New Kingdom
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[[Image:Egypt 1450 BC.svg|thumb|right|The maximum territorial extent of Egypt (XVth century BC)]]
The '''New Kingdom''', sometimes referred to as the '''Egyptian Empire''', is the period in [[ancient Egypt]]ian [[History of Ancient Egypt|history]] between the [[16th century BC]] and the [[11th century BC]], covering the [[Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt|Eighteenth]], [[Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt|Nineteenth]], and [[Twentieth dynasty of Egypt|Twentieth Dynasties of Egypt]]. The New Kingdom ([[1570 BC|1570]]–[[1070 BC]]) followed the [[Second Intermediate Period of Egypt|Second Intermediate Period]] and was succeeded by the [[Third Intermediate Period of Egypt|Third Intermediate Period]]. It was [[Egypt]]’s most prosperous time and marked the zenith of its [[Historical powers|power]].
{{Small Egyptian Dynasty List}}
==Background==
Possibly as a result of the foreign rule of the [[Hyksos]] during the Second Intermediate Period, the New Kingdom saw Egypt attempt to create a buffer between the [[Levant]] and Egypt, and attain its greatest territorial extent. It expanded far south into [[Nubia]] and held wide territories in the [[Near East]]. [[Military history of Ancient Egypt|Egyptian armies]] fought [[Hittites|Hittite]] armies for control of modern-day [[Syria]].
[[Image:NE_1300bc.jpg|thumb|300px|left|The Egyptian Empire around 1300 BC.]]
The Eighteenth Dynasty contained some of Egypt's most famous [[Pharaoh]]s including [[Ahmose I]], [[Hatshepsut]], [[Thutmose III]], [[Amenhotep III]], [[Akhenaten]] and [[Tutankhamun]]. [[Queen]] Hatshepsut concentrated on expanding Egypt's [[external trade]], sending a commercial expedition to the [[land of Punt]]. Thutmose III ("the [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon]] of Egypt") expanded Egypt's army and wielded it with great success, creating the [[List of largest empires|largest empire]] Egypt had ever seen.
One of the best-known 18th Dynasty pharaohs is [[Amenhotep IV]], who changed his name to [[Akhenaten]] in honor of the [[Aten]] and whose exclusive worship of the Aten is often interpreted as history's first instance of [[monotheism]] (and was argued in [[Sigmund Freud]]'s ''[[Moses and Monotheism]]'' to have been the ultimate origin of [[Jew]]ish monotheism). Akhenaten's religious fervor is cited as the reason why he was subsequently written out of Egyptian history. Under his reign, in the [[14th century BC]], [[Egyptian art]] flourished and attained an unprecedented level of realism.
Towards the end of the 18th Dynasty, the situation had changed radically. Helped by Akhenaten's apparent lack of interest in international affairs, the Hittites had gradually extended their influence into Syria and [[Palestine]] to become a major power in international politics. A power that both [[Seti I]] and his son [[Ramesses II]] would need to deal with.
[[Image:Hitt Egypt Perseus.png|thumb|right|Egyptian and Hittite Empires, around the time of the [[Battle of Kadesh]].]]
Arguably Ancient Egypt's power as a [[nation-state]] peaked during the reign of Ramesses II ("the Great") of the 19th Dynasty. He sought to recover territories in the Levant that had been held by the 18th Dynasty. His campaigns of reconquest culminated in the [[Battle of Kadesh]], where he led Egyptian armies against those of the [[list of Hittite kings|Hittite king]] [[Muwatalli II]] and was caught in history's first recorded military ambush, but thanks to the arrival of the Ne'arin, Ramesses was able to rally his troops and turn the tide of battle against the Hittites. Ramesses II was also famed for the huge number of children he sired by his various wives and [[concubine]]s; the [[KV5|tomb]] he built for his sons, many of whom he outlived, in the [[Valley of the Kings]] has proven to be the largest funerary complex in Egypt.
