Western Civilization I / Unit 1 WC1 0014 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Sargon of Akkad: The First Empire, About 2340 BCE
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The idea
Sargon, a royal gardener turned usurper, united Akkad and Sumer about twenty-three forty B.C.E. He kept the first standing army, the anchor citing his boast of fifty-four hundred soldiers fed daily, and set governors over conquered cities.
In practice
Wealth pumped from subject cities to his capital near present-day Baghdad.
Where people slip
Extraction bred resentment; the empire collapsed about twenty-two hundred when cities rebelled.
Your place on the trail
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