Mesopotamia

The land between the rivers, where the territorial empire was invented and then rebuilt about once a millennium on the same two hundred miles of alluvium. Akkad, Ur, Babylon and Assyria each claimed the last one's titles; the argument over which of them was an empire at all is older than most of the states in this collection.

The line below is a time axis. Position on it is date, so concurrency is visible: concurrent polities sit side by side rather than in sequence.

8 sourced edges run between this region and another, to Achaemenid Empire, Hittite Empire, Neo-Elamite Kingdom, Median Empire, Egypt, Saite Period, Middle Elamite Kingdom and Old Elam: Awan, Shimashki and the Sukkalmahs. Those are not drawn on this line — a thread that crossed regions would assert a sequence nobody cited — but they are on each polity’s own page.

2200 BC2000 BC1800 BC1600 BC1400 BC1200 BC1000 BC800 BC600 BCAkkadian Empire 2334 BC – 2154 BCThird Dynasty of Ur 2112 BC – 2004 BCDynasty of Isin 2004 BC to 1780–1778 BCKingdom of Larsa 1910 BC – 1763 BCFirst Dynasty of Babylon 1894 BC – 1595 BCKassite Dynasty of Babylon 1595–1530 BC to 1160–1140 BCMitanni 1550–1500 BC to 1340–1260 BCMiddle Assyrian Kingdom 1363 BC – 1056 BCNeo-Assyrian Empire 911 BC – 609 BCNeo-Babylonian Empire 626 BC – 539 BC2112 BC Third Dynasty of Ur claimed legitimacy of Akkadian Empire2004 BC Dynasty of Isin claimed legitimacy of Third Dynasty of Ur1763 BC Kingdom of Larsa conquered by First Dynasty of Babylon1595 BC Kassite Dynasty of Babylon absorbed remnants of First Dynasty of Babylon1260 BC Mitanni conquered by Middle Assyrian Kingdom612 BC Neo-Babylonian Empire overthrew Neo-Assyrian Empire