The Empire of Persia was the first global empire to cover the parts of the three continents (known at that time): Asia, Africa, and Europe.
The story of the Persian Empire starts after the end of the Assyrian state followed by the plunder of its political center – Nineveh, in 612 BC by Babylon which retained the lowlands of Mesopotamia, while at the same time the highland territory (in fact, Katpatuka/Cappadocia), which was westward to the Halys River (today Kizil Irmak) became incorporated in the state of its allies – the Medes. Cyrus, the Prince of Persia, rebelled in 550 BC and won over the Median king Astyges. As a political consequence, Cyrus united the eastern Persians and the western Medians (or Madas, Medes) to make Persia/Iran the dominant military-political subject in Central Asia and the Middle East. The Empire of Cyrus the Great (Cyrus II of Persia, in office from 550 to 529 BC, who established the Achaemenid Empire centered on Persia) soon became enlarged due to several successful military actions that resulted in the incorporation of Asia Minor’s Lycia, Lydia/Sparda, the Ionian Greek settlements, followed by Babylon/Babirush, and present-day Afghanistan.
The Achaemenid Empire (550−330 BC)
The Iranians who arrived from Central Asia came to dominate the territory of Mesopotamia. In fact, there were three crucial factors of their political-military success in the region: 1) Iron Age technology; 2) The knowledge to use the horse for both the military and communication; and 3) Their power and versatility which gave them the crucial advantage over the people who have been belonging to the more ritualized civilizations of the Antique. Soon after the death of Cyrus the Great in 529 BC his son Cambyses succeeded in winning over Egypt (at the same time his brother Smerdis was ruling over Iran) at the battle of Pelusium in 525 BC (at the Sinai Peninsula near the Mediterranean Sea – the territory known at that time as Arabaya/Arabia between Gaza and Alexandria). However, Cyrus’ sons soon started to quarrel but with fatal results as the usurper took the royal throne – a cousin of theirs Darius. He led a group of his supporters who have been fighting to restore the line of the Achaemenid family. Darius the Great (ruling the Achaemenid Empire from 522 BC to his death in 486 BC) reorganized the Persian Empire into 20 tribute-paying satrapies (provinces with the head of the satrap). He also established unified control, with a general Code of Laws, a stable currency, and an efficient postal service (one of the first in world history). Darius the Great became a master in administrative/civil affairs like his uncle Cyrus the Great was in military affairs. The Darius administration introduced regular equitable taxis, accurate weights, and measures followed by profitable monetary policies.
The (ethic) religion of Iranians – Zoroastrianism, did not fight for the converts which meant in practical life that all other religious denominations within the empire were tolerated like Judaism, or various forms of Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Greek polytheistic beliefs. Therefore, both the communal harmony and the loyalty to the ruler were established and functioning. It can be said that three focal factors contributed to the Persian success in creating the three-continent empire: 1) Warfare traditions; 2) Artistic sensibility; and 3) Technical knowledge, especially in military engineering. In addition, two factors helped the Persian civilization to survive chronic invasions from the outside: 1) The firm national consciousness; and 2) A total respect for monarchical legitimacy.
Darius the Great established the Achaemenid Empire which had its greatest extent in up to that time history (479 BC). The empire stretched in Asia from across the Indus River in the East, to modern North Tunisia and Libya (Putaya) in Africa and modern Thracia/Thrace (Skudra) in Europe (the Balkans) followed by western littoral of the Black Sea with the Crimean Peninsula in the West (including the peninsula of Asia Minor), and from the River Jaxartes and the Aral Sea (lake) in Central Asia in the North to Sudan and Magan at the Arabian Peninsula (at the entrance to the Persian Gulf) in the South (including Mesopotamia, Palestine, and the Sinai Peninsula). He tried to extend his empire in Europe by launching war on Scythians on the territory of present-day Ukraine but was repulsed in 513 BC (the Scythians used the tactic of the “burned land”). In Greece, his policy to punish Athens and Eretria for their support of the Ionian Greek rebels in West Asia Minor against Persian rule led to his abortive invasion of Greek states in 490 BC (the Battle of Marathon). His son Xerxes organized an even more serious and massive invasion of Greece in 480 BC but was beaten at the sea at Salamis (480 BC) and on the land at Plataea in 479 BC.
