Karduniash

### GDP

• Total: 711 million Egyptian shematy (71 AEE)• Per capita: 114.72 Egyptian shematy (71 AEE)

The Kingdom of Karduniash was one of the most powerful states in the known world, known for its immense wealth and large population, both second only to those of Egypt. However, Karduniash was also considered to be quite stagnant, as well as the weakest member of the Great Powers' Club. It was part of the Hattusa-Babylon Axis, together with the Kingdom of Hatti, and had time and again been threatened and eventually conquered by Elam and Assyria.

## **History**

### **Continuous stagnation**

Unlike most other kingdoms, Karduniash was not affected much by the calamities taking place around 0 AEE. The kingdom did sell some grain and other agricultural produce to Hatti during its struggles around 6 AEE, but due to the items having to pass through Assyria, it was inefficient and so most of the relief was done by Egypt. Karduniash continued the same policies as before, mostly leaving the populace to its own devices and not worrying too much about the global situation. Some high ranking clan officials warned the king Meli-Shippak II of the Assyrian threat, but this was dismissed and no additional fortifications were built. A plague was also spreading throughout the kingdom from 8 AEE and putting various plans on hold, and it ended only in 12 AEE. The king himself died in 13 AEE of natural causes, though some court doctors attributed it at least partly to the plague.

The king was succeeded by his son Marduk-apla-iddina I, who took a more active and aggressive strategy against the Assyrians. Some new fortifications were built and new army officials appointed, and there were attempts to sponsor coups or various other insurrections in Assyria to further destabilize it, though they all failed. Despite this, the Kassites nonetheless continued such efforts and in 21 AEE funded an uprising of ethnic Babylonians in the western part of the Kingdom of Assyria, sending the rebels many weapons and in later stages even men. The rebellion lasted for over 5 years and devastated the region, but it ultimately failed and in 27 AEE the remaining leaders were executed, forcing the Kassites to pull out their remaining assets. This cost Karduniash a lot and in 28 AEE the ruling clan decided against investing further into Assyrian destabilization efforts, however, in the coming years much of the revenues did not go towards furthering the defenses and instead were used to build more palaces, as well as temples to placate the priestly class.

In the coming years the generals constantly emphasized the threat of Assyria, but their fears were ignored oftentimes. Plans were made for an eventual war with Assyria, but the military brass stressed that was not enough and that cities in the north should be better fortified and more people made eligible for conscription. In 35 AEE there was almost an attempted coup by the military, however, some of the organizers were bribed and most of the participants dispersed before anything taking place, with the remaining commanders being exiled or secretly executed, with the Kassite clan making sure only those fully loyal to the court remained in top military positions. The throne was secure was more, but in 42 AEE the long feared war did indeed begin, with Assyria invading Karduniash and so starting the Assyrian-Kassite War.

### **Assyrian-Kassite War**

While the Kassites had thought about such a possibility for decades, once combat began, they saw how actually unprepared they were. Many of the fortifications were still not yet completed, while some were of poor quality, and towns soon began falling to the Assyrian army. Furthermore, many of the experienced generals were no longer in command, some having retired and others having been exiled or executed, and so no one knew how to deal with the advancing enemy army, which caused Karduniash to suffer some losses. Conscription was also slow and not many locals were willing to enlist into the army, which made the force smaller than the Assyrian one, despite the country having a population twice as large as that of Assyria. Marduk-apla-iddina himself went to the front to lead the army, but he was killed during the Battle of Dur-Kurigalzu in late 42 AEE, and the capital itself fell in 43 AEE.

Many court officials were killed but some had managed to escape prior to the siege and they relocated to Babylon, which was made into a temporary new capital. Due to much of the royal family being killed in Dur-Kurigalzu, the throne was usurped in 42 AEE by a prominent noble Zababa-shuma-iddina, whose ruler was not questioned at first due to the extreme situation. The siege of the former capital did slow the Assyrians down somewhat, which allowed Zababa to further prepare for their arrival, yet the northerners advanced nonetheless, even if slower than earlier. In 45 AEE cities such as Sippar and Kish fell and the Assyrians were onto Babylon itself. In 46 AEE a siege of the new capital began, and it seemed like Karduniash would fall in a matter of months. However, it was saved by an international intervention, led by Egypt and Hatti, and joined also by the Mycenaean Confederation and Elam. The intervention coalition sent an ultimatum to Ashur, ordering the king to stand down or be invaded by the entire coalition, as everyone feared saw the growing threat of Assyria and wanted to prevent the country from becoming too powerful. The ultimatum was first rejected and so the coalition advanced into Assyria, but after a change in leadership, the terms were accepted, which made the Assyrian troops leave Karduniash. The Treaty of Eshnunna was signed, which gave the Assyrians a portion of their conquests in the north, but not nearly as much as they had occupied, and Assyria also had to pay reparations for damages to Karduniash for the next 10 years. The war was over and the coalition disbanded, though tensions remained as high as ever between Assyria and Karduniash.

