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Chapter 3: The Tigris and Euphrates Valley
Lesson 2: Conquests and Empire Building
Big Idea: Many of the methods used in Mesopotamia to gain and keep
an empire
would be used by other leaders throughout world history.
First
Paragraph
The city-states of Sumer were nearly always at war, fighting to gain
control of water and other limited resources.
Sargon the
Great
Vocabulary
1) conquer – take over
2) empire – the vast lands and varied people that come under
the control of a single government.
3) standing army – an army with paid, full-time soldiers
Sargon the Great once served in the army of the king of
Kish, which was a city-state in Sumer.
Then he killed that king in battle and gathered his own
army.
His army gained strength in central Mesopotamia, and
Sargon the
Great
Sargon conquered the Sumerians around 2350 BCE.
He continued his conquests beyond Sumer to what is now Iran in the east
and Turkey in the west.
Sargon built the world’s first empire.
Sargon ruled his empire from the
capital city of Akkad, which is why his
empire is referred to as the Akkadian
Empire.
Sargon kept a standing army.
He chose loyal officials to govern his
city-states for him.
Sargon ruled for 56 years, and his
empire continued for 200 years after
The Rise of
his death.
Babylon
Vocabulary
1) taxation – a system where people pay for the running of
the government.
The Rise of
Babylon
Akkadian rulers found it difficult to keep control over their vast empire. In
2125 BCE the city-state of Ur
rebelled against the empire.
The battles brought an end to the Akkadian Empire.
Mesopotamia did well under the rulers of Ur for a while, but were
conquered around 1900 BCE by the Amorites.
The empire of the Amorites was named for its capital city, Babylon.
The Babylonians created a system of taxation to collect money for the
empire.
The Code of Hammurabi
Vocabulary
1) centralized government – a form of government in which
the national government maintains power.
2) code – a set of laws that is written down in a clear,
orderly way
3) principle – important belief
How did the Babylonian rulers maintain their vast empire?
 They established laws that covered crimes against the empire and
crimes against people.
Around 1790 BCE, the first great Babylonian monarch, Hammurabi,
compiled a list of laws, known as Hammurabi’s Code.
Hammurabi based his laws on the principle that the strong shall not
oppress the weak.
Some people summarize Hammurabi’s code with the phrase “an eye for an
eye”.
The Code of Hammurabi
Hammurabi was the king who united most of
Mesopotamia and conquered the Sumerians. He
developed a “code” of laws. The laws were
numbered from 1 to 282. Law number 196 states:
If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye
shall be put out. Some people summarize
Hammurabi’s code by saying “an eye for an eye.”
Law number 195 states: If a son strike
his father, his hands shall be hewn off.
There are many, many more laws like
this in Hammurabi’s Code.
A statue of Hammurabi
The Hittites and the
Kassites
Vocabulary
1) chariots – carts drawn by horses that were used to carry
soldiers in battle.
The Kassites were from the country that is now known as Iran.
They were not successful in their attempts to take over Babylon until the
Hittites came from the north and attacked Babylon.
The Hittites robbed Babylon of its riches. They used chariots to capture
Babylon easily.
They left Babylon with stolen treasure, and Babylon was weakened.
The Kassites were finally able to conquer the weakened city, and they
ruled for more than 500 years.
They ruled from 1595 BCE to 1000 BCE.