13. The Assyrians - Empire of Iron

“Deportation may sound like a light punishment compared to execution, but it was a brutally effective tactic for crushing resistance. Human beings are so connected to landscape that this kind of uprooting had a devastating psychological impact. This technique was so effective that Joseph Stalin deported at least 6 million people from more than 20 ethnic minority groups.”

Psychology & Behavior · Leadership & Management · History & Geopolitics

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Break land attachment to break resistance

“If a clever rebellious city could simply lock its gates and wait behind their walls for the armies of Assyria to go away. And in many cases, this is exactly what they did. But in the year 745 BC, King Tiglath-Pileser came to the throne and engaged in a radical program of reforming the Assyrian military into perhaps the first truly modern army. He reformed the core military into a body of elite armoured troops. He demanded conquered territories supplied all light infantry.”

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Identify system constraint and redesign

“Determined not to repeat his father's mistakes, Esarhaddon decided on an inventive course. He named one young son king of Assyria, ruling the empire from Nineveh, and another son king of Babylon, who would rule that city while swearing oath to the Assyrian Empire. He appointed his eldest surviving son Shamash-shumukin in Babylon, and younger son Ashurbanipal in Nineveh to rule the empire.”

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Split authority guarantees conflict

“Ashurbanipal's heavy-handed approach made subject peoples incredibly unpopular. They were constantly on the verge of rebellion. Whenever this happened, the Assyrians did the only thing they knew: crush rebellions even harder and make themselves even more hated. Eventually, they were left with no other option but what Ashurbanipal did to Elam: crush enemies so ruthlessly they simply ceased to exist. But nature abhors a vacuum.”

Strategy & Decision Making · History & Geopolitics · Psychology & Behavior

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Force creates resistance loop until collapse

“Tiglath-Pileser reformed the core military into elite armoured troops, cavalry, and chariots. He demanded that conquered territories supply all light infantry, who were considered expendable and often bore the brunt of casualties. The Assyrian army pioneered use of a large engineering component: soldiers could build bridges, dig tunnels, construct fortifications and siege engines, and maintain supply lines.”

Operations & Execution · Strategy & Decision Making · Technology & Engineering

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Elite core plus engineering support

“The question of what to do with Babylon was one of the constant pressing concerns of Assyrian kings. Babylon was a proud and ancient city with distinct culture, and was so powerful it was exceptionally difficult to keep in the empire. Some kings allowed a native Babylonian to rule, which kept people happy but often led the king to declare independence when central power was distracted. Others imposed an Assyrian governor, which enraged Babylonians and led to plots and rebellions.”

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No solution to powerful subsidiary problem

“Up until the middle of the 8th century BC, the Assyrian army was made up of virtually untrained peasants plucked from their lands following the heartbeat of the seasons. When autumn came and barley grew golden in the fields, these armies had to march home and bring in crops. Otherwise, the people would go hungry. Gathering this huge army was time-consuming and difficult. If a rebellion occurred in a far corner, Assyrians had to wait until summer.”

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Seasonal constraint limits response speed

“The Assyrian army also pioneered use of large engineering component to fighting force. Assyrian soldiers could build bridges and dig tunnels, construct fortifications and siege engines, and maintain supply lines needed to keep an army going. Army engineers could even cut paths through treacherous mountains. Carvings show Assyrian men blowing into tied-up sheepskins to inflate them for use as buoyancy aids.”

Operations & Execution · Technology & Engineering · Strategy & Decision Making

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Engineering removes fixed constraints

“The Assyrians were able to rise a little bit before being swallowed up by a bigger fish. They were folded into the empires of Babylon, the Mitanni, and the Hittites, and would usually spend a century or so as a possession before throwing off their rulers and once more going it alone. Throughout this time, there was also a flourishing of Assyrian culture. They would face a challenge of astonishing magnitude around 1200 to 1150 BC, the Bronze Age Collapse.”

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Survive crisis by shrinking to core

“Much like superpowers today, the Assyrian Empire treated areas outside its boundaries as zones of extraction, where life was cheap and all that mattered was the Empire's continued access to resources. Assyria grew rich from vast wealth extracted from these areas. One text lists wealth from a single campaign: harnessed chariots, 460 trained horses, 2 talents of silver, 2 talents of gold, 100 talents of tin, 100 talents of bronze, 300 talents of iron, 3,000 bronze receptacles, 1,000 linen garments...”

