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World History 1

<OpenstaxParagraph>
	The First Intermediate Period came to an end around 2040 BCE as a series of powerful rulers, beginning with <OpenstaxTerm>Mentuhotep II</OpenstaxTerm>, was able to reestablish centralized control in Egypt. This led to the rise of what we now call the <OpenstaxTerm>Middle Kingdom Period</OpenstaxTerm>, which lasted nearly 260 years.
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<OpenstaxParagraph>
	In the year 1991 BCE, Amenemhat, a former vizier (adviser) to the line of kings who established the Middle Kingdom, assumed control and founded a line of pharaohs who ruled Egypt for two centuries. Under the leadership of these pharaohs, Egypt acquired its first standing army, restarted the large-scale building projects known in earlier times, made contacts with surrounding peoples and kingdoms in the <OpenstaxTerm>Levant</OpenstaxTerm> and in <OpenstaxTerm>Kush</OpenstaxTerm> (modern Sudan), and generally held itself together with a strong centralized power structure.
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<OpenstaxNote>
	<OpenstaxNoteTitle> Link to Learning </OpenstaxNoteTitle> 
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		New Kingdom pharaohs circulated a work of literature that foretold the rise of Amenemhat, who would bring an end to disorder and restore Egypt to prosperity. This ancient work was called the <a href="https://openstax.org/l/77prophecy"><OpenstaxTerm>Prophecy of Nefert</OpenstaxTerm>y</a> and is presented as an English translation by University College London.
	</OpenstaxParagraph>
</OpenstaxNote>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	During the Middle Kingdom Period, pharaohs introduced the cult of the deity Amon-Re at Thebes. Amon-Re was a combination of the sun-god Re, the creator god worshipped in the north of Egypt, and Amon, a sky god revered in the south. He was portrayed as the king of the gods and the father of each reigning pharaoh. The pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom no longer constructed massive pyramids for their tombs. Instead, they focused on erecting massive temples to Amon-Re and his wife, the mother-goddess Mut, at Thebes (<a href="#fig-00006">Figure 3.22</a>). The ruins of these temples are located at Karnak in southern Egypt. Amon-Re’s temples featured immense halls in which multiple columns or colonnades supported the roof, courtyards, and ceremonial gates. They housed the sacred images of the deities, which on festival days were brought out in ritual processions.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00006" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/2647ed18656ae736a0c154172ff8aa1404a871a7" alt="A picture of a stone building in ruins is shown. Two rows of five tall sandy-colored stone columns stand in a row in the middle. Pieces are missing at the top and parts of the columns are missing bricks. In between the columns a large group of people can be seen standing and walking in various types of clothing. On both sides of the columns a two-tiered building can be seen in ruins. Wall and roofs are missing from the top tiers and large openings with tall decorated columns can be seen on the bottom tiers and pieces on the second tiers. In the forefront of the picture on both sides large pieces of sandy-colored stone can be seen laying on the ground, some atop each other. The ground is flat and sandy-colored and a blue sky with pale white clouds can be seen in the background." mediaType="image/jpg" width="1100" height="826" />
<OpenstaxFigureText width="1100">
	<strong>Figure 3.22</strong> The temple of Amon-Re, built around 2055 BCE, was plundered in ancient times for its stone. What remains are these ruins. The large ceremonial gates still stand, towering above the visitors who walk beneath them. (credit: modification of work &quot;Karnak Temple Complex at Luxor, Egypt&quot; by Daniel Csörföly/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)
</OpenstaxFigureText>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Middle Kingdom Egypt reached its height in the 1870s and 1860s BCE during the reign of <OpenstaxTerm>Senusret III</OpenstaxTerm>, a powerful warrior pharaoh and capable administrator of the centralized state. He greatly expanded Egypt’s territorial control, leading armies up the Nile into Kush and into the Levant. These efforts not only strengthened Egypt’s ability to protect itself from invasion but also greatly increased the flow of trade from these regions. Kush was known for its rich gold deposits and capable warriors, and Senusret III’s several campaigns there brought Egypt access not only to the gold but also to mercenaries from Kush.
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	Senusret also dramatically increased the degree of centralized power held by the pharaoh, reducing the authority and even the number of the nomarchs. Overall, Egypt now grew wealthier, safer, more centralized, and more powerful than it had ever been. As a result, his reign was also a time of cultural flourishing when Egyptian art, architecture, and literature grew in refinement and sophistication (<a href="#fig-00007">Figure 3.23</a>).
