What did the Persian Empire Collapse

 empires was centered in modern-day Iran

today we are going to talk about the

first Persian Empire and probably the

most popular when we hear Persia we

think about the greco-persian Wars that

happened 2,500 years ago the stories of

Marathon and of 300 Spartans are coming

from these ancient events the Achaemenid

Empire also known as ancient Persia

ruled the lands of present-day Iran and

expanded beyond across Levant to the

Mediterranean Sea conquering great

ancient civilizations including

Babylonia or Egypt having under their

rule even the civilizations of Anatolia

reaching the shores of Europe and at its

maximum extend ruling over Thrace and

northern Greece Persia was the most

powerful Empire at the time but why and

how did this world power collapse we are

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knowledge now the first Persian Empire

was founded by Cyrus the Great around

550 BC it became one of the largest

empires in history stretching from

Europe's Balkan Peninsula in the West to

India's Indus Valley in the East this

Iron Age dynasty sometimes called the

Achaemenid Empire was a global hub of

culture religion science art and

technology for more than two hundred

years before it fell to the invading

armies of Alexander the Great the

Persian Empire started as a collection

of semi-nomadic groups of people tribes

who raised sheep goats and cattle on the

Iranian Plateau Cyrus the Great was the

leader of one such tribe and then he

began to defeat nearby kingdoms and

tribes some of them were Medea Lydia and

Babylon among others joining them under

one rule the first Persian Empire under

Cyrus the Great soon became the world's

first superpower Darius the great the

fourth king of the Achaemenid Empire

ruled over the Persian Empire when it

was at its largest stretching from the

Caucasus and West Asia to what was then

Macedonia in the Balkans the Black Sea

Central Asia and even into Africa

including parts of Libya and Egypt he

unified the Empire through introducing

standard currency and weights and

measures Aramaic was the official

language even though the Empire gathered

many cultures roads and monuments were

built after the death of Darius his son

Xerxes ruled until 465 BC Xerxes was a

cruel but weak King who was also

defeated by the Greeks during Xerxes

reign the Persian Empire declined it can

be seen as the start of the downfall

although the Empire continued for more

than a century it grew weaker year by

year due to internal struggle and

instability that followed as it

constantly faced conspiracies

assassinations and revolts I the people

due to heavy taxes or other reason as in

other cases the problem started from the

interior when an empire had stability

order and balance in its internal

affairs its external ones were to be

feared at its greatest extent it was

larger than any previous Empire in the

known history of humanity considered to

cover an area of 5.5 million square

kilometers incorporating various peoples

from different origins and faiths it had

to be ruled carefully a big giant is a

powerful one but may fall under its own

weight

the Persians developed a clever system

notable for its successful model of a

centralized bureaucratic administration

it was divided into many regions called

satrapies each region under the rule of

a set rope and every satrap was under

the rule of the king of kings

this was the title employed primarily by

monarchs and rulers of the Middle East

in its early decades the administration

focused on building infrastructure such

as road systems and a postal system and

also on the development of civil

services and a large professional army

the Empire's success inspired similar

systems in later empires but the social

structure started to break down once

there was no longer a strong leader the

Emperor was the core and being seen as a

weak one could have attracted the

attention of others in a fight for power

firstly the people below the upper class

started organizing riots and other

actions of revolt against the rulers

Kings became greedy and began stealing

from the supply of riches rather than

giving it to the people weak rulers led

to many provincial revolts one of them

was Egypt the civilization of the Nile

had strong roots and they always had

detested Persian rule Egypt was also a

rich province of the Empire and its

dissatisfaction will have impact when it

people will choose not to fight

Alexander the Great when he invaded

Persia but to welcome him as a liberator

secondly the provincial leaders the

satraps also became more independent on

their lands having more power there than

the supreme ruler of the empire they

were seen more as local kings than as

the Kings loyal subjects

there were also conflicts between them

they even carried on their own foreign

policies and waged war on each other

which only added to Persia's problems

disunity of this gigantic structure led

to these revolts and disloyal satraps

caused serious economic problems for the

Empire the government definitely grew

weaker in time and struggled with

thriving without having a strong ruler

that could train armies to battle and

gain wealth for Persia the government

started to shift to a very dysfunctional

dictatorship the Persian army was

negatively affected because they no

longer had a strong base or leader to

keep them in line the costly defense of

Persia's lands depleted the Empire's

funds leading to heavier taxation among

Persia's subjects Persian taxes became

heavier and more oppressive which led to

economic depression and revolts which in

turn led to more repression heavier

taxes and so on the Persian kings also

started hoarding gold and silver rather

than recirculating it as a result of

this economic turmoil the Persian kings

got weaker still which fed back into the

problem of revolts and powerful satraps

and so on crop production decreased as

well which caused more commoners to

leave and less trade to happen they can

no longer make scientific advancements

Persia decreased in complexity and

towards the end of its era the decrease

in these advancements caused their

weapon production and safety to diminish

this was detrimental to the empire and

was a major reason why it fell Macedonia

became a great Greek power under philip

ii then he was assassinated by the

captain of his bodyguard Philips son and

previously designated heir Alexander was

proclaimed king by the Macedonia

noblemen and army due to past Persian

incursions on Greek lands the

Macedonians wanted revenge in 334 BC

Alexander crossed the Hellespont into

Asia but the Persians decided to ignore

the movement not considering the event

as a real danger the Persian King Darius

the third treated the situation with

ignorance Alexander defeated the Persian

armies at Granicus 334 BC followed by

Issus 333 BC then he marched him Egypt

where he was welcomed as a liberator and

considered a God by many men at this

point darius offered to alexander half

of its empire but the young king

rejected believing that asia was a gift

to him received from the gods after the

major victory at Gaugamela 331 BC he

marched on Susa and Persepolis which

surrendered in early 330 BC from

Persepolis Alexander headed north to

pass ergh a day where he visited the

tomb of Cyrus Darius the third was taken

prisoner by Bessus Bessus had his man

murdered aureus the third and then

declared himself Darius's successor as

artaxerxes v but then he was found and

put on trial in a Persian Court and

executed Alexander the Great defeated

King Darius the third and the Persian

army in 330 BC Darius was subsequently

assassinated by one of his own followers

although Alexander retained the Persian

system of government until his own death

in 323 BC Darius's defeat marked the end

of the Achaemenid dynasty and the

Persian Empire

Alexander generally kept the original

Achaemenid administrative structure

leaving some scholars to dub him as the

last of the Achaemenid upon Alexander's

death in 323 BC his empire was divided