The Iron Age (History summarized on a map) Explained

this video is a quick overview of the Iron Age the Iron Age is one of three metal ages during which prehistory slowly transitioned into recorded history the Iron Age followed the stone copper and bronze ages during which Humanity built the first cities states and Empires the Iron Age occurred in different times in different places in most regions the term is Norm qualified like the Iron Age in China the Iron Age in India or the Scandinavian Iron Age when the term Iron Age is used it usually refers to the Iron Age in the near East the near East or Western Asia was a hub of development of many early civilizations near the end of the Bronze Age vast metropolises long-distance trade networks booming economies massive Imperial armies comp Le Lex diplomacy sophistication and childish prideful bickering that is remarkably similar to today's world were all endemic of that time this vast system of great powers that had slowly developed over a 2,000-year period suffered a perfect storm of catastrophic events the devastation caused by a long series of wars fought between the great Powers was compounded by a breakdown in trade relations economic collapse plague and Marauders from the mountains deserts and sea all of this bad stuff led to a collapse of the most advanced civilizations on Earth at the time many urban areas were completely depopulated irrigation systems destroyed and Farms abandoned and even the ability to read and write vanished in some regions for centuries and it was in this darkest of Dark Ages that the Iron Age began in the century following the Bronze Age col coll apse Egypt Assyria and Elum all tried to fill the massive power vacuum in the region they all failed the surviving great Powers exhausted and overextended devolved in a cheap knockoff versions of their former power and Glory population decline Civil War and crashed economies plagued the grand old corpses of the once formidable Empires and these declining authoritarian states were some of the nicer places to live in at the time the rest of the region became dominated by a vast collection of small semi-nomadic familial Clans and tribes advancement of art architecture science and agriculture ground to a halt human Ingenuity increasingly was only focused on War and the greatest problem of the age was that the primary material of War bronze was an incredibly short supply bronze is made from an amalgamation of 90% copper and 10% tin although there there were a few sources of copper to be found in the ancient near East the vast majority of the tin used to make bronze was imported from far off lands much of the tin came from as far away as Central Asia the island of Britain and the Iberian Peninsula the vast complex network of trade routes that had brought tin into the near East collapsed with limited options available an alternative to bronze was needed copper and stone could be used but they were quite inferior to bronze iron ore in contrast was relatively plentiful compared to the copper and Tin ore needed to make bronze although iron smelting had been known for centuries before the Bronze Age collapse the end product was vastly inferior to bronze early iron was a very poor quality even after impurities were removed it was softer than bronze and did not hold an edge very well the first great innovation of the Iron Age was carbonization the process of adding carbon to the IR IR this produced cast iron while significantly harder than pure or rot iron cast iron was very brittle and cracked when under significant stress while rot or cast iron could effectively be used for spear points or arrowheads these metals were not ideal for blades but the metal could be great for a variety of Civilian Tools in order to get the balance right between iron that was too hard or too soft Innovations slowly developed in the early Iron Age to improve the metal like tempering a process of heating and cooling or forging blades that had many alternating layers of soft and hard iron skilled blacksmiths that could get the carbon content of a blade between the approximately half% range needed produced steel exactly when and where the knowledge of Iron and Steel working spread from is unknown because chaos Ruled the Land a weakened assera and ilum were beset on all sides by Mountain Men Marauders as well as tribes and Clans that had poured out of the wastelands instead of going monoi mono with the Marauders Egypt had a very different strategy the Egyptians emptied their Treasury and hired nearly everyone who threatened them nomadic Libyan tribesmen were the most formidable threat to Egypt after terrorizing Egyptian towns and cities from the West they were hired in great numbers to fill the r anank s of the Egyptian Army in addition to the libyans one of the other peoples in Egyptian service was the pelet they were one of the sea peoples who had ravaged the coasts of the Eastern Mediterranean near the end of the Bronze Age collapse after the paradic band of Maritime murderous Marauders had menaced the Mediterranean there may have met an end in the Egyptian marshes the Egyptians resettled the