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Admin moved page What Was the Significance of the Near East Middle Bronze Age System? to What Was the Significance of the Near East Middle Bronze Age System
===How the System Worked===
[[File: HammurabiCode.jpjpg|300px|thumbnail|left| Map Showing the Borders of the Major Kingdoms in the Middle Bronze Age Near EastHammurabi's Law Code]][[File: Hammurabi’s_BabyloniaHammurabis_Babylonia.png|300px|thumbnail|right| Map Showing the Extent of Hammurabi’s Conquests in Mesopotamia]]
The geopolitical system that the states of the Near East constructed in the early second millennium BC is believed by many scholars to have resembled the later, better known Late Bronze Age system in the region. The manner in which the major states dealt with the smaller, weaker states was also probably similar, although much less formal and rigid. <ref> Munn-Rankin, J. M. “Diplomacy in Western Asia in the Early Second Millennium B.C.” <i>Iraq</i> 18 (1956) p. 75</ref>
===The End of the System===
Hammurabi’s conquest of his neighbors put an end to the dynasties in Larsa, Eshnunna, and Mari, <ref> Mieroop, Marc van de. <i>A History of the Ancient Near East: ca. 2000-323 BC. Second Edition.</i> (London: Blackwell, 2007), p. 111</ref> which threw the entire system into political turmoil. Despite Hammurabi indeed did cause plenty of turmoil for the instability Hammurabi causedstates in Mesopotamia, it was his wars of conquest were not the end of the system.
Despite surviving the Babylonian onslaught, Yamhad and Qatna were not spared the extreme political transition that was taking place in the period. Yamhad was destroyed by the Hittites in 1595 BC, <ref> Macqueen, Jack M. <i>The Hittites and Their Contemporaries in Asia Minor.</i> (London: Thames and Hudson, 2003), p. 44</ref> and although Qatna survived into the Late Bronze Age, it became a virtual buffer state between the Late Bronze Age powers of Egypt, Mitanni, and Hatti. <ref> Pitard, p. 43</ref>
===Conclusion===
