Transcript World History

Bellwork
• In your notes, take a guess at what the
oldest human civilization is and write down
how old it is.
World History
Section 3, Unit 1
Mesopotamia
Objectives
• Identify important changes in Mesopotamian
history and explain the importance of
Mesopotamia on later civilizations.
• Define Hammurabi’s Code and explain it’s
importance.
• Describe the power structure in Mesopotamia
between the priests and generals.
• Define the three characteristics that united all
Mesopotamians.
Classical Era
• Before we begin discussing Mesopotamia, it’s
important cover that we are now in what is
called the Classical Era of human history. This
time period includes:
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Mesopotamia
Ancient Egypt
Ancient India
Ancient China
Greece
Rome and the Roman Empire
Fertile Crescent
• Mesopotamia is found in what is called the
“Fertile Crescent”.
• This area is known to have some of the best
farming land in the Middle East.
• The crescent was
between the two
rivers that
provided the
majority of the
water in the area:
the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers.
• These rivers often
had an annual
flood which would
leave behind fresh
soil and sediment
that provided the
people there with
fertile farm land.
Fertile Crescent
Early struggles
• Early people in the fertile crescent found that
while the land was usually good for farming,
there were three drawbacks to living in the
area:
– The floods were unpredictable, making it so that
there could be a long period of drought.
– The area in which they lived was small and lacked
any natural defenses.
– The natural resources were limited, so creating new
tools or supplies was difficult.
Question: What could they have done to
solve each of these problems?
Solutions
• The early peoples created
irrigation ditches that
would allow them to grow
crops without requiring the
annual flood.
• They created city walls out
of mud bricks to provide
protection for their peoples.
• They traded with people
around them to get the
supplies they needed.
These people traded their
grains and cloth for stone,
wood, and metal that was
lacking in the fertile
crescent.
Characteristics of Mesopotamia
• Mesopotamia was not a
unified civilization. The
people referred to as
“Mesopotamians” are
simply people who lived
in separate regions
(which contained
several city-states or
independent countries)
who were unified under
similar characteristics.
– We will cover the regions
in a later slide.
Characteristics (cont).
• Mesopotamians shared several characteristics:
– Writing system
– Gods (religion)
– Attitudes toward women– equal rights
• Women enjoyed nearly equal rights and could own land,
file for divorce, own a business, and make contracts.
• Outside of these characteristics, the regions
that make up Mesopotamia would have been
very dissimilar.
Cradle of Civilization
• Despite the differences among various regions,
Mesopotamia is considered the Cradle of
Civilization because, has a whole, the
Mesopotamians are given credit for:
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The concept of a city.
invention of writing and wheel.
Domestication of animals
Creation of many sophisticated weapons
Creation of irrigation
The Mesopotamians are given credit for many aspects
of life that would appear in later civilizations.
Notable Regions in
Mesopotamia
•Sumer
•Uruk
•Ur
•Umma
•Larsa
•Akkad
•Babylon
•Sippar
•Ebla
•Assyria
•Arbel
•Arraphka
•Gasur/Nuzi
Sumer
• Sumerians stand out in modern history has
one of the first groups of people to from a
civilization.
• Many peoples who would later live in the
area would build upon what Sumerians left
behind.
Sumerian Cities
• Sumerians were
known to have large
religious and cultural
centers in the middle
of their city-states.
Sumerian Cities
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These temples
where referred to
as “ziggurats”
and were similar
to city halls.
Priests managed
the ziggurats and
where regarded
as the leadership
of the city in
which they lived.
Ziggurat
Sumerian Religion
• Sumerians were
polytheistic (belief in
multiple Gods), in
which each god has
power over a different
force in nature.
• All together, the
Sumerians believed in
around 3000 different
Gods.
Sumerian Gods
• The Sumerians believed that their Gods
were not much different from normal
people and lived relatively normal lives.
• However, they also feared their gods and
believed that they were quick to anger.
• The Ziggurats were designed to host rich
sacrifices for their gods, which included
food, wine, and animals.
Patron Deity
• Because of the scale of the ziggurats, the
importance of the Gods was made very
apparent to the Sumerians.
• Many city-states in Sumer had a patron
deity, or a single deity in which they would
primarily worship over other deities.
Religious Power
• Sumerians strong beliefs lead to them believe
that appeasing their Gods would lead to a
better crop seasons.
• If the gods were happy, they would have crops.
If the gods were displeased, they believed the
gods would not provide them the food they
needed.
• This belief gave Sumerian Priests an immense
amount of power and they were able to
demand that farmers give the priests crops inkind (meaning that they pay their taxes with
crops)
Shift in Power
• When war occurred, the
Sumerian Priests would
give power to a single
commander who would
lead the standing
armies. During war,
these commanders had
almost as much power
as the Priests.
• However, when wars
ended, the Sumerian
Priests would reassume
power.
Sumerian
Priest
Wars
• Question: What would happen to the power
of commanders if war became more
frequent with outside city-states?
