The Acheamenid Empire also called the first Persian empire. It was founded by Cyrus II of Persia also know as Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. He conquered Medes in 550 BC. Then in 546 BC he conquered a part of Medes that used to be Elam. They also conquered the Chaldean Empire and Lydia. The Acheamenid Empire spanned over all the territory from these modern day countries, Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. The Ionian revolt which lasted from 499-493 BC. The Ionian revolt included, Aeolis, Doris, Cyprus and Caria. This led to the Greco-Persian wars.The Greco-Persian wars lasted from 492-449 BC. The Persians attacked Thrace which is modern day Bulgaria in 492 BC which the Persians won. The Persians attacked the Greeks for the first time in 490 BC the Greeks won the Battle of Marathon. After the death of Darius I his son Xerxes I won the battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC. The final defeat of the Persians was also in the naval Battle of the Salamis in 480 BC. Xerxes left an army in Greece controlled by Mardonius. He retook Athens but was defeated in the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC. Later in 469 BC the Persians under the rule of Artaxerxes I attacked Greece again in the Battle of Eurymedon, which halted the battling. Artaxerxes I had the idea of funding Greece’s enemies, but that led to more fighting in 450 BC in the Battle of Cyprus. In 449 BC the Peace Treaty of Callias was agreed between Argos, Athens and Persia. The Persians invaded Egypt in 525 BC fighting off the Libyans. In 484 BC and in 460 BC both unsuccessfully with Sparta.In 404 BC the Egyptians managed to become independent. The whole time the Egyptians and a few other Greek cities kept fighting off the Persians, but in 341 BC they got captured again by the Persians. The Persians didn’t keep Egypt for long until Alexander the Great took it in 332 BC. Alexander the Great started attacking the Acheamenid Empire in 334 BC at Granicus which Alexander won. Then the next battle was in 333 BC at Issus then in 331 BC at Gaugamela which Alexander both won. In 330 BC the Acheamenid Empire is defeated by Alexander the Great.

The Medes migrated into Iran when the bronze age collapse around 1000-900 BC. The Assyrians conquered western parts of the Medes around 10th century BC to the late 7th century BC. The Medes had their first king in 678 BC which was Deioces or Kashtariti. In 612 BC they helped the Babylonians capture Nineveh. In 612 BC they conquered a part of Assyria know as Elam. But in 550 BC they were conquered by Cyrus the Great.

It was The Elamites first period was  2700-1600 BC called the Old Elamite period.

Before the Old Elamite period there was the Proto-Elamite period 3200-2700 BC.

The Middle Elamite period began when the Anzanite dynasty came to power in 1500 BC and ended in 1100 because of Assyrian and median influence.

Around 655 BC Assyrians  started invading Elam. They conquered and annexed them in 640 BC. The Elamites were under Assyrian rule until 116 BC, when they freed themselves until the Medes took control 612 – 546 BC and then the Persian in 546 – 322 BC.

The Sumerians were the first to settle in Mesopotamia around 7,000 BC. But civilized life in Sumer didn’t appear until 3,500-3,100 BC.

Akkads took control of Sumer and the rest of Mesopotamia. They created the Akkadian empire which ruled from: 2334-2154 BC. When the Akkadian empire collapsed it became the Assyrians in the north and in the south the Babylonians about 2 centuries later.

Babylon was at first a minor city state which an Amorite declared independence from another city state in 1894 BC until Hammurabi came to power about a century later. The Babylonian empire stayed until it was overthrown by the Hittite’s in 1595 BC.

Then the Kassites conquered Babylon in 1540-1160 BC.

The Assyrians took the Babylonians under direct control in 1155 BC. During the Bronze Age collapse Babylonia wasn’t doing well. After the Assyrian withdrawal during the Bronze Age collapse, because the Assyrian ruler Tiglath-Pileser died, Semites came into Babylon due to the weak kings.   In 627 BC Nabopolassar declares himself the king of Babylon. In  612 BC Nineveh is captured by the Babylonians and Medes. After the Babylonians revolted against the Assyrians and led them to their demise they created the Chaldean Empire. They were conquered by the Persians in 539 BC.

The Hittites established an empire in north-central Anatolia in 1600 BC. The Hittites was at it’s largest during the mid-14th century BC. The Hittites fought against the Egyptians in 1274 BC, because the Egyptians were trying to expand into the territory, where the Hittite trade route’s were. After the battle of Kadesh the Egyptians and the Hittites were declining because the Assyrians were rising in power. The Assyrian king Shalmaneser I had vanquished the  Mitanni. The Hittites tried to help the Mitanni with military support. That made the Assyrians a bigger threat to the Hittite trade route’s than Egyptians ever had. The Hittites made Peace with the Egyptians in 1558 BC. By marrying his daughter to the Pharaoh of Egypt, because of the Assyrians pushing into Hittite territory. The Kaskas sacked and burned the Hittite capital city of Hattusa around 1180 BC. Which made possible for the Phryghians migrate into most of the Hittite empire, except the south-eastern part of the empire. The part that was left of the Hittite’s, became the Syro-Hittite states. The Syro-Hittite states was eventually taken over by the Assyrians in the early ninth century BC.

