The positive achievements of the Assyrian Empire were mostly their achievements in metalworks. The Assyrians were widely known and made important contributions to metalurgy as they were masters of iron works and producing items out of iron.
1. deride: to put down or show contempt for a person
2. lambaste : to strongly criticize a person over decisions that have been made
3. scrounge : to beg or borrow things without being
able to pay them back
4. solvent : possessing enough cash to meet debts or expenses
Because of the fur that was plentiful. There was a huge demand for beaver fur coats and hats, and they wanted the territory for it.
The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were times of crisis for Russia. Not only did technology and industry continue to develop more rapidly in the West, but also new, dynamic, competitive great powers appeared on the world scene: Otto von Bismarck united Germany in the 1860s, the post-Civil War United States grew in size and strength, and a modernized Japan emerged from the Meiji Restoration of 1868. Although Russia was an expanding regional giant in Central Asia, bordering the Ottoman, Persian, British Indian, and Chinese empires, it could not generate enough capital to support rapid industrial development or to compete with advanced countries on a commercial basis. Russia's fundamental dilemma was that accelerated domestic development risked upheaval at home, but slower progress risked full economic dependency on the faster-advancing countries to the east and west. In fact, political ferment, particularly among the intelligentsia, accompanied the transformation of Russia's economic and social structure, but so did impressive developments in literature, music, the fine arts, and the natural sciences.
