Compare And Contrast Hammurabi And China

Leaders of Mesopotamia, Persia, and China had justified their rule effectively and ruled with an iron fist. All three of them were wise in their rule which allowed them to rule for such a long period of time. Hammurabi of later Mesopotamia sought to centralize state authority and to create a new legal order. Using diplomatic and military skills to become the strongest king in Mesopotamia, he made Babylon his capital. He implemented a new system to consolidate power, appointing regional governors to manage outlying provinces and to deal with local elites. Like the Egyptian pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom, Hammurabi was shepherd and patriarch of his people, responsible for proper preparation of the fields and irrigation canals and for his followers’

The laws were made to equalize society, establish justice and fairness, bring about the rule of righteousness, and protect the weak from the strong. However, the rich and poor, men and women, and elites and commoners were treated differently under the law based on their social hierarchy and distinctions, which soon became normal and accepted in society. These laws also influenced the need for one, powerful leader. It used the political power to generate bonds between the people of different races and backgrounds. The laws created the idea that the the kind is the only one with earthly powers, and all must obey him and his "God-sent" laws. The king used Hammurabi's code of laws to gain authority to rule. An example of the Hammurabi code’s harshness would be, "If a patrician has knocked out the eye of a patrician, his eye shall be knocked out”, ”If he has knocked out the eye of a plebeian or has broken the limb of a plebeian, he shall pay one-third of a mina of silver”, “If he has knocked out the eye of a patrician’s servant, or broken the limb of a patrician’s servant, he shall pay half his value (that is half the value of the servant)” (Code of Hammurabi). This shows that if an