Download The First Empires _Chapter 1 Section 3

Chapter 1 Section 3
The Assyrian Empire

 1,000 years after Hammurabi, the Assyrian Empire
rose to power
 The Assyrians built a strong army
 The Assyrians began taking over the rest of
Mesopotamia
The Assyrian Army

 The Assyrians had the strongest army of the time:
 They were well organized
 They had iron weapons (stronger than copper and tin)
 They were ferocious warriors
Assyrian Government

 The capital of Assyria was Ninevah
 The government was well-organized
 The empire was divided into provinces (political
districts)
 Each province collected taxes
Life in Assyria

 Assyrians also worshipped many Gods
 Wrote many books and made one of the world’s first
libraries
 Assyrians did not treat their people well
 This lead to fighting
 The Chaldeans seized an
opportunity to rebel.
An Assyrian
tablet, which
tells a story
The Chaldeans

 The Chaldeans broke
away from the Assyrian
Empire
 The Chaldeans
controlled all of
Mesopotamia from
605 B.C. – 562 B.C (only 43
years)
 The Chaldeans were led
by King
Nebuchadnezzar
The Chaldeans’ Babylon

 Most Chaldeans were descendants of Babylon (1,200
years earlier), so they rebuilt the city of Babylon
 Babylon became the richest city in Mesopotamia
 Nebuchadnezzar built the Hanging Gardens for his
wife.
Did you know?

 The Chaldeans’ Babylon was a center of science
 They had astronomers who mapped the stars in the
sky
 The Chaldeans were the first people to have a sevenday week
 They made one of the
first sundials!
The Fall of the Chaldean
Empire

 As time passed, the Chaldeans began to lose power
 It was hard for them to control the peoples they had
conquered
 In 539 B.C. Persians from the mountains captured
Babylon
 Mesopotamia became part of the new Persian
Empire
 SAD FACE 