B.C.) - Sargon conquered the city-state Akkad, and spread Sumerian culture to neighboring cultures. It was the world's first empire, and it eventually died because of fighting, invasions, and famine.

Babylon Empire (2000 B.C.) - Nomads known as Amorites invaded the Sumerians, and built it's empire, Babylon. Hammurabi ruled during this time, and created a set of laws known as the Hammurabi code. There are 282 specific laws written, and was placed all over the empire for people to see.

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Like many other civilizations at the time,
Sumerians believed in many gods, which
is called polytheism. They believed that
the gods acted like them, but they were
immortal, and had power that could
destroy villages anytime they wanted.
They offered gods sacrifices, and believed
that after they died, they would be sent to
"the land of no return".
There were social classes in the Sumerian
civilization. Women weren't allowed to
work as artisans, merchants, or farmers,
but had more rights than in civilizations
that came after that. Somethings that were found in the Sumerian civilization were arithmetic, agricultural innovation, and cuneiform.

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The Sumerians soon had built advanced cities, had specialized workers, complex institutions, record keepers, and advanced technology. These are the five key characteristics that every organized civilization should have.

By 3000 B.C., the Sumerians built City-States, which were much like countries. They were surrounded by fields of barley and wheat, and had a ziggurat in the center.

In the beginning, the priests controlled the government, since Sumerians believed that the gods controlled their harvest, and the priest came between the people and gods. The priests collected taxes from the people, but when there were wars, the people chose a leader from their people. Usually the chosen leader would have no more power after the war ended, but after 3000 B.C., the number of wars increased, and the leaders were given permanent power. This eventually lead to dynasties, the passing of power through families.

Sumerian City-States grew, because trade and the amounts of food that were being produced on farms. By 2500 B.C., new cities were being formed throughout the Fertile Crescent. Sumerians shared their ideas with other cultures through cultural diffusion.

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In between the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf lies a region known to scholars as the "Fertile Crescent". It is called this because of the crescent shape the region is in, and the silt that made it fertile. This region included Mesopotamia, which was in between Tigris and Euphrates.

Around 3300 B.C. Sumerians settled into Mesopotamia. Although the land was fertile, there were unpredictable floods, droughts, they had no natural defenses, and there were limited natural resources.

To deal with these problems, the people of Mesopotamia built irrigation systems to control their supply of water, built city walls for defense, and traded their goods with others.

Dealing with these problems required governments, which was the beginning of an organized civilization.

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King Narmer created the double crown. It symbolized a united kingdom.

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Around 3200 B.C., people had begun farming in villages by the Indus River. By 2500 B.C., India's first cities were being built. They built earthen walls to keep out water, but these walls were not strong enough, so they built man-made islands to raise the cities above floods waters. The Indus Valley Civilization is also call the Harappan civilization. The Indus Valley people are famous for their city planning. Engineers created plumbing and sewage systems. Houses had bathrooms where dirty water flowed out to the street and into the sewage ditches outside of the city.

The Harappan Civilization has a written language with about 400 symbols. Even though no temple has been found, it is thought that the Harappans were religious people. Priests would pray to gods for a good harvest or protection from floods. The Indus River made it easy for the Harappan Civilization to trade with other civilizations in the region.

Around 1750 B.C., the Harappan Civilization fell and the once great cities decayed. This was a result of floods and earthquakes that destroyed the Harappan Civilization.

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The Indus Valley, located in India, is surrounded by some of the world's highest mountain ranges. The Hindu Kush, Karakorum, and Himalayan mountain ranges separate the Indus Valley from the rest of the Asian continents. These mountain ranges protected the Indus Valley from invaders. The Indus Valley is a flat and fertile plain with 2 rivers flowing through it, the Ganges River and the Indus River. These two rivers make up a large area called the Indo-Gangetic Plain that stretches 1,700 miles across northern India. The Indus River flows Southwest from the Himalayan Mountains into the Arabian Sea.

Seasonal winds called monsoons affect India's climate. From October to February the monsoons blow from north to west Then, from June to October the winds change direction and blow from east to southwest carrying moisture from the oceans. This results in lots of rain and often flooding. The floods along the Indus river were unpredictable.

