How did this tiny region of Asia contain so many different states,

>>2532023
Fertile land suitable for agriculture

>>2532023
Good farmland

>>2532023
The rivers which you highlighted, obviously. In ancient times, large permanent settlements were not possible without being near a river

>>2532031
>>2532032
>>2532060
I'm not well-versed in the history of agriculture, but how much of an advantage would being surrounded by two rivers yield? As opposed to having a singular current run all the way through the land, as was the case for the Egyptians, or residing near the sea, like the Israelites did?

>>2532090
Egypt and Mesopotamia both had great rivers. It is no coincidence they were among the first agricultural city-based societies. Obviously fresh water beats salt water from the sea. (Though proximity to oceans and mountainous regions helped Israel get more rain) I believe Israel has 3 consecutive mountainous regions as seen from the coast. After the last mountainous region you have the arabian desert. The rain clouds are "broken" on the mountains, letting the rain be contained in Israeli land, leaving the arabian desert dry.
Truly G'ds work, that.

>>2532090
Silt is very, very fertile, and freshwater is essential for agriculture.

Out of the 6 places on earth that civilizations have evolved, at least four of them have been river valleys.

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>>2532173
>>2532183
Some valid points here. China's also one of those areas that underwent multiple transformations over several millennia, while also benefiting from an abundance of rivers.

>I believe Israel has 3 consecutive mountainous regions as seen from the coast. After the last mountainous region you have the arabian desert. The rain clouds are "broken" on the mountains, letting the rain be contained in Israeli land, leaving the arabian desert dry.
Had no idea about that. Shit, that's some luck.

>>2532293
They're on the one spot in the Middle East with no oil though, so when Biology gets discovered in the late game they're at a disadvantage.

>>2532173
>"G'ds work"

or you know, geography. Maybe, just maybe, the myths surrounding that area come from these natural advantages, and not the other way around? Its almost like the jews were desert people that finally found fertile land and attributed their good fortune to God's will.

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>>2532320

>>2532173
>when they jew you so hard they steal your rain

>>2532298
Well, they don't have to worry about that with international trade.

>>2532320
>found
"Stole" is the more appropriate word.

>>2532333
I'm the kind of guy that respects strength. They conquered the area, they deserved it. Just like the Romans deserved it when they conquered the jews, etc. That's how the world works.

>>2532352
Fair enough. If you go back far enough, we're all living on borrowed land anyway.

well after the africans emmigratedfrom the horn of africa they quickly settled in the arab region.

My point is that they had an advantage in that they were there for a long time and could develop.

I think it is possible that mesopotamia became a melting-pot for early homo sapiens

>>2532023
They were the first, so they got a head start over everyone else.

>>2532352
Would America deserve Mexico if they killed all Mexicans?

>>2532521
yes

>>2532521
We'll see in 4 years.

>>2532023
Great rivers. They rarely dried up and flooded predictably, allowing regular, bountiful seasonal harvests. The best rivers were in the indus valley, which also became home to an extremely prosperous civilisation, one of the earliest ever to exist.
The nile is similar, and the regular flooding, just like the rivers in mesopotamia and the indus, was crucial for the Egyptian civilisation.

>>2532550
You don't really hear much about ancient Pakistan and Northern India when people talk about the greatest civilisations to emerge from the old Middle East.

>>2532651
We can't read their script

>>2532712
Why? Are they lost or damaged? Or can we just not translate them? Were their scriptures carved on tablets like in Mesopotamia?

>>2532651
Probably because India and Pakistan aren't in the Middle East

>>2533511
You know what I mean, the ancient world and all that jazz.

>>2533139
We have nothing to compare it to

We need a Rosetta Stone

>>2533139
we couldn't read Egyptian hieroglyphs until the 19th century, it's common for archeologists to be unable to translate ancient languages because they don't have any translations from the era that we can use to work with.

One thing I've always wondered about Mesopotamia was why the Sumerians aren't considered Semitic when the Akkadians are. They're both from pretty much the exact same place.

>>2532521
yeah but they wouldn't benefit from killing everyone obviously. Honestly it's funny you should mention that because I do believe the US should overthrow that government and install one that actually fights the drug cartels, and at the same time legalize their products domestically so they lose their market. But this couldn't work if you taxed the hell out of the legal stuff because then the cartels would still have a market.
Face it, the situation there is grim and the current government is both incapable and unwilling to do anything about it. Then again the drug cartels would probably fund resistance movements and turn the people against the Americans by painting them as foreign invaders.

Not annexing the entire damn thing when we had the chance was a mistake.

>>2532298
They have a bunch offshore though

>>2534035
I'd like to know this as well.

>>2534035
>>2535072
The label is about language, not genetics, geography or culture - and ME was very diverse in that respect back in the Bronze Age, so it's unsurprising that similar peoples spoke completely unrelated languages.

>>2532090
While Egyptians did settle by the river you have to remember that where ever far from Oceans. Having access to ocean and ports is also a vital step to your civilization.