During the Iron Age that followed, the Near East underwent an even deeper transformation as the Neo-Assyrians created the first empire to control both Mesopotamia and Egypt. After the challenges to Mesopotamian civilization created by the invasions of the Amorites and Elamites, a succession of new empires emerged.

In the 1700s BCE, King Hammurabi transformed Babylon from a minor city-state to the center of a vast empire. At the start of the 1500s BCE, the Hittites exploded out of Anatolia, sacking Babylon and later competing with Egypt for supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean.

Iron Age — the period beginning around 1200 BCE when iron became the preferred material for manufacturing tools and weapons. vassal state — a state or kingdom that is nominally independent in the running of its internal affairs but must submit to the demands of a dominating empire and usually provide tribute to it. chattel slavery — a form of slavery in which one person is owned by another as a piece of property. satrapy — one of twenty governing districts in Persia administered by royal governors called satraps , who answered directly to the king.