Who were the Assyrians? History of the Assyrian Empire

they created the largest empire the world had ever seen the first professional standing army in history and were the first true masters of siege warfare grinding the walls of their enemies into dust and displacing large populations at a whim the fury of Assyria was the terror of their age the city-state of Ashur named for the warlike god of the same name was founded nearly 2,000 years before the height of the Assyrian Empire originally a Sumerian settlement the city then became dominated by the Akkadian Empire of Sargon of Akkad whom the later Assyrians viewed as their direct ancestors during the following neo Sumerian Empire the Syrians sporadically fell under their influence although typically they managed to maintain independence in the beginning of the period known as the Assyrian old Empire a stable line of independent Kings allowed for Assyrian merchants to develop lucrative trade routes particularly with Anatolia where they built permanent colonies that operated for hundreds of years in Ashur as well as with other nearby city states such as Nineveh this newfound prosperity led to large-scale public building projects and relevance on the international stage with the other major powers of the day mari yum HOD Babylon and the other city-states of southern Mesopotamia one by one the ruling dynasties of these states were replaced by amirite warlords who had migrated from near the plains and hill country of south eastern syria originally described by the Sumerians as a vile people who ate raw meat and did not bury their dead the hemorrhoids would one day be regarded as the most culturally sophisticated people of Mesopotamia especially at Babylon sham Shia dot is believed to have been one of these warlords his ancestors were later described as the kings who lived in tents his father and then he had ruled over the city of Mecca lot Amman the Assyrian plain he fled to Babylon when the king of eshnunna conquered much of the Assyrian plain when that King died seven years later sham Shia dad returned and reconquered at Gallatin and Ashur from ish noonah it was during the reign of sham Shia Todd that a coherent political unity was established between the Assyrian city-states and a strong national identity rare for the time began to evolve between them Shamshad conquered territories going from fugitive to great king of an empire not a humble man he granted himself the title king of the universe sham Shia Dodds kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia would not last long after his death being eclipsed by the Empire of Hammurabi a Babylon in the pages of history however his political unification of Assyria as well as their memory of being the heartland of a vast empire would have a profound impact for many centuries to come Babylon's power declined after Hammurabi's death although it remained the greatest power in mesopotamia as to new people groups the hurry ins and the cass i'ts migrated into the region this largely peaceful time period went up in flames as the Hittites a people from central Anatolia destroy the kingdom of Yom HUD and sacked Babylon ending the amorite dynasty of Hammurabi's descendants in a campaign so rapid that no effective resistance was organized this massive power vacuum that the Hittites left behind was filled by the Kassite who rebuilt Babylon and the her ian's who united the squabbling kingdoms together to form the Empire of Mitani which came to dominate upper Mesopotamia and rule over Assyria for 200 years the Mitanni were a warlike people whom the Assyrians learned much from in the art of warfare and the administration of a large Empire they succumbed to internal infighting allowing Assyria to gain independence without a fight Pro Assyrian and Hittite puppet kingdoms formed during the reign of a dad nur re the Mitanni puppet kingdom was annexed while achieving major military victories against foes in nearly every direction solidifying Assyria as one of the great states calling himself a great king equal to the Pharaoh of Egypt the ruler of Babylon and the Hittite Empire the older great powers did not acknowledge the upstart viewing him as a rebellious vassal state that had achieved some temporary success during the reign of his son shaman s ur everyone would acknowledge a syria's ascendancy after defeating a coalition of Mitani rebels Hittites and nomadic desert kings he blinded 14400 captured prisoners of war in one eye resettling them far from their homelands in unfamiliar territory making them less likely to rebel which later became a standard a Syrian practice for dealing with rebellious populations often utilizing this to move skilled labor where was needed most shaman as her son to Colton Anita expanded the Empire to its greatest extent yet capturing Babylon and taken to ancient title king of Sumer and Akkad the first native Mesopotamian to do so in many centuries seeking to ensure Babylon secondary status he demolished the walls of the city and relocated the statue of their chief god Marduk back to Assyria to Colton inert Oh was as gifted a military strategist as he was ruthless after campaigning down the Arabian coast as far as modern-day Bahrain he defeated the Elamites who he believed plan to take Babylon he then engaged in a brutal act of sacrilege after a failed Babylonian revolt massacring much of the city's population while looting and defiling the city's temples while Mesopotamia was in shock to Colton inert has spent his time writing an epic poem about himself as well as building a new capital city also named after himself his sons with the backing of the Assyrian priesthood besieged their father at his new capital city where the unpopular King was murdered babylon regained its independence while assyria focused on consolidating its borders as the old bronze age empires to the west contracted or fell while being subjected to waves of invading Marauders known as the