This paper surveys the major civilizations and cultural periods that form the foundation of Western civilization, from ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt through ancient Greece and Rome, Byzantium, the Islamic Golden Age, the Medieval era, the Renaissance, and the Industrial Revolution. For each period, the paper examines the historical and geographic background, the relationship to preceding civilizations, and the specific contributions made to Western culture, technology, law, art, and political organization. Together, these sections trace a continuous chain of cultural transmission and innovation that culminates in the modern world.
The word Mesopotamia is Greek and means "the land between two rivers" — in this case, the Tigris and Euphrates river systems. This area is considered to be the cradle of civilization, as it is one of the first verifiable areas of organized urbanization and domestication of plants and animals. The Sumerian period (encompassing the indigenous Sumerians and Akkadians) dominated the Middle Eastern region from approximately 3100 BC to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. During this period there were, of course, a number of peaks and valleys within the civilization, but the foundations of many basics of modern culture — law, medicine, formal writing, mathematics, and more — were established within that time. The Mesopotamian civilization encompassed much of what is now modern Iraq, parts of Iran and Turkey, and extended into some of the mountains of Armenia (Pollock, 1999).
Because the Sumerian civilization is one of the first recorded, current archaeology has no documented precursor. Based on available evidence, it is likely that hunter-gatherers began experimenting with grains that grew naturally along the banks of the two rivers and found that, with proper husbandry, they could secure a more regular source of food than daily foraging provided (Dalling, 2006).
Mesopotamia claims numerous "firsts": the invention of writing and record keeping in cuneiform; basic architecture including city planning and the construction of ziggurats; the establishment of domestication techniques for flora and fauna; the foundations of religion, myth, and literature; the establishment of a code of law (the Code of Hammurabi, c. 1780 BC); the formation of formal government; economic rules and regulations; and technology encompassing copper working, glassmaking, water storage, and irrigation. Mesopotamia also developed a formal medical system that included written diagnosis and treatment planning (British Museum, 2009).
Archaeological evidence from rock carvings indicates that hunter-gatherer populations roamed the area around the Nile River as early as 8,000 BC. Around that time, the climate in the upper Sahara began to change, and early tribal peoples migrated to the Nile — where, much like those in Mesopotamia, they developed and settled into an agricultural economy and centralized society in the fertile areas surrounding the river. The ancient Egyptian name for their country was Kemet, meaning "black land," referring to the fertile soil of the Nile floodplain. Ancient Egypt had fluid boundaries depending on the level of aggression and conquest, but the country always maintained a strong relationship to the areas surrounding its sacred river (Bard, 2000).
The Kemet civilization coalesced around 3150 BC when Upper and Lower Egypt unified under the first pharaoh. This political and economic unification was important because it allowed an actual country to exist with statecraft, political and social goals, and a sense of shared culture. In many ways, Egypt was the logical continuation of Mesopotamia, and there were many similarities in political and social development. However, despite both civilizations existing simultaneously, it was Egypt that lasted longer — until about 31 BC, when Rome formally annexed the land — and it was Egypt that formed the basis of the great Mediterranean civilizations (Dodson, 2004).
Because Egyptian civilization was already considered ancient when Greece matured, it had 3,000 years to develop new ideas and technology. Egypt developed a more sophisticated social and legal system than Sumer, advanced writing to the art of hieroglyphics (which allowed for poetry, literature, and greater flexibility), and created a solar and lunar calendar based on agricultural needs. Its architectural and artistic achievements remain extraordinary — contemporary builders are still awed by the pyramids. Egypt also produced sophisticated shipbuilding and medical skills (recent finds demonstrate empirical knowledge of anatomy, injuries, and treatment), contributed to astronomy, and developed a fully formed numeric system that included geometry. The legacy of Egypt passed, for a variety of reasons — including the great library and extensive cultural exchange — from Egypt to Greece, and then from Greece to Rome (Siliotto, 1998).
The civilization of ancient Greece centered on the Ionian peninsula, a rocky and largely unarable land just west of modern Turkey. Because of population growth, the early Greeks expanded their territory by a factor of ten or more and produced an extremely viable civilization from about 800 BC through coexistence with Rome until the modern period. Because of their seafaring nature, the early Greeks were in contact with other civilizations around the Mediterranean — Egypt, Phoenicia, Babylon, and others. They were a vital people who absorbed much from the older cultures and further developed their technology, science, and art (Freeman, 1996).
Greek civilization is divided into several periods beginning with the 8th century BC. Prior to the consolidation of society in the major city-states, the period known as the Greek Dark Ages (c. 1100–750 BC) shows extensive trade and cultural influence between Greece, Egypt, and the Assyrian and Babylonian cultures. This was a period in which the alphabetic script was brought to Greece and the foundations of culture and technology were laid. Because of the influences of the other major civilizations of the time, Greece was able to jump-start its own development and move relatively quickly into a Classical period (Hall, 2007).
Ancient Greece is still considered the basic foundation of modern European culture. Greece synthesized the best elements of the oriental civilizations and gave rise to philosophy, architecture, medicine, politics, literature, and education — contributions that passed into modernity via Rome. The influence of Greece on Rome was so profound that the Roman poet Horace wrote, "Captive Greece took captive her fierce conqueror and instilled her arts in rustic Latium" (Horace, Epistulae 2.1.156f).
"Roman expansion, Byzantine continuity, Islamic scholarship"
"Medieval art, architecture, and the Crusades' impact"
"Rebirth of classical learning and Baroque artistic expression"
"Industrialization, capitalism, and the roots of modernity"
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