We often hear it said that "civilization travels westward." What we mean is that hardy pioneers have crossed the Atlantic Ocean and settled along the shores of New England and New Netherland--that their children have crossed the vast prairies--that their great-grandchildren have moved into California--and that the present generation hopes to turn the vast Pacific into the most important sea of the ages.
As a matter of fact, "civilization" never remains long in the same spot. It is always going somewhere but it does not always move westward by any means. Sometimes its course points towards the east or the south. Often it zigzags across the map. But it keeps moving. After two or three hundred years, civilization seems to say, "Well, I have been keeping company with these particular people long enough," and it packs its books and its science and its art and its music, and wanders forth in search of new domains. But no one knows whither it is bound, and that is what makes life so interesting.
In the case of Egypt, the center of civilization moved northward and southward, along the banks of the Nile. First of all, as I told you, people from all over Africa and western Asia moved into the valley and settled down. Thereupon they formed small villages and townships and accepted the rule of a Commander-in-Chief, who was called Pharaoh, and who had his capital in Memphis, in the lower part of Egypt.
After a couple of thousand years, the rulers of this ancient house became too weak to maintain themselves. A new family from the town of Thebes, 350 miles towards the south in Upper Egypt, tried to make itself master of the entire valley. In the year 2400 B.C. they succeeded. As rulers of both Upper and Lower Egypt, they set forth to conquer the rest of the world. They marched towards the sources of the Nile (which they never reached) and conquered Ethiopia. Next, they crossed the desert of Sinai and invaded Syria where they made their name feared by the Babylonians and Assyrians. The possession of these outlying districts assured the safety of Egypt and they could set to work to turn the valley into a happy home, for as many of the people as could find room there. They built many new dikes and dams and a vast reservoir in the desert which they filled with water from the Nile to be kept and used in case of a prolonged drought. They encouraged people to devote themselves to the study of mathematics and astronomy so that they might determine the time when the floods of the Nile were to be expected. Since for this purpose it was necessary to have a handy method by which time could be measured, they established the year of 365 days, which they divided into twelve months.
Contrary to the old tradition which made the Egyptians keep away from all things foreign, they allowed the exchange of Egyptian merchandise for goods which had been carried to their harbors from elsewhere.
They traded with the Greeks of Crete and with the Arabs of western Asia and they got spices from the Indies and they imported gold and silk from China.
But all human institutions are subject to certain definite laws of progress and decline and a State or a dynasty is no exception. After four hundred years of prosperity, these mighty kings showed signs of growing tired. Rather than ride a camel at the head of their army, the rulers of the great Egyptian Empire stayed within the gates of their palace and listened to the music of the harp or the flute.
One day there came rumors to the town of Thebes that wild tribes of horsemen had been pillaging along the frontiers. An army was sent to drive them away. This army moved into the desert. To the last man it was killed by the fierce Arabs, who now marched towards the Nile, bringing their flocks of sheep and their household goods.
Another army was told to stop their progress. The battle was disastrous for the Egyptians and the valley of the Nile was open to the invaders.
They rode fleet horses and they used bows and arrows. Within a short time they had made themselves master of the entire country. For five centuries they ruled the land of Egypt. They removed the old capital to the Delta of the Nile.
They oppressed the Egyptian peasants.
They treated the men cruelly and they killed the children and they were rude to the ancient gods. They did not like to live in the cities but stayed with their flocks in the open fields and therefore they were called the Hyksos, which means the Shepherd Kings.
At last their rule grew unbearable.
A noble family from the city of Thebes placed itself at the head of a national revolution against the foreign usurpers. It was a desperate fight but the Egyptians won. The Hyksos were driven out of the country, and they went back to the desert whence they had come. The experience had been a warning to the Egyptian people. Their five hundred years of foreign slavery had been a terrible experience. Such a thing must never happen again. The frontier of the fatherland must be made so strong that no one dare to attack the holy soil.
