Growth Of The Empires

Some of the factors that led to empire growth are: Language, trade, religion, written laws, diplomacy between leaders, and different classes of people (Nobles, Palace Officials, Temple Priests, high ranking Military Officers, the wealthy, Merchants, Common free people, and slaves).

LANGUAGE: Communication through spoken languages slowly and yet dramatically changed when different cultures met one another. When the traders and merchants traveled to other nearby villages and cities to pedal their goods, they had to learn to communicate with the peoples of those villages. At first it was probably pretty easy because the traders didn't travel too far, but as the population continued to grow over the years and centuries, merchants and traders came from farther and farther away to do business. When this began to happen, cultures and languages were exchanged. To do trading, people had to learn different customs and languages and over a period of time, some cultures and languages were either absorbed into one another or lost all together. Even the written languages, (mostly drawings or carvings) had to be learned. At first only a few people (The upper class and rich such as High Priests, Kings and PharosÐ'...) was taught to read and write, but again as time passed, the common people had to learn too. As a result, cultures, languages and even some customs changed and grew.

RELIGION: Religion made drastic changes in this era. Take for instance the EgyptiansÐ'...They had many gods as most religions of that day did. As time went on, the Egyptians High Priests said that all gods were manifestations of just three goods (Amon, Ra and Ptah). All other gods manifested themselves from these three. Then along came Akhenaten. He changed the religion from many gods to just one god (RA or Aten, the sun god). This was the first time that monotheism had been practiced. There was some dissention among the high priests of the temples who believed in many Gods even though the Pharaoh Akhenaten was believed to be a god himself. Akhenaten also built a new capital city and moved his followers to it. He and