What Countries Did the Persians Colonize?
Persia is the old name for what is known as the current day Islamic Republic of Iran, located in the Middle East. The country shares its borders with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Turkey, Armenia and Russia. Cyrus the Great (King Cyrus II) was the founder of the Persian Empire that came under the Achaemenid dynasty (successor state of the Median Empire). It is believed that in 1935 the Persian government requested countries with which it had diplomatic ties to change the country's name to Iran, the name in the Persian language. In 1959, the government under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi announced that Iran and Persia could be used interchangeably. Over time the name Iran has mostly replaced the use of the name Persia.
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Mede
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The Medes were an ancient Iranian people who spoke a form of Iranian known as the Median language. The Medes were responsible for forming a Median state with Babylon, Lydia and Egypt. In the beginning the Persians were under the dominion of the Median Empire, which was one of the four supreme superpowers in history. The rebellion led by Cyrus II, later called Cyrus the Great, in 550 B.C. conquered the Median Empire, to establish the first world empire, and the second Iranian dynastic empire - the Archaemenid Persian Empire. After defeating the Medes, Cyrus united the Medes with the Persians.
Babylon
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Cyrus the Great, the king of Persia, invaded Babylon in 539 B.C. and made it a colony of Archaemenid Persia. Babylon was the ancient capital of an empire that spanned Israel, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. It was the seat of scholars and science, and is famous to the present day for one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the hanging gardens of Babylon. At the time of the invasion, the Jews were foreign exiles in Babylon. After the colonization, one of the king's first acts was to send the exiled Jews back to their own country.
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Lydia
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In the seventh century, Croessus was king of Lydia and he attacked the Greek colonies in Asia Minor and conquered them. The Lydian Empire ruled the Greek colonies from 560 to 546 B.C. The Lydian Empire was defeated by the Persians, who made the Greek colonies part of the Persian Empire. The Persians had their own policies on colonized nations; they did not enslave the Lydians, but they were made to pay taxes to the Persian king. They also had to supply manpower for the Persian army and install puppet leaders approved by the Persians.
Egypt
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In 529 B.C., Cambyses succeeded his father, Cyrus the Great, and continued the expansion of Persia. Egypt was a natural objective of the expansion policy chiefly for its Nile Valley, the source of economic and political power in Africa. The Pharaoh Amasis formed an alliance with Polycrates of Samos, but was deserted by his ally at the time of the Persian attack. The commander of the Egyptian troops, Phanes, chose to ally himself with Cambyses and betrayed all the pharaoh, disclosing highly confidential military secrets. The Persians were successful in routing the Egyptians, adding Egypt to their growing empire of colonies.
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