His immediate successors continued the military campaigns, though an increasingly troubled court—which at one point put a usurper ([[Amenmesse]]) on the throne—made it increasingly difficult for a pharaoh to effectively retain control without incident. The last "great" pharaoh from the New Kingdom is widely regarded to be [[Ramesses III]], a [[Twentieth dynasty of Egypt|Twentieth Dynasty]] pharaoh who reigned several decades after
Ramesses II. In Year 8 of his reign, the [[Sea Peoples]], invaded Egypt by land and sea. Ramesses III defeated them in two great land and sea battles. He claimed that he incorporated them as subject peoples and settled them in Southern Canaan, although there is evidence that they forced their way into Canaan. Their presence in Canaan may have contributed to the formation of new states in this region such as [[Philistia]] after the collapse of the Egyptian Empire. He was also compelled to fight invading [[Libu|Libyan]] tribesmen in two major campaigns in Egypt's [[Nile Delta|Western Delta]] in his Year 6 and Year 11 respectively.<ref>Nicolas Grimal, A History of Ancient Egypt, Blackwell Books, 1992. p.271</ref>
[[Image:SFEC EGYPT ABUSIMBEL 2006-003.JPG|thumb|left|Colossal depictions of [[Rameses II]] at a temple dedicated to him at [[Abu Simbel]].]]
The heavy cost of these battles slowly exhausted Egypt's treasury and contributed to the gradual decline of the Egyptian Empire in [[Asia]]. The severity of these difficulties is stressed by the fact that the first known labor strike in recorded history occurred during Year 29 of Ramesses III's reign, when the food rations for the Egypt's favoured and elite royal tomb-builders and artisans in the village of [[Deir el Medina]] could not be provisioned.<ref>William F. Edgerton, The Strikes in Ramses III's Twenty-Ninth Year, JNES 10, No. 3 (July 1951), pp. 137-145</ref> The main reason for this deficiency was presumably caused by the massive and extended [[1159 BC]] to [[1140 BC]] eruption of the [[Hekla|Hekla III]] volcano in [[Iceland]], which expelled large amounts of plume and rock into the atmosphere thereby causing large-scale failures of Egypt's crop harvest.<ref>Frank J. Yurco, "End of the Late Bronze Age and Other Crisis Periods: A Volcanic Cause" in ''Gold of Praise: Studies on Ancient Egypt in Honor of Edward F. Wente'', ed: Emily Teeter & John Larson, (SAOC 58) 1999, pp.456-458</ref> The presence of significant quantities of volcanic soot in the air prevented much sunlight from reaching the ground and also arrested global tree growth for almost two full decades until 1140 BC.
Following Ramesses III's death there was endless bickering between his heirs. Three of his sons would go on to assume power as [[Ramesses IV]], [[Ramesses VI]] and [[Ramesses VIII]] respectively. However, at this time Egypt was also increasingly beset by a series of droughts, below-normal flooding levels of the [[Nile]], famine, civil unrest and official corruption. The power of the last pharaoh, [[Ramesses XI]], grew so weak that in the south the [[High Priests of Amun at Thebes]] became the effective defacto rulers of [[Upper Egypt]], while [[Smendes]] controlled [[Lower Egypt]] even before Ramesses XI's death. Smendes eventually found the [[Twenty-first dynasty of Egypt|Twenty-First dynasty]] at [[Tanis, Egypt|Tanis]].
