Download Invaders, Traders, and Empire Builders

INVADERS, TRADERS, EMPIRE BUILDERS
CHAPTER 2, SECTION 2
THE FERTILE CRESCENT
THE FERTILE CRESCENT
Advantages
Disadvantages
 Very fertile soil
 Flooding leads to social unrest
 Rivers for trade, transportation, water
 Few geographic barriers
 Wealthy city-states
 Crossroads of the world
 “Crossroads” of the world
 All this=
TRANSITION PERIOD
 2300 BC-Sargon, ruler of Akkad invades and
conquers the city-states of Sumer
 Created the Akkadian Empire, the world’s first
empire
 Appointed officials to rule over smaller pieces of
land
 In time, new conquerors pushed out the Akkadians.
BABYLON
 Around 1790 BC, Babylon rises to power under
Hammurabi-conquered most of Mesopotamia
 Created Code of Hammurabi, first attempt to codify
all the laws of a civilization
 Codify-To arrange and set down in writing
CODE OF HAMMURABI
Civil Law
 Dealt with business contracts, property inheritance,
taxes, marriage, and divorce
 Designed to protect less powerful people, like slaves
and women
 Still, men, fathers, husbands, etc. had more power and
rights
Criminal Law
 Dealt with offenses against others, eg robbery,
assault, murder
 By laying out punishments for these crimes,
Hammurabi limited personal vengeance
 “An eye for an eye and a life for a life”
MORE CONQUERORS-THE HITTITES
 Hittites invaded Mesopotamia from Asia Minor in
1400 BC
 Brought knowledge of iron working
 Iron weapons=Sharper, harder than bronze or
copper weapons
 Secrets of iron working leaked to other cultures
(cultural diffusion)
 Ended Hittite dominance by 1200 BC, began the Iron
Age
MORE CONQUERORS-THE ASSYRIANS
 1100 BC conquer Mesopotamia
 Warrior culture, ruthless conquerors
 Used riches from war and trade to build elaborate
palaces
 King Assurbanipal founded the first library at his
capital city, Nineveh
NEW BABYLON
 Neighboring peoples joined forces to defeat the
Assyrians
 Babylon reestablished its empire under King
Nebuchadnezzar
 Built a moat, huge walls, canals, temples, palaces, etc.
 The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
THE PERSIANS
 Babylon was conquered in 539 by Persia, led by
Cyrus the Great
 Persian Empire became the largest in the history of
the world to that point
 44% of the world’s population
 Tolerance and respect for conquered peoples
DARIUS
 Darius I created a bureaucracy through departments
of government
 Divided empire into satrapys, ruled by satraps.
 Each satrapy paid taxes based on resources and
wealth
 Built extensive roads to connect the empire
PERSIAN DEVELOPMENTS
 “The King’s Eyes and Ears”-Secret inspectors
travelled throughout the empire and reported on
things
 Use of a common coin

Barter economy-Exchange of goods and services

Money economy-Goods and services paid for with an
accepted token of value (money)
ZOROASTER
 Persian thinker, founder of Zoroastrianism
 One god-Ahuru Mazda-battled Ahriman, the prince
of lies and evil
 On a final judgment day, all individuals would be
judged for their actions
PHOENICIANS
 Lived on the Mediterranean coast of the Middle East
 Produced glass from sand, purple dye from sea snails
 Established trading colonies in North Africa, Sicily,
Spain, traded as far away as Great Britian
 Created an alphabet-each symbol represents a basic
sound
 Greeks and Romans adopted this alphabet, still used
today