Succession Of The Most Powerful Rulers Egypt example essay topic

New Kingdom Egypt was established by the beginning of the 18th Dynasty, marked by the Expulsion of the Hyksos invaders, a people from the Ancient Near-East who had held power in Egypt for the past century. This amassing of strength by the Egyptians to reclaim their land from a powerful foe, led to a change in perspective for the Egyptian people and most importantly, the way in which the Pharaoh was to manage the state. The massing of forces, implicating of Hyksos military tactics and organisation the amounted to the expulsion of the Hyksos put a new and profound emphasis on the Pharaoh as a military leader, a warrior who would led his people to victory against their foes. With this new emphasis Egypt found itself at the beginning of a dynasty that was to be marked by a succession of the most powerful rulers Egypt had seen, and long periods of prosperity in which Egypt found itself as the most powerful force, expanding its sphere of influence and forcing surrounding states into submission. Previous to the Hyksos invasion Egyptian kings had maintained their role as having a primary emphasis purely on religion and ritual, seeing themselves as a peace and protected by the gods, and blissfully unaware of the amounting power of their enemies.

It was due to this that Egypt was taken so easily, for it had no established armed forces, primitive weapons, and was in no way prepared for attack. Egypt spent many decades under the seemingly gentle rule of the hyksos (who preferred to assimilate into Egyptian culture themselves rather than destroy it), who allowed Egyptian princes to keep rule over Upper Egypt, while they focused themselves in Lower Egypt around the Delta. However, despite this, domination was domination, and however much the Hyksos sought equality with the Egyptians, they were still being ruled by a foreign power, and to many, especially the Theban princes, this had to end. Kamose led the retaliation, he gathered a mighty force of Egyptians and attacked the Hyksos invaders. It was this action that was to begin the war against the Hyksos who were slowly forced back into the delta region during his reign and the reign of Ah mose his successor and finally expelled back into the Northeast by Amenhotep I. This aggressive (but justified) initiative of Kamose led to the end of the comparatively idle role of the Pharaoh as a religious figure head and bought about a new primary role for the Egyptian kings to follow, that was the role as an active an powerful military leader, a keeper a Maat (peace, justice, stability, order) and destroyer of any who would threaten it. Amenhotep I was (by most accounts) the first ruler of the 18th dynasty, the first the lead Egypt into a new period, the New Kingdom, after the Second Intermediate Period of the Hyksos rule.

His primary objective and goal was to rid Egypt of every last trace of the invaders, and this he did. Yet as Egypt saw the last of the Hyksos, Amenhotep changed the role of the pharaoh. He had seen what the Middle Kingdom rule had led to, Egypt, a victim unprepared and ignorant of the rest of the world around it. He did not want to see this happen again. To see to this Amenhotep embraced not only the 'Warrior' role of the Pharaoh that had become so fundamental, but he changed the administration of Egypt in the sense that he established a vitally needed permanent standing army, in which Egyptians would hold the position of soldiers as their profession, their careers in the armed forces, not simply to be called from their farms when needed, but to be trained and disciplined in a full time force.

Along with this Amenhotep created a new policy, that was, he changed Egypt's military role, from an idle defensive, to a policy of attack, to expand Egypt's boarders and control the surrounding citied and states that may have the potential to pose a threat, developing what could be thought of as an empire. He achieved his goal by taking his army south and campaigning and conquering Nubia in the name of Egypt. This example in military prowess and the importance of controlling foreign lands was embraced and expanded upon greatly by Amenhotep's successor Thutmose I. Thut I campaigned throughout his career, taking Egyptian forces North as far as the Euphrates river in Western Asia, and deep into Nubia beyond the third cataract of the Nile. These campaigns involved the conquering of many cities and tribes throughout these regions, ensuring Egypt great prosperity by demanding tribute from conquered citied, and collecting booty from battle.