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Periphery as extraction zone for core

“Tiglath-Pileser laid siege to the city of Arpad for 3 years, something that would have been impossible with the old seasonal armies. When the city finally fell, he ordered Arpad to be destroyed and its inhabitants slaughtered. It was a clear message to all who stood in the empire's way that a new age was dawning.”

Strategy & Decision Making · Leadership & Management

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Signal capability change with extreme example

“The Assyrians understood a very simple calculation: that population size meant power. They created what must have been some of the most cosmopolitan urban environments before the modern age, filling their cities with people from all corners of their empire. They quite happily filled their cities with people from conquered territories, creating cities larger than any town these peoples had ever seen, where hundreds of languages would have been heard on the streets.”

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Population size as strategic asset

“Studies of stalagmites in northern Iraq caves show the climate changed around 675 BC. There were two distinct phases: the first was one of the wettest periods of the whole 4,000-year span the stalagmites show. Assyrian fields would have been thick with barley and wheat, its grazing lands rich and capable of supporting huge herds. But this ended around 725 BC. The second period was marked by increasingly dry conditions. In fact, the region was soon gripped by a mega drought.”

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Environmental shift weakens foundation silently

“The situation that had been the Assyrian nightmare for centuries had finally come to pass: its enemies had united against it at its moment of greatest weakness. The Median king Kyaxares married his daughter Amatis to the Babylonian prince, and they joined forces for war. For the rest of that year, the joint Median and Babylonian forces pushed north. But they found that even a wounded lion can still bite.”

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Operational excellence delays structural collapse

“Ashurbanipal was possibly the first Assyrian king able to read. Reading wasn't considered a kingly activity; kings had servants and scribes to do reading for them. But Ashurbanipal had been preparing for a position in the temples before being named crown prince, and was taught to read from a young age. He was clearly proud of this, creating a collection of over 30,000 clay tablets in the first attempt to create a universal library, a place where all books ever written could be kept.”

Leadership & Management · Culture & Society · Creativity & Innovation

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Systematic knowledge collection compounds value

“Army engineers could cut paths through treacherous mountains, as King Sargon II's inscription shows: 'Mount Cimmeria is a great mountain peak that points upward like a blade of spear. Its summit touches the sky above, its roots reach down into the netherworld. It is not fit for the ascent of chariotry or for allowing horses, and its access is very difficult even for foot soldiers. I had my vanguard carry strong copper axes.”— Sargon II

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Engineering removes assumed constraints

“The Babylon problem was solved briefly: after the death of Ashurbanipal, chaos began to reign. There was fighting in the streets, and all provinces rose up in rebellion. Babylon once more declared independence, and civil war split the empire. In a startling surprise attack, the Median armies marched down through the foothills and invaded Assyria. First, they marched to the great ancient capital of Ashur. This victory must have rocked the ancient world.”

History & Geopolitics · Strategy & Decision Making · Psychology & Behavior

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First defeat signals weakness to all

“Tiglath-Pileser increased production of iron in the empire. It was a small-scale industrial revolution. Assyrian cities became increasingly smoke-filled, the furnaces belching charcoal smoke, the sound of billows and clanging hammers echoing off buildings. The use of iron allowed the Assyrians to enter the era of true mass production. They could now make arrowheads, knives, pins, and chains. Soldiers marched with iron swords, iron spear blades, iron helmets, and iron scales sewn into tunics.”

Technology & Engineering · Operations & Execution · Strategy & Decision Making

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Material abundance enables scale production

“By the year 736 BC, the empire encompassed almost the whole Fertile Crescent. It formed an unbroken corridor from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, linking up trade routes of the Indian Ocean with those of North Africa and Europe. Its roads were thick with caravans of donkeys and camels, its rivers full of barges carrying spices and precious stones, wheat, barley, and fruit, gold and silver and brass.”

Economics & Markets · Strategy & Decision Making · History & Geopolitics

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Control corridor to capture trade flows

“Esarhaddon's health began to deteriorate. He would often spend days in his sleeping quarters without food, drink, or human contact. Matters were made much worse when his queen passed away. He began writing letters to his chief exorcist and medicine man. The physician often replied with hopelessness, writing: 'How did we act that I have become so depressed for this little one of mine? Had it been curable, you would have given away half of your kingdom to have it cured. But what can we do?”

Psychology & Behavior · Leadership & Management

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Paranoia compounds into physical illness