Time Travelers

Project Description: This was an essay the I did that explained what my civilizations government which was Kush was like and how it functioned.

Process: I went through many different drafts to get to my final product. I started by getting random information and talking to my group and trying to find as much more information and compare what we all got. Then we wrote a rough draft that was reviewed by my group then I got my paper back and I wrote a first draft. that was then looked over and corrected by my mom and dad. I took it to Charlotte and she went over it and realized that my formate was all wrong so I took it back and pretty much wrote the whole paper again. After that draft I was able to right the final draft and got that graded from Charlotte which became my final grade.

Reflection: From my paper I learned that one there was a civilization named KUSH. Then I learned how much time has to be put into just siting your information. The biggest challenge I came across was formating my paper to the right standards. I think I needed more evidence in my paper so that people could go to my paper and know it is true facts. All my life I will need to show evidence and not go off of just one site or one source.

Here is my paper:
Jadon Cutler
Humanities
9/12/09
Kush Civilization
Civilization is built on a number of ultimate principles...respect for human life, the punishment of crimes against property and persons, the equality of all good citizens before the law...or, in a word justice. This quote shows that there are a lot of aspects to civilization there are going to be ups and downs. But being civil means that not one person just has to be civil, everyone has to join together and respect one another. In the civilization Kush they were pretty well of and but there government was a monarchy which was not very productive. The government would do pretty much what ever they wanted, and didn’t help the cause of respecting others. There would be contention between the people and the ruler. Although a monarchy can be an effective form of government, for the Kush it proved over and over to be unsuccessful.

The Kush were a trade civilization located near the Nile River. They spoke the language Meroitic and Nubian. The main religion was an ancient Egyptian religion that was based on polytheism or, worshiping of many Gods. The Kush copied a lot that the Egyptians did like their religion, government, and their form of farming, this made it very easy because they didn’t have to figure out what worked or not because it was already used and shown. The Kush developed their own arts and kept good records through pictures and drawing. The civilization flourished from 1070s to 350 BC. In 780 BC the capital was moved to Napata but soon after was moved to Meroe were it stayed for the remainder of their existence. Kush was right next to the Nile River so there were a lot of advantages, one being that it was easy to trade. The way they would trade was by riding in little boats full of crops, weapons and more. Another advantage was that the land was really fertile so their crops would be easy to grow, harvest and plant. It also made it so the Kush wouldn’t have to always be watering and taking care of them because the crops already had a natural mother (Nile River) that would give it water and nutrients. Although that is one example of success the most important one that I found was having a representative looking over Egypt.

The Kush has many strengths, but one was that the ruler picked a person to be a representative and to communicate with Egypt because of how big of a role Egypt played in Kush. This was important and a good idea because they could share ideas and make sure that there is no hate between the two. Kush would make a lot of things out of iron so the government made it possible to make sculptures and weapons so that the Kush could sell them and have good strong weapons for war. Kush was smart to be friends with Egypt because they could easily take over Kush. The Kush started to have the idea of having a different government because of how there were starting to have representatives and not just have one main person in charge. There was a ruler named Piye, who in 727 BC, thought it would be a good idea to attack Egypt in a time that Egypt was trying to find the right ruler so Piye got his Norman ally to help him and together defeated Egypt and expanded Kush. Although they’re some strengths, there has to be weaknesses.

There will never be a civilization that doesn’t have any weaknesses, so lets see what Kush’s were. It seemed like they were headed in the right path by the ruler appointing a representative but that just wasn’t enough. They needed to have a set up government like we have today that would help the civilization run smoother and make it so laws and restrictions were put through the people so they could all agree on the matter. Later on in Kush’s history Kush’s ruling system was not running well like when they attacked Egypt, so Egypt thought it would be a good idea to get revenge so they went to war and defeated Kush. Kush definitely needed to improve their government yet they didn’t have enough materials to know how it should be put together. The Incans had a very close life style and were like the Kush in the government form.

The form of government that the Incas had was a monarchy. This form wasn’t very effective because it brought war between the people and the king/queen. Everybody wanted to be king so the people would go and kill the ruler and there family so that they could be king. But in few instances the government made it possible to expand by conquering different civilizations. There were ups and downs in this civilization. The government helped the poor fed the hungry and clothed the naked. The government helped the society grow and made a very helpful and peaceful society. Now in the long run was this form of government successful or not?

Any government is going to help and hinder the society but in this case I think that Kush was well set up and at time the rulers would make good decisions and make bad decisions. The ruler could always do what he wanted and you are never going to have the same ruler over the years. There are always going to be different rulers that do different things, they can abuse their power of use there power to help. So I don’t think there is one answer to this but over all I think they had some good rulers that helped the civilization. The government is always a big part of a civilization so I don’t think that this civilization was led to success through the many different rulers. I thought that having a representative made it so the ruler would not only see the side he wanted but he saw a little about what others wanted.

Over time, I don’t think that the Kush’s government was helpful and successful. But Kush had a good idea by appointing a representative to stay in touch with Egypt. Then they went and attacked Egypt, which expanded Kush for a while before it backfired and later Kush was over throne by Egypt. Monarchy is never a stable way to go. Because more than half of the time it never ends good, by the ruler doing whatever he/she wants or just by not having a government that worked well with people. “A monarchy is a merchantman, which sails well, but will sometimes strike on a rock and go to the bottom, whilst a republic is a raft which will never sink, but then your feet are always in water.”





Bibliography

Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt. 2 September 2009. 19 November 2009
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Twenty-fifth_dynasty_of_Egypt&action=history

Ancient African Civilization Series: Nubia The Black Kingdom Of Kush. 18 July
2009. 19 November 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFJ85YkTQ50

Martell, Nazel. The ancient World. New York: Scholastic Inc, September 1998.

O’Neil, Nmandon. Ancient Times. New Jersey: Cresent Books, 1992.

Pamela F. Service. The ancient African Kingdom of Kush. New York: Benchmark Books, c1998.