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxFigure id="fig-00007" src="https://openstax.org/apps/archive/20240226.174525/resources/0fd24c606c323515c6f51ec999e411b626ed52f2" alt="A picture of a piece of jewelry is shown. Across the bottom is a thin, long piece inlaid with red, blue, and aquamarine colored shapes (triangles and rectangles) and outlined with gold. Atop this piece in the middle an aquamarine colored person can be seen kneeling in a red waistcloth, gold beard, and blue ornamental headdress. Their arms are outstretched holding on to a carved blue and gold M-shaped arch. A blue and gold object hangs from their right arm. Above the M-shaped arch is a cartouche inlaid with red and aquamarine rectangles outlined with gold. Inside, from the top, a red circle is shown, then a colorful half circle, then an insect with blue stones and gold outlines. On either side of the cartouche are two bird-like animals in blue and aquamarine stones outlined in gold, with a snake on their heads in red, blue, and aquamarine with gold outlines, with an ankh cross hanging from each of their necks. One bird leg is standing on a red circle outlined in gold atop the long thin piece across the bottom and the other leg is grasping the M-shaped figure with the person kneeling." mediaType="image/jpg" width="1200" height="742" />
<OpenstaxFigureText width="1200">
	<strong>Figure 3.23</strong> This pectoral, a form of jewelry worn over the chest, is an excellent example of the fine artwork of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom Period. It once belonged to an Egyptian princess called Sithathoryunet and is made of gold and semiprecious stones. (credit: modification of work &quot;Pectoral and Necklace of Sithathoryunet with the Name of Senwosret II&quot; by Purchase, Rogers Fund and Henry Walters Gift, 1916/The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public Domain)
</OpenstaxFigureText>
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	The deaths of Senusret III and his son Amenemhat III led indirectly to a rare but not unprecedented transfer of royal power to an Egyptian woman. Possibly Amenemhat IV’s wife, sister, or both, <OpenstaxTerm>Sobekneferu</OpenstaxTerm>, the daughter of Amenemhat III, was the first woman to rule Egypt since before the Old Kingdom. She reigned for only a few years, and little is known of her accomplishments. But scholars have determined that she was the first pharaoh to associate herself with the Egyptian crocodile god Sobek. She may even have commissioned the construction of the city of Crocodilopolis to honor this important god. Because she died without having had children, she was the last in the long series of pharaohs in the line of Amenemhat I.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Even before the reign of Sobekneferu, Egypt was already experiencing some degree of decline. Over the next century, the pharaohs and their centralized control became steadily weaker. Increasing numbers of Semitic-speaking peoples from the <OpenstaxTerm>Levant</OpenstaxTerm> flowed into Egypt, possibly the result of increased trade between Egypt and the Levant at first. But by the late 1700s BCE, these Semitic-speaking groups had grown so numerous in the Nile delta region and centralized control of Egypt had grown so weak that some of their chieftains began to assert control in a few areas. The Egyptians called these Semitic-speaking chieftains <OpenstaxEm>Heqau-khasut</OpenstaxEm> (rulers of foreign lands). Today they are more commonly called <OpenstaxTerm>Hyksos</OpenstaxTerm>, a Greek corruption of this Egyptian name.
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	By the time the Hyksos were asserting their control over parts of the Nile delta, Egypt was already well into what historians of the nineteenth century dubbed the Second Intermediate Period. Like the First Intermediate Period, the second was a time of reduced centralized control. Not only did the Egyptian nobles, ruling from their capital in Thebes, lose control of the delta, they also lost territory upriver to an increasingly powerful kingdom of Kush in the south. This meant that the territory once controlled by the powerful centralized state bureaucracy was effectively split into three regions: one ruled by Hyksos in the north, one by Kushite in the south, and one by the remnants of the Egyptian nobility in the center.
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	Despite the fragmentation, for most of this period, the three regions of Egypt appear to have maintained peaceful relationships. That changed, however, beginning in the 1550s BCE when a string of Theban Egyptian rulers was able to go on the offensive against the Hyksos. After the Hyksos were defeated and the Nile delta recaptured, the emboldened Egyptians turned their attention south to Kush, eventually extending their control over these regions as well. These efforts ushered in a new period of Egyptian greatness called the <OpenstaxTerm>New Kingdom</OpenstaxTerm>, the highest high-water mark of Egyptian power and cultural influence in the ancient world.
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3.3.3 A Second Age of Egyptian Greatness

