The Assyrian Empire and the Persian Empire were two of theearliest major empires in the world. The Assyrians were powerfulfrom about 900 to about 600 BC. The Persian Empire came afterwards,holding power beginning around 550 BC. Both were empires in what wenow call the Middle East. Both were monarchies. However, there werevery important differences between the two.A good way to express these differences is to say that, from ourperspective, the Persian Empire was more enlightened. Because ofthis, it was possible for them to rule a much larger empire thanthe Assyrians could. The Assyrians had a much more autocratic andcentralized system of government. The king of Assyria was seen asall-powerful. Everyone else in their society was seen as a slave ofthe king. When the Assyrians conquered other peoples, they tried todominate them and exploit them. The Assyrians essentially used theouter parts of their kingdom as colonies to be exploited, not asvalued parts of their own society.By contrast, the Persian Empire was more enlightened. The kingdid not portray himself as a completely dominant figure. The peopleof the empire were portrayed as strong and important members ofsociety. The empire was not exploited as ruthlessly for the benefitof the center. Instead, each part of the empire had its owngovernor and was seen as an equal part of the empire. Tribute wasdemanded from each region, but not as ruthlessly as in the AssyrianEmpire.Thus, the Assyrians and the Persians were both empires, but theyran in rather different ways.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *