It takes some time before the Hittites establish themselves, as is clear from some of the texts.
For several centuries there have been separate Hittite groups, usually centered around various cities, but strong rulers with their center in Boğazköy succeed in bringing these together and conquering large parts of central Anatolia to establish the Hittite kingdom about 1700 BCE.
The Assyrian trading colonies in Anatolia come to an end, as the Hittites begin to take over Anatolia and Assyria loses its independence to a dynasty of Amorite descent.
The kingdom’s founder (according to tradition) is a leader named Labarnas, who is said to have established the seas as his boundaries and made his sons governors of seven major conquered territories.
Labarnas’ successor rules the Hitttites from about 1586 BCE as Hattusilis I, apparently establishing his capital in the fortress city of Hattusa (Bogazkale), the reoccupied site of the Assyrian merchant colony destroyed in 1720.
Under Hattusilis I, the Hittite kingdom begins to expand into northwest Syria.
His “Annals” tell of the king’s penetrations into that region and eastward across the Euphates River to Mesopotamia.
The Hittites’ legal code concedes that slaves are human beings, although of an inferior order.
