Dynasties XVIII to XX

The reassertion of Egyptian power and the building of an empire

New Kingdom

18th Dynasty

    Most pharaohs of the 18th Dynasty acceded while still very young and no reference is made to brothers of the king although in a number of cases certainly more princes were alive at the time of death of their father. These young rulers did not possess much power over the military, the officialdom and the priesthood of Amen. The queen's palace also played an important role. All these parties tried to manipulate the king, who often only served to legitimise the government controlled by one faction or another

AHMOSE I

Ahmose I (r. c.1570-1546 BCE), was the founder of the 18th dynasty, one of the most outstanding kings in the history of ancient Egypt. His principal achievement was to weaken the Hyksos, who had dominated Lower Egypt for some 300 years, by taking Avaris, their citadel in the north. He pursued them into southern Canaan and laid siege to Sharuhen for three years. On his campaign in Upper Egypt against rebels great slaughterwas recorded in all the battles. 

Ahmose continued Kamose's expansion into Nubia as far as Buhen (near the second cataract) in an attempt to prevent a recurrence of the incursions of the Kushites, which Upper Egypt had suffered from during the 17th Dynasty. The overseer over these conquered lands became one of the most important people in Egypt and was later given the title of "Son of the King"



AMENHOTEP I
 Amenhotep I (Amenophis) was the son of Ahmose I, and ruled from c. 1546 to 1526. He undertook military campaigns in Libya and in Nubia (up to the 3rd cataract) using boats on the Nile to transport his army, and extended the boundaries of his empire by establishing a vice-royalty in Nubia.


THUTMOSE I
Thutmose I, (r. c. 1525-1512), husband of the princess Ahmose, continued the expansive policy of his predecessors, appointed Turi vice-roy of Nubia and extended the empire southward deeper into Nubia. At the third cataract he erected a stela on an island proclaiming:

  Later, while pursuing the retreating Hyksos during his Asian campaigns, he reached the Euphrates and crossed over intoNahrin, the land of the Two Rivers, which belonged to the Mitanni.
    In his third year he re-excavated the canals bypassing the first cataract, put down a rebellion and returned with his fleet, with

that wretched Nubian Bowman head downward at the bow of his majesty's ship "Falcon."

THUTMOSE II
  Thutmose II (r. c.1512-c.1504 BCE) married his half sister Hatshepsut and succeeded his father, Thutmose I. During his reign Thutmose put down Kushite rebellions in Nubia and revolts by bedouins in Canaan and continued temple construction, albeit on a small scale only, at Karnak.





HATSHEPSUT
 Hatshepsut (Hatshepsowe), (died c.1482 BCE) was one of the few women to rule Egypt as a pharaoh. After the death (c.1504) of her husband, Thutmose II, she assumed power, first as regent for his son Thutmose III, and then (c.1503) as pharaoh. She encouraged commercial expansion, sent a trading expedition to Punt and sponsored a major building program overseen by Senenmut; the monuments of her reign include the temple at Deir el-Bahri. Toward the end of her reign she lost influence to Thutmose III who came to be depicted as her equal.



THUTMOSE III
Thutmose III (c.1504-1450 BCE) was very young when his father, Thutmose II, died and was until 1482 the co-regent of his aunt, Hatshepsut. Some time after he became sole monarch,he tried, for unknown reasons, to erase the memory of Hatshepsut by destroying many of the monuments which bore her name or effigy. From 1482 onwards, he devoted himself to the expansion of the Egyptian empire, leading many campaigns into Canaan, Phoenicia and Syria.
    At Megiddo (c.1480) he destroyed a Syrian-Canaanite coalition employing mercenary armies and chariots. On the east bank of the river Euphrates in Nahrin, he defeated the forces of the kingdom of Mitanni, which had been extending its power in the Middle East.
    Thutmose expanded his navy and used it to transport his armies swiftly to the Phoenician coast, while in Setet (Nubia) and Kush he extended his rule beyond the fourth cataract.
    He set up an efficient administration, both civil and military, and extorted large amounts of tribute from the defeated kings and chiefs. Much of this tribute Thutmose used to build temples at Karnak (the Festival Hall of the temple of Amen), Heliopolis and Abydos.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

20th Dynasty

RAMSES III

   Succeeding his father Sethnakhte who reigned for three years, Ramses III (c.1182-1151 BCE) saved Egypt from foreign invasion but failed to solve internal problems (political conspiracies and weakened social structures) that led to the disintegration of the Egyptian state 80 years after his death. Ramses fought off Libyan invasions in his fifth and eleventh year. He also claimed to have held back a horde of invading Sea Peoples who were sweeping down the eastern Mediterranean coast towards Egypt.
    Despite these external successes, royal power declined and Egypt lost its Asiatic colonies which were conquered by the Sea Peoples, even if in the Medinet Habu texts describing the battle of Ramses III the Egyptians claim that they settled them as vassals in Southern Canaan. 

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/history18-20.htm#19th
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\