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Hammurabi Dbq Analysis

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Although most people in today’s society would argue that Hammurabi's Code was unjust; the laws were perfectly suited for the citizens of the Babylonian empire and provided an early form of insurance for stolen goods (doc D, law 21 & 23) and for unforeseeable circumstances in agriculture (doc D, law 48, 53 & 54). Hammurabi put these laws into place to benefit the “weak, the widowed and the orphaned” (doc B) . These laws were a reliable source to the Babylonian people becauses they were given to Hammurabi by Shamash, the god of justice (doc A). An example of how one of theses laws benefitted the weak can be found in (doc C, law 148), if a man’s wife is ill and he would like to marry another, he must continue to take care of her. Hammurabi’s code specifically spoke to justice that relates to …show more content…

An example of this is if a man has knocked out the eye of another man, his eye will be knocked out ( doc E, law 196). The code protected victims of floods that caused them to lose their crops and made it possible for them not to fall into debt (doc D, law 48). Over all the code fought secure rights amongst people and things out of their control. A document recording the statistical data that showed crime rates before and after the implementations of the Code would help to better analyze how much crime rates decreased. It is easy to think that some of Hammurabi’s laws were harsh, like having a curse put on you for not following the laws (doc B), being punished by death for adultery (doc C, law 129), or having your hand cut of for striking your father (doc C, law 195). But these laws were used to keep citizens subservient and show

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