Many scholars believe that the essential groundwork for the development of the famous Babylonian culture was laid during the later epoch of the Kassite era (1800-1200).
By 1800 b.C. the Kassites had settled in what is now western Iran. They were typical warriors, who fought by chariots. This is why the period 1600-1200 b.C. is sometimes called the Era of the Chariot Aristocracies. Chariot invaders controlled the whole of the Near East. Besides the Kassites, there were also the Mitanni and the Hittites. Increasing numbers of Kassites gradually reached Babylonia and other parts of Mesopotamia.
There they founded principalities, of which little is known. No inscription or document in the Kassite language has been preserved and only some 300 Kassite words have been discovered in Babylonian documents. Nor is much known about their social structure or their culture. There seems to have been no hereditary kingdom (he was a social-minded ruler), their religion was polytheistic and we do know the names of some 30 gods.
Agriculture and cattle husbandry were the main pursuits on the Kassite estates, and horses were raised for the light war chariots of the cavalry. There was an export trade in horses and vehicles in exchange for raw material.
The tactics of waging war with chariots required special training. The king gave his warriors a piece of land they could live of, but the chariot was and stayed royal property. Aristocracy developed itself because of the legal practice of retaliation: a strong family structure was necessary as a mean to defend oneself.
Some two decades after the Hittites had carried off the statue of the Babylonian god Marduk, king Agum regained possession of the statue, brought it back to Babylon, and renewed the cult, making the god Marduk the equal of the corresponding Kassite god, Shuqamuna. A new capital west of Baghdad, Dur Kurigalzu, competed with Babylon. It was founded and named after Kurigalzu I (1400-1375). Kurigalzu II (1332-1308) fought against the Assyrians but was defeated by them. His successors sought to ally with the Hittites to stop the Assyrian expansion.
During the reign of Kashtiliash IV (around 1230), the Kassites waged war on two fronts at the same time, against Elam and Assyria. This ended in the invasion and destruction of Babylon. Almost a century later, in 1155, the dynasty of the Kassites was destroyed by cruel and fierce Elamites.