European History Midterm Exam
1. Compare and Contrast Two Ancient Civilizations
I was interested and delighted to learn about all the different civilizations we as a class went over in the first weeks of class, but there were two groups that I was really amazed with. These two ancient civilizations were none other than the Egyptians and Greeks. Both civilizations lasted for a long period of time, and lay important stepping stones to many of the worlds’ future civilizations.
Military
Ancient Egypt’s military consisted both of ground and naval troops. They were surrounded from all areas with tribes and groups that wanted to take advantage of the Nile’s important resources. TheWest Delta of the Nile was threatened by desert raiders, and the East Delta of the Nile was threatened by invaders from Asia. There were also invaders such as the Persians, Greeks, and Romans throughout the history of the ancient Egyptians. The Egyptians military weapons consisted of many different tools that were either gathered through trade, obtained in wars, or invented. By the period of The New Kingdom these weapons included bows and arrows, axe, spears, swords, daggers, maces, chariots, and many others. During the rule of the Pharaoh Ramses II aka Ramses the Great (1279 BC – 1213BC), almost 1 in 10 Egyptian men were in the military. However, because of promises such as riches and land given to Egyptian soldiers many decided to volunteer. The size of the army was around 20,00 men, which was divided into 4 groups. Each Division was named after one of the 4 gods which included Seth, Amun, Ptah and Re. The commander of the army was usually the Pharaoh or his son.
The Greeks were famous for their outstanding armies, not because of their numbers but because of ...
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...went on, the Persians discreetly snuck into Babylon through the euphrates using the Belshazzar festival to their advantage. The Persians made easy work on the Babylonian troops in the outlying areas. Most Babylonian troops were set in the center of the city, and didn’t even know that the Persians were invading the city. In October 539 BC, Persia easily takes over the city of Babylon, with little to no resistance by the Babylonian guards.
Babylon ended up on the wrong side of the tracks. They lost the city to the Persians, and know were ruled by an outsider. On the other hand, captives of Babylon were freed by Cyrus, including the
Jews. This event is also why Cyrus is known as the savior of the Jews to many people. Babylon becomes a greater city under Persian rule, and also turned into the new administrative capital of the new ancient world power, the Persian Empire.
Though Darius died in the year after the revolt, Xerxes repressed the Egypt revolt in 486BC “year after Darius’ death, he sent an army against the Egyptian rebels and decisively crushed them” (Herodotus). Although this caused Xerxes to become unpopular in Egypt, the Egyptians were submissive and displayed loyalty to Xerxes “twenty-five years of tranquillity followed… Egyptians were submissive subjects of the Persian crown, and even showed remarkable courage and skill in the Persian military expeditions” (George Rawlinson). However, Xerxes had to punish Babylon revolted twice. This indicated to historians that the Xerxes wasn’t successful in punishing the Babylonians the first time they revolted. Babylon has been severely punished “Babylon had revolted and that the satrap Zopyrus had been killed… Babylon was terribly punished. The splendid city fortifications… were demolished... Esagila with its towering ziggurat was torn down, as were the other temples… statue of Bel Marduk… of solid gold, was carried off and melted down… priest of Esagila who protested the sacrilege was killed… estates of the merchant princes and citizens were confiscated and granted to Persians… Syria was detached from Babylon and made a fully independent satrapy. Babylonia itself lost its identity through incorporation with Assyria and was henceforth ferociously taxed"
It was interesting to read and learned about how every civilization had similarities. i.e., Christianity, economic expansions and influential cultures, even till this day we can see the influence of the past operating in the 21st century, modify through time.
The entry of the Ottoman Turks had carry the war into the middle east. The British had joined the Arabs and had gathered together to revolt against the Turkish rulers. After this unification between the two, they were able to take over and split the Ottoman area. They at first occupied the southern city of Iraqi named Basara in 1914 and then took over Baghdad in 1917. They then invaded Palestine and Syria in 1918. After The Ottoman Empire had been defeated, the thought of a rise for Arab independence was brought to attention. Though the allies had instead rejected that decision and instead replaced the Ottoman rule with British and French control. This had officially broken up The Ottoman
Nagle, D. Brendan. “The Second Persian Invasion” The Ancient World; A social and Cultural History. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2002.
