Quote Originally Posted by moonburn View Post
the persians had a good road sistem and since the people that alexander took over where accostumed to law and order they just wellcomed the new masters and life continued (also the life continues part in persian meant that the maks and their allies had more food then they where normally accostumed to and also more wealth ) persia heartland was fairly easy the eastern borders with all the savages steppes and mountain warriors was trickier
Exactly. The foundations of every sound military occupation in history consists of decapitating the local authority (metaphorically speaking, though often literally too) and allowing most of the governmental structure to remain unchanged. Alexander simply replaced the satraps at the top with new despots. It's precisely what the US failed to do in Iraq and the major contributing cause of the instability continuing there today.