mesopotamia continued
TRANSCRIPT
The Rise of Babylon• Euphrates River near modern-
day Baghdad, Iraq• Former Sumerian city• By 1800 BC- became power
with its own government• Hammurabi (1792 BC) was
city’s greatest monarch • Fought many battles to
expand his power• Named Babylon Empire after
capital• Able to govern entire empire• Oversaw irrigation projects• Improved tax collection
system• Increased trade= prosperity• Ruled 42 years- Babylon
declined after his death
Hammurabi’s Code • 282 laws dealing with
almost every part of daily life
• Ex: trade, loans, theft, marriage, injury, & murder
• Some still seen in today’s laws
• Specific crimes= specific punishment
• Social class did not matter
• Important because it was written down for all to see
• Effect: people all over the empire could read exactly what was against the law.
Video
Hittites & Kassites
Kingdom in Asia Minor- modern-day Turkey
Achievements:
Military advantages: Ironworking= strong weaponschariot = fast movement around battlefield to shoot arrows at enemies
• Hittite king assassinated by Kassites= chaos in city
• Kassites ruled for 400 years from North of Babylon
Hittites video
The Assyrians• Northern Mesopotamia
• 900 BC began conquering all of Fertile Crescent, parts of Asia Minor & Egypt
• Success- strong organized army & strong weapons & chariots like Hittites
• Spread terror before attacking
• Demanded heavy taxes & punished those who opposed
Achievements:
Roads built to connect distant parts of the empire
Messengers rode horseback to deliver orders to faraway officials
Assyrian kings held power through:
Local leaders whoGoverned small areas
Collected taxes
Enforced laws
Raised troops for the army
The Chaldeans• 612 BC: destroyed Assyrian
Empire• King Nebuchadnezzar
rebuilt Babylon- restoring its former beauty
• Legend of Nebuchadnezzar’s palace Hanging Gardens (Wonder of the World)
• Copied Sumerian culture: studied language & built temples for Sumerian gods
Achievements:• Babylon became center of
astronomy- charted stars, tracked economic, political, & weather events
• Created a calendar• Solved complex geometry
problems
Video: Hanging Gardens
The PhoeniciansGeography:
• Western end of the Fertile Crescent: modern-day Lebanon
• Mountains border the region to the north and east, western border- Mediterranean Sea
• Had few resources for trade
• Cedar trees were prized for their timber- valuable trade item
• Overland trade routes blocked by mountains & hostile neighbors
Phoenician Expansion of Trade
• Became sea traders- fast fleets sailed to ports in Egypt, Greece, Italy, Sicily, & Spain (Cultural Diffusion)
• They sailed through the Strait of Gibraltar to reach the Atlantic Ocean
• Founded several new colonies along trade routes
• Carthage (northern coast of Africa) later became most powerful city on the Mediterranean
• Wealth came from trade of lumber, silverwork, ivory carvings, glass-blown beads, and slaves
Phoenician Advances• Glass blowing• Purple dye from shellfish-
very popular with the wealthy
• World’s first alphabet:• Developed to record their
activities• Made writing much
easier• Major IMPACT on the
world then & now• English alphabet is based
on the Phoenicians’• Later civilizations
modified alphabets into what we have today
Mesopotamian Civilizations
Timeline
30
00
BC Sumerian
CivilizationWorld’s first civilization
23
50
BC Akkadian
Dynasty
21
25
BC Third
Dynasty of Ur
19
00
BC First
Dynasty of BabylonCode of Hammurabi
15
00
BC Hittites &
Kassites
90
0 B
C Assyrian Empire
60
0 B
C Chaldeans (Neo-Babylon)
53
5 B
C Persian Empire (Phoenicians)