According to Ancient History Encyclopedia, Hammurabi was the sixth king of Babylon of the First Babylonian Dynasty from 1792 B.C.E. to 1750 B.C.E. Located in present day Iraq, Hammurabi is recognized with uniting this area, Mesopotamia (Hammurabi). While in power he pursued many military battles. The main purpose of these battles was to gain control of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. “This was essential as their agricultural productivity depended on it (Hammurabi)”.
As you can see, Greeks and Romans were very brilliant civilizations. Their superior strategy, intelligent leaders, and crafty weapons lead them into the dawn of a new age. And basically lead us to our modern civilization.
In the several hundred years we’re concerned with from about 200AD – 700AD, Mesopotamia experienced control by three main empires: the Romans, Persians, and finally Muslims. The Romans seized control of the area in 198AD from the Persians, more specifically the Parthian Dynasty. In 226AD, the Parthian Persian dynasty was replaced by the Sassanid. This new Persian dynasty would fight cont...
When Jerusalem fell to the conquering Babylonians in 587 BC, most of what was important to the Hebrew people was gone. They lost their holy city, the Temple was destroyed, and the Davidic monarchy ended (Beasley 221). Following the destruction of Jerusalem, the Babylonian king, Nebuchadrezzar, deported most of the population to other cities, including Babylon. These exiles remained there for about fifty years until the Persian forces, under king Cyrus, took the city of Babylon in 539 BC. The Persian policies concerning captured and exiled peoples were quite different than those of the Babylonians, and because of this King Cyrus allowed the exiles to return to Jerusalem in 538 BC to rebuild the city and the Temple.
...nisms and used religious tolerance to obtain more people who would be “on their side”. The Persians were powerful because of the impact that they left on the world for other nations to grasp and understand in the future. They were the basis for many inventions that we use today, or have expanded upon. The differences between the Mongol and Persian Empire mostly dealt with religion and their motivation behind whether or not they were tolerant of other religions or not. The
...Achaemenid Empire, and burned them down. The monuments which had been built to testify the absolute power of the Achaemeninan empire were razed to the ground in just one night by Alexander's army.
The Persian Wars (499-479 BC) put the Greeks in the difficult position of having to defend their country against a vast empire with an army that greatly outnumbered
In 646 BC the Persian armies, led by Cyrus, conquered the Greek city-state of Ionia, in Asia Minor. Despite the mildness of Persian rule, the Ionians did not like their conquerors. The Persians seemed barbaric to the cultured Ionians. The main objection to Persian rule, however, was that Ionians had been accustomed to self-government. The Persian king Darius I, who ruled over the conquered land of Ionia, was an all-powerful ruler. The Ionians never accepted the monarchy, and in 499 BC, they revolted against the Persians. Athens and another mainland polis, Eritrea, sent warships to help the Ionians, but Darius 1 of Persia soon defeated the Ionians. Darius then decided to punish the mainland Greeks for aiding the rebels revolt. Darius was so obsessed with punishing the Greeks that he employed a slave, whose sole responsibility was to say to him three times a day, at every meal, “Remember the Athenians”.
Belshazzar is cited in the first verse of chapter seven (7) as the King of Babylon, however Belshazzar is noted as the last King of Babylon and the son of Nebuchadnezzar in chapter five. The last king of the Babylonian Empire was Nabonidus. It is believed that Nabonidus for inexplicable reasons moved to the town of Teima and abrogated the empire to his son Belshazzar. Therefore, Seow points out that the “literary setting of Daniel 7 is the beginning of the end of the Babylonian Empire” (Seow, p. 101). The literary chronology of the period set is correct, but it is generally agreed among scholars (Collins, Hartman, Di Lella) there is no historical value in the dating.
Ancient Mesopotamia arose in an unknown definite time period, but they were mainly centered in the fertile crescent area. The area was mainly fought over, but was eventually brought together by the northern region Akkad and the southern region Sumeria. Sargon the conqueror, from Akkad, was able to make this happen. Rebellions occur over time and eventually lead to the reign of Hammurabi in the 1700s who was believed
The contributions of the civilizations of Mesopotamia in the Fertile Crescent, classical China, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire laid the foundations for living in the modern world. Breakthroughs in a multitude of fields, including art, architecture, math, science, philosophy, law, government and others are crucial to the way people live all over the world. Although these ancient civilizations may seem primitive today, they shaped the progress of the world for many centuries.