𝗠𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗮: 𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 – Marlen Ashureta

The events of the 11th century B.C. are still pretty obscure because the archaeological finds are very incomplete. But as soon as evidence emerges again, it becomes clear that the political map of the Middle East has changed significantly. The former great powers of Egypt, Babylonia, and 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝘆𝗿𝗶𝗮 have been significantly weakened, and the Hittite Empire has completely disappeared from the political stage. The nomadic Arameans settled in Syria and along the Euphrates.

10th. century BC

In the 10th century B.C. Their kingdoms even extended into Assyrian territory. The Kingdom of Damascus, centered on the oasis of the same name, became the largest of these empires. The Assyrians were the first people to unite most of the Middle East into one great kingdom. The Hittites and Egyptians had already expanded their territories widely, but the peoples they subjugated were then ruled by Hittite or Egyptian vassals. In contrast, the Assyrians designed a system of provincial government.

The Assyrian Empire differed from the earlier empires not only in its scope but also in its highly organized administration. The core area of Assyria was in northern 𝗠𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗮 on the Tigris. The 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝘆𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘀 had lived here since around 3000 BC. Sanctuaries were built in Assyria, the capital, and Nineveh, the city of Ishtar. In the first millennium of its history, Assyria, which lay on the most important trade routes to Anatolia, was dominated by Sumer.

When the Hittite Empire collapsed and Egypt began to decline, Assyria filled the resulting political vacuum. It established itself as a hegemonic power and regained territory once lost to the 𝗔𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘀.

9th century BC

In the 9th century B.C., 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝘆𝗿𝗶𝗮 grew its borders as far as the Euphrates and made the kingdoms in northern Syria vassal states. Towards the end of the reign of King Shalmaneser III. (858–824 BC), a revolution in Assyria turned the tide. It enabled the Kingdom of Urartu, located in the northeast, to expand its influence and take control of the trade routes in the east. It also subjugated the Syrian vassal states, on which Assyria depended because it sourced its soldiers, metals, and horses from there.

8th. century BC

The first half of the 8th century B.C. was characterized by a weak central government in Assyria. The provincial governors ruled effectively as independent rulers. This only changed when, in 745 B.C., Tiglath Pilesar III. ascended the throne. This king settled the long-simmering border dispute with Babylonia by consolidating Assyria’s position and moving the borders further into Syria. He then conquered Babylon and was born in 729 B.C. as King of Babylonia. He also undertook a campaign against the Kingdom of Urartu but was unable to break the power of his great rival; only Sargon II (721–705 BC) succeeded.

In the west, Tiglatpilesar regained the Syrian states and placed them directly under Assyrian rule. A little later, he took Damascus as well as some of Israel’s outlying areas.

Under Sennacherib (704-681 BC), the Assyrians invaded Palestine, defeated the coastal cities, threw back the Egyptians, overran Judah, and besieged Jerusalem, which, although not taken, could at least be made a tributary. When trouble once again arose with Babylonia, Sennacherib marched on Babylon, destroyed it, and made Nineveh its capital.

7th . century BC

In 675 BC, Assarhaddon (680–669 BC) attacked Egypt, captured Memphis, and proclaimed himself king. But no sooner had he left the country than the regular Pharaoh regained power. Finally, the expansion of the Assyrian Empire reached its peak when the army of Ashurbanipal (668–627 BC) took the Egyptian city of Thebes.

The Assyrians were considered religious people who loved and were addicted to expanding their ideology, as can be found in some versions of the Bible and as evidenced by countless reliefs of Cosmos diety scenes. This image accompanied them as God’s people. Because their neighboring territories were not so improved, the Assyrians tried to expand their territory and build better infrastructure for all regions.

The collection of taxes in the provinces and tributes in the vassal states occasionally led to uprisings that were mercilessly suppressed. But the enormous expansion eventually overstretched Assyria’s forces, and in the end, the country was so weakened by external pressure and internal tensions that it was unable to meet the alliance that the Babylonian resistance movement under Nabulpolassar (625–605 BC) had concluded with the Medes. In 612 B.C., Nineveh was defeated by the combined forces of the Babylonians and Medes.

After the final defeat of Assyria in 609 B.C., Babylon became the largest city in Mesopotamia again. The first king of the new dynasty was Nabulpolassar himself. He was a Chaldean sheikh who had seized the Babylonian throne. Under this dynasty, Babylon became the center of an empire that stretched to the borders of Egypt. The successor of Nabulpolassar, Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 BC), managed within a few years to defeat Assyria and seize the lands from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean.

6th century BC

In 597 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar II conquered Jerusalem and forced King Jehoiakim and most of the Jewish aristocracy into exile.

This policy of deportation was common in the ancient Near East, as it allowed the leaders of the conquered peoples to be kept in mind. The new provinces were ruled by Babylonian governors, although some of them were left in the care of local rulers, on whose loyalty Babylon could rely. The administrative costs in the provinces were covered by local taxes, and the temples had to hand over a tenth of their income from the temple property to the king.

It is quite possible that the resistance of the Temple priests to this tax was later the cause of their support of King Cyrus II (539–530 BC) of Persia, who conquered Babylon in 539 BC to enter Babylon, and of course the fighting was always involved. According to the Bible, Cyrus released the Jews, who had been taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar, back to their homeland and allowed them to rebuild their temples. Some refused to go back to their homeland and decided to stay in Babylon or move to Persia.

At this time, the Persian empire extended almost as far as the Indus and, in the west, as far as Palestine. Cambyses II (529–522 BC) was added in 525 BC. Egypt was added to the empire.

5th century BC

The great organizer and completer of the empire was Darius I (521-486 BC). He divided the empire into 20 satrapies (provinces) and, despite being a pious follower of Zoroaster, granted his people complete religious freedom. He expanded communications and transport routes in an exemplary manner.

Darius had also a vengeful and sadistic mentality and was completely in certain points different from the Assyrians; the advanced and civilized kings of Assyria were quite noble kings.

The Greeks of the classical period had only contempt for the Persians. The Persian empire, so tightly organized and uniformly run, appeared to the politically fragmented individualists to be a barbarian state.

After the Persians had forgotten the natural boundaries of the Old World with the conquest of Thrace, which included large parts of today’s Bulgaria and the west of the Balkan Peninsula and also spread to southeastern Europe, the end of the Greek city-states seemed to have come. But against all logic, the divided and much weaker Greeks were able to resist the Persian attacks. After severe defeats, the Persians lost interest in this conquest and closed it in 440 BC.

4. Century BC

330 BC: The Macedonian Alexander then managed to incorporate the huge Persian Empire into a new world empire.

The power of the Old World was thus used up. From now on, world history was determined by other peoples, and the focus of political events shifted to other areas: the coasts of the Mediterranean and Europe.

It also needs to be noticed that all these empires have still kept their countries, and they have brutally taken all of Assyria, and what they left up until today has ruined and demolished the high culture systematically up until today’s Iraq. Even Iraqis have not given the Assyrian indigenous people their region, which the Assyrian people have for centuries required by law. The fate of Assyrian Christians until today in the 21st century has not been cleared internationally.

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