Nevertheless, the Achaemenid Empire of Persia/Iran remained impregnable to the Greek-speaking world for a century and a half. Even more, Persia was the real winner at the end of the Peloponnesian War (431−404 BC) between Athens and Sparta and their allies. However, the political weaknesses of the Achaemenid Empire became seen when Cyrus the Younger (as the Persian viceroy of the western provinces/satrapies) recruited in 401 a military force of Greek mercenaries of “10,000” for the purpose of using them in his revolt against the brother Persian Emperor Artaxerxes II.
The end of the empire
The practice of these Greek mercenaries in attacking Babylonia (Babirush), in fact, paved the way for Alexander of Macedon in his attack on Persia, whose destruction of the army of the Achaemenid Empire of Emperor Darius III (336−330 BC) at Gaugamela in 331 BC finally brought the existence of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia to its end by barbaric burning of its capital Persepolis to the ground (like Greeks did the same with Troy/Ilion in around 1200 BC). Nonetheless, the Achaemenid Empire (550−330 BC) is remembered as the first state to have its borders on three continents: Asia, Africa, and Europe. The second one was going to be of Alexander the Great followed by the Roman Empire.
Dr. Vladislav B. Sotirovic
Ex-University Professor
Research Fellow at Centre for Geostrategic Studies
Personal disclaimer: The author writes for this publication in a private capacity which is unrepresentative of anyone or any organization except for his own personal views. Nothing written by the author should ever be conflated with the editorial views or official positions of any other media outlet or institution.
Origins of images: Facebook, Twitter (X), Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Flickr, Google, Imageinjection, Public Domain & Pinterest.
Read our Disclaimer/LegalStatement!
DonatetoSupportUs
We would like to ask you to consider a small donation to help our team keep working. We accept no advertising and rely only on you, our readers, to keep us digging the truth on history, global politics, and international relations.
A photo documentation of the destruction of (Serbian) Christianity in Kosovo from June 1999 up today.The Western colony of Kosovo is the main stronghold of radical Albanian jihad Islam at the Balkans, transformed into the first independent Balkan ISIL state protected by the Western gangsters of the USA, the NATO and the EU.Presented photo evidence is just an iceberg of the real destruction of Euro-Christianity in Kosovo by the barbaric Muslim Albanians who are also fighting in the Middle East as the jihad soldiers of ISIL - a creation of the US administration.Origins of images: Facebook, Twitter, Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Flickr, ...
The full extent of the damage to international peace and security caused by the US-led Syrian strikes will take some time to become clear. But its impact on the very concept of legality in international affairs is already evident.Simply put, the most powerful county in the world and its chief satellites, the UK and France, have thrown the rule of law into the trash can. The only "law" now is the law of the jungle. There is no going back.Ironically, the attack itself was claimed by its perpetrators as enforcement of legality, not of its obliteration. For example, NATO Secretary-General ...
In late November 2013, the 'Euromaidan' in Kiev began as a popular protest against a generalized state of corruption and cronyism in Ukraine. The spark that ostensibly ignited the protests was the inability of then President Yanukovych to sign an EU Association Agreement that would cut Ukraine's economic and military ties to Russia in favor of a closer relationship with the EU and NATO.The EU had made the release of former Ukrainian prime minister and "gas princess" Tymoshenko a precondition for signing the agreement. But the fact that Tymoshenko was/is a convicted embezzler of state funds, combined with the rather ...
On November 21st, 2015 it was the 20th anniversary of the 1995 Dayton Peace Accord – a treaty signed by four Presidents (the USA, Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina) that led to an end of the civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. As a result of the Dayton Peace Accord a new “independent and internationally recognized state” emerged: Bosnia-Herzegovina as a confederation of two political entities (the Republic of Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation) but ethnically strictly divided into three segments composed by the Serb, Croat and Muslim (today Boshnjak) controlled territories. In contrast to the Republic of Srpska (49% of the territory ...
