Persian Empire

Cyrus the great starts everything

550 BCE

Cyrus the great "comes to power" in Ashan, west of Persia. He united all of Persia starting the Achaeminid Empire, the first Persian Empire. Usually starting an empire is a good way to grow one.

The Medes attack Cyrus

550 BCE

King Astyages from the Medes attacked Cyrus. Some of the Medes turn on Astyages, and they lose. Cyrus beats the Medes, and takes control of Lydia. Eliminating competition, and taking land really helps an empire grow. With more resources and land, they had a lot more options.

Cyrus takes Babylon

539 BCE

He took the city of Babylon. Same as the other one, more land, people, resources, and a stronger empire.

Cyrus takes even more land, but dies.

529 BCE

Cyrus starts taking over India in 533 BC. He died in battle in 529 BC Cyrus was a great leader, and got a lot done. When a good leader dies, you have to find a replacement, and getting another good one is up to luck. Bad leaders can ruin the entire empire. (Part of the reason Achaemenid fell.)

Cambyses the second

529 BCE

Cambyses replaces his father on the throne, takes some land, and dies. He conquered Egypt and Cyprus. 529-522 BC He was a good leader, nothing that bad happened under his rule.

Darius the first takes over

521 BCE

Darius is the last good king of Persia. When he dies, it all starts to fall apart. Darius does a good job, and good rulers make good empires.

Darius does things

521 BCE

Darius changed how the Persian empire worked. He divided the empire into provinces called satrapies, each governed by a satrap. He brought the empire closer together by building roads, and made a currency for all of the Persian empire. He also let the Jews keep doing what they were doing. The Persian empire has been really successful, only gaining land. Darius comes around and only strengthened it. Building roads makes transportation and trade much easier to do.

Lydia tries to rebel

499 BCE

Lydia has been a part of the Persian empire for a long time. since 546 BC. They tried to rebel in 499 BC. Darius puts it down and nothing really happens. Just because nothing actually happened, doesn't mean there's nothing to learn from it. The rebellion must've started for a reason. There was problems with taxes. Persians let people be when they conquered them.

The Persian Wars 490-479 BC

490 BCE

The Persians and Greeks fight over land for many years. It was really 50/50, sometimes one side would win, then next time the other. 11 years. Darius dies in 485 BC. RIP EMPIRE. Wars are expensive. They use up resources, and when you lose, you lose land and people. Also when Darius dies, the leaders afterwards aren't very good. They are weak leaders, and everything falls apart when they take control.

Xerxes takes Darius's place 485-465 BC

485 BCE

He continues to fight the Greeks, and they manage to burn down Athens (480 BC). But they lose another battle in Salamis (479 BC). Xerxes gets assassinated in 465 BC. As you can probably tell, the Persians aren't just winning and taking land anymore, they're struggling a little bit. it's because their technology isn't advancing as much as everyone else anymore. Also Xerxes wasn't very good at his job.

Artaxerxes reigns 465-429 BC

465 BCE

Xerxes' son, Artaxerxes, takes over the empire. In 477 BC Syria starts up a rebellion. Everything is slowly spinning out of control, the economy isn't too good, and the people aren't happy.

The Persians start having to make peace

448 BCE

Persia made peace with Greece and Callias. You know things aren't working as well as they were before when you start making peace with Greece. Before they would go around taking all the land they could get their hands on, but now they can't do that anymore.

Ionian people leave Persia

448 BCE

Ionian cities become independent from Persia, Usually when people don't want to be a part of you, it's because they were unhappy, or they knew they were going to be unhappy in the future. It was probably both. The taxes must've been unbelievable because they aren't taking as much as they were before.

Sparta allies Persia

412 BCE

Finally some good news. The fights with Greece are over, and they work together. They're still slowly collapsing, but they aren't forced to fight as much now.

Artaxerxes comes to power 404 - 359 BC

404 BCE

He rules the longest out of any other Persian ruler. At the time of his ruling, Egypt rebels successfully. nothing is working for the Persians, people are leaving, they're being forced to make peace, they're economy isn't doing too good, and their technology isn't advancing. They just can't keep up with the other empires.

Darius the Third, gets "rekt" by Alexander

336 BCE

Darius iii is the last king of Achaemenid. Alexander beats him in three battles (334 BC), and Darius gets assassinated (330 BC). After that the Persian empire was shattered. The first of four Persian Empires to fall. The Persian Empire was really weak in the end. They just weren't winning the battles they used to win, and it was falling apart in every way you can think of. Alexander just came around and destroyed what used to be a very powerful empire.