1199 - 1100 BC (Of Kings and Gods)

Trojan War (1194-1172)
After the Hittite conquest of most of Anatolia, their influence increased in the western most region of the peninsula. Most notably, they began to align themselves with the powerful trade city state of Troy. At the time, the city was probably the largest Greek city, and had a choke hold over Aegean Sea trade. This power made them an ideal ally for the rapidly expanding Hittites. The two nations quickly took full advantage of the arrangement, the Hittites using Troy as a way to expand their influence more completely into north west Anatolia, while the Trojans bought into Hittite trade networks to further dominate Greek trade, now with some help from the monstrous Hittite army. But this rapid prosperity for the Trojans and Hittites came at a cost to Greece. The Trojan monopoly over trade started to weigh further on them, and they soon began to try to resist.

War with Elam (1158-1142)
After their conquest of Assyria, Kassite power was at an all time high. Not only did they effectively control the entity of Mesopotamia, but they had subsequently opened trade routes with the Hittites, which now extended as far as Egypt and even Greece. As their wealth increased, Elam, a neighboring Kingdom in Persia, was increasingly cast to the side. Previously, they had been a major trading partner with the Babylon, but with the richer lands in the west now available to them, the Kassites cast their Persian allies aside. The Elamites quickly made this worse by responding with petty raids instead of diplomacy, hurting their standing with the Kassite kings even further. The situation became worse still for Elam in 1162, when a small famine hit their nation. As the famine got worse and bled through 1161, 1160, and 1159, the king at the time, Shutruk, unable to secure anything to help his people, saw no other option but to invade the Kassites.

The invasion, lead by Shutruk himself, surprised the Kassites and threw them off guard. By the time any response had been raised, the Elamite attack had collided with the Tigris river, and was more than halfway to Ur. In doing so, they claimed a significant swath of Babylonian farmland, easily enough to support and invasion without drawing on their limited resources. As the Elamites marched towards Ur, the Kassite general Kashtil struggled to mount a defense. In fact, while waiting for reinforcements to fend off the 12,000 strong Elamite army, he was forced to send 2,000 troops to their deaths to stall his opponents. Just in time, an actual Kassite army arrived, and the Elamites were cut off from an easy conquest of Ur. Instead, the army pulled itself into a siege position, intending to take the city in a matter of months.

A bloodless takeover was not to be. Ur was well fortified, and Shutruk only had about the same amount of troops as Kashtil - hardly enough to mount a siege. However, he was unwilling to pull back, and instead brought his army into position just a mile out from the city, effectively cutting it off. Kashtil was also unwilling to move - he didn't want to risk weakening his position. Instead, he waited for further reinforcements from the north in an attempt to swell the size of his army to 20,000 soldiers, wanting to have a numerical advantage, but the Kassite court saw no immediate threat, and the reinforments thus took almost a year to arrive. With neither side willing to attack, a standoff ensued, lasting for the year before the Kassite reinforcements arrived. The only attack were a series of minor Elamite strikes against villages surrounding Ur, and a few raids on merchants.

Finally though, Kashtil's reinforcements arrived. After briefly grouping up with his army inside of Ur, the combined army marched outside the city to launch the battle. The Elamites had been prepared for this, and immediately solidified themselves into a column, pushing forward into their advancing opponents. After throwing the Babylonians briefly off balance, Shutruk tried to push his army forward. This proved to be a tactical error, and instead of falling back, the Kassite army parted itself and cut into the Elamite flanks. While they were prepared for this, the Elamites couldn't defend their flanks forever, and quickly pulled back. With their opponents now out of formation the Babylons rushed forward, in a futile attempt to finish their opponents off. The defeated Shutruk declined to engage, and pulled his army back into a full retreat.