The Mitanni was a Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria and southeast Anatolia from 1500- 1300 BC. The Mitanni was rivals with Egypt until the rise Hittite empire. The Mitanni and Egyptians made an alliance that they would stop Hittite domination. The Hittites reduced Mitanni to tribute under the reign of Suppiluliuma I around 1350 BC. In 1300 BC the Assyrians conquered the Mitanni.

Predynastic period is the first Egyptian period. Hunter-gatheresr began living along the Nile valley 120,000 years ago.

The Early Dynastic Period lasted from 3050 BC to 2686 BC

The Old Kingdom lasted from 2686 BC to 2181 BC. It ended, because the pharaohs powers weakened. Regional governors started ruling different parts of Egypt. During that time there was severe droughts between 2200 and 2150 BC, which caused the country to enter the First Intermediate Period.

The First Intermediate Period lasted from 2181 BC to 2134 BC. In the beginning there was a lot of famine and small civil wars between the regional governors. In 2160 BC there was two rulers in Egypt the Herakleopolis in Lower Egypt and the Intef family in Upper Egypt. In 2055 BC the Intef defeated the Herakleopolitan rulers and reunited Egypt, which started the period called the Middle Kingdom.

The Middle Kingdom lasted from 2134 BC to 1690 BC. It ended, because the last great ruler of the Middle Kingdom, Amenemhat III allowed Canaanite settlers into the delta region for a labor force for his mining and building projects. The building and mining combined with severe Nile floods, strained the economy, which created the slow decline of the Middle Kingdom. Later the Canaanite settlers started  taking land from the Egyptians. These settlers became the Hyksos. The Hyksos forced the Egyptian government into Thebes, where they had to pay tribute to the Hyksos and Kushites.

The Second Intermediate Period lasted from 1674 BC to 1549 BC. During the Second Intermediate Period  Hyksos ruled the north and their allies the Kushites in the south. After years of paying tribute Thebes challenged the Hyksos and defeated them and the Kushites in 1555 BC. After they left Ahmose I started the period called the New Kingdom in Egypt.

The New Kingdom lasted 1549 BC to 1069 BC. It ended, because Assyrians taking Egypt’s territories in southern Canaan.  Inside Egypt there was problems like, corruption, tomb robbery, and civil unrest. The high priest in Thebes gained wealth and land and expanded their power in the Third Intermediate Period.

The Third Intermediate Period lasted from 1069 BC to 653 BC. During the Third Intermediate Period Smendes ruled over  over the northern part of Egypt and the high priest ruled the south. The Libyan Berber tribes attacked Egypt during this period. The Nubians attacked Egypt and seized control of the Nile valley and Thebes. The Assyrians where trying to conquer Egypt from the Nubians. After a few tries the Assyrians defeated the Nubians from further threat to Egypt and Assyria.

The Late Period lasted from 672 BC to 332 BC. The Egyptians where being ruled by the Assyrians until they collapsed in 605 BC. Egypt was free until the Persians conquered them in 525 BC. The Persians annexed Egypt.

The Assyrians were a Mesopotamian East Semitic-speaking empire. It existed as a independent state as early as 2500 BC. After the Bronze age collapse Assyria shrank significantly, but in late 10th century BC, after the conquest of Adad-nirari II. Assyria became the most powerful state in the world at the time. The Assyrians were dominating areas like, the Ancient Near East, East Mediterranean, Asia Minor, Caucasus, and parts of the Arabian peninsula and North Africa. They conquered a lot of enemies including, Babylonia, Elam, Persia, Urartu, Lydia, the Medes, Phrygians, Cimmerians, Israel, Judah, Phoenicia, Chaldea, Canaan, the Kushite Empire, the Arabs, and Egypt. During the Bronze Age collapse the Assyrians survived mostly intact, however when their ruler Tiglath-Pileser I died they withdrew to their natural borders in northern  Mesopotamia. They collapsed due to, civil wars and other civilization uprisings. Assyrians were at very latest their independent political entity had been destroyed in 599 BC.

During the Bronze Age collapse Syria was battled over by the Hittites, Assyrians, Mitanni and Egyptians. The Arameans beat the Amorites and the Canaanites in the mid 11th century BC. They controlled Syria until the rise of the Neo Assyrian Empire in the late 10th century BC.

In the Southern Levant during the Bronze Age collapse the Shasu attacked and destroyed most of the cities in the Southern Levant. During the reign of  Rameses III, philistines were allowed to resettle the Southern Levant.

Babylonia was a colony of the Middle Assyrian Empire, which was attacked by the Mushki during the Bronze Age collapse. The Assyrians repelled the attacks, but after the death of the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser I in 1076 BC they withdrew their Babylonian territory. Babylonia was attacked by  the Aramaeans, Chaldeans and Suteans. Later they were sacked by the Elamites.