Editing Mesopotamia (section)

==Government==
{{main|History of institutions in Mesopotamia}}
The geography of Mesopotamia had a profound impact on the political development of the region. Among the rivers and streams, the Sumerian people built the first cities, along with irrigation canals which were separated by vast stretches of open desert or swamp where nomadic tribes roamed. Communication among the isolated cities was difficult and, at times, dangerous. Thus, each Sumerian city became a [[city-state]], independent of the others and protective of its independence.

At times, one city would try to conquer and unify the region, but such efforts were resisted and failed for centuries. As a result, the political history of Sumer is one of almost constant warfare. Eventually Sumer was unified by [[Eannatum]]. The unification was tenuous and failed to last, as the Akkadians conquered Sumer in 2331 BC only a generation later. The Akkadian Empire was the first successful empire to last beyond a generation and see a peaceful succession of kings. The empire was relatively short-lived, as the Babylonians conquered them within only a few generations.

===Kings===
{{Further|List of Mesopotamian dynasties|List of kings of Babylon|List of Assyrian kings}}
[[File:Ashurbanipal in a chariot, wall relief, 7th century BC, from Nineveh, the British Museum.jpg|thumb|A 7th-century BC relief depicting [[Ashurbanipal]], {{reign}}669–631 BC, and three royal attendants in a [[chariot]].]]
The Mesopotamians believed their kings and queens were descended from the city [[Deity|gods]], but, unlike the [[ancient Egyptians]], they never believed their kings were real gods.<ref name="Robert Dalling 2004">{{Citation |author=Dalling |first=Robert |title=The Story of Us Humans, from Atoms to Today's Civilization |year=2004}}.</ref> Most kings named themselves "king of the universe" or "great king". Another common name was "[[shepherd]]", as kings had to look after their people.

===Power===
When Assyria grew into an empire, it was divided into smaller parts, called [[provinces]]. Each of these were named after their main cities, like [[Nineveh]], [[Samaria]], [[Damascus]], and [[Arpad (Syria)|Arpad]]. They all had their own governor, who had to make sure everyone paid their taxes. Governors had to call up soldiers to war and supply workers when a temple was built. He was responsible for enforcing the laws. In this way, it was easier to keep control of a large empire.

Although Babylon was quite a small [[Sovereign state|state]] in Sumer, it grew tremendously throughout the time of [[Hammurabi]]'s rule. He was known as "the lawmaker" and created the [[Code of Hammurabi]]. Soon [[Babylon]] became one of the main cities in Mesopotamia. It was later called Babylonia, which meant "the gateway of the gods." It became one of history's greatest centers of learning.

===Warfare===
{{See also|Military history of the Neo-Assyrian Empire|Warfare in Sumer}}
[[File:Campaign in southern Iraq of Ashurbanipal - fighting in the marshes.jpg|alt=See caption|thumb|A relief showing a campaign in the [[Mesopotamian Marshes]] of southern [[Babylonia]] during the reign of [[Ashurbanipal]]. Assyrian soldiers are on a boat, chasing fleeing enemies. Some are hiding in the reeds]]

[[File:Denis Bourez - British Museum, London (8747049029) (2).jpg|thumb|The Standard of Ur, 2600 BC, the Early Dynastic Period III. Shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli on wood. Discovered at the [[Royal Cemetery at Ur]], Dhi Qar Governorate, [[Iraq]]]]
With the end of the [[Uruk]] phase, walled cities grew. Many isolated [[Ubaid period|Ubaid]] villages were abandoned, indicating a rise in communal violence. An early king [[Lugalbanda]] was supposed to have built the white walls around the city. As [[city-states]] began to grow, their spheres of influence overlapped, creating arguments between other city-states, especially over land and canals. These arguments were recorded in tablets several hundreds of years before any major war—the first recording of a war occurred around 3200 BC, but was not common until about 2500 BC.<ref name="Winter, Irene J. 1985 pp. 11">Winter, Irene J. (1985). "After the Battle is Over: The 'Stele of the Vultures' and the Beginning of Historical Narrative in the Art of the Ancient Near East". In Kessler, Herbert L.; Simpson, Marianna Shreve. Pictorial Narrative in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, Symposium Series IV. 16. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art. pp. 11–32. {{ISSN|0091-7338}}.</ref>

An [[Early Dynastic II]] king (Ensi) of Uruk in Sumer, Gilgamesh (c. 2600 BC), was commended for military exploits against [[Humbaba]] guardian of the Cedar Mountain, and was later celebrated in many later poems and songs in which he was claimed to be two-thirds god and only one-third human. The later [[Stele of the Vultures]] at the end of the [[Early Dynastic III]] period (2600–2350 BC), commemorating the victory of [[Eannatum]] of [[Lagash]] over the neighbouring rival city of [[Umma]], is the oldest monument in the world that celebrates a massacre.<ref name="Winter, Irene J. 1985 pp. 11"/>

From this point forwards, warfare was incorporated into the Mesopotamian political system. At times, a neutral city acted as an arbitrator for two rival cities. This helped to form unions between cities, leading to regional states.<ref name="Robert Dalling 2004" /> When empires were created, they went to war more with foreign countries. King Sargon, for example, conquered all the cities of Sumer, some cities in Mari, and then went to war with cities in modern-day Syria. Many Assyrian and Babylonian palace walls were decorated with pictures of the successful fights and the enemy either desperately escaping or hiding amongst reeds.

The Neo-Babylonian kings used deportation as a means of control, like their predecessors, the Assyrians. For the Neo-Babylonian kings, war was a means to obtain tribute, plunder, sought after materials such as various metals and quality wood, and prisoners of war which could be put to work as slaves in the temples which they built. The Assyrians displaced populations throughout their vast empire. This practice under the Babylonian kings was more limited, only being used to establish new populations in Babylonia itself. Though royal inscriptions from the Neo-Babylonian period don't speak of acts of destruction and deportation in the same boastful way royal inscriptions from the Neo-Assyrian period do, this does not prove that the practice ceased, or that the Babylonians were less brutal than the Assyrians, since there is evidence that the city [[Ascalon]] was destroyed by [[Nebuchadnezzar II]] in 604 BC.{{Sfn|Beaulieu|2005|p=|pp=57–58}}{{Sfn|Stager|1996|p=|pp=57–69, 76–77}}

===Laws===
{{See also|Mesopotamian marriage law}}
City-states of Mesopotamia created the first law codes, drawn from legal precedence and decisions made by kings. The codes of [[Urukagina]] and [[Lipit-Ishtar]] (the [[Code of Lipit-Ishtar]]) have been found. The most renowned of these was that of [[Hammurabi]], as mentioned above, who was posthumously famous for his set of laws, the [[Code of Hammurabi]], created {{circa|1780 BC}}, which is one of the earliest sets of laws found and one of the best preserved examples of this type of document from ancient Mesopotamia. He codified over 200 laws for Mesopotamia. Examination of the laws show a progressive weakening of the rights of women, and increasing severity in the treatment of slaves.<ref>Fensham, F. Charles (19620, "Widow, Orphan, and the Poor in Ancient near Eastern Legal and Wisdom Literature" (Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 21, No. 2 (April 1962)), pp. 129–139.</ref>