Akhenaten Empire

Akhenaten Empire

After the repulsion of the Hyksos, meaning 'rulers of the foreign land' whom invaded Egypt in 1700 B.C.E. for the first time since the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, the Eighteenth Dynasty was established and led Egyptian civilization to reach the apex of its influence and grandeur.[i] This new dynasty was established through battle due to their new focus on imperial expansion.[ii] The Egyptian's worldview and inward focusing culture was drastically altered. They began to look beyond the narrow Nile Valley and started to expand in to the world.[iii] This expansion led to the creation of a new class of nobles whom acquired wealth, lands, and even slaves to work them, through the pharaoh as rewards for their conquest in the Near East.[iv] ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...He worshiped the sun god, but did not recognize him as an aspect of Amon[viii] He replaced the falcon symbol of Ra with a hieroglyph depicting the rays of the sun, known as Aten, thus his name change from "Amon is Pleased" to "He Who is Profitable to the Aten."[ix] While the priesthood of Amon recognized all the gods of Egypt, Akhenaten's new religion exalted only Aten and more closely resembled monotheism, but was not truly monotheistic as other gods were still mentioned in inscriptions, though they mostly appear to be solar gods or abstract concepts.[x] Akhenaten's efforts at a new religion ultimately failed due to a number of reasons. One such contributor, was his self–portrayal as a 'family–man' rather than that of a divine spirit, which threatened the foundation previous pharaohs laid for the legitimacy of their reign.[xi] This lead to the priesthood of Amon to resist Akhenaten's new theology, and due to his lack of regard for Egyptian's interests abroad he lost the support of nobles.[xii] Both factors contributed to the downfall of Akhenaten's theology. During the seventeenth year of Akhenaten's reign he died and was eventually succeeded by his nine–year old son Tutankhamun, previously known as Tutankhaten, whose regent's rejected Akhenaten's new theology of Aten and restored the god Amon and the priesthood of Amon along with the other tradition deities of Egypt.

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