With their city no longer under attack, the Babylonians marched southward to destroy the Elamite army. Their defeat at Ur had been a crushing blow, and they were now stranded along the Tigris river; the Babylonians had positioned themselves to the east to prevent Shutruk from again escaping. However, the Elamites still didn't want to fight, and as the opposing army marched in, they formed up for an escape attempt. Without much time to do this, they were barely organized, but after a few months of light fighting, they charged eastward. The ensuing battle was devastating for everyone involved. After almost three weeks of fighting the Kassites where tightening the noose on the Elamites, and both sides had taken heavy causalities. But as the Kassites closed in, the Shutruk began to revamp his efforts, moving all 8,000 of his soldiers towards a tony section of the Kassite line. After one more week, he broke through and fled, his army in tatters.

After the Elamite army escaped, they barely had time to regroup before the Babylonians barrelled after them. Not wanting to risk their opponent's escape again the Babylonians surrounded the Elamites, carefully prodding them into a small area, and pushing back their disorganized attacks. Finally, upon completing the maneuver, the Babylonians charged inward. Trapped in what was essentially a cage, the Elamites where cut down for hours with no room to maneuver, and barely even enough to fight back on an individual level. The army was essentially destroyed, with the few survivors being either enslaved or dispersed across the country. Now, with nothing in the way between them and control of Elam, the Babylonians marched in. At first, they faced some resistance; The border regions where the most populace part of Elam, but as they continued to destroy their opposition, Elamite resistance faded into nothing.

Only weeks after the last Elamite army was defeat, the Babylonians were rampaging across Elam, cutting apart anything in their path. Despite only two years of fighting, the Babylonians where bloodthirsty, and spent three more years raiding across the landscape. However, the raiding and pillaging couldn't last forever and by 1152, it had largly calmed down, and most of the soldiers returned home. The conquering force was replaced by permanent garrisons of Kassite troops, which soon began to enforce Babylonian laws, customs, and taxes. Slowly, this wove its way into the fabric of Elam, and the killing of the last Elamite king in 1148 solidified the change. The last piece of resistance would pop up in 1144, but was quickly destroyed by the now overwhelming Kassite garrisons. Afterwards, the King of Babylon also became the king of Elam, and by 1142, Elam was essentially assimilated as a Kassite territory, marking the end of any Elamite state in Persia.

Establishing the Elamite-Kassite Dynasty (1139-1134)
After the conquest of Elam by, the only ruler to rule both Kassite Babylon and Elam was Shuma-iddin, his brother who only reigned until 1140. However, immediately after his death, a succession crisis ensued. Tiglath, the son of Shuma-iddin claimed the throne, but his older cousin Isiarc also held a claim via his father Enlil-nadin-ahi. However, neither leader was especially powerful, their respective allies were hardly willing to die for either of them, and no one wanted a civil war. Thus instead of fighting, to two tried to gain soft power in the court, and after a few weeks, Tiglath was able to simply have himself crowned in Babylon; at the time, Isiarc was in Ur and could do nothing about it. Of course, this angered Isiarc, but knowing he was in a weak position, he decided to bide his time for an opportunity to claim the throne.

Isiarc's opportunity would come a lot sooner than he expected, only one year into his cousins reign. In 1139, the natives of Elam began to show signs unrest. While some areas had been assimilated, It was hard to assimilate people living very far beyond Mesopotamia and because of that, the unrest had been a long time coming. The royal court, despite the clear problem, virtually ignored this, seeing it as more of a throne in Tiglath's side than an actual problem. Tiglath himself probably also thought nothing of it; unrest was hardly unheard of in Elam, and even if it was worse than usual, it could hardly bring his empire down. But where Tiglath saw a slight annoyance, his Cousin saw a huge opportunity. As soon as the unrest began, he packed up from his residence in Ur, and began a journey to Elam taking only his wives and most loyal servants with him. Tiglath took no notice of this, instead focusing on a less documented problem with the Assyrians.

As soon as Isiarc arrived in Elam, he began to look for allies to help him gain an upper hand over Tiglath. The old aristocracy of the nation was largely intact, and even where they didn't have any official capacity, they maintained their wealth easily. Unfortunately, most of the ones near Mesopotamia were well out of reach for him - they had been completely subjugated by the Kassite court, and indirectly owed their fortunes and to Tiglath. However, beyond that assimilated class of aristocrats lay thousands of local leaders who held substantial power, but had little or nothing to do with the affairs of Mesopotamia, and so Isiarc began to make friends with these local leaders. Feeling ignored by the Kassites, most of these felt comfortable with Isiarc, and warmed up to him quickly. Within just months, Isiarc had already lay the ground work for a powerful set of allies in Elam.

