RULING A LARGE EMPIRE

The First Empire Builder:

• In 2,300B.C., Sargon, the ruler or Akkad, invaded and conquered the city-state of Sumer.

• He thus created the very first empire in known history when he spread his civilization of Akkad to foreign land.

• It didn’t last long due to the fact that his empire fell to the hands of invaders soon after he died.

• After his death and the fall of his empire, the Sumerian city-states came back to life.

• However, the Sumerian city-states fell to other invaders as time went on.

• This is quite similar to the way that Egyptian history tells us about their rise to power and subsequent falls throughout history.

AKKAD

Hammurabi, the Lawgiver:

• In 1,790 B.C., Hammurabi, king of Babylon, assumed control of the Fertile Crescent river valley civilization(s) of Mesopotamia.

• He had scribes write down ancient laws in order to make all of his subjects aware of civil and criminal laws.

Crime and Punishment:

• Criminal law is defined as laws that protect people against the offenses of others against themselves such as robbery, assault, murder, etc.

• Hammurabi’s code made it possible to set up specific punishments for specific crimes or offenses.

• Civil law is the branch of law that deals with private rights and matters such as business contracts, property inheritance, taxes, marriage, and divorce.

HAMMURABI’S CODE

WARFARE AND THE SPREAD OF IDEAS

The Secret of Ironworking:

• In 1,400 B.C., the Hittites left Asia in search of better land. They stumbled across Mesopotamia.

• They brought with themselves the knowledge of extracting metal ore from the earth and melting it down to make useful tools from it.

• They worked more with iron ore than with bronze (copper + tin). Iron could be made harder, sharper, and lighter than bronze.

• Iron ore was/is more plentiful than other ores. More people could be armed for LESS MONEY!

• The idea of using iron spread across the known world when Hittite ironworkers spread across the world in search of better lands.

IRON ORE

Assyrian Warriors:

• The Assyrians lived along the Tigris River.

• They had a reputation of being fighters, and they lived up to this reputation. They were very fierse in battle!

• They had very strict rule and regulations to control their warriors, and these rules and regulations carried over into the civilian world as well.

• Assyrian cities were among the finest in the world due to the high level of organization and dedication of their people to achieve whatever the ruler wanted.

ASSYRIAN WARRIOR

THE PERSIAN EMPIRE

Uniting Many Peoples:

• The Persian Empire was born in around 539 B.C., when its ruler conquered several other nations and took over their land and people.

• The Persian Empire was so large that it had to be divided into managable sections, each controlled by its own governer who answered to the Persian Emperor.

• Like Hammurabi, the Persian leaders (Darius) used his written language to post the laws for all to see.

• Darius united his empire by building thousands of miles of roads to connect the different regions of his empire.

• This is the first super-empire that was fully interconnected. The Persian Empire would be used by later empires as something of a template for how to build a new empire.

PERSIAN EMPIRE

Economic Life:

• To improve trade, Darius set up a common set of weights and measures.

• He also encouraged the use of coin currancy, an idea first developed by the Lydians of Asia Minor.

• Most Persians worked under a “barter economy”, exchanging one set of good or services for another.

• Coins, however, brought merchants and traders into an early form of a money economy.

• From now on, good and services could be PAID FOR!

A New Religion:

• The Persians were becoming monotheistic, so they rejected the older Persian thinking that many gods existed

• They now believed that you could either have a happy or an awful afterlife depending on your actions in life.

COIN MONEY

PERSIAN INNOVATION

Manufacturing & Trade:

• They lived in the Fertile Crescent, so farming was very plentiful and prosperous.

• The Persians, however, became very good at manufacturing and trade.

• They made glass from coastal sand, they made purple dye from tiny sea snails, and they made improvements upon the papyrus paper used in Egypt.

• The Persians used this paper to write their “Bible”, named after the Persian city of Byblos.

• The Persians grew very properous from trading throughout the Mediterranian sea.

The Alphabet:

• The Persians give us our alphabet.

• Unlike cuneiform or hieroglyphics, and alphabet contains letters that represent spoken sounds.

PERSIAN ALPHABET