SilviStermasiEssay

__ Golden Age and Decline of the Middle Kingdom __

The middle Kingdom was a time when Egypt began to prosper again after much turmoil. The economy and all the arts were taken to new heights. One of the main areas in which the Egyptians advanced greatly during this time was trade. A pharaoh named Sunusret II improved trade connections with Palestine, Nubia and the Levant. After this, many foreigners migrated to Egypt building their own communities and establishing their own kings and laws. At the beginning of the Middle Kingdom, Egypt was ruled by many great kings that restored the power of the pharaoh thus restoring order in Egypt. Later on, nearing the 14th dynasty, Egypt began to see the results of their slow decline. Egypt fell because of the weakness of its later kings, which led to Egypt being invaded by an Asiatic people which the Egyptians called the Hyksos. During the 14th Dynasty immigration of these people became widespread; they gained in numbers and power, thus threatening the power of the Egyptian monarchy. __I think judging from the fate of the Middle kingdom we can learn how important a good leader is and apply that to our society today.__

One of the mistakes that the Leaders of the Middle Kingdom made was loosing control of the Eastern Borders. The fortresses built along the border were abandoned, thus allowing nomads to enter the country freely. By doing this they allowed the foreigners’ numbers to increase, therefore allowing their power to increase which later on led to the invasion of Egypt. Fortunately now days we are able to keep a close eye on who goes in and out of our country and for a person to become a permanent resident in a certain country they have to go through a long process so the government can decide whether they are suitable or not to live there. Though all these measures are taken and the situation has improved greatly, we still face issues from time to time such as terrorist attacks and other foreign groups within our country threatening the power of our leader and the safety of our people. A good ruler at the time should have taken notice of all the foreign people entering his country uninvited and taken immediate action instead of letting the numbers build and allowing the foreign leaders to gain more power and independence so they could take control over his own country.

Another problem was that the Kings ruling at the time allowed the other officials to gain more power and independence, the power of the Pharaoh diminished. The king lost control over his own officials who got used to the independance making the king weak, therefore creating an opportunity for the invaders to launch their attacks. The invaders were intelligent and had military technology that did not compare to the Egyptians. The Hyksos introduced the horse to Egypt and used chariots and their bronze age weapons to overtake the Egyptian's weak military. The egyptians lost because their enemies were more advanced. A good leader would have used his resources to develop new technologies himself or at least tried to find out his competitor's secrets and produce weapons to match his. To this day military technology is something that influences the outcome of a battle greatly, usually the leader with the most most destructive arms and advanced weaponry is the one that triumphs. An example of this in more recent years is the victory of the U.S. over Japan in 1942-1945. The U.S. under the leadership of Franklin D. Roosevelt developped a very powerful nuclear bomb which destroyed one of the Japanese cities, the event decided the fate of the war. Despite the fact that today we realize that that may not have been a good desicion and try to resolve problems without warfare, the ingenuity and innovation displayed by Roosevelt displays characteristics of a good leader.

Though we can learn a lot by the Egyptian's decline we can also learn from their Golden Age. Senusret III was the most powerful pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom. He expanded Egypt's borders more than any other pharaoh, launched many campaigns against the Nubians, restored the power of the pharaoh, was a great supporter of the middle class and built many fortresses, temples, statues and etc. Senusret III was known to be an administrative genius for ending the power of the nobles thus leading to the rise of the middle class and the return of the power to the pharaoh. He was also known for his military career as he also went by the name of warrior king because he was a great warrior ( standing at 6ft 6inch. tall) and led many successful campaings against the Palestines, Nubians and Syrians. Senruset was also remembered for being a builder, not only did he lead his own irrigation projects, build the largest pyramid of his time and many other temples and fortresses but he also repaired and upgraded what his predeccesors had built before him. From all of his accomplishments we can learn that Senruset III was brave, innovative, intelligent and ambitious which is why he was worshipped and held as an example of how kings should be well after his reign was over. I believe that all of the charachteristics mentioned above should be the requirements for our leaders today so that our economy can prosper once again and we can finally escape recession.

Through out its long history Egypt has fallen into many periods of extreme chaos due to the fact that its kings were too weak to bear the great responsabilities of the pharaoh. In times when our own nation is in great economic trouble, though we may not be facing the exact same risks as the ancient egyptians were, __I think judging from the fate of the Middle kingdom we can learn how important a good leader is and apply it to our society today__. We must pay close attention to whom we put our trust into and not let history repeat itself. In saying that, Egypt also had a notorious reputation for being able to pull through more successful and powerful than before. Let's hope that our current leaders such as Barack O'bama and Stephen Harper can display some of the necessary qualities and help us do the same.