John Brooks
World Civ1
The rise and falls of the Persian Empire
Chapter 3
Mr. Smith

]

John Brooks
World Civ1
Mr. Smith
Term Paper
June 7 2014

Introduction The Persian and the Medes migrated into Iran before 1000 B.COnly a few people in this world today can boast a longer and prouder history than the Iranians, descendants of the ancient Persians. They build the greatest empire of the ancient Near East, but they also absorbed the ancient civilizations they ruled, in particular that of Mesopotamia. The Persians were first encountered around 2000 B.C.E, emerging from the grassy steppes of Central Asia, in the north. At that point, they were closely associated with two other peoples: the Medes and Aryans. Although Cyrus had found the Persian Empire Darius 1 gave it an internal organization and structure that allowed it to last for 200 years.
His accomplishment, are more impressive when we consider the empire's enormous size, the scale of which no one had ever dealt with before. The Persians, like most ancient peoples, started out with a polytheistic religion to account for the forces of nature. This was a dualistic religion, which meant it saw life as a constant struggle between the forces of good and evil.
Rise of the Persian Empire
Most of the credit of the rise of the Persian Empire was due to the first Achaemenid Emperor, Cyrus the Great. He founded Persia after he united the Medes and the Persians to build a great Empire. He came to power in 559 BC and thanks to his military and political genius ruled the largest empire in the ancient world. All of his people called him the father, and even people he has defeated call him a worthy ruler, and law giver. He brought different architectural possibilities and built the Capitol City of Pasargadae. Also another rise of the Persian Empire is that He also freed the Jews from Babylonia and believed in letting people have their religion and culture.
Cyrus "The Great" destroyed the Medes in 550. During the next 21 years, the Persians went from being a "barbaric" group of tribesmen to the most culturally, bureaucratically and militarily advanced civilization that had been seen to date. Cyrus had advanced the Persian Empire frontiers to include all of Mesopotamia, Asia Minor the Iranians highlands and the Middle East to the borders of Egypt during this time. Under Cyrus it extended from the Indus through to Egypt and the Mediterranean, in 530 BC in which he died in battle. His son had succeeded him and later a distant cousin; a brilliant general came to power of the Persian Empire, Darius the Great. With Darius the Great was even more land into modern Iran, Pakistan, parts of central Asia and northern India was conquered. His engineers contributed to make grand architectural structures and engineering advancements. Also under his reign built his own capitol, Persepolis. These are the main rises of the Persian Empire. They impacted people in a big way but it was a great rise when they concurred more land because of more opportunity. I am now about to talk about the falls of the Persian Empires. Falls of the Persian Empire After the death of Xerxes (486-464 B.C.E.), the Persian Empire lacked that strong hand. As a result, various problems developed that fed back upon one another and led to Persia's decline and fall. Weak rulers led to numerous provincial revolts, especially in Egypt, which always had detested Persian rule. Revolts and unruly satraps caused serious economic problems for the empire.
Persian taxes became heavier and more oppressive, which led to economic depression and revolts, which in turn led to more repression such as heavier taxes, and etc. This created economic turmoil without enough gold and silver for doing business. As a result of this economic turmoil, the Persian kings got weaker still, which fed back into the problem of revolts and powerful satraps. Nevertheless, the Persians survived and reestablished their Persian Empire under the Sassanid dynasty around 200 C.E. Around 650 C.E., they fell once again, this time to the Arabs inspired by their new religion, Islam. The Persian Empire also fell because there were rebellions in its provinces and the Greeks attacked it when it was in a state of chaos trying to stop rebellions. The Achaemenes Persian Empire fell in 330 BC with the death of Darius III killed by his own generals after being defeated by Alexander the Great. Alexander became the ruler of the lands that had formerly comprised the Achaemenes Persian Empire. Around 400 B.C.E., Cyrus the Younger, a royal prince, rebelled against his brother and king, Artaxerxes. Although Cyrus was killed in battle, his force of 10, 000 Greek mercenaries survived only to find themselves stranded in the heart of Persia. In order for them to get home, they marched and fought their way through a good part of the Persian Empire. This exploit, known as the March of the Ten Thousand, exposed the weakness of the Persian Empire. This encouraged Alexander the Great to invade Persia, which he conquered in a remarkably short time and with a remarkably small army. This was a great time for him to conquer it because at the time it was very weak so he went on and did it before it was too late. The Persians survived and reestablished their empire under the Sassanid dynasty around 200 C.E. Around 650 C.E., they fell once again, this time to the Arabs inspired by their new religion, Islam.
In conclusion, Persian Empire will always be remembered as one of the most innovative and tolerant empires ever existed.

Persian Empire was founded around 548 BC. It was the first largest empire stretching from Atlantic Ocean, Morocco, to Indus River, India. The Persian Empire is most famous for its tolerance over other religions and races and the first people to write the Charter of Human Rights. They also invented coins, roads, postal system, and many more innovations. Furthermore, one of the best innovations, the Persian Empire invented was canal building. They built canals for various reasons: to have drinkable water, to water farms, and to dispose wastes. However, their greatest innovation came around in 525 BC. Now I ask a question, where and when the Suez Canal was constructed? The Suez Canal lies between Middle East and Egypt and it was completed in 1869. But when European engineers were in the middle of constructing the canal they found a statue with some writing on it which said, “I, Darius the Great, King of Persia, King of Kings, King of the World, commanded my men to build a canal so that the East and West can easily trade with each other.” They constructed the canal around 525 BC but years later when the Persian Empire was gone, the climate changed therefore the canal was destroyed. This will always be remembered as the greatest innovation of Persian Empire. Moreover, their postal system was also famous because a mail could be delivered from one end of empire to the other end of empire in 12 days. They did this by using the relay stations and the purpose of the relay stations was that the messenger could switch his horse with another horse. The relay stations were built only so far distant from each other so that a horse could run without resting or feeding, therefore, the horses didn’t die. In conclusion, Persian Empire will always be remembered as one of the most innovative and tolerant empires ever existed.