DGP Chapter 1: The Need for Water in Ancient Societies

It's obvious that water is a necessity for life, be it human, plant, or animal, all living things need water (among other things) to survive. Water is something we, hopefully, consume each day, and here in America water is easily taken for granted. We do not seem to understand how lucky we are to have such easy access to water when we need it. However what would happen if it weren't so easy to obtain like in the ancient societies of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Rome, and China? I think society would be a much different place if we had to struggle for water like our ancestors did. Most would think that the struggle to find water would be a big problem and a hindrance to advancing technology. However, the struggle for water seemed to actually help the peoples in ancient civilizations by giving them problems that needed to be solved by advancing their technology. Irrigation was a necessity that provided for cities to grow and expand as well as population. Land was of no use if it did not have access to water by means of irrigation.These problems led to different types of irrigation in each different civilization because of different type of land environments, if nothing else, these innovations prove that the people of ancient societies were at least good problem solvers. And not only did this struggle provide for better technology, it also made for the need of better communications between different peoples, and a more regulated system of government and called for more intellectual organized means of controlling the water. The violence between peoples for water became less effective and diplomacy became more useful and prevalent. People were not really looking to exalt heroes vanquishing foes in the battlefield so much as the inventor with the latest technology to help the water system. It seems only obvious to be proud of the guy who is making something that is necessary to our survival rather than the guy making things that just waste our time or distract us, but I think somewhere along the way we lost sight of this principle. Now, it's all about who can make the shiniest, fastest computer, not about who cures our sicknesses or energy problems. Holding the rights to water meant almost as much, if not more, power than actual strength. A leader who gave water to his people could easily be seen as kind and compassionate. Rulers could not neglect matters relating to water because if they were, as seen in sources 8 and 12, people were always looking for ways to better their own positions and therefore strict laws needed to be in place or else social and political unrest could arise. A ruler who could not control his own water supply probably would not have been seen as a strong nor effective leader. Even a ruler who was effective probably could not have solved all the legal disputes that came with irrigation as land and water rights were probably a common topic of arguments.  I think it is really interesting how we learned so much through things they left behind since a lot of these things were created before there was an established system of writing.