THE EGYPTIAN EMPIRE

In the year 3100 BC the Nile valley was one of the world’s first great civilizations. For more than two thousand years the deserts of the region protected and sheltered Egypt from the Middle East and North Africa.

Around 1780 BC this security was as a people known as the Hyksos arrived in lower Egypt possessing two significant military advantages, the composite bow and the chariot. This allowed the Hyksos to establish a kingdom and rule over their Egyptian subjects for the next two hundred years.

Then around 1540 BC, two successive Pharaoh's arose, Kamose and Amose who drove the Hyksos out and united both upper and lower Egypt into one, this period was afterwards known as the new kingdom.

Future rulers knew the desert was no longer a viable defense to protect Egypt and therefore adopted a policy of aggressive expansion. Based on the adopted tactics of their former rulers, Egypt became a major military power, with her armies advancing as far as Palestine and Syria in the north and Nubia and Kush in the south.

Control of Syria had brought Egypt within contact of the Hittite empire which ruled over Anatolia and much of Asia Minor. In 1274 BC, Pharoah Ramesses II fought an inconclusive battle with the Hittites under King Mutalallis at Kadesh, this would prompt the two super powers to signing the worlds first know peace treaty.

Although uneasy at times the peace would hold until the invasion and subsequent destruction of the Hittite empire by the sea peoples in 1200 BC.

The sea peoples became a significant threat to Egypt when they allied themselves with the Libyans in 1190 BC. Pharoah Ramesses III saved Egypt from complete destruction when he first defeated the sea peoples at the naval battle of the Delta (1175) and then on land against the Libyans at Djahy (1178).

Yet despite victory, the new kingdom never spiritually nor economically recovered and would fall into steady decline until becoming a mere vassal state to a series of rising empires which included Persia, Alexander The Great and then the Romans.