| 1450 BC Greeks Conquer Minoans- After trading with the Minoans for long period of time, the Mycenaeans conquered them in about 1450 B.C. The Mycenaeans destroyed the great palace at Knossos. |
| 1483 BC Battle Of Meggido - In 1483 B.C., Tutmosis launched a war of conquest against Syria- Palestine. The war culminated at Meggido in Northern Israel. There the Egyptians decisively defeated their opponents and became the dominant force in the area. |
| 1400 BC Iron Age In Near East - The production of iron was invented in Armenia. The people were subjects of the Hittites. The use of iron by the Hittites gave them a military advantage, and kept the secret of how to make iron a secret. The secret: raising the temperature of the iron in the forge. After the fall of the Assyrian Empire iron manufacturing was widely dispersed throughout the Middle East. |
| 1375 -1360 BC Akhenaten IV Pharaoh - In 1379, Akhenaten IV became Pharaoh. The Empire had reached the very highest levels of prosperity. But under Akhentaten IV, the Empire began to dissolve. Revolts broke out in Phoenicia and Palestine. The Hittites absorbed part of the Empire in Syria. Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti pursued a new religion focusing on a belief in one god: the sun. This religion was not popular with the people, and after Akhenaten's death, his religious reforms were renounced. |
| 1288 BC Rameses II Fights The Hittites- Rameses II fought to regain control of the territory seized by the Hittites. Rameses led his men to Kadesh, where a great battle was fought. Though the Egyptians claimed to have won a major victory there, the magnitude of that victory is unclear. What is known, however, is that after the battle the Egyptians reached a favorable agreement with the Hittites. |
| 1240 BC Philistines Established -The Philistines established themselves in the coastal plain of present-day Israel. The Philistines were nomadic warriors who may have originally come from Crete. They established five city-states: Ashdod, Ashquelon, Ekron, Gath and Gaza. |
| 1240 BC Israelites Established- The Israelites, after escaping from Egypt, established themselves in Canaan. The Israelites organized into 12 tribes and took control of the land through a combination of military victories and political assimilation. |
| 1200 BC Ramses III- Rameses III founded the Twentieth Dynasty. His capital was Tanis. Rameses rallied the Egyptians to fight invaders from the Mediterranean. The attacking forces were halted on land, and their fleet was allowed to enter the Delta where they became entangled in a giant net. The sailors were massacred and thus Rameses successfully held the Empire together. Under his successors, the Empire slowly declined. |
>