Hammurabi's Code Dbq Analysis

Hammurabi’s Code DBQ

King Hammurabi’s rule began in the city of Babylon. He later then extended his control by taking over Larsa and Mari a large part of Mesopotamia. After expanding his land, Shamash, the god of justice presented him with a code of 232 laws (Doc A). These laws were then influenced throughout the community and were considered a part of the communities culture. I disagree with Hammurabi’s code because most laws were to cruel and targeted certain people. Although the code sculpted the culture in 1797 BC, the code would have no chance of surviving in any modern country to this day due to the harsh punishments received from breaking the laws. According to Hammurabi, he stated “...the strong might not inquire the weak, in order to protect the widows and orphans, I set up these my precious words...etc” (Doc B). Although I do not agree with Hammurabi’s code, I do believe that he was trying to create and maintain a healthy and safe environment for his people by trying to prevent crime with such a harsh set of laws. However, the consequences for not abiding these laws were too harsh. For example, law 195 (Doc C), if a son strikes his father, his hands will be cut off. This is not fair to the child because they would then have no self defence. In our society, this law

Law 129 (Doc C) states that if a married lady is caught in adultery with another man, they will be blinded then casted into the water, whereas law 148 (Doc C) states that if a man has married his wife and a disease has seized her, and he is determined to marry his second wife he will marry the second wife but not divorce the wife who is diseased. This is unjust because the man can leave his wife and get remarried, but a married woman will get blinded and then thrown into water if caught in adultery. The law would have been more just if both men and women had the same consequence when caught in