"I filled the valley with the bodies of the enemy and reached the peak; I cut off their heads, I decorated the walls with their heads, I burned their houses, I built a wall in front of the city gate, wrapped it with a layer of skin peeled off by the rebel leader, I built some people alive in the wall, and some people were inserted with sharp stakes along the wall and beheaded. " This is a record of himself in the inscription of Sirpa II of Assyria, describing the barbarity and cruelty to the conquered areas during the Assyrian Empire.
Before 1000 BC, there were no strong enemies around Assyria: the Egyptian empire was no longer strong, and Egypt in the post-dynasty era was often threatened by foreign enemies, and it was even more unable to conquer the outside world; The "marine nation" destroyed the Hittite kingdom; Babylonia in the south is weaker; The Medes and Persians have not yet formed a climate in the East; Urartu, a little stronger in the north, could not stop the expansion of Assyria.
Assyria's use of iron can open up more land, make the social economy develop rapidly, and have a solid material foundation, which is conducive to external expansion. Iron also provided its troops with sharper weapons and enhanced their combat effectiveness. Assyria began at the end of 10 BC, and after more than two centuries of continuous conquest, it ruled the southern part of the two river basins and Egypt, becoming the first empire in the Iron Age.
Assyria made serious preparations before conquering every region. Assyria sent spies to spy on information long before conquering a region. During the reign of Sirpa II, the Assyrian Empire began to conquer foreign countries, and he conquered northern Syria. After him, Shahr Manas III fought three wars with the southern alliance of Syria supported by Arabs and Egyptians, established the leading position for the whole of Syria, and forced Babylonia to pay tribute to it.
In 745 BC, Tigray Parashar III came to power and carried out military reform, dividing the army into several specialized arms, which greatly strengthened Assyria's military strength. Tigray Parashar III defeated Uratu, made the whole Syrian region submit to himself, fostered a puppet king in Babylon, and then merged Babylon and Assyria into one and became the king of Babylon himself. The real founder of Assyrian Empire was Tigray Parashar III. He defeated Israel and Uratu twice and suppressed the uprisings in Syria and Phoenicia supported by Egypt.
Sinna Hrib, the successor of Tigray Parashar III, quelled the Phoenician, Jewish and Babylonian uprisings and destroyed the ancient capital of Babylon. In the 7th century BC, during the reign of Assal Hadong, Assyria conquered Egypt, and Memphis was easily captured by Assal Hadong. It is called the king of upper and lower Egypt and the king of Ethiopia, and makes Egyptians pay 65,438+080 kilograms of gold and 9 tons of silver every year. Soon, Egypt regained its independence. Asare Hadong also rebuilt the city of Babylon in order to win over the Babylonians.
As mentioned earlier, wherever the Assyrian army went, towns were destroyed into ruins, property was looted, residents were killed or taken away, large areas of land were deserted, and many places were bare, with a sharp drop in population and a decline in output. This barbaric policy aroused extremely fierce resistance from the people in the occupied areas. Temple priests, slave owners and industrial and commercial slave owners were also dissatisfied because they could not be exploited.
Therefore, Tigray Parashar III carried out reforms in the late 8th century BC. Instead of burning and looting all the conquered areas, he moved the residents from one place to another. Moreover, residents from different regions and speaking different languages live together, which makes their communication inconvenient. However, he was allowed to take part of his property and that of his wife and children. At the same time, the land is distributed to those who have been moved to different places to operate independently, but the land is not owned by them, and these people have no personal freedom. Most of the products were given to Assyrian slave owners. The reform of Tigray Parashar III eased the contradiction between different groups to some extent, enhanced Assyria's military strength and conquered more places.
The Assyrians brutally suppressed all the defeated countries. Not only the people of conquered countries or regions have to bear very heavy taxes, but also the kings and nobles have been humiliated, and the whole East is groaning under the brutal rule of Assyria. Slaves and lower-class civilians in the conquered countries and nobles in the enslaved countries all look forward to the demise of the Assyrian Empire.
The Assyrian Empire has a vast territory and strong military power, which was established by bloody plunder and cruel repression. Subanj was the last famous king of Assyria. A good education made him a great politician and diplomat. He built the earliest library in the world in the palace. But this is only his bright side, and his other side is the cruelty of his ancestors. In order to consolidate his rule, Subanj ordered that all residents, old people, women and children who dared to resist Assyrian rule should be eliminated.
Assyria's brutality aroused an increasingly fierce wave of resistance. After the death of Subanj Bart, the huge Assyrian empire soon fell apart. Egypt declared independence first, followed by Syria and Phoenicia. In order to gain independence, Babylon formed an alliance with the Medes against Assyria in 626 BC. Mites captured Assyria in 6 14 BC, all the nobles in the city were killed and the city was looted. The combined forces of Babylon and Miti captured Nineveh in 6 12 BC and looted the city. The last Assyrian king committed suicide by jumping into the sea in order not to be captured alive.