Government-+Huang+He+River+Civilization

The Huang He River Valley Civilization, during the Shang Dynasty, the rulers in government were chosen based on religion and military power. The people chosen to be in charge were emperors who controlled all people in the society and regulated issues involving the economy and trade. Under their rule, people built defensive walls and tombs to respect them and protect the rest of the people living in their civilization. These walls were helpful during wars fought with people from nearby civilizations. We chose the picture of a wall built during the Shang Dynasty because it was important to protect the people in this civilization and represented the care and dedication emperors had as rulers.

After the Shang Dynasty (the Zhou Dynasty) the rulers were chosen by "the mandate of heaven". The mandate of heaven was the belief that the power to govern was given to an individual that was connected to heaven. One can lose or get the mandate which allowed a sort of flexibility in government. The second picture (below) is of the Duke of Zhou who created the mandate to heaven. He is important as a founder to the idea that made the Zhou Dynasty's government which is why we chose this picture. The government established in the Zhou Dynasty greatly differed from the Shang Dynasty's government which makes it hard to simply categorize the government as "Huang He" 