The history of Israel dates back approximately to the 17th century BC, documents that were found during excavations in Mesopotamia confirm this fact. These documents described the nomadic life of Patriarch Abraham, his son Isaac and grandson Jacob, and this story is also described in the Old Testament. According to legend, Abraham was called to Canaan in order to gather around him a people who believe in one God, but this place was overcome by hunger, and this venture was not crowned with success. In the name of saving their kind, Jacob, his 12 sons and their families went to Egypt in search of a better life, where in the future their descendants were enslaved. The history of ancient Israel is unusually complex and interesting.
Moses and Torah
The Egyptian captivity lasted for four hundred years, and only Moses, who appeared in the history of Israel by God's providence, led his people out of Egypt. For forty years they wandered in the Sinai desert, and during this time a completely new generation of free people was formed, to whom the Torah was given,or the Pentateuch. It contained the famous Ten Commandments.
For two hundred years, people not only reached the Promised Land, but also managed to increase it several times, which allowed the Israelis to settle in the territory and lead a communal lifestyle. Of course, there were internecine wars, which especially appealed to the inhabitants of the Mediterranean coast. It was very dangerous to confront them separately, so the tribes were forced to unite into a single whole. This stage is one of the most important in the history of the formation of the state and the creation of the kingdom of Israel.
Kings of Israel - Saul, David and Solomon
King Saul is famous for being the first king after the establishment of the Kingdom of Israel, around 1020 BC. However, he turned Israel into the most powerful state in the region, significantly expanded the lands and glorified them King David, who lived around 1004-965. BC. It was during the years of his reign that the confrontations with the inhabitants of the Mediterranean ended, and the borders of Ancient Israel expanded from the shores of the Red Sea to the Euphrates, Jerusalem was recognized as the capital of the state, and all 12 tribes of Israel united.
King David was succeeded by his son Solomon, who lived and ruled around 965-930. BC. The main task of the reign of King Solomon was not only to preserve the we alth won by his father, but also to increase them. In his policy, Solomon relied on economic growth, the construction of new and the strengthening of old cities. In addition, the king took up the cultur althe life of the state. It was on his initiative that the Jerusalem Temple was built, which in the future became the center of not only the religious, but also the national life of the Israelis. The reign of King Solomon is one of the brightest stages in the development of Israeli history.
Babylon and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem
But history would not be history if after dizzying successes crushing falls did not follow. The death of King Solomon led to a violent uprising that divided the state into two kingdoms. The first part is northern, with its capital in Samaria, the second part is southern - Judea, with its capital in Jerusalem. Northern Israel existed for about 200 years, but in 722 BC, Assyria captured this part. In turn, the Kingdom of Judah celebrated 350 years of independence, but in 586 BC fell under the pressure of Babylon. Both parts were conquered, and the result was the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, which was erected by King Solomon as a symbol of the unity of peoples. The people of Northern Israel were expelled, and the inhabitants of Ancient Judea were captured by King Nebuchadnezzar. In history, this event was called the Babylonian captivity. Despite the fact that Jewish statehood came to an end, the Jewish diaspora took its beginning, and it was after these events that Judaism began to develop as a religion and way of life outside of Ancient Israel. Thanks for this should be said only to the Jews, who, despite being scattered all over the world, managed to preserve their history, traditions and identity.
Reclaiming the land and rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem
The first Return of the Jews took place in 538 BC. At that time, about 50,000 Jews, led by Zerubbabel, on the orders of the Persian king Cyrus, who conquered Babylon, went back to Israel. The Second Return took place almost immediately after the First, headed by Ezra the scribe, the result of the resettlement was some self-government, which the Jews who settled in their native land received. It was at this time that the Israelites rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem. But the happiness of the Jewish people did not last long: in 332 BC, the troops of Alexander the Great entered the country, who subjugated Ancient Israel to Syria. The Jewish people retained only religious independence.
Roman rule, the King of the Jews and the destruction of Jerusalem
The Hasmonean uprisings forced the Seleucids to recognize the independence of Judea, and after their fall, the Jewish state was finally revived, but the calm did not last long. The formation of the Roman Empire led to the transformation of the land of Israel into a province of the Empire, and Herod became the head of state in 37 BC.
The beginning of our era - the birth, preaching, condemnation, crucifixion and resurrection of the King of the Jews, Jesus Christ. And after the death of Herod, the territory of Israel was filled with fierce battles, as a result of which Jerusalem was completely destroyed. Rome began to completely control Judea, and in 73 the state was completely renamed Palestine.
Christianity
After Christianity was established in Europe, Ancient Israel became truly the Holy Land, because everything there was connected with Jesus Christ. Jews were forbidden to set foot on the land of Jerusalem, with the exception of only one day a year when it was allowed to mourn the destruction of the temple.
Arabs, Crusaders, Mamluks, Ottomans
But for Israel, the hour of calm and peace did not come. Already in 636, the Arabs invaded the territory of the state and conquered it. They ruled the land of Israel for 500 years, and the Jews were offered religious freedom, for which they had to pay a tax on faith.
However, the Arabs also failed to retain power and ensure the safety of the Jewish people. In 1099, the crusaders captured Jerusalem and destroyed a huge part of the population. All this was explained by the fact that the conquerors came to the Holy Land in order to liberate the Holy Sepulcher from the infidels. The power of the crusaders ended in 1291 with the Muslim military estate, which ruled at that time in Egypt. The Mamluks brought the Kingdom of Judah to a state of complete decline and gave the land to the Ottoman Empire without much resistance in 1517.
The end of the Ottoman Empire and the British Mandate
The position of the Jews in those days was not the most depressing. Already in the middle of the 19th century, Jerusalem, on the lands of which the Jewish population predominated, turned out to be overpopulated. That is why the Jews were forced to start building new quarters outside the wallscity, which was the beginning of the emergence of the New City. The Israeli people revived Hebrew, developed Zionism. Already in 1914, the population approached the mark of 85 thousand. In 1917, when the British army entered the country, the rule of the Ottoman Empire, which had lasted at least four centuries, came to an end. In 1922, Britain received a mandate to rule Palestine from the League of Nations. At the interstate level, it recognized the connection of the Jews with Palestine (as the country was called at that time). Britain was faced with the task of creating a Jewish national home - Eretz Israel. This led to a wave of return of repatriates to their homeland. On the one hand, such a movement was supposed to accelerate the restoration of Israel, on the other hand, the Arabs strongly opposed this, considering Palestine only their land.
That is why in 1937 Great Britain made a proposal to divide the country's territory into two states. Jews were supposed to live on one part, Arabs on the second. However, this proposal also caused a storm of indignation among the Arabs, who began to defend their territory already with the use of weapons. However, the Second World War soon began, which pushed all strife into the background. After the monstrous and most severe catastrophe, the question of creating an independent state for the Jews became especially acute. Scattered all over the world, they had to settle on the territory of their state without fear of reprisal against themselves. So, on May 14, 1948, according to the plan for the division of Palestine, which was adopted by the OrganizationUnited Nations, the establishment of the State of Israel was officially proclaimed. David Ben-Gurion became the first president.
