11 Conquest by Hyksos and Egyptian Expansion to Ramses II

Conquest by Hyksos and Egyptian Expansion to Ramses II,,

Eventually, like previous dynasties, the Twelfth Dynasty fell. And the Thirteenth Dynasty, at Memphis, waned across its 150 years of rule and fell with what by now was an old phenomenon: invasion by a foreign army, around the year 1650 BCE.

The invaders were a literate people with a Semitic language, horses and lightweight chariots. They had moved through Canaan and had taken control of some cities there. Then they conquered northern Egypt and overran Memphis. It is not known who they were, except that the Egyptians called them Hyksos (hyk khwsht), which identifies them only as foreigners. They introduced Egyptians to the wheel and to new weapons of war. They introduced the Egyptians to new musical instruments, new techniques in making bronze and pottery, new animals, new kinds of crops, and new gods – more of the cultural diffusion that was to mark history across the ages.

More than a century after the Hyksos invaded Egypt, protracted struggles between the Egyptians and Hyksos resulted in a new pharaoh, the founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty, Ahmose, uniting Egypt and driving the Hyksos beyond the Red Sea. Ahmose reigned from 1539 to 1514. Egypt's elite has been described as compensating for their wounded pride from the Hyksos conquest, and the third king of the 18th Dynasty, Thutmose I (reigning from 1493-1482) pursed the Hyksos through Canaan and into Syria, with the Egyptians supporting themselves by booty as they went. The Egyptians believed they were on a holy crusade and that they were protected by their gods.

Amennotep IV (Akhenaten). He reigned from around 1353 to 1336, fought wars and championed a god of the universe.

Three slaves: a Semite, an Asian
and a Black, feeling the sternness of
Ramses II.

The Egyptians were now using wheels and horses, and they had a light-weight chariot they had perfected. The chariot was fast in that neither of the two horses doing the pulling was weighed down by a rider. The chariot could turn sharply, give a smooth ride, and from it the rider could comfortably shoot arrows. It allowed an army to move quickly into battle and to withdraw before much injury could be done to it. Chariots frightened the enemy. They were the tanks of antiquity.

Egypt's advance on its northern front in Syria was halted by the Hurrians. In the mid-1400s, Egypt allied itself with the enemy of the Hurrians, the Hittites, and they continued to clash with the Hurrians. The Egyptians gained wealth from booty, but they failed to push the Hurrians out of Syria. Eventually the Pharaoh Thutmose III (r. 1479-1425) negotiated peace with the Hurrians. And two successive Hurrian kings married their daughters to the Egyptian kings Thutmose IV (1401-1391 and Amenhotep III (1391-1353).

In the mid-1300s, Egypt withdrew from Syria and Canaan, as the pharaoh Amenhotep IV – also known as Akhenaten – tried to force his subjects to worship the god Aton, whom he believed was the god of the universe. There was unrest and upheaval. The last pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty was a military commander, unrelated to the rulers who had preceded him. The founder of the Nineteenth Dynasty, Ramses I (1292-90) and his son Seti I (1290-79) revived Egyptian imperialism. Seti went with his army into Canaan and re-established Egypt's imperial administration there.

Seti clashed with the Hittites over control of Syria, and during the reign of Seti's son and successor, Ramses II (1279-13) the Hittites pushed south and retook the city of Kadesh, seventy-five miles north of Damascus. Ramses tried to retake Kadesh but failed. The Hittites, who also had chariots, outnumbered the Egyptians close to 2 to 1. The Battle of Kadesh, generally dated to 1274 BCE, has been described as involving perhaps five or six thousand chariots – the largest war with chariots ever. Both sides claimed victory. The war between Ramses the Second and the Hittites dragged on until the 21st year of Ramses' reign, when the Hittites saw a growing danger from other enemies. Ramses and the Hittites signed a treaty that they called an "everlasting peace." Egypt was to control lands as far north as Lebanon, and the Hittites were to control lands north of there.

The Hittites gave Ramses a Hittite bride, and Ramses returned to Egypt. There he explained his exploits in Syria as a great victory – as he was supposed to be divine and incapable of failure. To celebrate his victory and to create symbols of his glory, he put slaves to work on the creation of buildings and monuments across Egypt. Art work from this period depicts a tall and threatening Ramses holding a Semite, an Asian and a black man by their hair – three slaves feeling the sternness of Ramses' rule. It was to be described as the time of Moses and enslavement of Hebrews in Egypt.

Hyksos

At the end of the 12th dynasty a people called "Hyksos" settled down in the eastern delta. After a presence in the country for about 150 years another hyksos dynasty (15) made a fortified capital of Avaris.

The Hyksos were foreign invaders who overran Egypt in the 17th century BC and established two contemporaneous dynasties. The 15th dynasty (1674-1567 BC) of the great Hyksos kings dominated the Hyksos vassal chiefs of the 16th dynasty (1684-1567 BC). Egyptians called these kings "rulers of foreign lands," translated in Egyptian as "hega-khase". Greek authors later rendered this as "Hyksos," which was mistranslated as "shepherd kings." For this reason many scholars believed the Hyksos to be the Hebrews, although there is no archaeological basis for this assumption. They were probably city dwellers from southern Canaan (later called Palestine by the Romans).

The period of their rule was a time of peace and prosperity for Egypt. They respected the native religions, maintained ancient Egyptian as the official language of the government, and allowed many Egyptians to serve in the high levels of the administration of the state. They taught the Egyptians new military techniques and introduced the use of the horse and chariot.

The Hyksos were unable to quell the feelings of Egyptian nationalism. They held the southern lands in check with an alliance with the Nubian kingdom of Cush. Despite this, the southern Egyptian city of Thebes finally began a war of independence that culminated with the expulsion of the Hyksos by Ahmose I in 1567 BC.

The rather peaceful dynasty 14 was hereby ended (like the Egyptian dynasty 13) and the new rulers of Avaris (possibly a new wave coming from the Palestinian region) were acting in a more expansive and military active way. They had their own gods but never imposed these on the indigenous people and the language in the administration continued to be Egyptian. They only one domestic god they worshipped was - Set, who they identified as their own god of storms.  They seem to have adopted Egyptian manners, laws, and had trade relations with the Minoans and Babylonians. They were recognized by later Egyptians and listed as legitimate kings, but no tombs from these half a dozen rulers have been found and their personal names were non-Egyptian.

The kings claimed themselves pharaohs with all the regalia and tradition attached to that title and the more than hundred years they ruled northern Egypt was mainly a time of peace and prosperity. 

A big advantage in combat was their introduction of horses (a new animal to the Egyptians), previously unknown elements in the Egyptian army and they also introduced improved weapons. At most they had control down to the middle Egyptian town of Hermopolis and thus divided the Nile Valley into two parts with the Egyptian dynasties 16 and 17 ruling the south. 

No hostility seems to have been between the two parts until the last 20 years after a century of relatively peace. The 16th dynasty (possibly from the Abydos region) may by time have been vassals to the 15th and then were taken over by the 17th from Thebes. From there came the liberation war, initiated by Amhose I and completed by Thutmoses III, that finally wiped out the Hyksos dynasty.