Separatist movements and the odds The Punch Published 6 June 2021 The history of insurgencies is said to date back to about 4,200 years ago. That’s when a hoard of militarily inferior barbarians toppled the Akkadian empire after a protracted and relentless campaign of torment. The Akkadians had conquered the territory that stretches from modern day southern Iraq and southern Turkey and ruled it by brute force and repression. Not capable of matching the Akkadians’ superior bows and arrows, the barbarians resorted to guerilla warfare and terror. Their tactics and numerical superiority ultimately forced the Akkadians to bow out. “From (this) ancient beginnings, insurgency now has a global face,” writes Australian military historian Thomas McDermott.