Part 2: Other

Civilizations

Later Fertile Crescent Empires

-Draw a graphic organizer like this one on your notes paper. -As we go through the notes, add each new empire we learn about

Fertile Cresce

nt Empire

s

Music Video-Intro Mesopotamia (3:21)

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

Video: LA Dabke- Traditional stomp dance (UCLA)

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

Phoenician AlphabetVideo: Phoenician Alphabet (2:21)

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)