As he did this, he became well known across the country, especially in the eastern reaches of Elam that had previously been lukewarm at best to the idea of Kassite rule. This soon spread to the lower classes, who saw Isiarc as a man looking to help them in their plight, and his generous spending and investment across the region did a lot to reinforce this. By 1136, he could hardly enter a village without being offered at least a drink and a meal, and often attended lavish feasts in the larger cities. As his popularity grew with both the lower and upper classes, he began to leverage this newfound power against his cousin, who was still generally apathetic towards Elamite problems. At first, he simply used it to get supplies which he then distributed to the locals in return for their increased loyalty. However, as he gained more power and influence, he began to set his eyes on the greater prize of securing a permanent throne for himself.

After years in Elam, Isiarc returned to Babylon and presented himself to Tiglath. Tiglath, who had finally taken notice of the unrest in Elam decided to listen to his one relative who actually had influence in the region. With the king of Babylon at his disposal, Isiarc set to work convincing him that Elam needed to be freed - under his rule. It didn't take much for Tiglath to come around to the idea. He had no interest in fighting another war over the region, and his cousin seemed competent enough. Furthermore, Isiarc didn't hold back with threats, and he appeared to have the power to start a rebellion in Elam. Weighing all of this, Tiglath came to the obvious conclusion that Isiarc should indeed be allowed to take control of Elam, and discharged him with his blessing. Sortly afterwards, Isiarc returned to Elam, and with permission from Tiglath, quickly set up his kingdom.

The First War (1150-1147)
After its formation in 1260, Canaan remained at peace for just over a century, the longest time they ever would. Throughout this time, it maintained its status as a trade power, and with Hittite help, had rapidly grown to become a significant power. However, despite its economic success, its governance remained largely unstable. After Aquelci, there had been no monarch who could really claim authority over the whole kingdom, and administration, taxes, and even the military where handled at the local level. While this was a successful model for a multi-ethnic and otherwise diverse kingdom, it created a lot of unfulfilled ambition among local leaders, often leading to small trade wars, or even skirmishes. These spats never came to anything though, and by and large, life went on. But in 1150 BC, a man arose with a plan to change that, and bring all of Canaan under his fold.

This was Aretra, the overlord of Jericho which was in turn the capital and most powerful city in Canaan. However, despite controlling this city, he wasn't the King of Canaan - in fact, no one had claimed that title since Aquelci's grandson. But Aretra did have the resources of Jericho behind him, and controlled a sizable sphere of influence by 1150. In that year, he would suffer a smaller rebellion from some petty lord, the overlord of some land outside Jericho. His brutal and swift response threw Canaan off guard, and as soon as the rebellion was crushed, his detractors began to paint him as a king crazed with power. The rebellion was quickly replaced by an alliance of cities surrounding Jericho, ranging from what amounted to farming villages up to full scale centers of commerce. With a fair sized alliance now surrounding him, Aretra decided he had no choice but to fight.

As soon as the opposing army began to move in on Jericho, Aretra split his forces (which were roughly on par with the advancing army) in half. The first stayed in Jericho to defend the monstrous city, while the half lead by Aretra himself slipped out and hid out in the countryside. As soon as his opponents, lead by a prince called Cletrua, start their siege on Jericho, Aretra launched his attack. He had his army sprint south of Jericho, where they lay waste to the now undefended farmland and quickly killing any garrisons in the area. Before Cletrua could even react, the Jerichites marched north east, where they took two of the more important cities aligned against Aretra, the sister cities of Urkalem and Salkalem. the Jerichite army soon turned this area into a defensive stronghold, launch periodic raids and daring the Cletrua to turn around and fight.