surviving captive pelet to guard their eastern border shortly after the pelet became independent dependent Amalgamated with the local Canaanites and formed the Philistine civilization urban life had been decimated or obliterated throughout the region the first place where it recovered was the Levant the eastern coast of the Mediterranean in the north Hittites who had survived the collapse of their empire and some of their former vassals formed a loose Confederation of city states on the rest of the coast between the Neo hittite and Philistine city states the indigenous Canaanites which had long been dominated by Imperial Powers began to economically Thrive and increase in population Mesopotamia which had long been at the Apex of civilization power and Prestige was overrun by nomadic herdsmen from the Wasteland most notably the arameans the most fearsome and warlike people of their day many of the southern neo-hittite city states came to be ruled by aramean Warlords when not marauding or terrorizing the very formid Assyrians the arameans were content to fight amongst themselves if they had ever United they would have likely formed a very powerful Empire another group of semi-nomadic herdsmen the Hebrews conquered the southern Canaanites the northern Canaanites today are known as the Phoenicians their city states were the first to revive longdistance trade consequently they became very wealthy once Mighty Babylon and its surrounding cities were not enjoying the prosperity of the Phoenicians their cities had been sacked and their temples looted and every time the resilient survivors in the region began to rebuild plague famine Marauders or another invasion of the elamites knock them back down to where they were before and the Babylonian King was often little more than a warlord holding on to a prestigious pile of rubble in Anatolia small fortified towns on mountain tops and outcroppings began to appear the two most notable were gordian and and Sardis which would later evolve into the kingdoms of friia and Lydia on the southern coast lysan pirate Kings did their best to be a counterproductive force in the region far to the West the Meenan Greek collapse had been so complete that even 100 and2 200 years later there was little to no signs of any recovery only on the island of uvia or Evia did permanent settlements reemerge on Mainland Greece most survivors reverted to being semi-nomadic herdsmen while the confederations of city states like the Neo Hittites Phoenicians and Philistines were somewhat stable the larger kingdoms suffered from chronic infighting the Assyrians were frequently embroiled in dynastic struggle as were the Hebrews and the Egyptians with both Their Kingdoms splitting in two while Egypt had two competing pharaohs they maintained the illusion of a false united front in the early 10th Century as the region was embroiled in constant small scale war between fedeline Kingdoms City States tribes and clans iron technology improved the cost decreased and the quality increased bronze weapons were being replaced by affordable quality Iron weapons at an ever increasing rate because iron ore is many times more plentiful than either copper or tin needed to make bronze iron weapons became far more accessible to small kingdoms States and tribes during the late Bronze Age it typically took the ruler of a powerful Empire to have enough resources to equip a large army as the Iron Age progressed even the ruler of a much more modest State could hope to equip many thousands of troops with iron weapons The increased difficulty of conquering small states may have been a contributing factor why no large empire arose in the early Iron Age in the mid 10th Century BC the Libyan Pharaoh shosen reunited Egypt ending native Egyptian rule then to demonstrate Shen's red ion of the crumbling Egyptian Kingdom he raided the land of Canaan in particular Judah where he carried their wealth back to Egypt the libyans kept Egypt stable for a century until their ruling class fell into inviting like the Egyptians had done before them by the end of the 10th Century BC Assyria was resurgent they had survived two of the toughest centuries in human history on flat land with little to no natural defenses they were battle hardened and out for vengeance primarily against the arameans the Assyrians cultivated the belief that their God Asher demanded that they go to war each and every year many of these campaigns were to acquire more territory from the arameans and many other campaigns were waged in search of Iron and Steel the Assyrian Flatlanders regularly raided the citadels and towns of the mountain men they demanded a tribute give some medal or get some in not nice way with the large amount of iron that Assyria had hoarded they were able to equip their common Soldiers with quality weapons and armor the fiercely independent Mountain tribes north of the Assyrians were so sick of being raided that they united into a single Kingdom or R2 which would prove to be a longtime formidable foe of Assyria the Assyrians also raided far off lands in search of horses after obtaining and breeding horses that were large and powerful