With a pod in the year of 1400 BCE, your challenge is to create an Elamite hegemony over the following areas and the following parameters:

-Controls the entire region of Elam. This area does not have to be the center of the empire, but must be a section of it and its cultural base. With that said, I doubt the Elamites would assimilate to Semitic culture of their enemies, the Elamites are quite sophisticated.

-Controls Sumer and Chaldea. So, it must rule over Uruk, Ur, Eridu, etc.. The ancient cities of the land of Sumer.

-Babylonia and Akkad. So, it must own Babylon and other areas in the Semite section of the Iraqi river valley.

- Must rule or have the northern Iranian plateau as vassals. Thus, Elam must force back, assimilate or subdue the migrating Medes when they arrive. I believe that Elamite influence extended somewhat north, but not to the extent of direct rule. Make this rule direct.

-Elam must control the trade in the Gulf, that is the cities of Maqan, Dilmun, etc... Essentially, the East Arab coast and that of later Omani coast.

^ All of this can be essentially vassals or subjects. However, Elam must own its own highlands and the land of southern Iraq.
Optional:

Own or subjugate:

-Assyria
-Urartu
-Inner Syria
-Israel
-Elamite invasion at least of Egypt
-Elamite rule over inner Anatolia

Other criteria:

-Have the Elamite language replace Semitic and Sumerian languages in the southern river valleys of Iraq. Further, make Elamite a trade language common in the Indian Ocean where it can survive far into the future as a mutually agreed upon trade tongue.

-Create as many pidgins of Elamite + another language as possible. Thus, Elamite brings a similar change to that of Akkadian and Sumerian.
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Just an interesting idea I had. Elam as an ancient civilization does not receive the respect it deserves nor is it looked into as much as its contemporaries of Egypt, Akkad, Sumer, Hatti, Assyria, etc...
 
Elam thrived (as a civilization) when it was a bridge between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. So, with a POD in 1400 bCE, I would say: revive the Indus Valley economically sooner, and Elam is likely to profit from it.

(Earlier Pods with enduring IVC would be easier of course.)
 
Didn't Elam essentially evolve into contemporary Persia and do most if not all these things to begin with, though?

Achaemenid Iran was derived from the Indo-Aryan Persian populaces who had overtaken the Iranian plateau in the 900s BCE. They may have derived many things from Elam, but to say that is to say that the modern nation of Spain or the empire of the Spanish was derived from Al-Andalus' Umayyad Caliphate of Qurtubah.
 
Achaemenid Iran was derived from the Indo-Aryan Persian populaces who had overtaken the Iranian plateau in the 900s BCE. They may have derived many things from Elam, but to say that is to say that the modern nation of Spain or the empire of the Spanish was derived from Al-Andalus' Umayyad Caliphate of Qurtubah.

No, that comparison doesn't work, specifically because Spain ran out every Spanish Muslim they didn't kill and all their traditions are explicitly based on Castile and Aragon. Achaemenid Iran was a literal continuation of Elam, speaking the same language at first and continuing its traditions across a vaster region and in essence founding the first empire in human history.
 
No, that comparison doesn't work, specifically because Spain ran out every Spanish Muslim they didn't kill and all their traditions are explicitly based on Castile and Aragon. Achaemenid Iran was a literal continuation of Elam, speaking the same language at first and continuing its traditions across a vaster region and in essence founding the first empire in human history.

Okay, this is your opinion that I strongly disagree with. Regardless, I feel you are avoiding the AHC. It should be inferred by my post that it is in reference to the truly classical Elamite civilization or the one at the height of Neo-Assyria.
 

Pellaeon

Banned
Mesopotamia IIRC was their bane and the Assyrians gave them a lot of grief. So perhaps crushing Assyria, Babylon, and Ur would be a good start.

As for the Medes perhaps they could be assimilated or co-opted somehow.

If they crush and subjugate Mesopotamia and deal with the Medes they would be well positioned to benefit from trade from the east, south, and west. From there they could expand into eastern Arabia and dilmun, and from Mesopotamia into Syria then Israel.
 

Deleted member 97083

Perhaps if Ashurbanipal did not lead his campaign against Elam that led to their decline; yet the Assyrian Empire still collapses, so Elam gets a chance to swoop in and take the south.
 
With a pod in the year of 1400 BCE, your challenge is to create an Elamite hegemony over the following areas and the following parameters:

-Controls the entire region of Elam. This area does not have to be the center of the empire, but must be a section of it and its cultural base. With that said, I doubt the Elamites would assimilate to Semitic culture of their enemies, the Elamites are quite sophisticated.

-Controls Sumer and Chaldea. So, it must rule over Uruk, Ur, Eridu, etc.. The ancient cities of the land of Sumer.

-Babylonia and Akkad. So, it must own Babylon and other areas in the Semite section of the Iraqi river valley.

- Must rule or have the northern Iranian plateau as vassals. Thus, Elam must force back, assimilate or subdue the migrating Medes when they arrive. I believe that Elamite influence extended somewhat north, but not to the extent of direct rule. Make this rule direct.

-Elam must control the trade in the Gulf, that is the cities of Maqan, Dilmun, etc... Essentially, the East Arab coast and that of later Omani coast.

^ All of this can be essentially vassals or subjects. However, Elam must own its own highlands and the land of southern Iraq.
Optional:

Own or subjugate:

-Assyria
-Urartu
-Inner Syria
-Israel
-Elamite invasion at least of Egypt
-Elamite rule over inner Anatolia

Other criteria:

-Have the Elamite language replace Semitic and Sumerian languages in the southern river valleys of Iraq. Further, make Elamite a trade language common in the Indian Ocean where it can survive far into the future as a mutually agreed upon trade tongue.

-Create as many pidgins of Elamite + another language as possible. Thus, Elamite brings a similar change to that of Akkadian and Sumerian.
==========

Just an interesting idea I had. Elam as an ancient civilization does not receive the respect it deserves nor is it looked into as much as its contemporaries of Egypt, Akkad, Sumer, Hatti, Assyria, etc...
Do the Neo Elamites count?
 
The ultimate obstacle is that states in the region had notorious difficulty assimilating neighboring peoples.

Akkad and Babylon succeeded in making themselves culturally indispensable - Assyria at its height still tended to defer on certain religious matters - but that's a lesser feat. Assyria systematically indoctrinated local elites and relocated/dispersed rebel communities, yet to little effect. Most provinces apparently defected at most opportunities.

Assimilation in the Middle East seemed to come out of folk movements - Akkadians mixing in Sumer, Aramaeans all over, Persians in ruined Elam, and the Arabs of course. All tricky models to duplicate. Only the last was done by a state, for one.

Politically the non-optional bits aren't at all prohibitive. Elam accomplished most of the same in OTL, though not for any great duration. It's the Elamite-speaking Lower Mesopotamia that's hard to figure.
 
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