Why did the Persian Empire Collapse?

[Music] the Persian Empire is the name given to a series of dynasties that ruled Persia across its history the core of these empires was centered in modern-day Iran today we are going to talk about the first Persian Empire and probably the most popular when we hear Persia we think about the greco-persian Wars that happened 2,500 years ago the stories of Marathon and of 300 Spartans are coming from these ancient events the Achaemenid Empire also known as ancient Persia ruled the lands of present-day Iran and expanded beyond across Levant to the Mediterranean Sea conquering great ancient civilizations including Babylonia or Egypt having under their rule even the civilizations of Anatolia reaching the shores of Europe and at its maximum extend ruling over Thrace and northern Greece Persia was the most powerful Empire at the time but why and how did this world power collapse we are happy to say that this episode is brought to you by our sponsor curiosity stream a subscription streaming service that offers thousands of documentaries and nonfiction titles from some of the world's best filmmakers including exclusive originals curiosity stream is a documentary streaming website where you can find thousands of educational movies that will boost your knowledge including dozens of history films because you watch our Channel and because you love history so much we have a special offer for you you will get unlimited access starting at just $2.99 a month or $19.99 a year and for our audience the first 30 days are completely free if you sign up at curiosity stream comm slash Nelly gia and use the promo code in Alisha during the signup process go to curiosity stream comm slash Nelly gia for unlimited access to the world's top documentaries and nonfiction series and for our listeners enter the promo code Malaysia when prompted during the sign up and your membership is completely free for the first 30 days boost your knowledge now the first Persian Empire was founded by Cyrus the Great around 550 BC it became one of the largest empires in history stretching from Europe's Balkan Peninsula in the West to India's Indus Valley in the East this Iron Age dynasty sometimes called the Achaemenid Empire was a global hub of culture religion science art and technology for more than two hundred years before it fell to the invading armies of Alexander the Great the Persian Empire started as a collection of semi-nomadic groups of people tribes who raised sheep goats and cattle on the Iranian Plateau Cyrus the Great was the leader of one such tribe and then he began to defeat nearby kingdoms and tribes some of them were Medea Lydia and Babylon among others joining them under one rule the first Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great soon became the world's first superpower Darius the great the fourth king of the Achaemenid Empire ruled over the Persian Empire when it was at its largest stretching from the Caucasus and West Asia to what was then Macedonia in the Balkans the Black Sea Central Asia and even into Africa including parts of Libya and Egypt he unified the Empire through introducing standard currency and weights and measures Aramaic was the official language even though the Empire gathered many cultures roads and monuments were built after the death of Darius his son Xerxes ruled until 465 BC Xerxes was a cruel but weak King who was also defeated by the Greeks during Xerxes reign the Persian Empire declined it can be seen as the start of the downfall although the Empire continued for more than a century it grew weaker year by year due to internal struggle and instability that followed as it constantly faced conspiracies assassinations and revolts I the people due to heavy taxes or other reason as in other cases the problem started from the interior when an empire had stability order and balance in its internal affairs its external ones were to be feared at its greatest extent it was larger than any previous Empire in the known history of humanity considered to cover an area of 5.5 million square kilometers incorporating various peoples from different origins and faiths it had to be ruled carefully a big giant is a powerful one but may fall under its own weight the Persians developed a clever system notable for its successful model of a centralized bureaucratic administration it was divided into many regions called satrapies each region under the rule of a set rope and every satrap was under the rule of the king of kings this was the title employed primarily by monarchs and rulers of the Middle East in its early decades the administration focused on building infrastructure such as road systems and a postal system and also on the development of civil services and a large professional army the Empire's success inspired similar systems in later empires but the social structure started to break down once there was no longer a strong leader the Emperor was the core and being seen as a weak one could have attracted the attention of others in a fight for power firstly the people below the upper class started organizing riots and other actions of revolt against the rulers Kings became greedy and began stealing from the supply of riches rather than giving it to the people weak rulers led to many provincial revolts one of them was Egypt the civilization of the Nile had strong roots and they always had detested Persian rule Egypt was also a rich province of the Empire and its dissatisfaction will have impact when it people will choose not to fight Alexander the Great when he invaded Persia but to welcome him as a liberator secondly the provincial leaders the satraps also became more independent on their lands having more power there than the supreme ruler of the empire they were seen more as local kings than as the Kings loyal subjects there were also conflicts between them they even carried on their own foreign policies and waged war on each other which only added to Persia's problems disunity of this gigantic structure led to these revolts and disloyal satraps caused serious economic problems for the Empire the government definitely grew weaker in time and struggled with thriving without having a strong ruler that could train armies to battle and gain wealth for Persia the government started to shift to a very dysfunctional dictatorship the Persian army was negatively affected because they no longer had a strong base or leader to keep them in line the costly defense of Persia's lands depleted the Empire's funds leading to heavier taxation among Persia's subjects Persian taxes became heavier and more oppressive which led to economic depression and revolts which in turn led to more repression heavier taxes and so on the Persian kings also started hoarding gold and silver rather than recirculating it as a result of this economic turmoil the Persian kings got weaker still which fed back into the problem of revolts and powerful satraps and so on crop production decreased as well which caused more commoners to leave and less trade to happen they can no longer make scientific advancements Persia decreased in complexity and towards the end of its era the decrease in these advancements caused their weapon production and safety to diminish this was detrimental to the empire and was a major reason why it fell Macedonia became a great Greek power under philip ii then he was assassinated by the captain of his bodyguard Philips son and previously designated heir Alexander was proclaimed king by the Macedonia noblemen and army due to past Persian incursions on Greek lands the Macedonians wanted revenge in 334 BC Alexander crossed the Hellespont into Asia but the Persians decided to ignore the movement not considering the event as a real danger the Persian King Darius the third treated the situation with ignorance Alexander defeated the Persian armies at Granicus 334 BC followed by Issus 333 BC then he marched him Egypt where he was welcomed as a liberator and considered a God by many men at this point darius offered to alexander half of its empire but the young king rejected believing that asia was a gift to him received from the gods after the major victory at Gaugamela 331 BC he marched on Susa and Persepolis which surrendered in early 330 BC from Persepolis Alexander headed north to pass ergh a day where he visited the tomb of Cyrus Darius the third was taken prisoner by Bessus Bessus had his man murdered aureus the third and then declared himself Darius's successor as artaxerxes v but then he was found and put on trial in a Persian Court and executed Alexander the Great defeated King Darius the third and the Persian army in 330 BC Darius was subsequently assassinated by one of his own followers although Alexander retained the Persian system of government until his own death in 323 BC Darius's defeat marked the end of the Achaemenid dynasty and the Persian Empire Alexander generally kept the original Achaemenid administrative structure leaving some scholars to dub him as the last of the Achaemenid upon Alexander's death in 323 BC his empire was divided among his generals [Music] if you want to see more videos be sure to subscribe to our channel and press the bell button in order to be notified when a new video is uploaded we would like to give special thanks to our generous supporters on patreon who make it possible to create these videos thanks for watching and see you next time [Music]

Channel: Knowledgia

Views: 879,612

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Id: FhMLA3BCCIk

Length: 11min 9sec (669 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 15 2020