Topic 2- Empires in Mesopotamia

Question 1

When did Sargon, the ruler of neighboring Akkad, invade and conquer the city-states of Sumer?

Answer 1

About 2300 B.C.

Question 2

What’s an empire?

Answer 2

A group or regions or countries that are controlled by one ruler or government.

Question 3

Who built the first empire known to history?

Answer 3

Sargon.

Question 4

What do scholars link the decline of the Akkadian empire to?

Answer 4

Changes in rainfall. Severe drought led people from the dry north to migrate into the irrigated lands of southern Mesopotamia.

Question 5

What is Hammurabi’s Code?

Answer 5

282 laws carves on a stone pillar for all to see containing 41 criminal and 241 civil laws.

Question 6

Who was Hammurabi?

Answer 6

King of Babylon around 1790 B.C.

Question 7

Many laws in the civil code, Hammurabi’s code, were designed to protect which population?

Answer 7

The powerless: women and slaves.

Question 8

What was the expectation of husband and wife?

Answer 8

Wives: Wives were expected to remain in her husband’s home and be dependent on him.
Husbands Husbands had the legal duty to support their wives.

Question 9

What did Babylonians believe was essential for a stable empire?

Answer 9

An orderly household, headed by a strong male authority.

Question 10

Some laws allowed women to own property and pass it on to her children. (True or False)

Answer 10

True.

Question 11

Aside from Hammurabi’s Code, what else was Hammurabi known for?

Answer 11

He improved irrigation systems, organized a well-trained army and ordered the repair of many temples.

Question 12

Where were the Hittites from?

Answer 12

They were pushed out of Asia Minor into Mesopotamia.

Question 13

How did the Hittites contribute to technology?

Answer 13

They learned how to extract iron from ore. Tools and weapons made with iron were harder and had sharper edges.

Question 14

What contributed to the start of the Iron Age?

Answer 14

The Hittites’ empire collapsed around 1200 B.C. and the ironsmiths migrated to other places to serve new customers. Migration, trade and conquest.

Question 15

Who were the Assyrians?

Answer 15

Hardy nomads who had settled on the upper Tigris as early as 2000 B.C. They built a city-state after their chief god, Assur, and acquired iron tech.

Question 16

Assyrians were known as one of the most warlike people in history. (True or False)

Answer 16

True.

Question 17

Who was Nebuchadnezzar?

Answer 17

King who revived the power of Babylon. He oversaw the rebuilding of the canals, temples, walls and palaces of Babylon. He is said to have built the famous Hanging Gardens (known as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world).

Question 18

In what year did Babylon fall to the Persian armies of Cyrus the Great?

Answer 18

539 B.C.

Question 19

Which leader set up a bureaucracy in the Persian Empire?

Answer 19

Darius I.

Question 20

What is a bureaucracy?

Answer 20

A system of managing government through various bureaus or departments run by appointed officials.

Question 21

Darius I divided the empire into provinces. Who headed each province?

Answer 21

A governor called a satrap.

Question 22

Each satrapy, or province, had to pay taxes based on its resources and wealth. (True or False)

Answer 22

True.

Question 23

What were special officials called?

Answer 23

“the Eyes and Ears of the King”

Question 24

What was the purpose of royal roads?

Answer 24

To improve communication/connect.

Question 25

What is barter economy?

Answer 25

The exchange of one set of goods or services for another.

Question 26

What is money economy?

Answer 26

People pay for goods and services by exchanging tokens of an agreed value, such as coins.

Question 27

What was the name of the Persian thinker who rejected Persian gods and taught that a single wise god, Ahura Mazda ruled the world?

Answer 27

Zoroaster.

Question 28

Where could you find Zoroastrian teachings?

Answer 28

They were collected in a sacred book, the Zend Avesta.

Question 29

According to Zoroaster, Ahura Mazda would triumph over the forces of evil. On a final judgement day, all individuals would be judged for their actions. Those who has done good would enter paradise. Evildoers would be condemned to eternal suffering. (True or False)

Answer 29

True.

Question 30

What other 3 religions emerged in the Middle East?

Answer 30

Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Question 31

Which religions included the concepts of heaven and hell, and a final judgement day?

Answer 31

Christianity and Islam.

Question 32

Which religions stressed ideas of an individual’s freedom to choose good or evil?

Answer 32

Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Question 33

Who started the first mail system?

Answer 33

The Persian empire.

Question 34

Who were Phoenicians?

Answer 34

Mostly sailors and traders who made glass from coastal sand and purple dye from tiny sea snails.

Question 35

What’s a colony?

Answer 35

A territory settled and ruled by people from another land.

Question 36

What is papyrus?

Answer 36

A plant that Phoenicians brought from Egypt, to make scrolls, or rolls of paper for books.

Question 37

Why have historians called the Phoenicians “carriers of civilization”.

Answer 37

They spread Middle Eastern civilization around the Mediterranean.

Question 38

Why did Phoenician traders adopt an alphabet system?

Answer 38

They needed a quick, flexible form of writing to record business deals.

Question 39

What’s an alphabet?

Answer 39

A system of writing that uses symbols to represent a single basic sound, such as a consonant or vowel.