“The Assyrian Empire vs, The Phoenician Empire”

“The Assyrian Empire vs, The Phoenician Empire” Within the Assyrian and the Phoenician Empires there was truly a contrast in their institutions, goals and values. While the Phoenicians conducted a society based on trade and religion, the Assyrians mainly focused on expansion and control. Moreover, both empires had their strengths and weakness within their respected societies. During this time period the Phoenician and Assyrian empires differed in just about every aspect of society. While the Assyrians were an absolute ambitions empire that sought out territorial expansion and control of trade route and cities, the Phoenicians made no attempt to build a territorial empire and focused more on the creation of trade routes and ports. Also, the Assyrian empire tok much interest in huge labor forces for agricultural work and building projects, while the Phoenicians also put more work towards the innovation of ship building and seafaring, rather than building projects and agriculture. These two empires also had an absolute contrast when it came to their goals and values. Within the Assyrian empire, there were massive armies that were well trained and ruthlessly disciplined. This not only reveals how much the Assyrian relied on conquering land but it also shows how much they valued their military. On the contrary, the Phoenicians were more of a social empire that political, much like the mesopotamians; the Phoenicians saw religion as very important along with laws, science and writing. This goes on to show that the Phoenicians valued the human ming and spirit. In addition, the Assyrian empire created a cruel propaganda machine to support and justify their system of expansion and inequality. Therefore showing how much the Assyrians truly valued their interest in expansion if they were willing to lie to their people to make it alright. In contrast, the Phoenicians saw no point in seeking to lie to their people to make it alright. In contrast the Phoenicians saw no point in seeking out new territories mostly because their coastal cities made them ideally situated to develop trade in the Mediterranean, which does to show that the sea and trade was a way of life for the Phoenicians. Also, the Assyrians has a rigid social structure that was not only made of mostly peasants but it also left women without any control of their own lives, which provides the thought that most people within the Assyrian empire were seen with no value at all. With that said, Phoenicians were more of a society based off religion and would even conduct sacrifices for their gods and at times children would also be sacrificed, which truly shows how much the Phoenicians valued their gods and religion. Moreover, the Assyrians and Phoenicians had completely opposite views of how to work a civilization. The Assyrians and Phoenicians definitely had different ways of conducting a society. Although, one was focused on expansion and the other on trading, they both made do with what they had. In Conclusion, These two Societies truly differed when it came to their institutions, goals and values.