### **Slow reformation**

Immediately following the war, Zababa-shuma-iddina was deposed and arrested by Burnaburiash III, who had ties with the royal family. Zababa was accused of usurpation of the throne and of collaborating with the enemy during the war, despite no evidence being found for the latter claim. Nevertheless, Burnaburiash was the more popular leader among the military and the populace, and after a show trial Zababa-shuma-iddina was exiled out of the country, with Burnaburiash becoming the new king. He promised reforms to the people, including military and economic ones, though progress was slow and new projects were often derailed by the interests of the Kassite clan and the priests of various cities, who threatened to organize rebellions and have the cities secede if they did not get the asked funding. In 51 AEE Karduniash participated in the First Conference of the Great Powers' Club, where, among other things, the new border between Karduniash and Assyria was formalized and the Knossos Conventions were signed. It set international legal standards for warfare and was initiated by Burnaburiash, who saw how the Assyrians devastated Kassite lands during the war and wanted to prevent this from happening in the future. Burnaburiash III died in 55 AEE of natural causes, in his last years having given up on trying to better the situation in the country and instead working to further relations with Hatti.

He was succeeded by his son Marduk-apla-iddina II, who attended the Second Conference the next year in 56 AEE, in the Kassite held city of Nippur. Following his father's strategy, he finalized the alliance between Karduniash and Hatti, and together with the Hittite king Tudhaliya VI formed the Hattusa-Babylon Axis. Later on, Marduk-apla-iddina would also participate in the Third and Fourth Conferences in 61 AEE and 66 AEE respectively. In 59 AEE rumors began spreading about Assyria entering into an alliance with Elam and making plans about partitioning Karduniash, and in response Marduk-apla-iddina invested a bit into fortifications in the southeast, but other than that and some more minor adjustments, the status quo remained. Karduniash managed to acquire some new technologies and upgrade its military equipment, thus surpassing the Assyrian military in terms of weapon quality, but the generals stressed that there were still too few soldiers to be able to match the northern army. In 67 AEE the Kingdom of Kush was formed and some in Karduniash began proposing sending supplies and weapons to it in order to weaken Egypt and have it fight on another front in a potential war with the Triple Alliance, and this was encouraged by Hatti. Communications were established and potential supply routes were established, but full support of Kush was put on hold due to fears of breaking the fragile peace, as Karduniash was still not ready for another war. In 71 AEE the situation in the country was slowly becoming better but many still saw the kingdom and its leaders as being weak and stagnant, and not strong enough at all to fight both Assyria and Elam at the same time.

### **The Great Powers' War and the End of the kingdom**

**Spoiler warning: this section contains spoilers for the novel The Rise of Kemet.**

In 71 AEE, the Kassite king Marduk-apla-iddina II was assassinated during the Fifth Great Powers' Conference in Ugarit, along with the other three kings of the Great Powers' Club. News of this quickly reached Karduniash and the king's son Kashtiliash V was enthroned as the new monarch of the country, despite only being a teenager at the time. Thus, most of the actual power went to his uncle Kurigalzu, who was the Kassite ruling clan elder, while Kashtiliash was only the ceremonial leader for the most part. Before long, the Great Powers' War began, as Assyria invaded Karduniash and Hatti invaded Egypt, and so the two factions were now at war.

Karduniash was already faring badly against the larger and stronger Assyrian army in the first weeks of the war, but the situation became even more dire for them once Elam joined the war on the Triple Alliance's side as well and invaded Karduniash from the south. The Kassites did not have any significant victories and began losing more and more battles to their opponents, including a disastrous loss at Lagash against the Elamites, and the city of Dur-Kurigalzu being completely razed by the Assyrians. The Battle of Eshnunna was the closest the Kassites got to a major victory, but even there they eventually lost and most of their war prisoners were executed by the Assyrian army. Shortly after, the Siege of Babylon began. Knowing that they could not hold out on their own, the Kassites had sent some weapons to the Kushite rebels in Egypt from the very start of the war, hoping it would neutralize Egypt and free up enough of Hatti's soldiers to help Karduniash, but it was too little too late and no help from the Hittites arrived.

Many cities fell, including Kish, Sippar, and eventually Babylon itself in 72 AEE. After taking it, the Elamites entered the throne room and massacred what remained of the royal family, including Kurigalzu, Kashtiliash, and their families, with the monarch being killed by the Elamite king Shilhak-Inshushinak himself. Thus the Kassite royal line was wiped out and the kingdom officially destroyed. The remaining cities surrendered without much resistance, and in a matter of weeks the entire country was now divided between Assyria and Elam. The Elamite portion was formed into the Kingdom of Babylonia, a puppet state of Elam centered on Isin and ruled by Nebuchadnezzar, who had helped overthrow the Kassite rulers of the city.

