From the end of 14 BC to the middle of 13 BC, ancient Egypt and Hittites fought for control of Syria for decades. The battle of Kadish, the key battle in this war, is one of the earliest recorded battles in ancient military history. The peace treaty concluded after the war is the earliest international military treaty recorded in history.
background
Ancient Syria is located at the intersection of three continents: Asia, Africa and Europe. It is the trading hub of ancient land and sea caravans and has always been the battlefield of great powers. As early as the 30th century BC, Egypt launched many wars of conquest in Syria in an attempt to establish and consolidate its hegemony in Syria. However, Egypt's efforts to establish hegemony have been strongly challenged by Egypt's strong neighbor Hittite. About14th century BC, Egypt was busy with the religious reform, and the Hittites rose rapidly. Under the leadership of their brilliant king Supirulumas, they actively advanced to Syria and gradually controlled the whole Syrian region as far south as Damascus, which dealt a heavy blow to Egypt's vested interests in this region.
Ramses ii
About 1290, Pharaoh ramses ii of Egypt 19 dynasty ascended the throne (about 1290 ~ 1224), and he was determined to rally, compete with Hittites and restore Egypt's dominant position in Syria. Therefore, Ramses made great efforts to prepare for the war and formed the Putahe Legion. Together with the original Amon Legion, Lai Legion and Seth Legion, and the mercenaries composed of Nubians and Chardin, * * * has four legions with more than 20,000 troops. In BC 1286, Egypt sent troops to occupy Berith and Byblos in southern Syria for the first time. At the end of April of the following year, Ramesses II made a personal expedition, led four legions to set out from Jalu fortress in the east of the delta, went north along the Ridani Valley and Orent Valley, marched for nearly 1 month, entered the Kadish area, camped in the highland about 18 miles south of Kadish, and was located in Kadish on the west bank of the upper reaches of the Orente River. The river is swift, the cliffs stand tall and the terrain is dangerous. The Egyptian army tried to conquer Kadish first, control the throat of the northward advance, and then push northward to restore the rule of the whole Syrian. As a result, the two sides fought in the Kaikadiesh area.
pass by
Just as Egypt sent troops to the north, an intensive preparation activity was also in full swing in Hittite. Hittite got this information before Ramses II went to war. Mu Vatard, the Hittite king, convened an emergency royal meeting and formulated a battle plan centered on Kadish. The earlier the better, the deeper the lure, and the attempt of the Egyptian army to advance northward was crushed. To this end, the Hittites assembled more than 20,000 troops, including 2,500-3,500 double-horse chariots (each equipped with 1 rider and 2 soldiers), hidden inside and outside Kadish Castle, with the intention of luring the enemy into the ambush circle and annihilating them in one fell swoop.
In about 1269 BC, Hatisher, the Hittite king who succeeded his brother Mu Vatard (reigned from about 1275 to about 1250), proposed that the two sides conclude a peace treaty with the consent of Ramses II. Hattushir sent the draft peace talks written on the silver board to Egypt, and Ramses II drew up his own draft on this basis and sent it to the Hittite king. The treaty stipulates: "The two sides will achieve permanent peace, never be hostile again, and always maintain a beautiful peace and a beautiful brotherly relationship. The two sides will carry out military mutual assistance, and they will resist any invading enemy. The two sides promise not to accept each other's fugitives and are obliged to extradite. "
Final results
Ramses II, the last powerful Pharaoh of the ancient Egyptian military empire, was also in full swing. The decades-long military contest between the two sides has seriously weakened their strength. Egypt has not achieved the goal of restoring Asia, and the successors of Ramses II are increasingly facing the situation of internal and external troubles. The migration wave of "maritime people" swept from Asia Minor in Aegean Sea echoed with the invasion of Libyan tribes, shaking the rule of Pharaoh day by day, and the once powerful new kingdom gradually fell into disintegration.
Although the Hittites occupied most of Syria, they once looked down on West Asia. However, after the war with Egypt, the already unstable economic foundation was further shaken and soon began to decline. By the end of 13 BC, the "maritime nation" invaded Hittite from the Bosporus Strait, and the vassal states of Asia Minor and Syria rebelled one after another, and the Hittite state collapsed rapidly. By the 8th century BC, they were completely destroyed by Assyria.
Impact assessment
This half-century-long war is recognized by historians as "the end of the Egyptian Empire". The long-term war of Ramses II failed to restore the huge territory of Egypt during the 18 dynasty Tuthmus III. At the same time of the war, Ramses II built many buildings. However, in the later period of its rule, both the construction scale and the construction skills declined obviously, which is a concrete manifestation of the serious recession of the domestic economy. After Ramses II, the Egyptian empire went from bad to worse and soon fell into a situation of internal troubles and foreign invasion. This also paved the way for Egypt to be occupied by foreigners in the later period, in a state of exhaustion and difficulty in extricating itself, and finally go to extinction.