Drastic Changes
In 1300 B.C, Ancient Egypt was blooming with wealth and power. Amenhotep III's father, Tuthmosis IV, left him a great deal of gold, land and a pretty good sized army. His circle of influence was very wide, and he was considered the most powerful man of the time. However, Amenhotep was on the brink of war with surrounding empires but he wanted to avoid war at all costs. He was very advance with his political skills, and instead of using his army and wealth to destroy everyone, he decided to use politics as a way to ease the tensions around him. He would lend out his wealth in exchange for foreign good and supplies much like we work today as a society. Today, the world knows that if we got into another World War, it would be catastrophical because everyone has nukes. So, instead we use diplomatic reasons and actions to also ease tensions, much like Amenhotep III. I believe Amenhotep was an innovator of the time, because he gave an alternative way to rule that not many other people had been doing at the time. This view of changing the norm was also very evident during Amenhotep III's son, Amenhotep IVs, reign.
Amenhotep IV later changed his name to Akhenaten, and led Egypt to many drastic changes. To start, he influenced the ancient artists to start focusing on more real-world drawings, with lots of movement and sensuality, as well as changing the ay the royal family appeared in carvings. The royal family used to be long, slim at the waist, with broad shoulders, but after Akhenaten's influence, these depictions started to become quite the opposite; slim in the shoulders, with very wide hips and butt, and a very long neck.
His most drastic change however, came with ancient Egypts religion. Akhenaten changed his view from being polytheistic, the belief of many gods, to monotheistic, the belief in one god. This was outrageous at the time and caused a huge uproar in the society of ancient Egypt. Much like today when the United States as a whole elected one of the first economical dominant leaders as president instead of going the old path of having a strong political figure as our president. For ancient Egypt, I believe that it wasn't a very strong move because the people of the time most likely had a really tough time seeing and accepting anything else than what they already knew as fact. However, today as a society, I believe that we are more open to change and consider it as more of an option than past generations. So, it helped us understand and realize what we want to happen for our next election, who we really want as our president.
Extra Cite:
Mark, Joshua J. "Akhenaten." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 17 Apr 2014. Web. 09 Feb 2018.
This was a really good and informative post over Egypt. Growing up a Christian and always believing in the Triune God, if someone was sworn into office and said " Okay we are all now suppose to believe in another god." Both me and my family would never be able to convert to believing another god. It would be hard to convert even if our life was on the line.Millions of people would turn against the leader.. If that were to happen today in America, the country would be anarchy! Why did one of the leaders change the way they were portrayed? Perhaps Akhenaten viewed himself with a bit wider hips than the pharaohs before him.
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