## **Geography**

Karduniash contained most of the region known as Babylonia, except the northernmost portions of it, which had been taken by Assyria. It was surrounded by Assyria to the north, the Zagros Mountains, specifically the portion inhabited by the Lullubi, to the northeast, Elam to the east, the Elamite Gulf to the south, and the Arabian desert to the west. The country was located between the rivers of Euphrates and Tigris, and their many tributaries and artificial canals. The area is covered in fertile farmlands, which are considered to be the best in the known world, but the country lacked other natural resources and so had to import wood and metals from the surrounding regions. Karduniash was divided into 34 provinces or city-states, as every province was centered on and administered from the city holding the area, with the city-states having been almost the same as they had been before the Kassite takeover of Babylonia. The northern portion of the country, north of Babylon, was sometimes referred to as Akkad, while the portion south of Babylon as Sumer, though those terms were rarely in use, with the regions having merged already many centuries prior.

## **Administration**

### **Government**

Karduniash was ruled by a king, however, the Kassite clan had a lot of influence over him, making the situation somewhat similar to that in Hatti, though far less formal. The Kassite clan consisted of the king's entire extended family, and the members of it advised the king and often chose the next successor, if the son of the king was ineligible. Members of the clan also held the highest administrative and military positions in the country, including those of the chief treasurer, high priests, generals, and others. The clan elder represented the clan when needed and acted as the chief advisor of the king, as well as the ruler during the king's absence or an interregnum.

Kassites from other clans than the ruling one also often held influential positions and were given priority treatment by the government, though they were a very small minority due to all of them having been rather recent immigrants into Babylonia, where the ethnic Babylonians were still by far the majority of population. Because of this, Babylonians often were chosen for administrative positions as well, though rarely further than at the city level, and almost never in high ranking military positions, due to fear of the ruling clan being deposed. The Kassite clan ruled the country directly from the capital - first Dur-Kurigalzu, later Babylon - but the city-states were given a rather high degree of autonomy and the kingdom was the most decentralized one of the Great Powers' Club, which often resulted in the individual cities faring well but the country government being inefficient. This was done to placate the local priests and general populace and make sure they were comfortable enough to not rebel. The country was divided into 34 city-states which were ruled by the mayor of the largest respective city. Some city-states only included one city, while others, less densely populated ones, had multiple cities within, with the mayors of the smaller cities having been subject to the mayor of the city-state. All villages and agricultural areas were considered part of the closest city to them.

### **Economy**

The country in 71 AEE had a GDP of 711 million Egyptian shematy, the second highest after Egypt at the time, and a GDP per capita of 114.72 Egyptian shematy, the highest of any known country in the world, though slightly smaller than that of Egypt proper (The Kingdom of Egypt without its Kushite and Levantine holdings). Despite the government's inefficiency, the private sector and the local governments had guaranteed a good quality of life for the people, and GDP had been growing at around 5.41% annually in 46 - 71 AEE.

Having been located on the most fertile farmlands, Karduniash's economy naturally centered on agriculture, with grain and other produce having been exported all over the region, including to Hatti, Dilmun, Magan, the Lullubi, the Arabs, and to other places and peoples. Textiles were also produced abundantly and similarly exported. In the south, the fishing and shipbuilding industries were quite prominent, while the north had a notable weapon crafting industry, with Kassite and Babylonian weapons being known to be of very high quality. The main imports of the country were copper (usually from Dilmun, Magan, Hatti, and the Zagros Mountains), tin (from the Zagros Mountains and through Elam), wood (from Hatti and Egyptian Phoenicia), and various gems and jewels (from the far east). The country had one of the lowest rates of slavery, due to the lack of offensive campaigns, as well as private programs to free the remaining slaves. Karduniash also had the highest rate of women in the workforce, with most of them having worked in the agriculture, textile, and service sectors.

### **Military**

Karduniash had a small standing army of mostly Kassite and some Babylonian volunteers, and during wars more men were raised, but only Kassites were conscripted, while ethnic Babylonians were only highly encouraged to join, as the issue of conscription almost caused some revolts, which led to the system in effect being volunteer based. However, there were few Kassites and the Babylonians were rarely willing to join the army knowing its poor track record, which gave Karduniash only a small force, usually smaller than that of Assyria, despite having had twice the population. In 71 AEE the country had 30 000 soldiers and in an event of a war expected to bolster it to 70 000. Women and Assyrians were not allowed to serve in the army. To compensate for low numbers, the Kassite army focused on providing high quality weapons and armor to its troops and training them extensively, though the force was still not as professional as that of Egypt.

