People in Mesopotamia has the first compelete
form of one country. A powerful king.... When one
living group has the level of the society, that
is, people had their own different roles in thier
living group. One man also become the ruler of
one group.....the "empire" appeared.
What can one empire, country or a solidify living
group bring to us? All we know that people cannot
live alone, we have to live with others. Because
living together can protect us. For safety, so
people in Mesopotamia understood they have to
live together!!Of particular interest to us work
team is the rise of monarchies and the
development of empires. For the first time in
human history one culture had subjugated another.
This new situation and its problems were
approached by several would-be empire builders,
each with a different theory of what would work.
The Akkadians were the first to tackle the
problem; although their cultural approach
ultimately failed it led to unprecedented
cultural diffusion in the region. The Babylonians
are famous for their legal approach to empire,
but it too ultimately failed. Assyria attempted
to hold control through terror and fear, becoming
what Prof. Brendan Nagle once called the
"Nazis of the Ancient World." The
Chaldeans attempted to restore order, but soon
there was a new terror. Finally the Persians,
under their Great King Cyrus, brought stability
and order (if only for a short time) through
their benevolent and tolerant rulership.
The real point
of this tragic story is in the ultimate failure
of all these systems. The price these people
payed for their desire for surplus agriculture
was dear indeed. Open communities gave way to
walled cities and huge armies; people worked
harder than ever tilling the soil and providing
water through massive irrigation projects; the
egalitarianism of the past three million years
was replaced by class structures and the
rulership of wealthy elites. In spite of the
development of writing, literature was 95%
practical. These folks were serious, somber,
violent, mistrustful and frightened. They made
their choice, and embarked on a grand experiment.
Look at the ruins of Uruk or Babylon today and
tell me whether it succeeded or not.
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