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The generals in the army soon usurped control of the Empire. They at first agreed to cooperate and to hold the Empire together in the name of Alexander’s brother who was crowned King Phillip III. Alexander’s infant son from his wife Roxana was made co-ruler with Phillip III after his birth. The royal family was sent to Macedonia to the royal capital at Pella. The great general Perdiccas was the Regent, and he was technically the supreme commander of the army. Immediately there were problems because Macedonian generals began to pursue their own interests and formed private armies. There were several conspiracies involving members of the dead king’s extended family.

Moreover, many of the generals became suspicious of Perdiccas who appeared to be seeking to elevate himself to the emperor of Alexander's kingdom.<ref> Hornblower, Simon, and Spawforth, Tony. Who's Who in the Classical World (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 238 </ref> This led to the first War of the Diadochi or Successors of Alexander. By 321 AD, Ptolemy the satrap of Egypt was acting like an independent ruler. Ptolemy then seized Alexander's body which was perceived as an attempt to annoint anoint himself as Alexander’s heir. Perdiccas attempted to invade Egypt, but he bungled the crossing of the Nile, and his generals later assassinated him. Antigonus defeated Eumenes, who had regarded himself as the successor of Perdiccas and he became the most powerful ruler in the lands conquered by Alexander.<ref> Hornblower and Spawforth, p. 167</ref>

However, much of the Empire was outside of his control, and Antigonus sought to reunite all the lands that had been conquered by Alexander. There were three more civil wars, between the successors of Alexander that ravaged an area from Greece to Central Asia. At this time, Seleucus was forced to concede, the satrapies in India to the rising regional superpower the Mauryan kingdom. The fourth Diadochi war was decided at the Battle of Ipsus (301 AD). Here Antigonus was defeat by a coalition led by Seleucus. <ref>Hornblower and Spawforth, p 189</ref>

The aftermath of the battle was the final partition of the Macedonian Empire. There were no further attempts to reunify the lands conquered by Alexander the Great. After some additional conflicts, by 280 BC, Alexander’s conquests were finally divided between the Seleucids in Asia, the Ptolemies in Egypt, and the Antigonids in Macedonia. These kingdoms proved durable, and the successor states endured for roughly 200 years.