How Did The Assyrians Develop Their Culture?

With governmental machinery that brought political and social order to their territories, effective political and military power enabled them to build regional empires and expand their authority to neighboring people. Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia were two great civilizations among the earliest to emerge in the Middle east and North Africa. Both made significant contributions in areas such as mathematics, medicine, agriculture, astronomy, technology, architecture, art and writing. They had differences as well, including their political structures. Most importantly is that Egyptians were under a centralized government, and the Mesopotamians had self-controlled city state governments.

Mesopotamia, “the Land between Rivers,” was one of the greatest and the oldest ancient civilizations of the world. This civilization flourished around 3000 B.C. on the piece of fertile land, now known as Iraq, between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. Before 1792 B.C., the city-states of ancient Mesopotamia were not united and constantly clashed in turmoil and warfare. In 1792 B.C., King Hammurabi conquered and merged the neighboring city states of ancient Mesopotamia, creating a Babylonian empire and becoming the sixth king of its capitol city, Babylon. During his reign, Hammurabi established law and order and funded irrigation, defense, and religious projects. He personally took care of and governed the administration. In

From 1567 to 330 B.C. humanity experienced many subsequent development as well as decline in its civilizations. Among these events emerged three colossal empires that had shaken the world and forever changed the course of human history. The Egyptian, Assyrian, and Persian Empires have been instrumental in influencing technology, religion, and ideas throughout the world. Various factors have contributed to the success and downfall of these giants. Each of the “World Powers” have similarities as well as distinctions in its government form and organization, religion, and economy that contributed to their triumph.

During 3000 BC, Sumerian was the first cyclical empire, even though they came to a fall the Sumerian people made an impact on Western Civilization. This empire kept history alive, but never forgotten. The wheel was one of their many inventions which are still used today for cars, and manual labor like wheel barrels and lawnmowers. The epic poem Gilgamesh is still a book read today in English classes. This epic poem is inspiring and was an actual historical figure. The Sumerians contributed several ideas, the first organized religion temples and priests. The Sumerians also gave us the biblical story of the Garden of Eden, which was a story about a river dividing itself into 4 river heads, two of the four being the Tigris and the Euphrates River. The water supply was an accommodating way of trade. The Sumerians were the first international traders. They also invented writing, the Sumerians wrote of cuneiform blocks, now student can write on paper but it was a start being able to write thoughts down. The Sumerians had countless clever ideas; they also invented the potter’s wheel, which was used for making pottery to store food and goods. The plow was used for farming and the sailboat was used for traveling up or down the river, for trading or

The upper class were the rich and with the advancement of new technology, became richer. Goods could be created and sold for a cheaper price in their factories. With the working class looking for work, were employed by the factory owners. The advantaged social class that had enjoyed wealth and success, had now achieved a new level of luxury.

Mesopotamians developed specialized crafts and supported private entrepreneurship. They also were involved in foreign and domestic trade.

CCOT ESSAY: Analyze continuities and changes in the ways ONE of the following regions participated in interregional trade during the period circa 1500 to 1750.

| * There was still international trade. * The silk roads were still in use as major trade routes.

During the years of 3500 BC to 2500 BC, the geography of a land often impacted a civilizations development in great measures. Depending on the resources available or the detriments present due to certain topographical characteristics like rivers or deserts, a civilization could flourish or collapse. By studying the geographic features of growing societies like the Nile, Euphrates, and Tigris Rivers as well as the Mediterranean Sea of Egypt and Mesopotamia, the link between developing cultures and geography will be examined through sources, including Egypt: Ancient Culture, Modern Land edited by Jaromir Malek and Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization by Paul Kriwaczek. To determine the extent

The early cities of Mesopotamia fell from one warlord to another, and were constantly changing, unlike the kingdoms of Ancient Egypt that kept its stability. The Egyptians lived along the Nile River, which probably made it easier to govern the people. The King was the owner and ruler of all Egypt and was considered a god by the people. The economy was a royal monopoly, the peoples duties was to serve the King. In the old Kingdom

The Mongols were excellent in learning from obstacles, doing without, and making the best out of what was given with them. Their ingenious thought process led to them being one of the most successful empires of all time. Unlike no other empire of their time, their war-like way of life is what brought them to the top and is what they’ve left in history. The Mongolian empire was successful due to their vast understanding of characteristics needed in an empire, dealing with environmental setbacks, and makeshift

Fascinating enough there is a stele, which is a slab of stone carved, with a hymnic summary of the campaigns of central and northern Syria, it reads “ (Foreign) lands larger (than) the territory of Assyria I captured, Countless people unto its people I added; I continuously herded them in safe pastures, I (am) Tuglath-pileser, king of Assyria. Who from East to West personally conquered all the lands. Over realms where the chariots of the kings, my fathers, never passed, I appointed governors. From the Great Sea of the East Resisuri (and) Gubla, on the Shore of the Great Sea of the West, I marched to and fro, and ruled the world” (Tadmor, 57) This shows that through ancient lore that it is seen as a conquest of an empire. Historically speaking about a decade later

Babylonian’s first empire, created by Hammurabi, was starting out with warlike tactics. They first used Sargon the great’s strategies of war and the same tools. He made many allies, then blocked up their water sources to defeat them in the battle to gain their lands for agriculture and to gain more power. Hammurabi allied with the king of Larsa to fight against Elam, a very powerful kingdom, but Larsa did not help with the military effort as much as Hammurabi would have liked, so he went to war with Larsa and gained all the lands in lower Mesopotamia.

For 1,200 years Sumer was a land of peaceful city states, until Sargon and the Akkadians conquered the land. Sargon was a great and strong leader to all of the empire. He was the first to do many things but one thing that he was specifically known for was the formation they used in army. It was called the turtle because it had in the front, the shields, in the middle, spears and in the back archers. This helped them defeat many city states. Once they defeated the king of Uruk, Sargon had control over all the parts of Mesopotamia. One of the other things he was best known for was that he was a great ruler that was able to control Mesopotamia after conquering it. In the end, Sargon had created the turtle formation, conquered Mesopotamia and controlled Mesopotamia. Sargon and the Akkadians were the first to create an empire.

It is important to first evaluate the reasons behind the Assyrians ‘violent, war-like' reputation. Their aggressiveness was partially attributed to their geographical location. Assyria was in northern Mesopotamia, north of Babylon and with no natural bounders like shores or mountains they were extremely vulnerable to attacks from any direction. This required the presence and most importantly a reputation of a strong and mobile army. The Assyrians achieved this by each year marching on the neighbour that posed the greatest threat and as historian Leonard Cottrell points out they fought with “a calculated use of violence and terror' never extending what they believed necessary.” From this analyses of ancient Assyria’s vulnerability and attacking