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Ancient Egypt: Difference between revisions
→Collapse of New Kingdom
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==Collapse of New Kingdom== | ==Collapse of New Kingdom== | ||
* following the death of Ramses II, was a series of pharaohs who oversaw a decline in Egyptian power | |||
** Ramses II outlived many of his own sons (died in 1213) | |||
** his thirteenth son, Merneptah, was selected as heir after the death of older brothers | |||
*** Merneptah was about 70 years old when he became pharaoh | |||
* over-expansion and constant warfare weakens Egyptian empire | * over-expansion and constant warfare weakens Egyptian empire | ||
* climate change impacts region: more migration into Egypt & destabilizing invasions | * climate change impacts region: more migration into Egypt & destabilizing invasions | ||
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*** economic decline coincidental to decline of Hittite Empire | *** economic decline coincidental to decline of Hittite Empire | ||
* Bronze Age collapse: | * Bronze Age collapse: | ||
** Egypt remained intact while most | ** Egypt suffered from reduced flow of the Nile and overall dryer and cooler climate | ||
** however, Egypt remained intact while most eastern Mediterranean states collapsed | |||
*** Hittite empire fell, Mycenaean Greece collapsed, Assyria weakened, etc. see [[Bronze Age Collapse]] entry | *** Hittite empire fell, Mycenaean Greece collapsed, Assyria weakened, etc. see [[Bronze Age Collapse]] entry | ||
** Sea Peoples: | ** Sea Peoples: | ||
*** "mysterious" raiders | *** "mysterious" raiders | ||
*** likely from Italy, Greece, and the Levant who raided coastal areas of Eastern Mediterranean | *** likely from Italy, Greece, and the Levant who raided coastal areas of Eastern Mediterranean | ||
** Ramses III | * Ramses III, from the 20th Dynasty (Ramses II was in 19th Dynasty) ruled 1186-1155 | ||
** considered the last great pharaoh of the New Kingdom | |||
** held off the Sea Peoples | |||
** famine conditions during final years of his rule may have been caused by a volcanic eruption in Iceland (possibly 1159 BC) | |||
** may have been murdered | |||
*** the "Harem conspiracy", a failed coup led by one of the wives of Ramses III who wanted her son to take over from Ramses III | |||
*** the conspiracy shows that there was political instability | |||
*** 38 people were tried and executed | |||
* following Ramses III, Egypt lost control of its rule in the Levant | |||
** Libyan and Nubian invaders threatened Egypt and took territory | |||
** the last New Kingdom pharaoh was Ramses XI, who died in 1078 | |||
** by that time the High Priests of Amun controlled Thebes and Upper Egypt | |||
** Smendes took over as pharaoh and founder of the 21st Dynasty, ruled 1077/76–1052 | |||
*** Smendes ruled over a divided and weak Egypt that was invaded by other peoples, including the Libyans (from the west, controlled the Delta), Kushites (from the south, established themselves as pharaohs) and later on by the Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks under Alexander the Great and, marking the end of pharaonic Egypt, the Romans | |||
== Post-Egyptian self-rule == | == Post-Egyptian self-rule == | ||