1 Understanding the Past

1.1 Developing a Global Perspective

1.1.1 World History as Preparation for Life after College

1.1.2 World History and Global Citizenship

1.1.3 Features of This Textbook

1.2 Primary Sources

1.2.1 Learning to Evaluate Documents and Images

1.2.2 Documentary Sources: Competing Narratives

1.2.3 Textual Sources: The Importance of Language

1.2.4 Hidden in History

1.3 Causation and Interpretation in History

1.3.1 Levels of Causation

1.3.2 Interpretation in History

2 Early Humans

2.1 Early Human Evolution and Migration

2.1.1 Human Evolution

2.1.2 Why Did Humans Move and Where Did They Go?

2.1.3 Early Human Technologies

2.2 People in the Paleolithic Age

2.2.1 Ice, Ice, and More Ice

2.2.2 Life in the Paleolithic Age

2.2.3 Diverse Paleolithic Peoples

2.3 The Neolithic Revolution

2.3.1 The Development of Agriculture

2.3.2 How Farming Changed the Human Experience

2.3.3 Neolithic Peoples

3 Early Civilizations and Urban Societies

3.1 Early Civilizations

3.1.1 Attributes of Early Civilizations

3.1.2 The First Urban Societies

3.2 Ancient Mesopotamia

3.2.1 The Rise and Eclipse of Sumer

3.2.2 The Rise of the World’s First Empire

3.2.3 Later Empires in Mesopotamia

3.2.4 Society and Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia

3.3 Ancient Egypt

3.3.1 The Origins of Ancient Egypt

3.3.2 The Age of Pyramid Building

3.4 The Indus Valley Civilization

3.4.1 The Origins of the Indus Valley Civilization

3.4.2 Trade, Writing, and Religion

3.4.3 The Era of Decline

4 The Near East

4.1 From Old Babylon to the Medes

4.1.1 Power Politics in the Near East

4.1.2 Foreign Affairs and Trade

4.1.3 Daily Life and the Family in the Near East

4.2 Egypt’s New Kingdom

4.2.1 The Hyksos in Egypt

4.2.2 The Pharaohs of the New Kingdom

4.2.3 Egypt’s Foreign Policy

4.3 The Persian Empire

4.3.1 The Rise of Persia

4.3.2 Darius I and the Reorganization of the Empire

4.3.3 Persian Culture and Daily Life

4.4 The Hebrews

4.4.1 The History of the Hebrews

4.4.2 The Culture of the Hebrews

5 Asia in Ancient Times

5.1 Ancient China

5.1.1 Prehistoric China

5.1.2 Early Dynastic China

5.1.3 The Zhou Dynasty

5.1.4 The Warring States Era and Qin Unification

5.2 The Steppes

5.2.1 The Nomadic Culture of the Steppes

5.2.2 Tribes, Confederations, and Settled Neighbors

5.3 Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia

5.3.1 Ancient Korea

5.3.2 Ancient Japan

5.4 Vedic India to the Fall of the Maurya Empire

5.4.1 Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro

5.4.2 The Aryans and Brahmanism

5.4.3 Buddhism

5.4.4 The Mauryan Empire

5.4.5 The Gupta Dynasty

6 Mediterranean Peoples

6.1 Early Mediterranean Peoples

6.1.1 The Late Bronze Age World

6.1.2 Phoenicians, Greeks, and Etruscans

6.2 Ancient Greece

6.2.1 Archaic Greece

6.2.2 Sparta and Athens

6.2.3 Classical Greece

6.3 The Hellenistic Era

6.3.1 The Kingdom of Macedon

6.3.2 Hellenistic Culture

6.4 The Roman Republic

6.4.1 The Foundation and Function of the Roman Republic

6.4.2 The Expansion of the Roman Republic

6.5 The Age of Augustus

6.5.1 The First Triumvirate

6.5.2 From Republic to Principate

7 Experiencing the Roman Empire

7.1 The Daily Life of a Roman Family

7.1.1 The Structure of Roman Families

7.1.2 A Day in the Life of a Roman Family

7.1.3 What Family Meant in Rome

7.2 Slavery in the Roman Empire