Politics & PowerThe 2nd millennium BCE

Politics & Power in the 2nd millennium BCE

Every event in the Terralore archive tagged politics and power — dynasties, constitutions, revolutions and changes of regime, narrowed to the 2nd millennium BCE — 4 of them, drawn from 4 nations, running from 1800 BCE to 1046 BCE. Each entry keeps the sources it was verified against and links back to the chronicle it came from.

Events
4
Nations
4
Earliest
1800 BCE
Latest
1046 BCE

Every entry below is the same record, with the same sources, as the one on its nation’s chronicle.

  1. early 2nd millennium BCEAsia

    Syria

    Mari and the palace of Zimri-Lim

    The Euphrates city of Mari flourishes as a planned trading capital, its palace archives preserving thousands of diplomatic letters, until Hammurabi of Babylon destroys it in the 18th century BCE.

    Era: Ebla, Mari, Ugarit and the First Alphabet

    Sources: Mari — ancient city, Syria · Encyclopaedia Britannica

  2. c. 1755 BCEAsia

    Iraq

    Hammurabi issues his law code

    Hammurabi, sixth king of Babylon, unifies much of Mesopotamia and promulgates the Code of Hammurabi, 282 laws inscribed on a diorite stela — one of the most complete legal collections of the ancient world.

    Era: Sumer, Akkad and Babylon — the First Cities

    Sources: Hammurabi — king of Babylonia · Encyclopædia Britannica, Code of Hammurabi · Encyclopædia Britannica, The Code of Hammurabi · Musée du Louvre

  3. 17th century BCEAsia

    Türkiye

    Hattusa becomes the Hittite capital

    King Hattusilis I established Hattusa in north-central Anatolia as the capital of the Hittite kingdom, the seat of a Bronze Age empire that would rival Egypt.

    Era: Ancient Anatolia: Çatalhöyük, the Hittites and Troy

    Sources: The Hittites · World History Encyclopedia, Anatolia · Encyclopædia Britannica

  4. c. 1046 BCEAsia

    China

    Zhou conquest and the Mandate of Heaven

    King Wu of Zhou defeats the Shang at the Battle of Muye and founds the Zhou dynasty, justifying the overthrow with the Mandate of Heaven, a doctrine of morally conditional rule that endures for millennia.

    Era: Bronze Age Kingdoms and the Hundred Schools

    Sources: Zhou dynasty (ca. 1050-221 BCE), Teaching China with the Smithsonian · Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, Zhou Dynasty · World History Encyclopedia