Read History with Jack 13 An Imagined Order

   An imagined order like countries, religion, and laws can construct intricate structures of cooperation networks. Through these, people can gather in large groups and cooperate with more efficiency. One early example was the First Babylonian Empire.

   The Empire started with a Semitic king called Sumuabum. He founded the Empire and expanded the territory after conquering Dilbat and Kish, two cities in Mesopotamia. He constructed walls to defend against rebellions and enemies but he did not finish constructing them. His successor called Simualilum, completed the walls around Babylon.

   After a few generations, the son of King Sinmuballit was Hammurabi, and he was destined to be a great ruler. He ruled from 1792-1750 B.C, and one of his most remarkable works was the Codes of Hammurabi. In the first few lines of this stele, he claimed that the god Marduk and several others appointed Hammurabi to make justice prevail in the land, to abolish the wicked and the evil, to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak. It also told people to submit to the hierarchical status you were currently at, and then he listed about 300 different judgments and laws. It mentioned the idea of “a tooth for a tooth” many times and you should not harm the people that are weaker and had a lower hierarchy than you. It was definitely fairer and better than previous ones, but for us today it seems ridiculous because we do not believe that higher status means different punishments .

   This code of laws was the key to the splendor of the Babylonian Empire. The Empire conquered a vast territory. It spread from the Persian Gulf all through Iraq and a little part of Turkey; this mean it controlled the fertile Tigris and Euphrates River valleys.

   It also propagated “myths” like that you should follow the laws, religion, and your king. An imagined order that this Empire encouraged was laws and hierarchies. What was laudable was that it had complicated and fair enough laws for the time. What I dislike was that its hierarchies allowed legal abuse by the strong.