The history of the destruction of
earlier civilizations is not only due to the civil war, internal conflict and
external governance, political unrest, but also can be caused by climatic
factors and population growth. Assyrian, or Assyrian empire centered around the
headwaters of the Tigris, Mesopotamia, Iraq region. Assyrian Empire is one
example of a civilization that was destroyed due to the population explosion
and drought.
One analysis revealed Adam Schneider
of the University of California-San Diego, USA, and Selim Adali of the Research
Center for Anatolian Civilizations in Turkey, that the Assyrian empire that
once stood in northern Iraq has experienced a continuous territorial expansion,
uncontrolled population explosion . This paper is published in Springer's
journal, Climatic Change, November 2014 edition.
The collapse of the Assyrian Empire
Assyrian, or Assyrian empire was
centered around the headwaters of the Tigris, Mesopotamia, Iraq. At the time of
the ancient Assyrians that developed in the 20th century to the 15th BC, the
Assyrians ruled much of Upper Mesopotamia and parts of Asia Minor. Middle
Assyrian period occurred in the 15th century BC to the 10th, the current
government influence faded and revived through various conquests.
Assyrian Empire in the early iron
age around 911-612 BC has been expanded to several areas. This expansion under
the leadership of Ashurbanipal, who led circa 668-627 BC, during the decades of
the Assyrian empire controlled all of the Fertile Crescent and eventually lost
power due to the expansion of the Kingdom of the
Neo-Babylonian and Median.
Assyria was the original name of an
ancient city of the Assyrian empire that started up since the year 2600 BC.
This region is one of the early town once stood, as well as the Akkadian city
in Mesopotamia. In the years 2334 to 2154 BC, the Assyrian king Sargon of Akkad
subject, which brings together all the Semitic language Akkadian and Sumerian
society of Mesopotamia under the Akkadian Empire. After the fall of the
Akkadian Empire in 2154 BC, Sumerian Uruk Dynasty ruled Assyria Third South but did not last long, so the
Assyrian empire free again.
In the 9th century BC, the Assyrian
empire in northern Iraq began to expand into most areas of the ancient Near
East. Assyrian empire reached its heyday in the early 7th century BC, they
include the largest empire in the Near East. The success of the Assyrian empire
decline began in the late 7th century, this makes historians confused respond
to cause regression of government. Most scholars assume that setback due to the
civil war, political unrest, and the destruction of the Assyrian capital,
Nineveh, Babylon and coalition forces conducted Median in 612 BC.
Although various hypotheses
triggered historian, the destruction of the Assyrian kingdom remains a mystery,
why a military superpower in his day fall suddenly and so quickly. According to
Schneider and Adali, factors such as population growth and drought also
contributed to the collapse of the Assyrian empire. Paleoclimate analysis of
data shows that the conditions surrounding the Near East became drier during
the second half of the 7th century BC.
So far, the Near East region also
experienced significant population growth when people around the Assyrian
empire conquered by force and transferred. Surely this can substantially reduce
the ability of the government in the face of severe drought that hit the region
such as the Near East in the year 657 BC. The two scholars also argue that
within five years of drought, political and economic stability of the kingdom
of Assyria have eroded so that a series of fatal civil war has weakened the
military power.
Demographic factors and climate
certainly plays a role indirectly, significantly undermining the Assyrian
Empire. Schneider and Adali analyze the parallels between the collapse of the Assyrian
Empire and several economic and political consequences of climate change in the
same area today. Severe drought followed by riots, violence, which took place
in Syria and Iraq during the late 7th century BC. This is very striking
resemblance to the severe drought and subsequent contemporary political
conflict in Syria and northern Iraq today.
Referensi
Population boom, droughts contributed to collapse of ancient
Assyrian Empire, 05 November 2014, by Springer Science+Business
Media.
Journal Ref: “No harvest was reaped”: demographic and
climatic factors in the decline of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Climatic Change,
2014; DOI: 10.1007/s10584-014-1269-y
Austen Henry Layard in Nineveh, 1852, public domain via
Wikimedia Commons
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