How Did Persians Build A Vast Empire

The Persian Empire held together a huge empire using a combination of effective ruling techniques. The Persians succeeded where most of the ancient world failed. Persia became successful because of its tolerance, their government, and their prosperous economy.
Persia sought out to create a kinder kingdom and did not destroy local cities and states for their own selfish gain. Cyrus the Great ruled like no other leader in his time. He created tolerance for other people’s beliefs of religion, traditions and customs. This meant that he had more respect for people and more people respected his rule. With every city he conquered, he freed the enslaved people and allowed the people to worship and live as they please. For example, in Jerusalem
he freed these people, who were enslaved for fifty years, to return to their holy city and allowed them to rebuild it. Cyrus also allowed previously exiled people to return back to Persia and he was seen not as a conqueror but as a liberator. Persia saw the importance of unification within its empire and created universal laws, used a universal weight system, and created a universal money system. This allowed trade and communication between the many different cultures to run more smoothly. Even though Persia sought out to unify everything, they still allowed people to speak their own language and have their own religion, but encouraged these people to use the universal laws and systems. Cyrus and many kings that followed him carried out fair laws among the various different cultures. With the empire being so vast, Darius and Cyrus created a communication line that connected most of the cultured empire. With the many expansions, Cyrus and following kings allowed the many different groups of people to carry on with their lives and did not force Persian ways and this allowed Persia to become such a powerful and successful empire. By creating these laws and having tolerance of people’s beliefs, Persia found success and a way to create a smooth and powerful empire.
Persians created a unified central government that led to the success of the vast empire.
Persia’s government ruled like the Mesopotamian kingdoms with a hereditary monarchy. The land was split into twenty-nine satrapies that were allowed to self-govern themselves, which gave these people more freedom. With the freedom to self-govern, the satrapies did not revolt and gave the Persian government less to worry about. Even though they each were allowed to govern themselves, the king had power of them by appointing a secretary and a military commander to each satrapy. The king also chose inspectors to go to different satrapies and report on each one so the empire was all connected. The Persian government created a postal service throughout the vast empire that used horses to get mail from each satrapy and the capital city at an accelerated rate. With the empire being so vast, the government did not interfere with local religion, customs, and trades as long as the citizens paid their taxes and kept their peace. The Persians were noted for their justice and one of their greatest accomplishments was the creation of unified laws that applied to everyone in the empire. The Persian military also helped with the government and created more success by placing the troops strategically so they could put down rebellions and gain control of neighboring land. Without the government being so centralized and free, Persia would not have seen as much expansion and success as they
did.
Persia created more success by creating an economy through agriculture and irrigation. The Persian empire was covered in huge estates and allowed agriculture to flourish. These estates were farmed by tenants, or worked directly by hired labor or slaves. Persians relied on agriculture for means of survival and created a new irrigation system that ran underground from the hills to plains to allow farming to expand and flourish. Trade within the empire was very encouraged and the government created an extensive road system of trade routes that were maintained by the state to encourage trade. King Darius connected trade routes in the Arabian sea and the Persian Gulf to Egypt which increased trade between other nations and made Persia even more successful than it already was. With the increase of trade and the improvements in agriculture and irrigation, Persia created great success and found ways to be a more efficient.
The Persian Empire found ways to rule its large and vast empire through successful ruling techniques. The Persians succeeded where most of the ancient world failed. Persia found their success in tolerance of people’s beliefs and culture, their government tactics, and its economy and trade.