==Timeline==
<timeline>
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AlignBars = justify
DateFormat = yyyy
Period = from:-1560 till:-1050
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align:center textcolor:black fontsize:8 mark:(line,black) width:25 shift:(0,-5)
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from: -1550 till: -1292 color: 18 text:[[Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt]]
from: -1292 till: -1190 color: 19 text:[[Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt]]
from: -1190 till: -1077 color: 20 text:[[Twentieth dynasty of Egypt]]
width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till
barset:Rulers
from: -1550 till: -1525 color:18 text:"[[Ahmose I]]"
from: -1525 till: -1504 color:18 text:"[[Amenhotep I]]"
from: -1504 till: -1492 color:18 text:"[[Thutmose I]]"
from: -1492 till: -1479 color:18 text:"[[Thutmose II]]"
from: -1479 till: -1457 color:18 text:"[[Hatshepsut]]"
from: -1479 till: -1425 color:18 text:"[[Thutmose III]]"
from: -1425 till: -1399 color:18 text:"[[Amenhotep II]]"
from: -1399 till: -1389 color:18 text:"[[Thutmose IV]]"
from: -1389 till: -1351 color:18 text:"[[Amenhotep III]]"
from: -1351 till: -1344 color:18 text:"[[Akhenaten]]"
from: -1336 till: -1334 color:18 text:"[[Smenkhkare]]"
from: -1334 till: -1325 color:18 text:"[[Tutankhamun]]"
from: -1325 till: -1321 color:18 text:"[[Ay]]"
from: -1321 till: -1292 color:18 text:"[[Horemheb]]"
from: -1292 till: -1290 color:19 text:"[[Ramesses I]] ([[1292 BC]] to [[1290 BC]])"
from: -1290 till: -1279 color:19 text:"[[Seti I]] ([[1290 BC]] to [[1279 BC]])"
from: -1279 till: -1213 color:19 text:"[[Ramesses II|Ramesses the Great]] ([[1279 BC]] to [[1213 BC]])"
from: -1213 till: -1203 color:19 text:"[[Merneptah]] ([[1213 BC]] to [[1203 BC]])"
from: -1203 till: -1199 color:19 text:"[[Amenmesse]] ([[1203 BC]] to [[1199 BC]])"
from: -1203 till: -1197 color:19 text:"[[Seti II]] ([[1203 BC]] to [[1197 BC]])"
from: -1197 till: -1191 color:19 text:"[[Siptah]] ([[1197 BC]] to [[1191 BC]])"
from: -1191 till: -1190 color:19 text:"[[Twosret]] ([[1191 BC]] to [[1190 BC]])"
from: -1190 till: -1186 color:20 text:"[[Setnakhte]]"
from: -1186 till: -1155 color:20 text:"[[Ramesses III]]"
from: -1155 till: -1149 color:20 text:"[[Ramesses IV]]"
from: -1149 till: -1145 color:20 text:"[[Ramesses V]]"
from: -1145 till: -1137 color:20 text:"[[Ramesses VI]]"
from: -1137 till: -1130 color:20 text:"[[Ramesses VII]]"
from: -1130 till: -1129 color:20 text:"[[Ramesses VIII]]"
from: -1129 till: -1111 color:20 text:"[[Ramesses IX]]"
from: -1111 till: -1107 color:20 text:"[[Ramesses X]]"
from: -1107 till: -1077 color:20 text:"[[Ramesses XI]]"
barset:skip
</timeline>
==See also==
*[[Amon-Mut-Khonsu]]
*[[History of Ancient Egypt]]
*[[Pharaoh (novel)|''Pharaoh'' (novel)]], historical novel relating to the fall of Egypt's [[Twentieth Dynasty]] and New Kingdom
==References==
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{{reflist}}
==External links==
* [http://www.on-the-matrix.com/mideast/NewKingdom.asp Middle East on the Matrix: Egypt, The New Kingdom] — Photographs of many of the historic sites dating from the New Kingdom
* [http://www.aldokkan.com/egypt/new_kingdom.htm New Kingdom of Egypt - Aldokkan]
{{Ancient Egypt topics}}
[[Category:Dynasties of ancient Egypt]]
[[Category:Former empires]]
[[als:Neues Reich (Ägypten)]]
[[ar:الدولة الحديثة]]
[[br:Rouantelezh nevez Henegipt]]
[[ca:Imperi Nou]]
[[cs:Nová říše]]
[[de:Neues Reich]]
[[es:Imperio Nuevo de Egipto]]
[[fr:Nouvel Empire égyptien]]
[[gl:Imperio Novo]]
[[ko:이집트 신왕국]]
[[hr:Novo kraljevstvo]]
[[is:Nýja ríkið]]
[[it:Nuovo Regno dell'Egitto]]
[[lt:Naujoji Egipto karalystė]]
[[nl:Nieuwe Rijk]]
[[ja:エジプト新王国]]
[[no:Det nye rike i Egypt]]
[[oc:Empèri Navèth egipcian]]
[[pl:Nowe Państwo - linie czasu]]
[[pt:Império Novo]]
[[ru:Новое царство (Древний Египет)]]
[[sk:Nová ríša]]
[[sr:Ново царство]]
[[fi:Uusi valtakunta]]
[[sv:Nya riket]]
[[zh:新王國時期]]