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                                                                 Works Cited

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                                                                 Works Cited

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Davidson, Peter. "Achaemenid Empire." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 11 Feb 2011. Web. 24 Apr 2019.

Encyclopedia Britannica. 20 July 1998, www.britannica.com/topic/satrap. Accessed 29 Apr. 2019.

History. 25 Jan. 2018, www.history.com/topics/ancient-middle-east/persian-empire. Accessed 29 Apr. 2019.

Lyons, Dreier, editor. "Ancient Persia: Reasons for it's Decline and Fail." Google Sites, sites.google.com/a/jeffcoschools.us/ancient-persia-dreier-lyons/reasons-for-its-decline-and-fall. Accessed 26 Apr. 2019.

McCollum, Daniel. "The Persian Empire: Government and Army." Study, study.com/academy/lesson/the-persian-empire-government-army.html. Accessed 29 Apr. 2019.

Persian Empires. persianempires.com/persian-empire-technology.html. Accessed 29 Apr. 2019.

Sharbaiani, Vandad, editor. "Ancient Persian Economy." Prezi, prezi.com/928io2zrfhbi/ancient-persian-economy/. Accessed 25 Apr. 2019.

Stockdale, Nancy L. "Persian Empire." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras, ABC-CLIO, 2019, ancienthistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/574753. Accessed 23 Apr. 2019.

Teater, Emily. "The Persian Economy: Economy and Trade." Study, study.com/academy/lesson/the-persian-empire-economy-trade.html. Accessed 26 Apr. 2019.

United for Human Rights. www.humanrights.com/what-are-human-rights/brief-history/. Accessed 29 Apr. 2019.

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(Goes under Cyrus the Great under Government)

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Persia was definitely, without doubt, an important civilization with world-changing religions, cultures, innovations, economics, and kings. Although they had a lot of flaws and points of downfall and a dishonorable fall, they still left a huge impact on the world and was one of the best civilizations of all time.

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                                       Thesis Statement

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                                       Thesis Statement

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The Persian empire thrived in many categories, and sure they had some flaws, but the Persian's strengths were enough to prove themselves as the dominant civilization.

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Trade/Economy

TS: Although the Persians did have a stable trade and economical system, they did have some flaws.

Flaw #1:
The Persians had poor soil, which made it so they couldn't thrive off of agriculture, but they were still able to thrive in the world of trade. They had a strong lineup of resources to work and trade with, some that most civilizations didn't even have, which still allowed them to thrive in the economical world for a while (Sharbaiani).

Flaw #2:
The Persian taxes started to rise to extreme rates, causing chaos and outbreak and heavier taxes and depression and it was all a mess (Lyons).

Flaw #3;
The Persian kings started to hoard gold and silver for themselves without recirculation. Talk about selfish. This selfishness led to a decrease in crop production. This led to more commoners leaving and less trade. That's bad, but at least they still had great resources from their exclusive lineup of trading items (Lyons).

Government:
TS:
Persia had a stable government, but it had a downfall and it fell miserably.

Xerxes Rule:
Xerxes became ruler of Persia after the death of Darius. He was weak and cruel and lost the Persian wars to the Greeks. This caused the fall of an amazing civilization (Lyons).

Revolts:
Because of these weak rulers and mistakes of Persia, this caused revolts from people that did not understand or support the Persian rule. This is a point where a great civilization started to fall (Lyons).

Independence of Satraps:
The Satraps started to grow more independent and rouge and started to rule less as the king's honorable subjects, but as kings themselves. They started to wage war on each other and made their own laws. This is also another point where a balanced civilization started to make some mistakes (Lyons).

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Trade/Economy

TS: The Persians had an important, reliable, and functional economic and trading system.

Importance Proof:
The Persians had resources that the other civilizations didn't have, example: cattle and meat. The other civilizations did not herd cattle, which meant that they had to trade with Persia to get the resources. This helped them economically and trade wise, making them desired in the trading world (Sharbaiani).

Proof of Reliability:
The Persians had a system of roads that they would use as a trade route. This was efficient to their trading system as well as their military. When there were additions to civilization and property/land, that would increase the amount of goods, and would increase the amount of civilizations that needed limited resources from the Persians (Sharbaiani; Teater).

Proof of Function:
The Persians had a currency of coins made of silver and gold and that currency was issued by Darius I. Also back to the cattle, they were very limited to all the other civilizations, and since Persia had them, they could keep trading the beef and cattle, make them breed, and have an infinite cycle of getting more resources from
one material that no one else had (Sharbaiani).

Government:

TS:
The Persians had an operational, reliable, and powerful government system.

Satraps:
The government of Persia was split into twenty provinces that were called satrapies, which were formed by Darius I. Each were ruled by a governor called a satrap. They were appointed by the king and were usually part of the royal family. So the satrap was the administrator of it's province. They collected taxes and were the supreme judicial authority. They maintained an army and were responsible for internal security. There was a weakening in the central authority after the mid 5th century BC, and the satrapal administration was retained by Alexander III the Great and his successors (Chauhan).

Cyrus the Great:
Cyrus the Great was the first king of ancient Persia. In 539 BCE, he conquered Babylon, but also made a huge dent in human rights, in a good way. He freed the slaves and he officially said all men had the right to choose their religion. He also established racial equality. This was all recorded on the Cyrus Cylinder, which was the world's first charter for human rights ("A Brief History of Human Rights").

King of Kings:
The King of Kings, or the Shahenshah in the Persian language, was the emperor figure of ancient Persia. Though he had control over the empire, he still could be challenged by powerful nobles and court officials in practice during moments of instability, which made the position a little balanced. People still could challenge him based on ranking but he still ruled the whole entire empire (McCollum).

Religion/Culture
TS: The Persian empire had a creative and artistic culture and an original religion.

Zoroastrianism:
The Persian religion, named after the prophet Zoroaster, was Zoroastrianism. It was the world's first monotheistic religion. Zoroaster, who existed probably between 1500-500 BC, taught people to worship only one god instead of many, who which invented the religion of Zoroastrianism ("Persian Empire").

Persian Art:
Art was created in the Persian empire in many ways, including metalwork, rock carvings, weaving, and architecture. The early art included carved rock reliefs cut into cliffs. They depict events such as battle victories. They were also skilled at metalwork. They crafted golden chariots and bracelets ("Persian Empire").

Cyrus the Great:
Cyrus the Great allowed his citizens to practice their own religions, which has been said, but he ruled by the Zoroastrian law of asha. He was a man of free rights and wanted his citizens to have rights to speak their own language and practice their own religions ("Persian Empire").