Effect of Wars
• As war between the Sumerian city-states
became more frequent, some commanders
began taking permanent control of not only
the standing armies in various city-states, but
also started to become monarchs.
• These monarchs started to create vast
dynasties- a system in which rulers would keep
power in their family by transferring power to
their heirs.
• By 3000 B.C., many Sumerian city-states
became dynastic.
The Rise of Akkad
• Between 3000 and 2000 B.C., the city-states of
Sumer where in almost constant war in one
another. Because of this, they were almost
incapable of warding off attacks from outside
forces.
• The Sumerian city-states were attacked
constantly by outside forces, and while they
were unable to recover economically, they
never lost their culture.
• Many later rulers would adapt these Sumerian
ideals into their own empires.
Sargon of Akkad
• By about 2350 B.C., a
conqueror named Sargon
of Akkad defeated the
city-states of Sumer.
• The Akkadians were a
Semitic people- people
who spoke a language
related to Arabic and
Hebrew.
• Sargons’ conquering of
Sumer helped spread the
Sumerian culture beyond
the Fertile Crescent.
Sargon of Akkad (cont.)
• Sargon had expanded his empire
throughout both Northern and Southern
Mesopotamia, creating the worlds first
empire- a civilization of once independent
cultures who are under the control of one
leader.
• His empire lasted only 200 years, in part
due to internal fighting, invasions, and
severe famine.
The Rise of the Babylonian Empire
• After Sargon’s empire
the Amorites (another
group of Semtic
warriors)
overwhelmed the
Sumerians and
established control.
• Within a short time,
they established a new
capital, Babylon.
Babylon
• Babylon, formed in
1894 B.C., was found
near the Euphrates
River.
• It was described as a
strong cultural
center and has had
it’s place in history ,
including being the
home of the biblical
Tower of Babel and
home to the Hanging
Gardens of Babylon.
Babylon with its
Ziggurat
Hanging
Gardens of
Babylon
Hammurabi
• Hammurabi was the
sixth Babylonian
Emperor and ruled
during 1792 B.C. to
1750 B.C.
• Under his reign, the
Babylonian empire
achieved the peak of
its power.
Expansion of the Empire
• During his reign,
Hammurabi had
increased the size and
power of his empire.
• Despite these
advances,
Hammurabi’s greatest
achievement was his
code of laws.
Hammurabi’s Code
• Prior to Hammurabi,
independent Sumerian
cities had formed their
own laws.
• Hammurabi believed
that a single set of laws
was required to create a
unified empire– called
Hammurabi’s code.
• He collected existing
laws, judges, and rules
to create this code.
Hammurabi’s Code (cont.)
• Hammurabi had his
code set in stone. It
was the first law to
be written.
• Subsequently, his
law was placed all
over his empire.
Hammurabi’s Code (cont.)
• It consisted of 282 laws that dealt with
various issues from community, family
relations, business conduct, and more.
• The code applied to everyone his empire,
but the punishments were different
depending on gender and social class. In
many cases, punishments were often based
in the principle of “an eye for an eye”.
Effects of his code
• Despite the severity of the code, it
reinforced that the government was
responsible for what occurred in society. For
example, if a person was robbed and the
thief not caught, the government would
compensate the victim.
• Hammurabi’s code had a distinct legacy on
laws, including keeping a record of laws,
setting punishments, and pushing forth the
belief that the government was to safeguard
its’ people.
Mesopotamia after Hammurabi
• Two centuries after Hammurabi, the
Babylonian Empire fell to nomadic peoples.
• The beliefs and systems designed by
Sumerians and Babylonians would be
adopted by the Assyrians, Phoenicians, and
Hebrews that would come after them.
Closure Activity
• Take a sheet of paper from the bin and rip it
in half and share a half paper with a friend
(so each student only needs a half sheet of
paper).
• On your paper, write two things you learned
from this lesson you didn’t know before.
You have two minutes.
Closure Activity
• Now crumple up that
paper and throw it to
another student!
• I am going to call on
students to read aloud
whatever paper they
received. I may ask
questions as we go
forward.
Video
• Let’s watch a video about Mesopotamia
from Crash Course History.
Review the Objectives
• Identify important changes in Mesopotamian
history and explain the importance of
Mesopotamia on later civilizations.
• Define Hammurabi’s Code and explain it’s
importance.
• Describe the power structure in Mesopotamia
between the priests and generals.
• Define the three characteristics that united all
Mesopotamians.
Questions?
• If you have any questions, please ask.
Next lesson
• During the development of Mesopotamia,
another empire was growing to the west.
• The next lesson will cover the Egyptian
Empire.
Review
1. What was the legacy of Hammurabi’s Code?
2. How was his code different from previous codes of
law?
3. What was the effect of Sumerian religion on the
culture of Sumer (consider their leadership,
buildings, and what they did for the gods)?
4. What were the characteristics of the
Mesopotamians that unified them?
5. Where is the Fertile Crescent (what rivers is it
located between)?
6. Why is Mesopotamia considered the “Cradle of
Civilization”?