In the final centuries of the Old Empire, Egypt suffered from several adversities that directly undermined the maintenance of a controlled government under pharaonic authority. The reduction of the Nile River flood cycle, the consequent spread of diseases and the lack of supplies within that society established the intensification of several tensions. The population began to rebel against the State itself and the nomarcas supported the return of a decentralized political system.
Between the years 2300 and 2000 a. Ç. economic ruin and internal strife enabled the invasion of peoples from Asia who settled in the Nile River Delta, northern Egypt. Only in the last decades of the 21st century a. C., the Egyptians reassumed the total control of the territory thanks to the military action of the pharaoh Mentuhotep II, which also had to face the resistance of the nomarcas to the project for the resurgence of the centralized state.
With the return of the pharaoh, the system of collective serfdom was once again in force and, thus, allowed the construction of large irrigation canals and the emergence of other exploration points agricultural. To guarantee stability, the State began to accept the entry of members of lower social classes in the formation of a powerful army. Not by chance, the Egyptians conquered in this period the regions of Nubia and Palestine, where they found large mines of gold and copper.
Over the years, the material prosperity achieved throughout the Middle Empire made social differences increasingly sharp. The formation of a restricted class of privileged people motivated several peasant communities to follow the dictates formulated by the central power. Once again, the nobles began to demand greater political autonomy and the disputes weakened the opulent centralized government in the hands of the pharaoh.
Around 1800 and 1700 BC C., some Hebrew tribes entered the Egyptian territory in search of better living conditions. At the time, the severe arid climate of the Palestinian region motivated the displacement of the Hebrew civilization towards the interior of Egypt. However, the event that destabilized the Egyptian government was the military invasion established by the Hyksos people Asian who had a technology of warfare that preserved its domination in the Nile Delta between the 1750s. and 1580 a. Ç..
By Rainer Sousa
Graduated in History
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Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
SOUSA, Rainer Gonçalves. "Ancient Egypt – Middle Kingdom"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiag/medio-imperio.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.