Expansionism and the Assyrians

While reading The Age of Empires by Francis Joannes, the most difficult part by far was keeping track of the names of the rulers and what they accomplished (or failed at) in each time period of the Assyrian Empire. The history is presented in a very fast paced manner where the discussion switches from one ruler to the next every few paragraphs. But the major point in the first few chapters is about the military expansions of the Assyrian Empire. Starting in the year 934 B.C. various Assyrian rulers initiated military campaigns to both secure and expand the borders of their empire. From their behavior we can tell that the Assyrians had a much different view on their treatment of conquered people, then Hammurabi did during his rule of the Babylonian kingdom. The Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II, who ruled from 883 to 859 B.C. “carried out a policy of terror and scorched earth,” and “[wore] down foes’ resistance [] procuring for Assyria material resources which it needed to pursuer its war effort” (Joannes 30). From this fact we can see that the Assyrians most likely did not respect their conquered peoples’ enough to want to incorporate them as equal members of their society, and rather just saw them as a resource of wealth and power. This is opposed to Hammurabi who took active steps to respect his constituents as a diverse group of people with a variety of needs.