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China also has another great river called the Chang Jiang or the Yangtze River.

The Chang Jiang flows for about 3,400 miles (5,471 km) east across central China where it empties into the Yellow Sea.

Like the Huang He valley, the Chang Jiang valley also has rich soil for farming.

Even though China has rich soil along its rivers, only a little more than one-tenth of its land can be farmed. That is because mountains and deserts cover most of the land.

The towering Himalaya close off China to the southwest. The Kunlun Shan and Tian Shan are mountain ranges on China’s western border. The Gobi, a vast, cold, rocky desert, spreads east from the mountains. These mountains and deserts shaped much of Chinese history.

They were like a wall around the Chinese, separating them from most other peoples.

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The Huang He or Yellow River is the muddiest river in the world.

When the river floods, it leaves behind rich silt in the Huang He valley, nearly 57 pounds for every cubic yard of topsoil. By comparison, the Nile River in Egypt only leaves 2 pounds of silt per cubic yard. The soil is so rich that farmers can grow large amounts of food on very small farms.

Like rivers in early Mesopotamia and Egypt, China’s Huang He regularly flooded the  land. These floods destroyed homes and drowned many people. As a result, the Chinese called the Huang He “China’s sorrow.”

For thousands of years, the Chinese have embarked on major public works projects to control and irrigate the water from the Huang He. During the Xia Dynasty era in 2100 - 1600 BCE, tribal leaders came together to try to solve the problem of the Huang He overflowing and wiping out their villages and crops

With the ability to better control the Huang He and save their crops from flooding, Chinese leaders were able to solidify their rule of China, and a number of dynasties headquartered in the region followed.

The valley became the center of Chinese culture, society, and learning.

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Two major river systems flow from the mountainous west to the Pacific Ocean. The Huang He, also known as the Yellow River, is found in the north.

In central China, the Chang Jiang, also called Yangtze, flows east to the Yellow Sea. The Huang He, whose name means “yellow river,” deposits huge amounts of yellowish silt when it overflows its banks.

This silt is actually fertile soil called loess, which is blown by the winds from deserts to the west and north.

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India’s early civilization grew up near the Indus River. When the summer monsoon began, the river rose higher and higher.

When the river flooded nearby land, it left behind silt, a rich, fertile soil. Farmers used the rich soil to grow crops to feed their families.

Because people had a plentiful supply of food, they could spend time doing other things, such as making tools or building houses.

As people began to trade their extra food and goods with other people, their wealth grew. This allowed them to build larger and larger cities.

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Monsoons are an important part of the Indian climate. A monsoon is a strong wind that blows one direction in winter and the opposite direction in summer.

The winter monsoon brings the cold, dry air of the mountains. The summer monsoon brings warm, wet air from the Arabian Sea, which produces drenching rains.

When the monsoon rains begin, many farmers celebrate. If the rains come on time and the rainy season lasts long enough, the crop will be good. If the rains are delayed, a drought will occur. This extended period without rain can be disastrous for farmers. Few crops will be harvested, and many people will starve.

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Early farmers on the Indian subcontinent

chose to settle near two great rivers: the Indus and the Ganges.

These areas provided farmers with reliable water sources, and the flooding of the rivers provided rich fertile soil for planting.

Just as in other areas of the ancient world, farmers in the region began to farm in the river valleys, domesticated plants and animals, and formed small farming settlements.

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By about 6000 B.C., farmers built canals to carry water from the rivers to their fields.

Such a system is called irrigation. Often, the silt in the water clogged the canals.

Workers had to clean out the silt to keep the water flowing. They also built dams to hold back excess water during floods.

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Being a farmer is difficult. Crops need the right amount of water to thrive. The floods and the semiarid climate in Mesopotamia meant that farmers often had either too much water or too little.

The yearly flood was unpredictable. No one knew when the flood would occur. It might come in April or as late as June. Farmers could not predict when to plant.

Also, the flood’s size depended on how much snow melted in the mountains in spring and how much rain fell.

If there was too much, the flood might be violent and wash everything away. If there was too little rain and melting snow, the flood would not come.

A drought is a period when not enough rain and snow fall. In a semiarid region, drought is a constant danger.

During a drought, the river level would drop, making it hard to water crops. If crops failed, people starved.

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The region where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flow is called Mesopotamia.

The name means “land between the rivers.” This land was mostly flat with small, scrubby plants.

The rivers provided water and means of travel. In ancient times, it was easier to travel by boat than over land. Boats can carry heavy loads. River currents helped move boats that were traveling down river. Also, few roads existed.

Almost every year, rain and melting snow in the mountains caused the rivers to swell. As the water flowed down the mountains, it picked up soil. When the rivers reached the plains, water overflowed onto the floodplain floodplain, the flat land bordering the banks.

As the water spread over the floodplain, the soil it carried settled on the land. The fine soil deposited by rivers is called silt.

The silt was fertile, which means it was good for growing crops.

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Eventually, Egyptians equipped their reed boats with sails and oars. The Nile then became a highway.

The river’s current was slow, so boaters used paddles to go faster when they traveled north with the current.

Going south, they raised a sail and let the winds that blew in that direction push them.

The Nile provided so well for Egyptians that sometimes they had surpluses, or more goods than they needed.

They began to trade with each other. Ancient Egypt had no money, so people exchanged goods that they grew or made.

This method of trade is called bartering.

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By about 2400 B.C., farmers used technology to expand their farmland.

Working together, they dug irrigation canals that carried river water to dry areas.

Then they used a tool called a shaduf to spread the water across the fields. These innovative, or new, techniques gave them more farmland.

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The Nile is 4,160 miles long—the world’s longest river. It begins near the equator in Africa and flows north to the Mediterranean Sea.

In the south it churns with cataracts. A cataract is a waterfall. Near the sea the Nile branches into a delta. A delta is an area near a river’s mouth where the water deposits fine soil called silt.

In the delta, the Nile divides into many streams. The river is called the upper Nile in the south and the lower Nile in the north. For centuries, heavy rains in Ethiopia caused the Nile to flood every summer. The floods deposited rich soil along the Nile’s shores.

This soil was fertile, which means it was good for growing crops. Unlike the Tigris and Euphrates, the Nile River flooded at the same time every year, so farmers could predict when to plant their crops.

The ancient Egyptians lived in narrow bands of land on each side of the Nile. They called this region the black land because of the fertile soil that the floods deposited. The red land was the barren desert beyond the fertile region.

Weather in Egypt was almost always the same. Eight months of the year were sunny and hot. The four months of winter were sunny but cooler. Most of the region received only an inch of rain a year. The parts of Egypt not near the Nile were a desert.