A new Theban king, called Tethmosis, invaded Asia and never stopped until he reached the plains of Mesopotamia. He watered his oxen in the river Euphrates, and Babylon and Nineveh trembled at the mention of his name. Wherever he went, he built strong fortresses, which were connected by excellent roads. Tethmosis, having built a barrier against future invasions, went home and died. But his daughter, Hatshepsut, continued his good work. She rebuilt the temples which the Hyksos had destroyed and she founded a strong state in which soldiers and merchants worked together for a common purpose and which was called the New Empire, and lasted from 1600 to 1300 B.C.
Military nations, however, never last very long. The larger the empire, the more men are needed for its defense and the more men there are in the army, the fewer can stay at home to work the farms and attend to the demands of trade. Within a few years, the Egyptian state had become top-heavy and the army, which was meant to be a bulwark against foreign invasion, dragged the country into ruin from sheer lack of both men and money.
Without interruption, wild people from Asia were attacking those strong walls behind which Egypt was hoarding the riches of the entire civilized world.
At first the Egyptian garrisons could hold their own.
One day, however, in distant Mesopotamia, there arose a new military empire which was called Assyria. It cared for neither art nor science, but it could fight. The Assyrians marched against the Egyptians and defeated them in battle. For more than twenty years they ruled the land of the Nile. To Egypt this meant the beginning of the end.
A few times, for short periods, the people managed to regain their independence. But they were an old race, and they were worn out by centuries of hard work.
The time had come for them to disappear from the stage of history and surrender their leadership as the most civilized people of the world. Greek merchants were swarming down upon the cities at the mouth of the Nile.
A new capital was built at Sais, near the mouth of the Nile, and Egypt became a purely commercial state, the half-way house for the trade between western Asia and eastern Europe.
After the Greeks came the Persians, who conquered all of northern Africa.
Two centuries later, Alexander the Great turned the ancient land of the Pharaoh into a Greek province. When he died, one of his generals, Ptolemy by name, established himself as the independent king of a new Egyptian state.
The Ptolemy family continued to rule for two hundred years.
In the year 30 B.C., Cleopatra, the last of the Ptolemys, killed herself, rather than become a prisoner of the victorious Roman general, Octavianus.
That was the end.
Ancient Egypt became part of the Roman Empire and her life as an independent state ceased for all time.
The eighth chapter explores the movements of civilizations over time. Civilizations rise and fall and change locations over the centuries and millennia. As ancient Egypt grew in power, it expanded north and south along the Nile River. The Pharaoh ruled Egypt from the capital of Memphis. Eventually, the ruling class weakened, and a new power out of the city Thebes rose from the south and took over. Not content with just ruling Egypt, the ruling class from Thebes conquered the lands of Ethiopia and Syria. The new rulers built more dikes and dams to save water for times of drought and opened up trade with the Greeks of Crete and the Arabs of western Asia. They encouraged the study of mathematics and astronomy. Eventually, the new rulers fell to invading Arabs. The Arabs were cruel to the Egyptian people and ruled over them for five centuries. The Egyptian people rose up and expelled the foreign Arabs. A new military nation emerged. The people of the new Egypt conquered lands and built strong fortresses and roads. Unable to defend its expanded borders and running out of money and men, the militarized Egyptian civilization fell again to the Assyrians. At first, the people fought back against the Assyrians, the Greeks, and then the Romans, but eventually ancient Egypt fell for the last time to become a part of the Roman Empire.
Vocabulary
Civilization: The society, culture, and way of life of a particular area. Century: A period of one hundred years. Millennium: A period of a thousand years. Drought: A prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall. Trade: The action of buying and selling goods and services. Astronomy: The branch of science that deals with celestial objects, space, and the physical universe as a whole. Arab: A member of a Semitic people, originally from the Arabian Peninsula and neighboring territories, inhabiting much of the Middle East and North Africa. Military: The armed forces of a country. Relating to or characteristic of soldiers or armed forces. Fortress: A military stronghold, especially a strongly fortified town fit for a large garrison. Roman: Relating to ancient Rome or its empire or people.
