**The Complex Reality:** - Babylon rose to power through **…

**The Complex Reality:**
- Babylon rose to power through **military conquest** under Hammurabi
- The Code of Hammurabi, while groundbreaking, included harsh punishments (the famous "eye for an eye")
- The empire experienced cycles of **conquest, decline, and revival** (Old Babylonian, Neo-Babylonian periods)
- Like other empires, it engaged in warfare, subjugation of neighboring peoples, and imperial expansion