Mesopotamia EMPIRES

Empires WHAT WERE THE MOST IMPORTANT ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE MESOPOTAMIAN EMPIRES?

Reflective Writing  Describe a significant achievement of yours. What obstacles did you overcome?

Empire  There were many city-states warring in lower Mesopotamia.  They were drawn together through an empire  A single ruler  Conquer vast lands  Control various groups of people

Akkadian Empire  Sargon  A strong king  Skilled general  Conquered many city states to create the first empire  Established Agade as the capital, building the city from tributes (money and goods collected from conquered peoples)

Decline  Sumerian culture was absorbed into the new empire  New cultural developments  Stele : a commemorative, sculpted stone  The Victory Stele of Naram-Sin  Eventually the empire was unable to control the vast land and it reverted to the previous city-states

Babylonian Empire  Hammurabi, king of Babylon, was the next leader to unify many city states under his rule.  He developed laws to unify his empire and establish order.  First recorded laws  The laws were not based on his authority, but upon the authority of the gods.  He also promoted the god Marduk to unify his empire

The Assyrian Empire  A strong military nation who perfected the use of horses and iron weapons.  New military strategy  Siege: encamp around the city and continually attack it until it falls.  Battering rams to destroy city walls  Moveable towers that could be rolled up to a city wall in order to scale it

 Adopted many aspects of Babylonian culture.  King Assurbanipal built one of the first libraries  Cuneiform tablets collected from all over the Fertile Crescent  Aqueducts

Neo-Babylonians Empire  Babylon regained power under the leadership of Nebuchadnezzar II  Pushes Egypt back out of Syria  Carries the Hebrew into captivity from Canaan.  Secures the capitol of Babylon with an inner and outer wall. The outer wall was 85 feet thick with 9 gates dedicated to important gods.  Rebuilt the ziggurat dedicated to the god Marduk.

Persian Empire  Cyrus the Great and his successors build the largest empire yet seen with a policy of respecting local customs.  Darius encouraged unity  Improved roads for communication  A code of laws  A common set of weights and measures for trade, as well as a money economy  Zoroaster teaches a single wise god, Ahura Mazda, rules the world, but is in conflict with Ahriman, a prince of lies.

Phoenecians  Smaller city-states continue to exist during these times.  Phoenicians were sailors of the Mediterranean Sea, setting up colonies to promote trade  Writing: created an alphabet of 22 symbols representing consonants.