The army was technically commanded at the highest level by the king, though often kings preferred to wait out the conflicts and instead delegate generals to oversee the battles. The generals were always Kassites and often those from the ruling clan. Each city-state was responsible for raising its troops and then sending them to the united force to be further distributed. The army was divided into divisions of around 6 000 men, led by commanders who were often Kassites but could be Babylonians and they were subject to their commanding generals. The divisions were further divided into companies of 300 men, led by captains, and then into platoons of 60 men, led by sergeants, who were often Babylonians. The army had the standard composition of chariots in the front, manned exclusively by Kassites, followed by the heavy Kassite infantry, mixed infantry, light Babylonian infantry, and archers. The country had no official war navy, due to Assyria being landlocked, Egypt being too far away, and Elam not having had a large naval presence, and so the southern coast was not considered threatened. However, many transport ships were utilized to quickly transport goods and troops both during peace and war time.

## **Demographics**

Karduniash had a population of around 6.2 million in 71 AEE, the second highest after the Kingdom of Egypt. Only around 130 000 people were slaves, with the remaining ones being free. The overwhelming majority of the population was ethnically Babylonian, at 5.72 million (92.3%). There were around 190 000 Kassites (3.1%), 70 000 Assyrians (1.1%), and 220 000 (3.5%) belonging to other groups, such as Arabs, Arameans, Lullubi, Elamites, Dilmunians, Maganians, Hittites, and others. Most of the population worshiped the Mesopotamian pantheon of gods, even the Kassites, who had abandoned their religion and started worshipping the local deities, with very few old believers of the Kassite gods having remained at the end.

The kingdom had a literacy rate of 19.2% in 71 AEE, the highest in the known world at that point. Karduniash also had by far the highest urbanization level, at 56% of the entire population, though many urban inhabitants lived on the outskirts of the cities and still worked in agriculture. For this reason, Karduniash hosted some of the largest cities, including its capital Babylon, which had and still has the highest population of any known city. The country had an urban culture and many felt pressured to move into the cities to not miss out on opportunities, and so the already high urbanization rate continued to grow until the end. Karduniash was densely populated but could still easily support itself due to extremely high amounts of locally produced foodstuffs.

List of the largest cities in the Kingdom of Karduniash (71 AEE)
 Uruk
 Ur
 Nippur
 Isin
 Larsa
 Sippar
 Dur-Kurigalzu
 Kish
 Lagash

## **International relations**

Having been in the Hattusa-Babylon Axis, Karduniash's main and only ally was the Kingdom of Hatti, which provided it various resources such as wood and copper, and helped train troops by sending military advisors. Hatti and Karduniash often drew similarities between themselves, mostly about both the Hittites and the Kassites originally coming from the mountains and establishing a kingdom for themselves, and the sack of Babylon around 410 BEE was often referenced, as the Hittites destroyed the city and this allowed Kassites to take over the region. However, contact between the two countries was difficult because they were separated by Assyria, which often blocked traffic between them. In such cases, and when secrecy was needed, the desert route in the south or the mountain route through Hayasa-Azzi in the north had to be taken, and they were more dangerous. Karduniash was also cordial with the realms of Dilmun and Magan on the southern coast of the Elamite Gulf, trading various goods with them and having tried to push them into the Kassite sphere.

Assyria was the main enemy of Karduniash and in both wars had demonstrated that it was much more militarily powerful. Assyria did not hide its ambitions of conquering the entire Mesopotamia and only the international intervention coalition had prevented this from happening in 46 AEE. However, another war was seen as almost inevitable and attempts were made to prepare for the Assyrian invasion and at least hold out long enough for Hittite reinforcements to arrive. Elam was another enemy of Karduniash, also one which had invaded it on multiple occasions. Elam and Mesopotamia had always been rivals and the relationship between the Kingdom of Elam and Karduniash was no different, though the Kassite focus was on Assyria, which was much more threatening. However, Assyria and Elam were in an unofficial alliance, and Kassite officials correctly feared having to fight a two front war.

Egypt and the Mycenaean Confederation were also enemies of Karduniash, though they were mostly left to be dealt with by Hatti, and Karduniash had little relations with them except trading some goods. Egypt and Karduniash were also in a rivalry for being the most advanced civilization, which included literacy and urbanization rates, as well as wealth and the usage of the newest technologies. While Mesopotamia had surpassed Egypt in these spheres for a long time, Egypt was quickly catching up and it was suspected that it may surpass Karduniash in every regard in a few decades after 71 AEE if not sooner. Karduniash had also established relations with the newly founded Kingdom of Kush, and was planning on funding it, though no actions had been taken until the start of the Great Powers' War, in order to not have alerted the Egyptians too soon.