1. Empires of Mesopotamia

2. Early Empires Akkad Sumer was not united and therefore 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. Babylon Hammurabi=King of Babylon 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

3. Assyrians Assyrian Empire arose about a 1000 years after Hammurabi died. Assyrians had a very powerful army 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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