Chapters 7-8 in King Hammurabi of Babylon focus on what Hammurabi did with his kingdom after the military conquests were over. He started his reign controlling a relatively small area and expanded by conquering Elam, Larsa, and other lands. Thus, Hammurabi was an imperialist. But the reason he was so successful in retaining and controlling the lands after the military conquest were his political abilities. Hammurabi clearly made it his goal to be a “good sheppard” or a rightful king towards his constituents. One important thing he did was to recognize and respect the diversity of his constituents. The people of his new kingdom felt ties to their original societies culturally and religiously and also spoke different languages in different locations. Hammurabi made sure to respect the differentiation among his people and not force his original specific customs among the entire new state. He made a priority of protecting his people economically and militarily. He started projects that improved the irrigation systems of southern Mesopotamia where rainfall was scarcer, as well as building fortresses and city walls to protect his cities from foreign invaders. From these examples we see that Hammurabi was not an average imperialist ruler. He indeed cared about the well being of his conquered people. I believe that for this reason he was so successful in maintaining power for the incredibly long time of forty three years.
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