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The Nile River is the longest river in the world flowing northward across Africa for over 4,100 miles. Early flooding in Mesopotamia brought the water and rich soil that allowed settlements to grow. The melting snow and rain from the mountains of east Africa caused the Nile River to rise and spill over its banks. The river left behind a rich deposit of fertile black mud called silt when it receded. Farmers built irrigations systems for their crops, which consisted of wheat and barley.

Egyptians worshiped the Nile as a god that gave life and rarely turned against them. An ancient Greek historian, Herodotus, stated in the fifth century that Egypt was the "gift of the Nile."

The Nile has its economical challenges. Whenever the floodwaters were a few feet lower than usual, thousands of people starved because the amount of fresh silt and water for crops was greatly reduced. When floodwaters were a few feet higher than usual, the extra water destroyed homes, granaries, and the precious seeds farmers needed for planting. There was also a vast area of forbidding deserts on either sides of the Nile that isolated the Egyptians and acted as a natural barrier against invaders.

The Nile was commonly used as a transportation system. The point in the Nile where boulders turn the river into churning rapids is known as the First Cataract. It was impossible for riverboats to pass this spot of the river. There lay two different regions between the First Cataract and the Mediterranean Sea known as Upper and Lower Egypt.  The river area in the south is called Upper Egypt because of its higher elevation. To the north, is Lower Egypt, which includes the Nile delta region. The delta is a marshy, broad, triangular area of land that formed by deposits of silt at the mouth of the river. Northbound boats drifted with the current to the north and the prevailing winds of Egypt blew the sailboats against the river current. This watery highway helped promote trade and helped bring together Egypt's villages.

Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt were once under the rule of two separate kingdoms. The king who united the two kingdoms is most likely to be Narmer, based on historical evidence.

The king of Upper Egypt wore a tall white crown shaped like a bowling pin and the king of Lower Egypt wore a red crown. Around 3000 B.C the two kingdoms were united. Memphis became the capital and the first Egyptian dynasty was established.

In Mesopotamia, kings were representatives of the gods, but in Egypt, the kings were the gods. The Egyptian god-kings were called pharaohs, and were thought to be almost as powerful as the gods of the heavens. Egypt's government was based on religious authority, known as theocracy. The pharaoh had control over religion, government and army.

The Egyptians believed that their kings were to rule after his death. He had an external life force that allowed him to take part in governing Egypt. Tombs and pyramids were built as a resting place after death. Only the wealthy could afford pyramids. The pyramids reflected the strength of Egyptian civilization, economic strength, and also its remarkable engineering skills. Those pyramids were made with perfectly cut stone blocks that weighed 2-15 tons each, and with precision a pyramid reached the height of 481 ft.

The Egyptians worshiped Over 2,000 gods and goddesses. The most important gods were Osiris, god of the dead, and Re, the sun god. The most important goddess was Isis; she represented the ideal wife and mother.

The Egyptians believed in the afterlife and believed that Anubis, god and guide of the underworld, to see if they would win eternal life. Anubis would weigh their hearts, and if the heart were lighter than a feather, they would pass on to the other world. Royal and elite Egyptians' bodies were preserved through the process of mummification. This involved embalming and drying the body to prevent it from decaying.

The social class of Egypt formed a pyramid with the royal family at the top. The upper class was made up of priests, landowners, and government officials. The middle class was made up of merchants and artisans, and the lower class was made of peasant farmers and laborers. Lower-and middle-classes could gain higher status through success in their jobs or through marriage. Getting to the highest positions required the people being able to read and write.

Before, one of the earliest forms of writing in Egypt were pictographs then scribed developed a more flexible writing system called hieroglyphics. In Greek, the term means "sacred carving." Hieroglyphs were written on stone and clay in Mesopotamia but later written on papyrus reed, invented by the Egyptians.

Technology was a big achievement for the Egyptians. They invented the calendar by calculating the number of days between one rising of the star and the next. The calendar was very accurate. It fell short by only six hours of the true solar year. They were also famous for their medicine, mathematical skills, and using stone columns in homes, temples, and palaces.