Now Cletrua and his army where left with a dilemma. If they maintained the siege on Jericho, their lands could be slowly destroyed while the city stood strong. But if they turned around, they could easily be sandwiched by Aretra's army, thus ending the whole operation. Though Cletrua and most of his closer allies advocated to hold still, those more loosely connected to him saw a lot more to gain by returning to their homes to defend them. As soon as that started, Cletrua had to start moving, even if it was only to keep his army together. Not wanting to give the Jerichites a chance to respond, he launched an ambitious attack against Urkalem, planning to take it out quickly. But the Jerichites had done their job well, and the attack was repulsed as the garrison from Jericho itself had arrived. Cletrua and his army where killed, and every area that had fought Aretra was forced to swear loyalty to him. Now in control of a huge swath of central Canaan, Aretra was easily the most powerful man in Canaan. In order to keep his power secure, he avoided declared himself king, instead only accepting the title of Prince. While it remained clear to many that the kingship was his ambition; Over the next year, he carefully manged his power, securing his territory for his posterity, should he be unable to amass further power. Of course, he couldn't avoid some fights, and was occasionally forced to conduct breif skirmishes against rebellious or invasive cities, but he faced no challenge as great or as serious as the one Cletrua had posed. In fact, most of the rebellions ended with more territory under the direct control of Aretra, or more trade for him to tax. By 1248, Aretra arguably held more power than Aquelci ever had, and started to use the name of the god Elyon to demonstrate that.

After securing control of the territory the first war had given him, Elyon brought his army to face the few remaining powerful cities under his control. The first he brought down was Jerusalem, followed by Isiaur, and Ursem, all of which retained their local rulers. After those three cities fell, there was really nothing left to prevent him to claim the kingship, and so Elyon I became the fourth king of Canaan. To be sure, nothing fundamentally changed when he became king; local leaders still held a vast majority of the power, and the areas Elyon had direct, or even indirect, control over constituted only about 40% of the kingdom. However, the kingship did signal a change in the culture, with the Kingdom becoming less fractured, and more recognizable as a single state, rather than the confederacy of unrelated clans it used to be.

Selter's revolt (1136-1128)
As soon as Elyon I changed the political arrangement of Canaan, dissenters emerged. At first, these were mostly individual grievances, quickly rectified through land grants or other retribution. This kept Elyon's detractors in check, but created a lot of instability. If the King essentially paid off his subjects to rule them, there was no reason not to stir up trouble. While Elyon eventually shifted over to making examples of some of these detractors, it was hardly a permanent solution, and the problem was passed along to his son, Elyon II. Recognizing the problem, the younger Elyon began cracking down on those who opposed him, ending the compensation of them completely. However, this soon create its own set of problems, namely a group of princes who felt Elyon II was going too far and where willing to take their power back.

This group was lead by a Prince called Selter. By most accounts, he was phonetician, but there is no solid evidence for this. Whatever his ethnicity, it is known he came from the more northerly regions of Canaan, as opposed to the central swath of land that Elyon had under tight control. At first, all Selter wanted was more personal autonomy over his holding in the north, especially Ursukar, a vital trading city. Elyon I had been initially sympathetic, but after his son's ascent, Selter's request was shot down wholesale, and new taxes where slapped on him to boot. Now enraged, Selter began to gather an alliance, mostly consisting of other land owners in the north. At first, they simply planned to cut off trade fro, Elyon, but as soon as the king caught wind of their plan, he began to assemble an army; as soon as Selter heard of this, he had no choice but to build his own army.

This escalation put both sides in a bad position. Elyon had no desire to weaken his kingdom with a war, and Selter hadn't wanted a war in the first place. But with two armies moving toward each other, there was little else to do. The first battle was fairly minor - just a skirmish around on of the cities Selter's alliance controlled. However, the battle did have the probably unintended effect of showing the seriousness of both sides, and probably made the war inevitable. As a result, the summer dissolved into a blowout between the two armies, mostly around the territory of Selter's ally Koljela. Elyon managed to avoid serious losses, but Selter was unable to do the same, depleting his army noticeably while on defense. After the first summer of fighting, Koljela had been brought under the effective control of Elyon and it looked as though Selter's rebellion might crumble as quickly as it had started.

