The first King of Babylon was named Sumu-abum. He was a leader from the Amorites who claimed a piece of land, which included the small port city of Babylon. He then began leading
over the land as a sort of king, but never properly gave himself that title. The next four kings were called Sumu-la-El, Sabium, Apil-Sin, and Sin-Muballit. Only Sin-Muballit
referred to himself as "King of Babylon," and even then, was not written down very many places (Rogers 102). It wouldn't be until the sixth leader, Hammurabi, that Babylon would
see itself grow into a more proper Empire.
The Empire's Growth
Hammurabi would go on to accomplish many great feats for the Empire of Babylon. Under his rule, Hammurabi was able to rid Babylon of dissidents from other neighboring
empires. Not only would he do this, but he would also conquer much of southern Mesopotamia, in which he would take many notable cities, such as Ur and Nippur.
From these conquests, the Babylonians would grow into a proper Empire that was much more stable than most others in the region at the time. Another feat that Hammurabi
accomplished during his rule was creating a more organized government, which included creating the code of laws that the empire would follow (Arnold 43). The Babylonian laws were
much better than similar codes of law written by other empires of the time, and created far more organization of the citizens. Hammurabi also made Babylon an important
cultural and religious site, naming it a "Holy City." This meant that most legitimate leaders of Mesopotamia would have to come to Babylon to be crowned (Schneider 58-59).
All of these factors combined to make the Babylonian Empire one of the biggest and most important empires of the ancient world.
The Empire's Downfall
While the empire was certainly large and powerful, it by no means could last forever. There were many problems the empire had that they would come to face.
The death of Hammurabi was one of the greatest factors that led to the downfall of the empire. A powerful empire needs a powerful empire to stand. The leader after
Hammurabi was called Samsu-iluna, and was much weaker than his predecessor. He was quickly taken out of power by an Akkadian king called Ilum-ma-ili, who dethroned
the long-standing Amorite dynasty. On top of this, the land itself was not easy to defend. It did not have many mountains or large bodies of water to deter invaders
willing enough to attack. The Amorite leaders were all driven out of the area by the Akkadians, where they would struggle to take back the land from the Akkadians.
Those that remained in Babylon eventually stopped trying to resist the Akkadians, and would instead typically help with construction projects ("Babylonia").
After years of Akkadian occupation in the empire, it eventually fell under assault by the Hittites in 1595 BCE. The last king of Babylon was overthrown in this
attack, and much of the city and its information was destroyed.