enough Assyria became the first country to field a large Cavalry contingent in its Army which gradually replaced chariots Assyria inative use of Cavalry on the battlefield was complemented by their significant development of Siege technology which included mobile Siege towers and battering rams ass Syria's Innovation and warfare technology including the largescale production of iron weapons and armor was one of four factors that led to a serious unprecedented conquests and expansion to two Assyria created the first professional National standing army in history so instead of Waging War Between the planting and harvest Seasons they could wage war all year long every year three in addition to their competence in war Assyria was feared for their over-the-top sadistic cruelty Assyrian Kings frequently boasted of the massacre of entire cities and the brutal manner in which they did it often fortified enemy settlements would surrender to the Assyrians without a fight four Assyria created a concept of citizenship non- Assyrians and their descendants could become a Syrian by worshiping the god Asher and serving in the Assyrian army the long time scorge of the Assyrians the arameans became a Syrian in such large numbers that the common language and later official language of the Assyrian Empire became Aramaic as the ranks of the Assyrian Army swelled with those who wanted to be on the winning team towns cities and Kingdom after kingdom was destroyed or vassalized by Assyria during the later 8th Century Egypt's fractured Libyan dynasties which had spent over a century squabbling among themselves was conquered and United by the Nubians the Conquering Nubians made Egypt great again they rebuilt the Egyptian economy and modernized the Army and then they made a big big mistake during Assyria subjugation of the Levant Egypt's Nubian Dynasty waged campaigns in support of philistia and Judah stopping the Assyrian tide was ultimately unsuccessful and it put Egypt at the top of Assyria enemy list it took the Assyrians multiple campaigns over a 10-year period to fully subdue Egypt in the mid-7th century BC Assyria seemed Invincible as it reached the Pinnacle of its power and might however several new formidable Eastern iranic peoples were encroaching around its borders early incursions by the samans skians mes and Persians were all defeated it would take more than an outside force to topple Assyria internally Assyria was despised by its fils who rebelled when Assyrian weakness was detected in 626 BC the Babylonians successfully revolted and gained their independence after consol validating their power the mes made an alliance with the Babylonians and defeated Assyria both the Babylonian and the median Empires enjoyed less than a century of power and prosperity before being rapidly toppled by the Persians like the Assyrians before them the Persians conquered the largest Empire in history up until that point in time the ented Persian Empire stretched from indis River in the East to the Greek city states in the west the Persians tried and and veiled to conquer the Greek city states the small Kingdom of Macedon did succeed in conquering the Greeks macedon's King Philip planned to attack the Persian Empire but he died his son Alexander conquered the Persian Empire while great at conquering Alexander was not very great at Staying Alive very long after he got sick and died his generals split up the Empire and squabbled amongst each other the age after the death of Alexander is known as the helenistic period some consider this to be the end of the Iron Age while some consider the rise of the Persian Empire to be the end of the Iron Age which is the more traditional date the end of the helenistic period the fall of Western Rome or the rise of the Arab empires are all fine points to end the Iron Age as when the Iron Age ended I believe is somewhat subjective and is meant to be an academic tool for compartmentalizing time in any case the Iron Age witnessed dramatic change from a near East dominated by tribal Clans in the centuries following the Bronze Age collapse to the reemergence of powerful states and Empires initially the development of ironworking technology in the ancient near East enabled the independence and productivity of small states these small states grew in population and prosperity Assyria utilized the power of iron to wage war on a new massive scale after Assyria a new Epoch of massive Empires began because iron or is far more plentiful than the copper and Tin needed to make bronze the proliferation of ironworking Technology led to the increased development of power centers outside the near East like Rome and Carthage to the West ironworking technology also empowered nomadic tribes across Eurasia to become far more dangerous to settled peoples in conclusion the Iron Age saw Humanity slowly recover and come back stronger than before after one of the most apocalyptic scenarios to ever set back civilization this has been Epimetheus and in the near future I hope to come back stronger than before with better videos and more videos thank you so much for watching and a big thanks to my wonderful patrons