First Babylonian Empire - Brief Summary

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It is known as the First Babylonian Empire or also as a pale-Babylonian or Amorite empire to the State that was founded by Hammurabi in the central-southern region of Mesopotamia, having the city of Babylon as its epicenter. Next, in this lesson from a TEACHER, we are going to see what the first stage of the two in which the history of the Babylonian empire is divided whose chronology goes back to the year 1792 to. C. until the year 1595 a. C. in which the total disintegration of this first Babylonian empire took place. Keep reading and you will discover a brief summary of the First Babylonian Empire that will show you what life was like in this important empire.

Index

1. First stage: the Paleobabilónico or Amorrite Empire
2. Hammurabi
3. Twilight and end of the First Babylonian Empire

We start this summary of the First Babylonian Empire speaking of the first stage known as Amorite because they were precisely the Amorites, a people of Canaanite origin and semi-nomadic character

Over time and as soon as they arrived in Mesopotamia, they began to settle and mix with the Sumerian population, which included the territories of Kish, Nippur, Lagash, Uruk, Ur and Eridu..., also becoming theirs the cuneiform writing and the language Akkadian. Little by little they began to found their dynasty in several of these cities until they reached the city of Babylon, that, although it was built by the Akkadian dynasty, it was the Amorites who made Babylon a city proper, centralizing their power there. Once the Amorites settled in Mesopotamia, two more powers emerged apart from Babylon, and they were Aleppo and Assyria.

To this day, the causes that pushed them towards the Mesopotamian plain and how they came to found, conquer and settle in the cities are unknown. What we do know is that they were known for their enormous war power and taking into account the deterioration of the Sumerian economy due to the closure of trade routes due to the little protection they had added to the power vacuum after the III dynasty of Ur made possible the settlement in these lands that were being abandoned by said reasons.

In this other lesson from a TEACHER we offer you a summary of the Second Babylonian Empire.

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We continue with this brief summary of the First Babylonian Empire speaking, now, of the Emperor Hammurabi. It is true that since the first settlements occurred and the Amorites began to found cities, they had different kings, being the founder of the first Babylonian empire Summu - AbumHowever, it will not be until the arrival of Hammurabi when the empire's greatest apogee is achieved.

Hammurabi, descendant of the Amorites, was the sixth of the kings of Babylon during the years 1792 a. C. until 1750 a. C. The first years of his reign were somewhat peaceful and he devoted himself mainly to carrying out a series of public works such as enlarge and build the main temples, build canals and improve the defensive wall of the city among many others things.

Already around the year 1800 a. C. the kingdom of Elam, in charge of controlling the most important trade routes of the Zagros mountains invades Mesopotamia, destroying the empire of Ešnunna, which together with the kingdom of Larsa, constituted part of the empire paleobabilonian; They also came to take other cities with the aim of imposing their dominion, however, they did not manage to consolidate because both the kingdom of Larsa and the Babylonian kingdom of Hammurabi signed an alliance getting their defeat.

In the following years he continued with his expansion through the different campaigns, defeating both the Elamites south of Sumer and the Assyrians to the north so that in a short time it could be said that he had all Mesopotamia under his control with all the great city-states of the different regions, forming the so-called First Babylonian Empire.

But without a doubt, apart from warlike activity and conquest, Hammurabi for what happened to history was because during the period of his reign he created what is known as the Hammurabi Code, a code that contains 282 laws of a civil and criminal nature stipulating a punishment for each infraction made to the law, they were also very harsh punishments that could even go as far as the death penalty.

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We end this short summary of the First Babylonian Empire by talking about the end of that empire. Hammurabi died in 1750 BC. C. inheriting his power, his son Samsu-Iluna. This had to face a series of revolts that ended the independence of the southern territories, which meant the loss of the entire coastline of the Persian Gulf of Babylon.

He also had to deal with attacks of the little houses, Hurrians who conquered most of the territory of Assyria and the Hittites that got to settle around the year 1700 a. C. in the easternmost part of Anatolia founding a new kingdom that became known as the Old kingdom.

So much were the attacks of the different peoples that at the death of Samsu-Iluna, the Pale-Babylonian was in full decline, because at that time the empire was limited only to the central part of Mesopotamia. With his successor, Abī-Ešuḫ happened the same because the pressure of these peoples was constant until reaching a point where the empire was dissolved after a strong attack by the Hittite king, Mursili I, who defeated the Hurrians, dominating Assyria, further reducing what little was already left of Hammurabi's empire.

Finally, the little houses that came from the Zagros mountains also took advantage of the weakening that Babylon was suffering to attack it, managing to take the city in 1595 BC. C. which is when the end of this first Babylonian empire occurred.

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