Enrichment
Activity 1: Narrate the Chapter
After you listen to the chapter, narrate the chapter aloud using your own words.
Activity 2: Draw the Cycle of the Rise and Fall of Civilizations
Click the crayon above. Complete page 26 of 'Second Grade World History Coloring Pages, Copywork, and Writing.'
Copy the cycle of arrows and actions on a large piece of blank paper.
Create a pencil sketch next to each action.
For creation, draw a civilization being built.
For expansion, draw a civilization growing bigger and stronger.
For invasion, draw foreign soldiers invading and fighting against the civilization.
For destruction, draw soldiers destroying buildings and subverting the people.
Activity 3: Can You Find It?
Find the following in the picture:
Egypt
Memphis
Thebes
The Nile River
The Nile River Delta
Lower Egypt
Upper Egypt
The Desert
The Mountains
The Mediterranean Sea
The Pyramids
The Red Sea
Asia
Activity 4: Draw the Events of the Chapter
Click the crayon above. Complete pages 27-28 of 'Second Grade World History Coloring Pages, Copywork, and Writing.'
Draw the events of the chapter and add illustrative sketches.
Pharaoh rules from Memphis.
People from Thebes overthrow the Pharaoh.
Arabs invade Egypt and overthrow the rulers from Thebes.
The Egyptian people overthrow the Arabs.
The Assyrians conquer Egypt.
The Egyptians struggle for independence.
Ancient Egypt falls for the last time to the Romans.
Activity 5: Complete Coloring Pages, Copywork, and Writing
Click the crayon above. Complete pages 29-30 of 'Second Grade World History Coloring Pages, Copywork, and Writing.'
Review
Question 1
What is true of civilizations throughout history?
1 / 7
Answer 1
Civilizations rise and fall and move over the centuries and millennia.
1 / 7
Question 2
In this chapter, from what city did the first Pharaoh rule?
2 / 7
Answer 2
Pharaoh ruled from the city of Memphis.
2 / 7
Question 3
What did the Egyptian people of Thebes do?
3 / 7
Answer 3
The Egyptian people of Thebes overthrew the existing Pharaoh.
3 / 7
Question 4
How did the Egyptian rulers from Thebes change Egypt?
4 / 7
Answer 4
The rulers from Thebes built dikes and saved water for droughts. They advanced mathematics and astronomy. They opened up trade with foreign nations such as Crete and Asia.
4 / 7
Question 5
Who ruled Egypt after the Egyptian rulers from Thebes?
5 / 7
Answer 5
Invading Arabs ruled Egypt after the Egyptian rulers from Thebes.
5 / 7
Question 6
Who overthrew the Arabs?
6 / 7
Answer 6
The people of Egypt overthrew the Arabs.
6 / 7
Question 7
Who eventually conquered ancient Egypt for good?
7 / 7
Answer 7
The Romans conquered ancient Egypt for good and made it a part of the Roman Empire.
What is true of civilizations throughout history?
Civilizations rise and fall and move over the centuries and millennia.
In this chapter, from what city did the first Pharaoh rule?
Pharaoh ruled from the city of Memphis.
What did the Egyptian people of Thebes do?
The Egyptian people of Thebes overthrew the existing Pharaoh.
How did the Egyptian rulers from Thebes change Egypt?
The rulers from Thebes built dikes and saved water for droughts. They advanced mathematics and astronomy. They opened up trade with foreign nations such as Crete and Asia.
Who ruled Egypt after the Egyptian rulers from Thebes?
Invading Arabs ruled Egypt after the Egyptian rulers from Thebes.
Who overthrew the Arabs?
The people of Egypt overthrew the Arabs.
Who eventually conquered ancient Egypt for good?
The Romans conquered ancient Egypt for good and made it a part of the Roman Empire.