Download Ch 6 Lesson 3

Chapter 6
Lesson 3
The First
Empires
Pages 168-173
How did three great rulers
build and maintain empires in
Mesopotamia?
At first Mesopotamia was made up of city-states.
Each city-state was ruled by its own king. No one
ruler controlled all of the city-states.
An empire is a nation and the
city-states and nations it has
conquered.
Three Empires
• Akkad = Ruled by Sargon
(the 1st Empire)
• Assyria = Ruled by
Shamshi-Adad
• Babylonia = Ruled by
Hammurabi
Sargon of Akkad
• Usurped the throne of the
king of Kish (he was one of
his servants)
• Conquered all of Sumer’s
city-states and tore down the
walls of the cities. He united
them into the first empire.
• He faced repeated rebellion
from those he conquered
and invasions from enemies.
Shamshi-Adad (Assyria)
• Overthrew the King of
Mari and made his own
son king.
• Held his lands together by
trade and using force.
• His empire would fall at
the hands of the Babylonia
ruler Hammurabi.
Hammurabi – (Babylon)
• Overthrew Samshi-Adad (Assyria) and
conquered all of Mesopotamia.
• Sent governors, judges, tax collectors and
military commanders to his lands to
maintain order
• Created the Code of Hammurabi (the first
set of 282 written laws).
• His empire began to fall apart after his
death (1750 B.C.)
Hammurabi’s Code
• One of the first set of
written laws (in stone).
• The 282 laws guaranteed
that people couldn’t be
punished at a ruler’s
whim.
• The Code covered all
matters that were
important to their lives
(property, trade, jobs,
marriage, family, etc.)