THE ANCIENT ASSYRIANS: CRUEL EMPIRE  BUILDERS                back to early civilizations page

 1. Origins:

 - Assyria grew up around four early cities in the Upper Tigris region - the most important of these was
   ASHUR, their early capital and the city for which the whole area was named.

 - from the beginning, these people found it necessary to keep a strong army because of the danger of attack from
   wild barbarian mountain tribes

 - at first they were farmers but then they turned to making a living by plunder; robbing caravans that passed
   through the Fertile Crescent and attacking their neighbours

 - they used copper and bronze weapons and had horse-drawn chariots

 2. Their Empire:

- from small beginnings, they finally managed to conquer Babylonia and the whole of the Fertile Crescent. Even
   Egypt paid them regular taxes to keep them from plundering their area .

- from the wealth they captured, they built a fabulous new capital city called NINEVEH, which became a hated
  symbol throughout the whole area

3. Their Method of Ruling: Terror Tactics

- any area that resisted their armies or rebelled once conquered was attacked harshly and treated with incredible
  cruelty

- areas that surrendered to them were only taxed, but they lived under the threat that, if they rebelled
  unsuccessfully, their punishment would be horrible

- the purpose behind this extreme cruelty was to frighten people into surrender and peaceful obedience to
  Assyrian rule  

4. Their Culture:

- they added little to culture, although they did invent methods of attacking in the military field

- their language, cuneiform writing, religion, etc., was taken mostly from the Babylonians

- their biggest contribution to culture was that they spread the cultures of the areas they conquered and preserved
  it by promoting cultural interchange within their fairly large empire