They allowed all the different constituent people to live their own lives according to their own folkways and mores, under the rule of their own leaders, as long as they paid their taxes and submitted to a few of the emperor’s mandates and demands. The Persian Empire was the first to use a many-people-under-one-big-tent strategy to control their vast realm.

Their empire stretched from Iraq to Egypt. The Babylonians gave way to the Assyrians, who ruled from the even bigger and grander city of Nineveh.

The Amorites were the first people to establish a kingdom in Babylon, and they were the ones who built the famous city of Babylon. The most dynamic petri dish of early human culture was that fertile wedge of land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which is modern-day Iraq. The first civilizations emerged along the banks of various big slow-moving rivers subject to annual floods. This was the eastern edge of the Middle World, which had Mesopotamia and Persia as its core. The area where you now find Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan was the eastern edge of the world defined by sea-lanes, and the western edge of the world defined by land routes. It was a intercommunicating zone, and as a result, it developed somewhat distinct narratives of world history. The Middle World is the area between the Mediterranean world and the Chinese world. This eventually became the Islamic world. But if you look at overland traffic, the Grand Central Station of the world was the intersection of roads and routes connecting the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, the Iranian highlands, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. The Mediterranean was the center of world history for ship traffic. Insights from Chapter 17 Insights from Chapter 1 Insights on Tamim Ansary's Destiny Disrupted Contents #4 The first civilizations emerged along the banks of various big slow-moving rivers subject to annual floods. #3 The area where you now find Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan was the eastern edge of the world defined by sea-lanes, and the western edge of the world defined by land routes. #2 The Middle World is the area between the Mediterranean world and the Chinese world. Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.īook Preview: #1 The Mediterranean was the center of world history for ship traffic.

Destiny disrupted by tamim ansary