Social Studies 3: The Fertile Crescent - The First Empires Flashcards
Meaning of empire
A state containing several countries or territories
Meaning of ally
Independent state that works with other states to share military or political goals
Meaning of cultural trait
Idea or way of doing things that is common in a certain culture
Meaning of Hammurabi’s Code
A set of laws that governed life in the Babylonian empire
Meaning of rule of law
The idea that all members of society (including the rich and powerful) must obey the law
Meaning of abundant
Plentiful or in large quantity
Meaning of govern
To control or strongly influence
Why did city-states become rivals?
As they grew in size, power and wealth, each city-state wanted more control over resources, and thus they started to come into conflict and fought with one another.
How did empires start to form?
The strongest city-states conquered others in their region and grew into large empires.
What was one example of Sumerian city-states and fought each other?
Umma vs Lagash
What was the result of continual fighting between Sumerian city-states
They kept fighting each other and ended up weakening each other.
Eventually, this opened the way for Akkadians, a new society in Mesopotamia, conquered Sumerian city-states.
Who was the Akkadian king that conquered Sumerian city-states and built the Akkadian empire?
Sargon
How were Akkadians and Sumerians similar, and different?
They shared some cultural traits such as religious practices and use of cuneiforms. But they were unrelated to each other, and spoke different languages and had different customs.
How did Akkadians expand their influence?
They did so by both conquering enemies and conducting trade. They had fertile soil and crops but did not have other important resources, so they conducted trade with other states as far away as the Indus Valley (present day Pakistan), and thus they spread their culture and customs to trading partners.
How did the Akkadian empire end?
After Sargon’s death, the Akkadian empire faced many rebellions and invasions. Eventually, warrior from another region took over.
This shows the importance of individual leaders in ancient civilizations and why some ancient empires did not survive for very long after the death of their leader.
What was the empire that formed after the fall of the Akkadian empire?
The Babylonian empire
How did the Babylonian Empire form?
After the fall of the Akkadian empire and continued fighting among Sumerian city-states.
At the same time, a strong king called Hammurabi took over in a small Sumerian city called Babylon. He was a strong military leader and skilled ruler. He built an army and conquered other cities to unite southern Mesopotamia.
He created a government with his own governors, tax collectors and judges to rule over distant cities in the empire.
What was the importance of Hammurabi’s Code?
It governed life in Babylonia through 282 laws on everything from crimes, punishments, contracts, taxes and marriage. Hammurabi made sure the laws were made public so that everyone knew and live by these laws.
Most importantly, it established the important concept of the rule of law to maintain social order and unity in the Babylonian Empire.
What was life like for the average person in the Babylonian Empire?
Most people were farmers, artisans or slaves, and were very poor. Most people’s lives still revolved around agriculture, because food had to be grown and distributed.
But there were important advances in technology, weaponry, arts and crafts and medicines, and Babylonian merchants engaged in trade with other lands.
How did the Babylonian Empire end?
It fell apart after Hammurabi’s death, and after that, the great Sumer civilization also started to fade away.
