The Persian empire was established by Cyrus the Great. Cyrus the Great controlled areas from Asia Minor to India up until his death in 530 b.c. At the time the Achaemenid Empire, in which he founded, was the largest empire in the world. The Persian Empire lasted from 539 b.c., to 330 b.c. While he was ruling the Persian Empire, he conquered most of Southwest Asia and much of Central Asia as well. While he was conquering, he had tolerance and respected any and all of the people's customs in the different areas that he conquered, letting them keep their religion etc. Aside from Cyrus the Great's tolerance and respect for the people’s religions he conquered, the Persian Empire overall had a religion of Zoroastrianism. A monotheistic religion that believed in two opposing forces in the universe at constant battle with each other. Zoroaster, the founder and creator of Zoroastrianism, taught that one god, Ahura Mazda (God) was the ruler of the world. In contrast to that, Ahura Mazda was in constant battle with Ahriman, the prince of lies and evil. Each person had to choose a side, and on the final judgement day , people would be judged for their actions during life.
Persia's geography also made Persia the empire that it was. The
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One of the most important achievements being their intelligent construction of a road system. Due to this massive construction, it changed the Persian Empire's economy greatly. The Persian Empire graduated to using coins as currency and a system of weights and measurements. They also went from being a barter economy, trading goods for other goods, to a money economy, trading coins for goods and services. The road system also helped with imperial bureaucracy. Each satrapy or province included in the bureaucracy had to pay taxes based on their wealth and resources as an individual