The Akkadian Empire created the first unified Mesopotamian kingdom of which there is news, more than 4,000 years ago. Before the appearance of the Akkadians, Mesopotamia was made up of many city-states, each of which had its own king, territory, and cities.
In the south of Mesopotamia lived the Sumerians, while the north was occupied by Semitic-speaking people. It was a language quite different from that spoken by the Sumerians, but apart from this feature the northerners were similar to their Sumerian neighbors.
Around 2334 BC, a Semitic-speaking official in the court of the king of Kish, one of the Mesopotamian city-states, overthrew his ruler and assumed royal power. He called himself Sargon (meaning true king ) and from Kish he went against the most powerful monarch of the region, Lugalzagesi, lord and king of Uruk. Sargon managed to defeat him and then attacked and defeated three more cities in southern Mesopotamia:Ur, Lagash and Umma, knocking down their walls. Then he continued to advance with his army until he reached the shores of the Persian Gulf and, to demonstrate his authority from Kish to the gulf, he washed his army's weapons in the salty waters.
A new capital
Sargon built his own capital in the Akkadian Empire, along the Euphrates River, near present-day Baghdad. His kingdom, Akkad, and his people, the Akkadians, were named after him after the city. People from all over the Akkadian empire came to Akkad to sell their goods, such as goats, cattle, and donkeys. The city was a great port where ships from as far away as India and Egypt docked.
Sargon went on to lead more successful campaigns, against Elain, in the mountains to the east of Mesopotamia, and to the west, towards the mountains of Lebanon. To the west, the Akkadians gained access to important resources, such as silver and cedarwood. To the east, the Akkadians made the Elamites move their capital, from Elam to Susa, and forced them to speak Akkadian.
Sargon the Great, as he now called himself, ruled his empire until 2279 BC. However, his authority was greatly weakened in later years, when he had to face revolts from some of his Sumerian subjects. Despite everything, he managed to crush them and transfer his mighty empire to his son, Rimush.
Rimush ruled between 2278 and 2270 BC He had a turbulent reign, but like his father he managed to put an end to the rebellious cities. In the end, however, he was killed by his courtiers, who (according to legend) stabbed him with their own cylinder-seals. He was succeeded by his brother Manishtusu, who ruled between 2269 and 2255 BC.
Manishtusu found that, despite Elarn's defeat, the western part of the empire had managed to regain its independence. This posed a threat to the routes that Akkadian merchants had to use to go looking for metals with which to make bronze. So, the king had to lead an expedition to the eastern end of the Persian Gulf, where he found an alternative source of those metals he needed.
Manishtusu's heir was Naram-Sim (2254-2218 BC), who spent most of his reign at war. In the west, he brought northern Syria back under Akkadian rule. In the north, he conquered the Assyrians and defeated the Hurrians. In the east, he put down a revolt among the Akkadian subjects of the Persian Gulf. He also defeated his most powerful enemy, the Lullubi, who lived in the foothills of the nearby Zagros Mountains.
The Akkadian Empire did not survive long after Naram-Sin's death. Next, his successor, Shar-kali-Sharri (2217-2193 BC), was assassinated by his own subjects and, after his death, great struggles broke out between the candidates to succeed him, together with the invasion of the country by the Zagros mountain tribes, ending the Empire Akkadian forever.
The power of the Akkadian Empire
The Akkadians ruled their empire with the help of a powerful and ruthless army (King Sargon had 5,400 soldiers). The Akkadians broke down the walls of the cities that rebelled and massacred all their citizens. Many stone monuments show Akkadian soldiers carrying loot and leading off prisoners to be killed.
Sargon's power was based on a radical change in the system of government that the Sumerians had traditionally used. The Sumerians had governed their cities by appointing governors from among the main families originating from those same cities. Sargon, on the other hand, preferred to appoint Akkadian governors, who were sent to the cities with royal orders.
By transforming the Sumerian city-states into a military power, Sargon spread Sumerian culture throughout the Middle East. Cuneiform was widely adopted as a writing system, and Akkadian became the semi-official language of Mesopotamia and the Middle East.
The clay tablets of Ebla
When the site of ancient Ebla in northern Syria was first explored in 1964, archaeologists found remains of a city dating to around 2,500 BC. It had been destroyed and burned to the ground either by Sargon or his grandson Naram-Sin.
The most exciting find was the royal palace's archive room, with more than 20,000 clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform script. These were state records, and from the information they contained, it was possible to reconstruct a vivid picture of life in this Bronze Age society. The tablets made it clear that Ebla was the capital of a powerful state, whose wealth was based on trade and agriculture. The people grew wine, olive trees, and barley, as well as raising two million sheep and half a million cattle. They traded cloth, gold, silver, and bronze. Some of the tablets preserve laws, decrees and treaties, showing that Ebla had an efficient administration.