Legitimacy, And Mesopotamia

As I read both readings I was intrigued as they both focused on ancient cities and states and their developments. In the article Order, Legitimacy, and Wealth in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, by John Baines and Norman Yoffee they compare the differences in civilizations between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Later on I will explain what Baines and Yoffee mean by the terms they used to help us understand how ancient states developed and endured. Bruce G. Trigger explains the many distinctions between city-states and territorial states in his work States: City and Territorial, he also makes some comparisons between them both. Trigger contrast its major features between the city-states and territorial states, I chose a couple of his many examples that …show more content…
Unfortunately, city-states did not have the same opportunity as the territorial sates. The size of the territorial sates made central political control indirect at times, so that way they have have a way to challenge them with control, instead city-states they have a set power of political control. Territorial states maintain their economy by the rent and taxes paid to the government and landlords by farmers. The farmers of territorial sates were really different than the ones in city-states they did not have access to technology, like the ones in city-states. The farmers in territorial states had few reasons to go to urban centers or means to obtain luxury goods, also their urban centers were way smaller than the ones in city-states. There are many more differences between them and I think Trigger did a great job explaining them in the article, and showing us the distinct contrast between the two forms of ancient complex societies. Baines and Yoffe also compare the history of two civilizations which are the Egyptian and Mesopotamian. In the article Order, Legitimacy, and Wealth in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, Baines and Yoffee address the issues on how a civilianization should be run and how it will continue to run smoothly by using the three steps as they say “Order, Legitimacy, and Wealth”. The way that they explain the terms shows us how important it was for Egypt and Mesopotamia to maintain the order, legitimacy and wealth within their civilization, these steps became the core of a civilization. In other words, I will explain what I think they mean by these