1. Indo-European Peoples

2. Phoenicians Lived in present day Lebanon
City-state of wealthy merchants and sailors
1st to travel beyond the Strait of Gibraltar
Primary contribution: alphabet
22 letters used to spell out all words of its language

3. Israelites
Most of what we know about them comes from the Old Testament
Migrated from Mesopotamia to Palestine (“Canaan”), a drought sent them to Egypt where they were enslaved, later freed by Moses and wandered the desert before settling back in Palestine.
Founders of Judaism- 1st monotheistic religion, descendants of Abraham, covenant with God, 10 commandments

4. Assyrians Began as a farming community in northern Meso.
Since they had no natural barriers, the formed a strong military to defend themselves
Soon, with the use of iron, turned to conquest
Built the great city of Ninevah, which held the first library with 1000s of writing tablets
Assyrian military tactics:
Leather and metal armor
Used cavalry and archers (to shower enemy with arrows)
Did very bad things to their captives (NO MERCY)
End: they had acquired a lot of enemies and they finally turned against them and burned Ninevah down, they couldn’t resist ALL their enemies

5. Persians
One of the groups to defeat the Assyrians, soon began conquests of their own
King Cyrus led his army to conquer a huge empire in 10 years (from Indus Valley to Turkey)
Best known for treating his prisoners with respect and mercy “Cyrus the Great”
King Darius divided the land into provinces, allowed them to have their own religion, speak own language, and obey own laws
Built a 1,677 mile road connecting all the provinces so that he could quickly send troops to any part of his empire.