Historical backgroundHistorical Poland (in fact, the Polish-Lithuanian Republic of Two Nations) became divided during the three partitions in 1772, 1793, and 1795 between the Kingdom of Prussia, the Habsburg Monarchy (later Austrian Empire and Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy), and the Russian Empire. At that time, the rulers of all these three states which divided Poland-Lithuania (the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) have been by ethnic origin the Germans – Frederick the Great of Prussia, Catherine the Great of Russia, and Joseph II of Austria. It means that the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (established in 1569 by the Union of Lublin), ...
No city in Iraq is more symbolic of the criminal consequences of the US invasion of Iraq than Fallujah. Prior to 2003, the 300,000-strong, prosperous, predominantly Sunni Muslim community on the Euphrates River, one of humanity’s oldest continuous urban settlements, was known as the “city of mosques.” After 13 years of destruction at the hands of the US military and its client state in Baghdad, it is today a labyrinth of ruins, a city of the dead.Following weeks of air strikes by US, British and Australian bombers, a combination of Iraqi government forces and Shiite militias is reportedly on the ...
The US has been threatening Iran for more than 20 years. Already during the Clinton administration, US Central Command (USCENTCOM) had formulated “in war theater plans” to invade both Iraq and Iran. This posting which includes selected articles from our archives was originally published by Global Research 12 years ago in May 2005. In the wake of the war on Iraq (2003), the Bush administration officially identified Iran and Syria as the next stage of “the road map to war”. Bush’s National Security doctrine contained in the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) was a continuation of Clinton’s “strategy of ...
The United States is immersed in a political St. Vitus’s dance typical of empires in convulsion. The confident colossus that watched its arch-rival disintegrate from 1989-1991 now has its highest office occupied by a malevolent clown enabled by supporters befitting a casting call for a Hieronymous Bosch panel. The liberal class gnashes its teeth and blames Trump, the Koch brothers, the Tea Party. But the shock is hardly credible. The current political trap befits a country that internalized its own Cold War propaganda campaign from 1945-1991. The unrelenting flow of messages aimed at keeping Americans fearful and accommodating debased our ...
A now-notorious list of ostensibly “fake” news sites — created by a liberal professor, seemingly out of thin air — spread like wildfire online in the past two days and was eagerly reprinted by corporate media presstitutes hoping to vindicate their own failed reporting on the 2016 election.But branding perfectly legitimate outlets with the same scarlet letter as those devoid of integrity deemed the professor’s list a spurious attempt to defame alternative and independent media — anyone dissenting from the left’s mainstream narrative — as a whole.This is, in no uncertain terms, a hit list — or, at least, a laughable attempt — and ...
The Democratic Party has moved from being what you might call a reluctant war party to an aggressive war party with its selection of Hillary Clinton as its presumptive presidential nominee. With minimal debate, this historic change brings full circle the arc of the party’s anti-war attitudes that began in 1968 and have now ended in 2016.Since the Vietnam War, the Democrats have been viewed as the more peaceful of the two major parties, with the Republicans often attacking Democratic candidates as “soft” regarding use of military force. But former Secretary of State Clinton has made it clear that she ...
The presidential campaign has mortified millions of Americans in part because the presidency has become far more dangerous in recent times. Since 9/11, we have lived in a perpetual emergency which supposedly justifies trampling the law and Constitution. And the illegalities will not end after Tuesday’s vote count. Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have signaled that they will perpetuate power grabs in the next four years.For generations, politicians have touted voting as a magical process which almost automatically protects the rights of everyone within a 50 mile radius of the polling booth. But the ballots Americans have cast in ...
Though intelligence documents from the 1973 coup period have been declassified since 1999, the CIA continues to censor them.The CIA continues to withhold information on its involvement in the Sept. 11, 1973 coup that led to the death of President Salvador Allende in Chile, followed by adeadly dictatorship, according to documents posted Friday by the National Security Archive.In the list of published documents, the section regarding Chile is censored. The President’s Daily Briefs, the intelligence reports given daily to the U.S. president, in particular former President Richard Nixon days before Allende’s death, were among those censored.According to Peter Kornbluh, director ...
