As the kings of the Sumerian city-states did deals or fought to gain power over each other, Lugalzagesi, king of Umma, allied himself with the Akkadian, Sargon, cup-bearer of the king of Kish, to overthrow Urukagina, king in Larsa, and go on to conquer and become king of Uruk. Lugalzagesi ruled for 24 years until, in 2320 BC, Sargon raised an army and marched on Lugalzagesi at Uruk, defeating him and bringing an end to Sumerian dominance in Mesopotamia.
The legend of Sargon claims that he did not know his parents, but was found and raised by a man named Akki who appointed him as his gardener. It is possible that Sargon's mother may have been a temple prostitute, who's children were often legally adopted, but whatever his past it appears that he eventually found himself the cup-bearer of Ur-Zababa, the king of Kish, whom either Lugalzagesi or Sargon himself overthrew to install him as the new king of Kish.
After defeating Lugalzagesi, Sargon carried him back to Kish and yoked him by the neck to the city gates. Having established himself in the north of Sumeria, he took his armies southward and defeated the cities if Ur, Larsa and Umma, only stopping when he reached the waters of the Persian Gulf. He built a new capital which he called Agade, set Akkadian governors were appointed in all major cities, and the Semitic language Akkadian became as official throughout the empire as Sumerian.
Sargon set up the first centralised government in the region, based in Agade. Trade was expanded though the Akkadian period, possibly as far as the Indus Valley in modern day Pakistan, and a greater emphasis was placed on private property. This had the effect of increasing the estates of royalty and military nobles, and lessening the power of the temples throughout the land.
Keen to expand his empire, Sargon crossed the Tigris River and defeated the kings of Elam and Barhashe, gaining valuable metal mines in that region. He then lead his armies against the cities of Mari, Iarmuti and Ebla, pushing all the way to Lebanon and the Mediterranean coast with their forests of cedar, and to the Taurus mountains with its mines of precious metals. Sargon continued to fight revolts and external forces to hold his empire right until his death.
Sargon was succeed by his son, Rimush, who ruled for 9 years, continuing his father's policies of war and dominance before meeting his end at the hands of angry administrators who killed him with their clay tablets. His brother Manishtusu ruled after him, strengthening the Akkadian hold on the mines of southern Elam. Manishtusu's son, Naram-Sin, succeeded his father, ruling until his death around 2200 BC.
Naram-Sin no longer called himself the ruler of the empire of Sumer and Akkad, the title Sargon had given to his empire, but instead changed his title to the King of the Four Regions, and later to the King of the Universe. Upon Naram-Sin's death, the governor of Elam, Puzur-Inshushinak, who had fought the in the Zagros Mountains for Naram-Sin, declared himself the new King of the Universe even though Naram-Sin's successor, Shar-kali-sharri, had been appointed in the capital of Agade.
Shar-kali-sharri, who had been trying to quash rebellions in the heart of the Sumer, was eventually overthrown in a palace revolt around 2180 BC. Over the next few years the list of kings of Sumer and Akkad had four separate names, leading to a common saying of the time of "Who was king? Who was not king?" The Lullubi soon followed the Elamites in claiming independence, and shortly after the Guti, a people to the north of Akkad, invaded, bringing an end to the Akkadian empire.
