The religion of Ancient Israel helped lay the spiritual foundations for western civilization.
The Ancient Israelites settled the land of Israel probably between 1300 and 1100 BC. By 1000 BC they had established a kingdom, which shortly divided into two halves. The northern kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BC, whilst the southern kingdom of Judah fell to the Babylonians in 586 BC. After that period the Israelite were only briefly to have their own independent state, but the influence they had on the later history of the world was incalculable. This is because they developed the worship of Yahweh, the One God, and so laid the foundations for later Judaism. Out of Judaism sprang Christianity, one of the key elements in Western civilization.