Following pharaohs, as had become policy, considered highly important, their responsibility to maintain control over these lands, and while all Pharaohs show evidence of dealing with revolts in Nubia, Pharaohs Thutmose and Amenhotep II, put significant energy in campaigning back into these areas to ensure control was maintained. This was especially important for Thut who campaigned into West Asia up to and beyond the area of Thut I. He took the city of Meddigo, which was beyond the Euphrates (? ). He was very proud of his military efforts and recorded a list of every city he had been to and held power over, including details of some battles in his A nals inscription in the Temple of Karnak, as he attributed his success to his father Amun. Amenhotep II, however was not primarily concerned with expanding the large boarders that Egypt now controlled, thanks to his predecessors. Because of the vastness of this region his primary concern was to put down any rebellions and strike fear into the hearts of his enemies and those he controlled.

There is one particular account, which describes Amenhotep taking his army into Syria and capturing seven princes. He took these men back to Egypt and saw personally to their execution, and hung their corpses in The city of Thebes and at one of Egypt's outposts, to strike pride in the hearts of the Egyptians and terror into the hearts of any who would oppose them. The A mada Stela describes this event: "When his majesty returned... he slew with his own weapon the seven princes, who had been captured... He hung six of those fallen ones, on the wall of Thebes... The other fallen one was taken up river to Nubia and hung on the wall of Na pata, in order to have known the victories of his majesty".

These pharaohs were those of the period that epitomized the image of warrior pharaohs, and while other pharaohs did maintain military control through more minor campaigns, this newly establish image of the pharaoh as a warrior was not simply proven by legitimate action, but by extreme propaganda, as with all regalia in Egypt at this time. All of the Pharaoh's took great care to have themselves depicted as great and powerful warriors. Hatshepsut, who reigned in a period of relative peace, relied on propaganda to support and justify her rule. She had numerous statues made of herself as a sphinx, a mighty lion and protector of her people, and in relies she was often shown in the blue war crown. This sort of propaganda was common to all the pharaohs of the early New Kingdom and remained customary.

As the beginning of the New Kingdom saw the introduction of the 'warrior' pharaoh, the importance and fundamental role of religion, as was central in the Old and Middle Kingdoms, was far from forgotten. For although these new kings claimed military strength and prowess it was always in the name of the mighty god of Thebes, Amun. A pharaoh's role was hugely supported by their role as a religious leader, in maintaining temples and monuments to the gods, holding festivals and celebrations in their honor, and being a powerful figurehead for the people a, divine being and a god on earth. While this was important to all pharaohs, Hatshepsut was a ruler who based her whole reign on promoting and publicizing her religious position and relationship with the gods. Hatshepsut, being a woman, in elevating her position as Queen regent to that of pharaoh was and extremely delicate and unorthodox practice.

It would have been impossible for her to do this had it not been for her religious support base. This came in the initial form of support for her to ascend the full throne form close officials and friend in the Priesthood of Amun, especially the high priest Hapusoneb. This is evident in the fact that it is recorded that Hatshepsut was chosen by the oracle of Amun as the rightful ruler. However Hatshepsut saw need to convince the Egyptians completely, with more evidence than a oracle reading, so she created propaganda, the most significant of which is in her mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahr i.

In the temple there are two large sections of inscribed relief showing the two most fundamental arguments that Hatshepsut created as part of her claim to the throne. Firstly, that she was a child of divine birth, the offspring of her earthly mother, who was visited by Amun, who allowed her to breathe in the ahn k of life, conceiving him a daughter, Hatshepsut. The second inscription details the fact that she was chosen as heir by her powerful earthly father Thutmose I (completely disregarding the intervening reign of her husband Thut II). The inscription depicts Hatshepsut being presented by her father to the royal court and coroneted as heir to the throne. While these inscriptions were the most fundamental in justifying her rule, she put great effort in establishing, repairing and making additions to monuments and temples throughout Egypt, including Karnak and Speos Artemidos and on all of these she had images and text recording and depicting her in full royal regalia and as justified pharaoh, strong and powerful protector of her people and loyal daughter of the mighty Amun. Hatshepsut's exceptional glorification of Amun developed a new strength in the Amun priesthood, and a new emphasis on a pharaoh's primary relationship with the gods as the son of Amun.

Hatshepsut's heir, Thutmose, who she had previously been regent and co-regent with, adopted his mother's love for Amun, placing himself in the same position, and attributing the vast majority of credit and tribute from everything he did in his reign to the god.