Iran

> first real empire and had 44% of the world population
>professional army that conquered the strongest powers
>banning of slavery and first human rights charter
>efficient structure of government that allowed so many ethnic groups in a state without fighting and, even the first postal system
>loved by Greeks and Jews

What went so right Veeky Forums? Hard to believe that some random horse fuckers overthrew their masters and became kings of the world. I think if the empire wasn't so short lived, we'd all be speaking Persian right now.

>banning of slavery

Acktually, there's records indicating the house of the emperor owned slaves.

>first human rights charter

The Cyrus Cylinder has nothing to do with human rights.

>professional army that conquered the strongest powers

Except for Athens and Macedon.

>first real empire

Akkadia, then Assyria

>loved by Greeks

Except for Athens and Macedon.
I'm sorry, but I love nitpicking.

>Acktually, there's records indicating the house of the emperor owned slaves.
True. But it wasn't as widely practiced compared to other states. You see stories of Cyrus and various kings condemning slavery so it's still notable

>The Cyrus Cylinder has nothing to do with human rights.
It was the first time the conquerors didn't impose their religion and culture on the conquered. People were free to believe what they want and as indicated by the Satrapy system, rule on their own accord.

>Except for Athens and Macedon.
They weren't powers like Egypt, Assyria and Babylon.

>Akkadia, then Assyria
It was the first global power.

>Except for Athens and Macedon.
They were heavily influenced by the Persians. Herodotus and several good things to say about them.

44%!?
Population estimates from 2500 years ago? I don't trust population estimates from 100 years ago.

Don't know enough about the Achievements to question their achievements though

>First real empire
That was Akkad.

>It was the first time the conquerors didn't impose their religion and culture on the conquered. People were free to believe what they want and as indicated by the Satrapy system, rule on their own accord.
Not much in the way of human rights more like Cyrus just did not give a shit about what Gods people worshiped so long as they called him the chosen of those Gods, more about practicality then care for rights. Also those right were held be cities not by people. For instance is was the right of the City of Babylon to impose it religion on the people of Babylon.

It was very much a "right place at the right time" scenario.

Iran would probably be a top 10 economy today if it wasn't for Islam and in the top 20 if the Shah was never overthrown

Iran would probably be a top 10 economy today if it didn't face economic sanctions by the world community.

Thank USA and Israel.

I wish Persia would've become the sole world Empire, not Rome.

Think about it. Slavery would dissapear and industrialization would begin much earlier. So many ethnic groups and cultures wouldn't be genocided like the Romans did, and there would be a lot less GrecoRoman degenarcy and faggotry.

>It was the first global power

That would be Portugal.

>The Cyrus Cylinder has nothing to do with human rights.
>Acktually, there's records indicating the house of the emperor owned slaves.
Pretty much this. The old meme that the Cyrus cylinder was meant to be some sorts of "human rights declaration" is nonsense. And slavery very much existed in Cyrus' empire. What was largely stopped was slavery of Hebrews.

>It was the first time the conquerors didn't impose their religion and culture on the conquered.
Of course not. Zoroastrianism was in its early days a religion of the elites. The Persian culture had just begun, there wasn't much to imposed when the new Persian elites already were basing a lot of their change in culture on older Semitic cultures.

Iran's economy under the Shah would only grow because they'd get rewarded as good USA puppets. Iran before Islam and during it had many wealthy and powerful civilizations and survived even the Mongol massive population reduction. To blame it on Islam is idiocy.

Further the Iranian regime has increased HDI at a far higher rate than the Shah ever has despite being under severe sanctions. Of course there's the typical excuse "this would happen eventually under the shah" but there is no empirical data to suggest so as the progress was slow even under this secular and pro-USA regime.

>Slavery would dissapear and industrialization would begin much earlier.
There is no reason to believe this. Because Persian empire pretty much let the own satraps do as they saw fit, slavery wouldn't have been removed as that would be an infringement on local cultures, which isn't what Persian empire was like.

And there's no good reason to think industrialization would happen earlier since the developments happening that lead to the steam engine was the product of Western Europe being in an environment of high competition but common sentiments that lead to many advancements in a short time never seen in history.

>implying the jews wouldnt mess it up

Still slavery would be extremely reduced and wouldn't be as brutal. Being a Roman slave was basically the worst possible form of slavery, in most other cultures being slave was akin more to being a war prisoner or indentured servant, while in Roman society it was hereditary and there was a much more massive slave trade.

>industralization would begin much earlier

?

>Western Europe being in an environment of high competition but common sentiments that lead to many advancements in a short time never seen in history.

But the Roman Empire had a monopoly of power in much of the civilized world, which led to stagnation. The Persians wouldn't be able to conquer the entire mediterranean due to ther powerful players, which would spark fierce competition and advance technology. Just look at the Hellenistic period. There were many powers and due to competition so many scientific achievements were made. The Roman Empire put a stop to this.

Without slavery innovations in industry would be needed.

They literally absorbed and improved on everything the previous near-east civilizations developed. Plus their administration apparatus was literally god-tier.

IT wasn't even extremely reduced during the time of Achaemenids. There's no good reason to think slavery would be extremely reason. You're thinking that way because your projecting a rosy colored view of the past because you like this particular dynasty a lot for some reason.

It may be not as brutal as Roman slavery but that doesn't mean it can't be brutal or it wouldn't be common.

Those don't come out of thin air. Industrialization makes slavery go away, not the other way around. You can't take out slavery and expect the steam engine to happen.

>here were many powers and due to competition so many scientific achievements were made.
What are you talking about? If by Hellenistic period, you erroneously mean Ancient Athens, well that was pretty much the only one doing scientific achievements. The hellenistic period, which followed Alexander's conquest, didn't bring it many scientific achievements if any.

>The Roman Empire put a stop to this.
The Romans were conquering with other powers. Ancient Persia was still a power competing with Romans from Roman to Sassanian for about 700 years. That's a lot.

>Except for Athens and Macedon
From what I read Alexander actually enjoyed Persian culture. He even wore traditional clothing whenever he was in Persia. I don't know if it was "love", It could be that he just wanted acceptance though, who knows.

>The Susa weddings was a mass wedding arranged by Alexander of Macedon in 324 BC in the Persian city of Susa

>What the Macedonians thought of these marriages is evident from the fact that the nobles all divorced their wives after Alexander's death, except Hephaestion, who died before Alexander, and Seleucus. So in spite of Alexander's precedent, the Macedonians were no more inclined to share equally with the Persians than before.

I laugh every time

LMAO I completely forgot about that. There goes that. Did you read Paul Cartledge's book by any chance?