Uniting Mesopotamia
Because Hammurabi was assisted by his allies from the north, during the war in the south, the lack of soldiers in the north led to unrest amongst his people there. The simple fact was that, while Hammurabi had been busy working on one region of his empire, things began unraveling in another. But Hammurabi continued his expansion of Babylon, and turned his forces further northward, settling any conflict in the north before it began, and quelling any dissatisfaction, soon after conquering Eshnunna. He conquered many other northern states, including a former ally, Mari. Although, other sources say that it’s possible that there was no actual war against Mari, and that instead he had surrendered, resulting in a more peaceful merge without having to battle over the territory.
Afterwards, Hammurabi’s Babylonian armies took over any of the remaining northern states. In merely a few short years, Hammurabi had succeeded in uniting all of Mesopotamia under his rule. Out of the only large city-states in the region, Aleppo and Qatna to the west in Syria maintained their own independence. During archaeological excavation and research, numerous contracts and tablets have been discovered, that support the theories that not only was Hammurabi successful in expanding his empire to include all of Mesopotamia, but that he was also attentive to every detail of his kingdom. The letters and tablets gave small insights into how Hammurabi dealt with floods, changing a flawed calendar, and supervising and dealing with the large amounts of livestock in Mesopotamia. When at last Hammurabi died, and handed the rule down to his son, Samsu-Iluna in approximately 1750 B.C., the sad fact is that he nor any of the rulers after him for some time could live up to the first king of the empire, and as a result, it slowly dwindled away.