Entre o Nilo e o Tigre: a construção das primeiras relações entre nações

Abstract

This article explores how diplomacy and inter-state relations first emerged in ancient civilizations. We examine the shift from nomadic societies to early city-states, focusing on how trade networks, territorial disputes, and local alliances gradually shaped what we'd recognize as primitive diplomatic practices. The control of major river basins – the Nile, Tigris-Euphrates, Yangtze – proved crucial here. Drawing on Lucien Febvre, Charles Tilly, and Michael Mann, we analyze how these waterways enabled the economic and political structures that underpinned early statehood. Egypt, Mesopotamia, Israel, Persia, Greece, and Rome each developed distinct diplomatic instruments, though commerce and warfare remained the primary forces creating networks of trust (and mistrust) between communities. These patterns of interdependence, forged through necessity rather than idealism, prefigured many aspects of modern international relations. The article concludes by examining how Rome's collapse and Christianity's rise transformed the ancient political landscape into a theological-political framework that would profoundly shape the West.