The dominant inhabitants in central Anatolia at this time are Hattians, a people with a distinct culture who speak a non-Indo-European language.

The "Hattic" language is now superseded by the language of the Hittites; it will become the administrative language of the Hittite kingdom over the next six or seven centuries.

“Hittite” is a modern convention for referring to this language, for which the native term was Nesili, i.e., "In the language of Nesa.”

Since Hattic will continue to be used in the Hittite kingdom for religious purposes, and there is substantial continuity between the two cultures, it is not known whether the Hattic speakers— the Hattians—have been displaced by the speakers of Hittite, have been absorbed by them, or have simply adopted their language.

The destruction layers from Kanesh in the hill country of the upper Halys River tell the same story.

Karaoglan, Bitik, Polatli, and Gordion are burnt as well as Etiyokusu and Cerkes.

Further west near the Dardanelles, the two large mounds of Korpruoren and Tavsanli, west of Kutahya, show the same signs of being razed to the ground.

The early Hittites borrow heavily from the pre-existing Hattian culture, and from that of the Assyrian traders in their several Anatolian colonies—in particular, the cuneiform writing and the use of cylindrical seals.

The influence of their culture is such that the Hittites have assimilated much of their religion and mythology.

The Hittites adopt their principal deities from the Hattian religion (the Sun Goddess, her husband the Storm God and their children Nerik and Zippalanda, their daughter Nezullash and their grandchild Zentish; and as well Telipinu, his wife Hatepinush, the goddesses Inaras and Zithariyas, Karzish and Hapantalliyash).

The Hattian civilization had also given rise to the Hittite legend of Illuyankas and Telepinu.

The founding of the Hittite Empire is attributed by tradition to either Labarna I or Hattusili I (it is debated whether this is the same person or not), who had conquered the area south and north of Hattusa.

Labarna had not been the first in line to the throne.

PU-Sarruma designated Labarna as his successor after his own sons revolted against him.

Upon PU-Sarruma's death, Labarna and Papahdilmah, one of PU-Sarruma's sons, contended for the throne, with Labarna emerging victorious.

What little is known about him is culled mainly from the Edict of Telipinu, which states that he overwhelmed his enemies and "made them borders of the sea", a statement which may refer to conquests as far as the Mediterranean coast in the south, and the Black Sea in the north.

He installed his sons as governors in several cities including Tuwanuwa, Hupisna, Landa, and Lusna (the identities of these cities are uncertain, but thought to perhaps be Tyana, Heraclea Cybistra, Laranda, and Lystra).

Through his conquests, he was responsible for laying the groundwork for the Hittite empire that was to come.

Labarna was actually a title of the early Hittite rulers, rather than a personal name.

Given the lack of contemporary references, and the fact that Hattusili I also used the title Labarna, some modern scholars have proposed that later Hittite historians mistook references to Labarna as being a separate king before Hattusili I.

According to this theory, Labarna and Hattusili I were really one and the same ruler.

Labarnas’s successor Hattusilis, who rules the Hitttites from about 1650, apparently establishes his capital in the fortress city of Hattusa (Boğazkale), the reoccupied site of the Assyrian merchant colony destroyed in 1720.

Near Alaca Höyük is the site of present Boğazkale, a village in north central Turkey about one hundred and twenty-five miles (two hundred kilometers) east of Ankara, first inhabited in the late third millennium BCE.

Boğazkale is best known as the site of the ancient Hittite city of Hattusa, within the great loop of the Kizil River, and the rock shrine at Yazilikaya.

A settlement of the apparently indigenous Hatti people had been established before 2000 BCE on sites that had been occupied even earlier.

The earliest traces of settlement on the site are from the sixth millennium BCE.

Merchants from Assur in Assyria established a trading post here in the nineteenth and eighteenth centuries BCE, setting up in their own separate quarter of the city.

The center of their trade network was located in Kanesh (Neša) (modern Kültepe).

Business dealings require record-keeping: the trade network from Assur introduced writing to Hattusa, in the form of cuneiform.

A carbonized layer apparent in excavations attests to the burning and ruin of the city of Hattusa around 1700 BCE.

The responsible party appears to have been King Anitta from Kussara (a city possibly to be identified with Alişar), who took credit for the act and erected an inscribed curse for good measure.

A Hittite-speaking king chooses the site as his residence and capital only a generation later.

