00:00 In the ancient past, the king of Akkad, Naramsin, defeated his enemies and established the world's first empire in Mesopotamia.

04:46 The concept of civilization is flawed and privileges certain characteristics, but Mesopotamia was important in the development of the state and empire, with the Akkadian Empire being the first and serving as a model for future empires.

09:25 During the early dynastic period in Mesopotamia, there was a high level of urbanization and continuous conflict between city-states for control of territory and trade routes, leading to the rise of the Akkadian Empire under Sargon.

14:18 The empire that Sargon of Akkad and his successors built was a fundamentally new way of understanding political power, rulership, and the state, based on territorial rulership rather than the boundaries of a hallowed and ancient city, and it was built on the bones of the slain and the backs of the defeated.

19:11 The Akkadian Empire, led by Sargon of Akkad, was able to wield power differently and more effectively than previous rulers in Mesopotamia due to their outsider status and their ability to break away from the traditional city-state mindset, ultimately establishing a new kind of royal power based on military strength and territorial control.

23:47 Sargon of Akkad's royal inscriptions present him as a favored and deputized king by the gods, emphasizing his conquests, destruction of city walls, and claim to universal kingship, but it is difficult to construct a detailed narrative of his conquests due to the propagandistic nature of these inscriptions.

28:05 The Akkadian Empire was characterized by a sophisticated administrative system that included land transactions, appointments of administrators and officials, and detailed records of productivity and resources, which allowed them to bind the old urban centers of Mesopotamia to their new empire in various ways.

32:40 Sargon and his successors shifted the focus of temple power from local cities to the king of Akkad, as seen in Sargon's installation of his daughter as the leading priestess of the goddess Inanna in Ur, linking the temple's wealth and lands to the king; however, despite these efforts, the Akkadian Empire faced a massive revolt after Sargon's death, which was brutally crushed by his son Rymush, resulting in the deaths and capture of thousands of enemies and the prevention of future rebellions.

37:35 Rymush and his successors confiscated and granted large amounts of land to Akkadian officials, including military captains, further reducing the power of the temples and creating a new elite loyal only to the king; however, a massive revolt broke out during the reign of Sargon's grandson, Naramsim, which was brutally crushed in a single year of nine massive battles resulting in a body count of 95,340, solidifying the stability of the Akkadian Empire for decades to come.

42:16 The Akkadians engaged in a full-scale imperial project, with a network of military garrisons, colonies, and trading posts, as well as dynastic marriages and installations of their generals or relatives as kings in newly conquered places, demonstrating a multifaceted form of imperialism; however, at the core of the Akkadian Empire was always war, conquest, and death, with rebellion being met with brutal force and the kings of Akkad counting the bodies they created.

46:41 The Akkadian Empire eventually shrank back to its core territory and became a mere province in the empires that succeeded them, serving as both a model and a warning to future rulers, as divine favor could easily be withdrawn and the gods were easily offended.