The wicked social control experiment using virus as the pretext for further enslavement is performing magnificently by implanting a sense of helplessness, dependence, and blind conformism. It should be noted that the favorable atmosphere enabling Them (whoever they are) to accomplish just that was contrived by the controlled and unscrupulous media in under a month of intense, coordinated, global brainwashing. Praise is in order, not for the obviously immoral master plan but for the technical excellence of its execution. In the subservient Balkans, local quislings have expectedly introduced a practically region-wide state of emergency, giving that ignoble set of local ...
It was NATO’s first out-of-area operation, against its own Treaty and without a UN mandate. On March 24, 1999.Independent Kosovo was established – against UN SC resolution 1244. Thanks to the Clinton administration and Madeleine Albright. CNN’s Amanpour endorsed it generously on TV with her State Department husband, James Rubin, a chief operator in the non-negotiations at Rambouillet. And TIME of course knew the truth too.Serbia suffered tremendously from the 78 days of indiscriminate, hard bombing. I know because I was there.Finally, Serbia and its president Milosevic was threatened with total destruction of Belgrade. And gave in.Western hubris after the ...
Aleppo has become synonymous with destruction and “Syrian state-generated” violence among those whose perception of the situation in the war-torn nation is contained within the prism of mainstream media narratives.The NATO-aligned media maintains a tight grip on information coming out of this beleaguered city, ensuring that whatever comes out is tailored to meet State Department requirements and advocacy for regime change. The propaganda mill churns out familiar tales of chemical weapons, siege, starvation, and bombs targeting civilians–all of which are attributed to the Syrian government and military, with little variation on this theme.The purpose of this photo essay and my ...
Kosovo is Clinton Country: a 10-foot-high statue of Bill overlooks “Bill Clinton Boulevard” in the capital city of Pristina. Hillary is also memorialized in what has become the crime capital of Europe: right off the street named for her husband is a store named “Hillary,” featuring women’s clothing modeled after the putative Democratic party nominee for President. Pantsuits figure prominently. As Vice puts it: “While former President Bill Clinton has had a boulevard named after him, it’s without a doubt that his wife’s the real star out here.” Why is that?As Gail Sheehy pointed out in her biography of Hillary, ...
The book of evidence about ethnic cleansing and policy of genocide committed by the neo-Nazi Ustashi government in Croatia against its own citizens of the Serb nationality in August 1995. That was a third genocide against the Serbs committed by the Croats in the 20th century: 1. during the WWI; 2. during the WWII; 3. in the 1990s. Today, Croatia is almost totally ethnically cleanced from all non-Croats like Kosovo and Albania from all non-Albanians. During the WWII, around 700.000 Serbs were brutally killed by the Croats and Bosnian Muslims on the territory of the Independent State of Croatia.Read our ...
Government propaganda and NGO misinformation have coloured the story of the war on Syria from its inception. Stepping in to set the record straight, Dr. Tim Anderson explores the real beginnings of the conflict, the players behind it, and their agenda in his new book, “The Dirty War on Syria: Washington, Regime Change and Resistance.”The Dirty War on Syria has relied on a level of mass disinformation not seen in living memory. In seeking ‘regime change’ the big powers sought to hide their hand, using proxy armies of ‘Islamists’, demonising the Syrian Government and constantly accusing it of atrocities. In ...
The negotiations on Brexit are attracting a lot of attention. In particular, the possible erosion of the rights of around three million EU-27 citizens living in Britain is a major cause for concern.The European Parliament resolution adopted on 3 October states that “the withdrawal agreement must incorporate the full set of rights citizens currently enjoy, such that there is no material change in their position”.The main author of this text, Mr Guy Verhofstadt, the EP Brexit Coordinator, argues that such an approach – not to lower the level of citizens’ rights – is “the goal of democracy”. But why was ...
The contemporary Lithuania uses the official interpretation of bloody events that took place in Vilnius on January 13, 1991 as an ideological foundation for Russophobia-based confrontation with its eastern neighbor. It says “the Soviet soldiers committed an intentional murder of 13 unarmed people and one special operations serviceman”. The truth about what really happened, as well as the doubts over the official interpretation, are punishable crimes.The Lithuanian authorities have been trying to get Algirdas Paleckis condemned by court for some years. He is a young politician and a diplomat, the leader of Lithuanian Socialist People’s Front (SPF), a holder of ...
