Right from the beginning, the obvious question, Why is Lugalzagessi not considered as ruling the first empire? He consolidated most or all of lower Mesopotamia. Did he do it peacefully, administratively instead of by military conquest? If so, does that not count; is military not only the usual way but the required way to be considered an empire? Was the ruled area too small? But Dise has already said empires vary in size and can be very small or very large. I guess we'll find out.
Also, Dise assumes that small neighboring areas being ruled by separate kings automatically leads to warfare. Is that really true in human life? How sad. I think of neighborhoods with gangs and gang leaders but not all places are like that. Do humans really have to think of themselves as part of one larger unit to avoid most of the strife? *Okay, here's what he says about that -- Because
dry land and resources were scarce, warfare was the norm among the closely
packed city-states.
Many people lived in an area full of marshy channels with only isolated bits of dry ground, making life rather difficult.
Link to a useful map: Sumer and Akkad map
Link to Quizlet practice: Sargon and the Dawn of Empire and the password is empdawnlec3
No comments:
Post a Comment