Chapter 3: Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent

Notes:

Section 4: pages 72-77

Later Peoples of the Fertile Crescent

The Babylonians Conquer Mesopotamia

**After the death of Sargon, many invaders battled to gain control of Mesopotamia.

The Rise of Babylon:

  • Babylon was once a Sumerian town on the Euphrates river, however it had a powerful government of its own.
  • In 1792 BC Hammurabi became king of Babylon; the city’s greatest monarch.

Hammurabi’s Code:

  • He was an excellent war leader who fought many battles eventually bringing all of Mesopotamia under his rule…Babylonian Empire
  • Very skilled at governing his empire; oversaw… *building and irrigation projects

*Improved the tax collection system

of Babylon to pay for the projects

* Increased trade

* Code of Law

  • Hammurabi’s code was 282 laws dealing with every aspect of daily life
  • Specific crimes brought specific penalties…but if you committed a crime against a rich man your penalty was more severe
  • This code was written down for all people to see ; therefore there were no questions about what was against the law
  • He ruled for 42 years, after his death many invasions brought the great empire to an end.

Invasions of Mesopotamia

**Other civilizations lived around the Fertile Crescent, often battling for land.

The Hittites and Kassites:

  • Hittites lived north of Mesopotamia in Asia Minor
  • Success stemmed from 2 military advantages: 1. Mastered ironworking

2. Used chariots in battle

  • These advantages allowed them to conquer Babylon in 1595 BC
  • Their rule didn’t last long, soon after taking Babylon the Hittite king was killed
  • The Kassites captured the city and ruled for 400 years

The Assyrians:

  • In 1200 BC the Assyrians, also from the north, gained control of Babylon for a brief time
  • They were overrun by invaders, it took the Assyrians about 300 yrs. to gain strength again … 900 BC they began to conquer all of the Fertile Crescent again.
  • Assyrian strength came from their strong army: similar to the Hittites, Assyrians used iron weapons and chariots, the army was well organized and each man knew his role
  • The Assyrian kings ruled this large empire through local leaders; they collected taxes, enforced laws, raised troops for the army, also roads were built connecting the empire and messengers were used to send messages to faraway places.

The Chaldeans:

  • In 652 many wars broke out in the Assyrian empire to gain control, thus weakening the empire.
  • In 612 BC the Chaldeans, from the Syrian Desert, attacked and gained control of the Assyrian empire.
  • The Chaldeans set up their own empire with king Nebuchadnezzar, he rebuilt Babylon into a beautiful city
  • Legend has it that his grand palace featured the famous Hanging Gardens
  • Chaldeans admired Sumerian culture, they studied the language and built temples to their gods
  • Babylon became the center of astronomy, they recorded economic, political and weather events, created a calendar, and solved complex geometry problems.

The Phoenicians

**Located at the western end of the Fertile Crescent, along the Mediterranean Sea was Phoenicia. They were not a great military civilization however, they created a wealthy trading society.

The Geography of Phoenicia:

  • Bordered by mountains and Mediterranean Sea
  • Only resource was cedar, these trees were valuable
  • They used the sea as their trade routes because the mountains and neighbors were too hostile to use land routes

The Expansion of Trade:

  • Expert sailors; Phoenician trade ships were fast and sailed all around the Mediterranean, to Egypt, Greece, Italy, Sicily, Spain, through the Strait of Gibraltar to the Atlantic Ocean
  • Vast trade network: Besides lumber they traded silverwork, ivory carvings, slaves, glass objects, purple fabric
  • Phoenicians most important achievement was the alphabet, todays is based on this.