HIST 122 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Slave River
Document Summary
How water shapes human history, we have forever fought over water. Yellow river is notorious for its floods and causing damage, takes longer for china to urbanize then other places. Nile rivers; very predictable river, very regular, growing food crop effortless, citizens didn"t have to do anything, easy food production, everything in favour for egypt, soil, river etc. Mesopotamia; unpredictable rivers, change course, relied on irrigation, very salty river, slave river, violent civilization, many damns, political instability, high taxes, bringing sediments blocking harbour; water logging and diseases; malaria. Did not use water for irrigation, used it for urban consumption; fountains, water in bathrooms. Were the first to realize that water could be used for urban consumption. Kostov: urbanization is a discontinuous process; rapid growth long period of stagnation. Two processes that leads to the emergence and growth of cities; cities can be artificially created out of nowhere, or can be created naturally. Urban structures control the flow of energy.
