The last great era of Egypt. This is also the Empire Age. It is also the Age of Pharaohs. It is called the Empire Age because the Egyptians did not want a foreign country to invade them again. They took an active role believing that the best defense was an aggressive offense. Borders expanded through active invasion. Conquered people were treated a bit more harshly than before. They were required to pay more taxes and tribute.
It is also known as the Age of Pharaohs because the most famous pharaohs came from this time period.
The first pharaoh was a unique leader. The name of the pharaoh was Hatshepsut.
This is significant because this is the first female pharaoh. Hatshepsut had
a brother named Thutmosis III. When their father died early in his reign, Thutmosis
was not ready to rule, so they royal court made the decision to have Hatshepsut
rule until her brother was ready to rule.
When Thutmosis was able to rule, Hatshepsut was not ready to relinquish her
power. To divert her brother, she made him the general of all of Egypt's army.
She also gave her permission to march and fight when he felt necessary. Queen
Hatshepsut eventually died and the hatred of felt by her brother was fully released.
Thutmosis ordered all hieroglyphs with her name to be erased.
Another interesting pharaoh was Amenhotep. Amenhotep wanted to change the
religion of Egypt. Him and a small cult of followers believed that Egypt was
not polytheistic, but monotheistic. The only god of Egypt was Re, the sun god.
All the other gods were just manifestations of him. This conversion in Egypt
was a small blip on a huge screen.
Amenhotep for the next 20 years drained Egypt of its resources and ignored
many important parts of government. Amenhotep spent most of his time in temples
praying and worshiping Re. It also didn't help that he suffered from a disease
that gave him female breasts, and elongated fingers and face.
This was also the time when King Tut ruled. King Tut was the next ruler after
Amenhotep. The only significant thing King Tut did was restore the official
religion back to polytheism.
The greatest pharaoh of them all was Ramesis II. He is also known as Ramesis
the Great. Here are some numbers of Ramesis. He ruled for nearly 70 years; lived
into his 90's; he had over 120 children; he made more monuments and shrines
than any other pharaoh
Ramesis was the pharaoh during the time of Exodus of the Jews. Ramesis was
also the pharaoh/ general during the Battle of Kadesh. The Battle of Kadesh
is what historians call a turing point battle. Namely, world history would be
totally different if the winners lost and the loser win. If the Hittites (From
Mesopotamia) won, middle eastern culture would have flowed deep into Africa
because of the Nile.
After the death of Ramesis, the Egyptian empire slowly declined in the history
of the world.