The Hittite language had been gaining speakers at Hattic's expense for some time.

The Hattic "Hattus" now becomes Hittite "Hattusa,” and the king takes the name of Hattusili I, the "one from Hattusa.” Hattusili marks the beginning of a non-Hattic-speaking "Hittite" state, and of a royal line of Hittite Great Kings—of whom twenty-seven are now known by name.

The first certain attestation of chariots, and the oldest testimony of chariot warfare in the Ancient Near East, is the Anitta text, written in the Old Hittite language (between about 1750 BCE and 1500 BCE), mentioning forty teams of horses at the siege of Salatiwara, a city of Bronze Age Anatolia.

The ostensible author, Anitta, is a king of Kussara, a city that has yet to be identified.

This text seems to represent a cuneiform record of Anitta's inscriptions at Kanish, perhaps compiled by Hattusili I, one of the earliest Hittite kings of Hattusa, who flourished in the late seventeenth century.

Since only teams are mentioned rather than explicitly chariots, the presence of chariots in the eighteenth century BCE is considered somewhat uncertain.

The Hittites are thought to have had the first constitutional monarchy, consisting of a king, royal family, the pankus (who monitor the king's activities), and a periodically rebellious aristocracy.

The Hittites also make huge advances in legislation and justice, producing the Hittite laws.

These laws rarely use death as a punishment.

For example, the punishment for theft is to pay back the amount stolen.

The Hittite laws have been preserved on a number of Hittite cuneiform tablets found at Hattusa (CTH 291-292, listing 200 laws).

Copies have been found written in Old Hittite as well as in Middle and Late Hittite, indicating that they would have been valid throughout the duration of the Hittite Empire, from about 1650 BCE to around 1100 BCE.

Hittite law concedes that enslaved people are human beings, although of an inferior order.

The laws are not formulated in the second person, that is, "You shall not do X", but as case laws; they start with a condition, and a ruling follows, e.g.

"If anyone tears off the ear of a male or female slave, he shall pay 3 shekels of silver.” The laws show an aversion to the death penalty, the usual penalty for serious offenses being enslavement to forced labor.

They are preserved on two separate tablets, each with approximately two hundred clauses, the first categorized as being ‘of a man’; the second ‘of a vine’; a third set may have existed.

The laws may be categorized into eight groups of similar clauses.

These are separated for the most part by two types of seemingly orphaned clauses: Sacral or incantatory clauses, and afterthoughts.

These eight main groups of laws are: I Aggression and assault: Clauses 1 - 24 II Marital relationships: Clauses 26 - 38 III Obligations and service - TUKUL: Clauses 39 - 56 IV Assaults on property and theft: Clauses 57 - 144 V Contracts and prices: Clauses 145 - 161 VI Sacral matters: Clauses 162 - 173 VII Contracts and tariffs: Clauses 176 - 186 VIII Sexual relationships - HURKEL: Clauses 187 – 200, including the criminalization of bestiality (except with horses and mules).

The death penalty is a common punishment among sexual crimes.

Mursili, reaching through Mesopotamia, even ransacks Babylon itself in 1595 BCE (although rather than incorporate Babylonia into Hittite domains, he seems to have instead turned it over to his Kassite allies, who are to rule it for the next four centuries).

This lengthy campaign, however, has strained the resources of Hatti, and has left the capital in a state of near-anarchy.

Mursili is assassinated by his brother-in-law, who succeeds him as king Hantili I, shortly after his return home, and the Hittite Empire is plunged into chaos.

Mursili I, possibly a grandson of Hattusili, marches on Aleppo and conquers it in about 1600 BCE, then defeats Mitanni around 1595 BCE.

The Hittites under Hattusili had battled with the Syrians of Aleppo and the Hurrians of Mittani for control of Cilicia; his heir, Mursili I, conquers Aleppo and stalemates Mitanni, then launches a series of forays down the Euphrates Valley, plundering Babylon and leaving it to the further depredations of the Kassites and other groups.

The Dynasty of the Sealand, based in the far south, fills the power vacuum left when the Hitttites withdraw.

Mursili defeats the Hurrians on his return march from Babylon, bringing with him captives and possessions of Babylon to Hattusa.

Following the assassination of Mursili in 1590 BCE, the Hittite kingdom experiences several decades of internal strife, punctuated by political insurrection, royal assassinations, and palace intrigues.