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In Mesopotamia, Abraham, the "father of the Jewish people", made a covenant with God wherein He would "make a great nation" as long as Abraham and his followers remained faithful.
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Abraham's grandson, Jacob, had 12 sons who went on to found the 12 tribes of Israel. However, in order to escape severe famine in their homeland of Canaan, they migrated to Egypt.
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The Jewish became slaves in Egypt, but a prophet, Moses, came to lead them away from captivity.
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During the exodus Moses led, God gave him 10 commandments for the people to live by.
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After Moses died, Joshua led the Israelites back to their homeland in Canaan, before proceeding to fight both the Philistines and Canaanites for the next 200 years.
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They all united into one kingdom under King Saul, who was succeeded later on by David. King David proceeded to build their capital city, Jerusalem, and led the kingdom into great prosperity.
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Israel split into two kingdoms.
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Both split kingdoms of Israel were eventually conquered by the Assyrians and Babylonians.
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Although the Jewish people were eventually able to return to their homeland, they were conquered again by Alexander the Great.
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Chanukah is the celebration of when the Selucid king, Antiochus IV, tried to force the Jews into worshiping the Greek Pantheon and Jewish rebelled, which succeeded in expelling the Greeks. They then established an independent Jewish kingdom that later was conquered by the Romans.