The invading conquerors put many of the Egyptians to death, taking their wives and children into slavery. Worshipping gods of their own, they hated the gods of the Egyptians and destroyed many temples and monuments. Generally speaking, they remained in the Delta and the Fayoum, the Theban princes ruling in the south as their vassals.
Gradually these fierce Asiatics took on the civilization of the land they had invaded. They donned Egyptian dress, spoke and wrote as the Egyptians, and built temples much like theirs. The country rallied from its recent disaster and life became not unlike that of earlier times.
In time the Theban nobles increased in power; the Hyksos—or their descendants in the Delta—grew alarmed lest the native princes might become powerful enough to force them from the throne they had usurped. Determined to check any threatening strength on the part of the Egyptians, the foreigners tried to bring about open conflict, sure themselves of victory. At first the Theban princes sought to avert war, but the demands of the Hyksos grew heavier. There was a folk-story to the effect that the usurping king in the Delta sent word to the Theban prince that the noise of the sacred hippopotami in the pools and canals allowed him rest neither by night or day, and must be disposed of. However simple this appears, it may easily signify that the final break came because of religious difficulties.
Roused at last, the Egyptians determined to drive the invaders from their land. This occurred during the Seventeenth dynasty—for Manetho continues his list of Egyptian kings throughout the period of foreign rule. The Asiatics were driven north, and the first pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty, King Ahmose (1580-1350 B.C.), gathered a vast army and forced them beyond his borders. Five years were consumed in accomplishing this, and in the end many of the foreigners were reduced to slavery.
Summing up the results of the invasion of the Hyksos, we may note that Egypt learned much during her period of oppression Before the invasion, her fighting had been confined to the defense of her frontiers. Asiatic and African, and the tribes with which she had waged war had been her inferiors. In the Asiatic tribes she had at last met a people more skillful in military affairs than she. They used horses and chariots, and their mode of warfare was superior to the clumsy, undisciplined efforts of the Nile-dwellers. It was by adopting their methods that Egypt finally succeeded in expelling them from the land. Hereafter we find the horse and chariot used extensively in Egyptian wars.
Another important result was the elimination of the feudal lords. They had opposed both the Hyksos and the successful king Ahmose, and fighting for personal interests alone, had most of them perished in the conflict. The vast areas which had been their portion reverted to the crown and became royal domain.
It has been thought that Joseph served under one of the foreign kings, and that the conditions spoken of at the close of his career—when all Egypt was subdued and at the command of the Pharaoh—coincide with the situation shortly after the feudal lords had disappeared as a political factor. All this is, however, doubtful.
In marked contrast with the gloom of long years under foreign oppression shines the splendor of the New Empire.
The Beginning of the New Empire.[2]
The wide differences which we have noted concerning dates accepted by various Egyptologists disappear as we approach the Christian era, and there is general agreement that the sixteenth century before Christ saw the dawn of the New Empire which had its beginning when the independence of Egypt was established and Hyksos rule thrown off. Petrie calls this the most glorious page in Egyptian history.