Adam and Eve were given dominion over the earth. When they listened to the snake, which is also called the devil and satan (Revelation 12:9), they gave him their authority. This is how the evil one became the "god of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4). He rules by manipulating humans, making them think they are in charge of their lives while he is luring them to do his will (2 Timothy 2:25-26).
Adam and Eve soon saw the effect of their folly. It was demonstrated by the behaviour of their first born son Cain who murdered his brother (Genesis 4:8). From there it went downhill for the majority of mankind. The Lord had put man in charge of the earth. His intention was that they should honour him as their King and treat one another as fellow stewards, ruling over everything he had created (Psalm 8:6). But they quickly started fighting over which man would be in charge. A small group, the descendants of Seth, was faithful to their Creator (Genesis 4:25-26). After about two thousand years God decided to kill all of mankind except for Noah and his family (1 Peter 3:20).
After the flood the people again started making up their own religion according to their own fanciful ideas. They were in the process of building a tower for this purpose when the Almighty intervened and caused them to be scattered by confusing their language (Genesis 11:9). The Lord knew they were going to continue competing with each other for dominance. He called Abram from whom he intended to create a culture which would ultimately be spread over the whole earth.
The Lord had meant for Adam and Eve to recognise him as their Sovereign and consult him in their decision making but they refused to listen. They distrusted him, believing that the one command he had given them, was to deprive them of their "full potential" (Genesis 3:5-6). He decided to start over with Jacob, Abraham's grandson. He renamed him Israel and showed his love for "the children of Israel" by delivering them from slavery. He gave them the "Law" (Torah) through Moses. He gave them a land in which to thrive but they were not faithful in their observance of the Torah. Countless times, when they were oppressed by their enemies, they turned to the Lord to save them. He miraculously rescued them by raising up heroes. These they called judges because the people of Israel also looked to them for judging disputes.
The Israelites were not happy with the governance the Lord had provided for them. They wanted a king "like the nations" (1 Samuel 8:4-5). During the reign of their third king, Solomon, Israel became the most illustrious kingdom on earth (1 Kings 10:23). But Solomon in all his wisdom, could not handle the power and riches entrusted to him. After him the Israelites divided into two nations who actually made war on each other (1 Kings 14:30). After the Northern kingdom had been taken into exile by the Assyrians, God sent several prophets to the kings of Judah in the south to persuade them to turn from their wicked ways. They mistreated the messengers of the Lord and worshipped idols instead.
Since the Israelites had failed to become a "light to the nations", the Lord put other nations in charge of the world's population. The first was Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (Jeremiah 27:3-7). He took the cream of Judah to Babylon where some of them became prominent in his kingdom (Daniel 1:1-4). After that God called Cyrus the Mede (Isaiah 45:13) to conquer Babylon and allow the Jews to go back to their land (Ezra 1:1-4). The empire of the Medes and Persians was the second in Daniel's interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream (Daniel 2:31-45).
The statue Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream was prophetic. It predicted the future empires of the world until the end of "this age". Alexander the Great came after the Medes and Persians to rule the world and inaugurate the Hellenistic period. That was the time during which the Greek language and culture became predominant over the world. Thereafter came the Roman empire which later split into an eastern part with Constantinople as capital and a western part with its capital in Rome. Orthodox Christianity was the state religion in the east while Roman Catholicism was the official religion of the west.
The eastern empire later became known as the Byzantine Empire which was at its peak in the 6th century. In 1453 the Turks conquered Constantinople and renamed it Istanbul which became the capital of the Islamic Ottoman Empire. The western empire morphed into the Holy Roman Empire of which Charlemagne was one of the early emperors. The last emperor ruled until 1806. This was during the time of Napoleon's military escapades. After he had been defeated at the battle of Waterloo in 1815, the European powers made agreements on the future boundaries for the states of the former Holy Roman Empire. The Ottoman Turks in the east were defeated in World War I and the territories under their rule became mandates of the League of Nations at the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. Some were administered by Britain and some by France.
The predictions of Nebuchadnezzar's statue which still need to take place relate to the ten toes. They are the same as the ten horns on the beast in Revelation 13:1. The stone which was cut out of a mountain in Daniel 2:44-45 represents the Kingdom of God which will replace the government of the beast with the ten horns. See https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bs-nebuchadnezzar-statue.
The role of Israel in the last days is significant. Today the state of Israel is under threat. It is part of the "birth pangs" of the coming Kingdom (Matthew 24:8). Jesus will return to Jerusalem (Acts 1:11). That is why the temple mount is such a disputed area today. An interesting perspective on the present crisis in the Middle East can be read in https://www.oneforisrael.org/news/israel-at-war/feet-of-iron-and-clay/.
