Kings And Sovereign Rulers The Dynastic Queen Of The...

Unlike modern monarchs and sovereign rulers, like the dynastic Queen of the United Kingdom, rulers in the ancient Near East rarely served as mere figureheads of governments, consulted solely for ceremonial roles and diplomacy. Though some kings in the ancient Near East inherited their positions, no kings could retain such power in a continuously unstable area without a strong military to protect their holdings and an effective method of ruling the peoples within them. Many kings in the ancient Near East obtained and thereafter maintained their positions of power based on several principal factors: military standing and ability, the scope of their external conquests, and their ability to control their citizens by use of military or monetary force. Some such examples of ancient Near Eastern monarchs include Gilgamesh, Hammurabi, Shalmaneser II, Sennacherib, and King Nebuchadnezzar, men whose rules spanned thousands of years but who all had the aforementioned factors in common. The most common trait amongst these kings is that they were primarily warrior kings, in that they either served personally in the battlefield or sent men into battle with great regularity. The people of Uruk under Gilgamesh lamented at his tendency to defeat their sons in battle, going so far as to say that â€Å"no son was left to his father.†1 Furthermore, all throughout the text of the black obelisk of Shalmaneser, he claimed to capture, conquer, and attack copious locations, then to slay—as with theShow MoreRelatedMonarchy Is The Oldest Form Of Government1657 Words   |  7 PagesMonarchy is the oldest form of government in the United Kingdom. In a monarchy, the king or queen is Head of State (or Sovereign), but the ability to make and pass legislation resides with an elected Parliament. Although the British Sovereign no longer has a political or executive role, he or she continues to play an important part in the life of the nation. The Monarch also has constitut ional and representational duties which have developed over the past one thousand years. In addition to the StateRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 PagesAssociation. D421.E77 2010 909.82—dc22 2009052961 The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992 Printed in the United States of America 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 C ONTENTS Introduction Michael Adas 1 1 World Migration in the Long Twentieth Century †¢ Jose C. Moya and Adam McKeown 9 †¢ 2 Twentieth-Century Urbanization: In Search of an Urban Paradigm