sea people babylon was conquered by the Elamites followed by week local dynasties becoming a third-rate power only Egypt and Assyria would survive the Bronze Age collapse great cities lay abandoned and international diplomacy in trade all but disappeared over the next 100 years while most of the Near East was in a dark age Assyria was the only major power able to capitalize on the collapsing world Babylon regrouped under a native southern Mesopotamian dynasty once again becoming a rival for us area as Egypt evolved into squabbling city-states several ruled by foreign warlords Assyria further developed his warrior culture making military service compulsory for all adult citizen males and began introducing iron weapons into the can file during the late middle assyrian period a serious fine-tuned war machine was not its only accomplishment during this time the Assyrian King Asher Bell kala built the world's first known public Botanical Gardens and zoo where he collected and bred many rare animals including primates and crocodiles many sent by the Egyptians seeking a curry favour with this area for the remainder of the middle period Assyria was typically governed by competent but not exceptional Kings who were content to rule over the heavily militarized Assyrian heartland while raiding their immediate neighbours to keep them weak Egypt reunified and two new peoples migrated into Mesopotamia the Chaldeans took Babylon in the south while pastoral army and speaking tribes dominated the north as they became dominant there a Syrian refugees poured into the heartland as many had been enslaved and had their land seized by the newcomers in response the Syrian King assured and the second embarked on the first campaigns of conquest in over a hundred years taking and resettle in land with Assyrians while deporting Arameans assured ants meant spoils of his conquests on infrastructure building well built roads allowing armies to move much quicker to the front and aqueducts to increase farmable land and population after a brief civil war ad a dinner re ii took her throne following his father's lead ad ad nur re ii continued conquering and building aqueducts and roads and perhaps more importantly he began the practice of building massive fortified administrative centres and supply depots were large amounts of grain and weapons were stored near the frontier in every province ad ad nur re ii see early campaigns set the standard that all self-respecting Assyrian Kings followed maintaining as their sacred duty to wage yearly war his grandson assured Azir pol ii greatly expanded the Empire and built a new magnificent capital city named Cal who also called Nimrod a significant development during his reign would be the unification of the naree people into the kingdom of Urartu which would be a longtime rival of Assyria during the long reign of his son shaman s or the third Babylon was captured as well as much of the urartu heartland around Lake van following chowman aesir's death his son defeated his brother in a four-year long civil war as the Empire contracted he was succeeded by his wife the only female regent in Assyrian history Zamora Matt reigned for five years until her son came of age he conquered the Medes a newly arrived people in the east after his reign nearly forty years of internal stagnation and instability ensued until the reign of tiglath-pileser the third perhaps the greatest king in Assyria's history he not only constantly campaigned effectively he instituted numerous reforms instead of a few large provinces administered by powerful Nobles tiglath-pileser divided the Empire up into over 80 small provinces typically governed by a eunuch with no descendants solely loyal to him he also realized that despite a serious large population they lacked the manpower to match the Monarchs imperial ambitions to solve this he created the first professional national standing army in history allowing anyone within the Empire's borders to join now anyone could become Assyrian as long as they were willing to adopt the culture worship the god asher and waged perpetual war the ranks of the army swelled with the adventurous and ambitious in a new type of army that could wage war year-round for the first time in history siege engines and cavalry became an integral part of the army tiglath-pileser at the third was followed by a century filled with exceptional kings such as sargon ii senator rube HR Hadden and Ashurbanipal who expanded the Empire to its greatest extent making it the largest empire in history at that time a serious deserved reputation for brutality extreme even by the standards of the time made it many enemies especially within its own borders first Egypt successfully rebelled and then an allied army of Babylonians and Medes struck this Aryan Heartland without warning Nineveh the greatest city in the world at that time went up in flames and over the next three years an empire seemingly at the height of its power succumb to the vengeance of its subjects and even though the Empire was thoroughly too droid the Syrians have survived to the present day as a distinct people if you enjoyed this video you will probably also like my other videos on the ancient Near East also leave a like in a comet as that really helps me out this has been Epimetheus thank you for making it to the end of the video

Channel: Epimetheus

Views: 931,200

Keywords: Who were the Assyrians?, Assyrian Empire, Assyria, assyrian empire documentary, assyrian empire crash course, ancient assyria, ancient assyrian documentary, assyrians documentary, assyrian history, assyrian history summarized, assyria ancient history, assyria crash course, assyria explained, why did assyria, Fall of Assyria, assyrians, assyrian people, Who were the Assyrians? History of the Assyrian Empire, animated history, Assyria Babylon, History

Id: aT57dnlo-Tw

Length: 11min 25sec (685 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 12 2018