Empires of
Mesopotamia
Early Empires
Akkad
Babylon
• Sumer was not united and therefore
• Hammurabi=King of Babylon
was vulnerable to attacks from large
armies
• The Akkadians eventually under King
Sargon conquered Sumerian city states
one by one and all of Mesopotamia
• He set up the world’s first empire- a
group of many lands under one ruler
• After Sargon’s death the Akkadians
lost power to the Amorites.
• Most powerful Amorite City
• Defeats other Amorite cities
• Hammurabi created the Babylonian
Empire.
• Hammurabi is best remembered for
creating his code of laws.
• It was the first set of written laws,
everyone knew them
Assyrians
• Assyrian Empire arose about a 1000 years after Hammurabi died.
• Assyrians had a very powerful army
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•
well organized
first large army to use iron weapons
heated it to make it stronger than copper or bronze
ferocious warriors
• Took over all of Mesopotamia
• empire stretched from Persian Gulf to Egypt
• capital was Nineveh
• empire was large so kings divided it into provinces (political districts) and appointed
governors
Assyrians continued
• Life was like other cultures in Mesopotamia
• writing based off of Babylonian
• worshipped the same gods as Babylonian (polytheistic)
• brutal punishments for law breakers
• world’s first library
• Cruel treatment of people led rebellions and began fighting each other
• Chaldeans rose to power
Chaldeans
• Decedents of Babylonian people
• Built an empire and developed a calendar with a 7 day week.
• Nebuchadnezzar: -was a king that controlled all of Mesopotamia for
around 40 years
• he made them strong and rebuilt Babylon
Chaldeans continued
• The City Babylon
• world's largest and richest city
• Hanging Gardens: Neb. built them for his wife
• showcased various trees and plants.
• pyramid shaped and used water from the Euphrates
• became rich from trade
• caravans-groups of traveling merchants traded there
• astronomy-they studied the stars
• The empire fell because it became too large, Nebuchadnezzar died, and was
attacked by the Persians