Selter saw the problem too, and pulled his remaining allies out of Koljela's territory, leaving Elyon to rain destruction on it, eventually having Koljela executed. However, this delay gave Selter a lot of time to regroup and maneuver, and by the time Elyon was ready to battle, the rebel army was racing south, straight towards Elyon's territory. The King of course had to defend his land, so he also pulled south, chasing Selter's army. The rebels refused to engage, dodging in and out of Elyon's grasp and starting to lay waste to his land. Despite the immediate loss of land, Elyon bid his time, letting raid fro almost a year before finally stumbling unprepared into a valley. As soon as the rebels did that, Elyon moved his army to cut off the valley, surrounding them and locking them in the valley along with their leader.

The initial plan to starve the rebels out quickly proved unfeasible due to the richness of the valley, so Elyon's next course of action was to try to burn the crops. This also proved difficult, and even if it wasn't a fair amount of grain had been harvested already; the rebels weren't going to starve anytime soon. With no other option, Elyon began his attack. His army was split into three parts, two to march down either end of the valley, and one more to cover the other major exit. Surrounded and desperate, the rebels fought back with everything they had, making it even harder by adopting scorched earth tactics, burning both the crops and the stored food. The battle raged for almost a month, until the rebels finally capitulated, surrendering themselves to slavery; but in the chaos, Selter himself had slipped away, leaving his army to die.

With Selter's army destroyed, Elyon had effectively won the war. However, he wanted to prevent future dissent, and so marched his army north, and lay waste to the land still held by Selter and his remaining allies. After doing this, he redistributed the land to some of his supporters during the civil war. With that done, a more dramatic task followed - a search for Selter. The rebel general had abandoned his army with a small band of supporters, and had since vanished into central Canaan. One last time, Elyon turned his army back south, this time to comb the countryside for Selter. The elusive general kept the search going for years, slipping from one village to the next, working with a few Canaanites still loyal to him, and gaining the trust or bribing locals. In 1128, he was finally found; Elyon had him killed soon thereafter, and with that the rebellion ended.

Formation of the First Dynasty (1111)
After Elyon II defeated Selter, Elyon III took the throne and ruled in much the same way as his predecessors, with little drama. After the reign of the three Elyons, Baal took the throne in 1113. He ascended amid some resistance as Elyon III had largely avoided working on any issues during his reign, and as a result, a lot of Canaan's institutions deteriorated. This left with Baal with a lot of baggage that had to be resolved, everything from minor disputes between nobles and major trade problems with the Kassites. Making matters worse, Baal wasn't particularly popular with most of the upper classes of Canaan, giving him only so much ground to stand on in resolving the issues. After fumbling around for two years, he decided the only way to bring Canaan back on course was to redesign the system of government.

Without support from the nobles, Baal first had to bring them too him, weather or not they wanted to. So, with no other way to do that, he raised another army, mostly from his own territory but also cashing in what little support he still had. Surprisingly to him, no one tried to counter this army, so with the soldiers in his back pocket he invited some of the more powerful nobles to Jericho. There, he laid out his plan of a more powerful Canaanite king, emphasizing the need for a powerful central authority. To ensure the loyalty of his allies, he also promised them prominent places in the new order, and also made sure they would keep all their land in some capacity. With those incentives, the nobles where brought over to his side with ease. With the most powerful nobles now on his side, Baal set out to set up his new government at the beginning of 1111 BC.

The first basic idea, agreed upon by all present, was that the king should own all the land in Canaan. Nobles could retain rights to these lands, such as the right to profit from them, the right to punish crime on them, the right to raise troops from them, and other similar benefits that could be had in any combination; but the king would always have ultimate ownership. As soon as this was agreed upon, the rest came much easier. It was decided that only the King could raise an army to invade with, but any noble with rights to raise troops could defend their own land. If a Noble tried to take another Noble's land by force, the King would be obliged to join the fight against the aggressor. After all of that was decided upon, It was enforced within the year. Shortly afterwards, Baal declared the first dynasty of Canaan, signaling the beginning of the third and longest lasting political system the country would have.