PERSIA

According to all the ancient sources we know, the major power that preceded and colonized Jews, Greeks, Arabs, Egypt, Central Asia and India was Achaemenid Empire. If you read the materials I published here you will realize that it did a really good job spreading Persian culture (e.g. fire worship) to its provinces, though it probably never existed, and is a projection of Sassanid Empire into the past:

Once we ignore mythical Ancient Roman Empire, Ancient Greeks, Ancient Egypt, Ancient China, Mesoamerican Empires, there is nothing left but Persian Empire. E.g. there was systematic Persian proselytism in China since around 500. Do we hear of Chinese proselytism in Persia, India or Central Asia? According to my findings Persians are the authors of major Greek/Roman and Germanic deities and all popular monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Manicheism, Islam). They also invented alphabet and developed hieroglyphics that are the origin of Chinese characters. Egypt was a province of Persian Empire.

This kind of global supremacy is a natural result of primacy. The first civilization (aka Sumer) will inevitably become first (Sassanid) Empire and colonize everything. Empires don't happen that often, so there will be no competitors for a while and a head start in technology means a lot. My findings just confirmed the obvious expectations. For Persians it was a moment of Fermi's Where is everybody?

Persians didn't really invent/own everything. Horse was domesticated in Central Asia, Phoenicians/Arabs were champions at sea. Mesopotamia stagnated: overpopulation, deforestation, exhausted soil, - that's why Middle East looks like it looks today. This lead to a violent Semitic takeover, which was later described as Muslim conquest of Persia (633-651) and also as Akkadian Empire and Assyrian Empire in "ancient" narratives. Thanks to this, Greeks became de-facto independent, and grew into a dangerous enemy around 1000. This is Macedonian dynasty (867–1056), mythologized as Great Alexander.

Persians shifted/expanded North/East, aka Persian Renaissance (821-1055), and used Central Asian cavalry to get it all back as Seljuk Empire (1092, map below). Mongols, Timur and mysterious Ottomans, who defeated Byzantium in 1453, acted as Persian forces as well. Empire went through several major rebrandings but maintained absolute cultural dominance in the region up to 1800. Persia for Asia was like Italy for Europe. Educated people were supposed to speak Persian in Egypt, Turkey, Central Asia and India up to 1900.

They started loosing dominance as of 1700, probably due to deforestation. No wood back in 1700 meant no navy, no iron, no steel, no bronze. Same happened to Spain and Italy around the same time. European economists/historians love to theorize on how gold/silver ruined Spainish economy or Catholic Church stalled modernization of Italy yet miss the obvious: until 1800 wood was oil, electricity, plastic, construction and ship-building.

The reason of Persians forming a first civilization is probably a close proximity of Zagros mountains to Mesopotamia. Highlander tribal cattle herder warrior culture vs agricultural settlements by the rivers. Highlanders used to raid the farmers and hide in the mountains, where they were invincible. Later they started a systemic racket. This model proved very profitable and they eventually established strongholds right next to farmers to avoid extra back-and-forth. This probably started in the Stone Age. Those fortresses were called ziqqurratum and expressed by hieroglyphics cuneiform logogram 𒅆𒂍𒉪. Ziqqurratum sounds related to Zagros. Probably both come from same ancient Sumerian root kur 𒆳 (mountain, kuh کوه in modern Persian) while zig 𒍣 meant to rise. The 𒅆𒂍𒉪 literally reads as presense + house + lord. What's amazing is that there is no god 𒀭 in that sequence. These were no temples, but "artiffical mountains" where the whole highlander tribe could feel safe.

The picture above is a modern reconstruction, even if authentic, that is too advanced. Real first ones probably looked like the European motte-and-bailey castles (e.g. as primitive as artifficial hill this Norman one):

Digital reconstruction of the White Temple and ziggurat, Uruk	York Castle