The Egyptian army underwent various changes in the remarkable history of statehood of the country on the Nile. At first the Egyptians, whose military prowess was rather insignificant, managed to develop their army strength while fighting against various enemies, in order to take up the challenge for dominion over the then civilized world, against such powers as the Mitanni, Assyria and the Hittite state.
Egyptian statehood took shape at the 3rd millennium. The Nile River was the natural axis around which Egyptian civilization began to consolidate. The land was then divided into regions: Upper Egypt, where hunting was strongly developed, and Lower Egypt (Delta), where agriculture was predominant. The final unification of Egypt was accomplished through a long warfare, when gradually the individual state organizations merged into a single entity. In tradition, the unification is depicted as the conquest of Lower Egypt by the rulers of the South. The unified Old Kingdom (2850 – 2250 BC) was ruled by the king called Father. The state was governed by members of the royal family and later by administrators appointed by the ruler.
The First Army
The Egyptians were unique in their development of the art of war. In the early centuries, they were a rather peaceful people towards their neighbours. Their weapons were primitive and their army had little in common with the well-trained or standing army known in later times. There were few career soldiers, as this profession was despised by the agricultural Egyptians. Professional soldiers served as protectors of the ruler and his family and as border guards. In cases of dire necessity, troops composed of peasants were called up and demobilized once the threat ceased to exist. Units were organized according to the weapons the soldiers were armed with. However, the warriors' armament was very insufficient and ineffective - short spears, weak bows with sharpened wooden arrowheads (later made of flint), clubs and maces. The only protection was provided by wooden (cowhide-wrapped) rectangular shields (1 to 1.5 metres long) rounded at the top. There was no armour or protective clothing of any kind, which in turn was conditioned by the hot desert climate to avoid dangerous overheating of the body.
Not having a strong army was dictated mainly by external conditions. This was because Egypt did not have to fear any serious trouble from outside. The natural and difficult to cross sandy borders increased the sense of security. In addition, the peasants feared fighting outside the borders of their homeland, where they could find death and not receive a proper burial, which, according to beliefs, negated the chance of eternal life. It was then when Egyptian rulers began to bring in foreign mercenaries. As royal power weakened, military organization passed into the hands of local tribal aristocracy, who had at their disposal their own military units. The tribal leaders, as representatives of the ruler, were obliged to train and maintain the army units, which were to join the ruler's troops if required. Usually soldiers were called to arms by the ruler precisely in the event of district revolts. Civil wars were thus almost the only training ground for the Egyptians to shape up their military skills. The Middle Kingdom period (2050 – 1778 BC) saw a reassertion of power by the ruler and Egypt's move towards external conquests. The Egyptians successfully repelled Nubian invasions and then conquered Nubia with its rich gold deposits. The Egyptians also succeeded in extending their influence into some desert areas of Libya. Nevertheless, the Libyan nomads and the sedentary Nubians did not pose much of a threat to Egypt. The desert nomads were more annoying than dangerous, and the southern neighbours were held back by a system of brick fortifications built by the Egyptians.
Rule of the Hyksos and its consequences
he weak Egyptian army couldn’t rise to the challenge of defending their country against new well-armed invaders, the Hyksos. These ‘rulers of foreign lands’ (Egyptian: Hekau-chasut), taking advantage of the weakening of the central authority, gradually overran the whole of Egypt (late 18th century). The first rulers, known as the Great Hyksos, ruled over Egypt as the 15th dynasty (from 1680 BC), while their influence reached also into Palestine lands. Later, the Little Hyksos (sixteenth dynasty), reigning from 1580 BC, controlled the northern part of the country. During this time, the Egyptians formed a small state in southern Egypt, with Thebes as its capital. Initially, the Theban state was subjected to the stronger invaders, who had already managed to become well established in the country along the Nile. Eventually the Egyptians took up arms against them to liberate the whole of Egypt. The Hyksos occupation turned the Egyptian army into an efficient war machine. During the long campaigns against the Hyksos, the Egyptian army learned how to use a superior fighting strategy and introduced the much better weapons of its enemies into their ranks - helmets, shields, bronze sickle-shaped swords (khopesh), the development of horse breeding and the introduction of battle chariots prepared the Egyptians for the coming struggle. The consequence of the Hyksos invasion was also that Egypt emerged from its voluntary political isolation and embarked on a path of conquest (the New Kingdom period). The Egyptian rulers of the seventeenth dynasty and especially eighteenth dynasties (1562 – 1308 BC) had a reorganized army, supported by numerous mercenary troops, and gold resources from conquered Nubia. Thanks to that they proceeded to conquer Palestine, Phoenicia and Syria. The peak of Egyptian power came during the reign of King Theotimus III (1491 – 1436 BC), who, in a series of victorious war campaigns, reached the Euphrates, smashed a coalition of Syrian cities (Battle of Meddigo, 1479 BC) and fought victoriously against the Mitanni state. The newly conquered territories were administered in part by imposed Egyptian governors. The other local rulers were reduced to the status of vassals and were obliged to send their sons to Egypt for upbringing. In the future they were to become a convenient tool in the hands of the Egyptian kings. However, maintaining a strong position in the conquered territories was not easy and Egypt had to fight with the Hittite state, nearly a century, for the supreme position in the Near East. The Egyptian-Hittite dispute culminated in the Battle of Kadesh (1286 BC), during the reign of Ramses II (1291 – 1224 BC), which brought a division of influence in the disputed territories. Egypt retained Palestine and Phoenicia, but Syria remained under Hittite rule.
Composition of the Army
Undoubtedly, Egypt was able to compete with the Asian powers not only because of its modernized weaponry, but also because of the professionalization of the army (under the seventeenth dynasty and eighteenth dynasties). The army was commanded by the king or one of his sons. Even before 1300 BC, the army commander was, in all senses of the word, in charge of a general military staff. Indeed, the emergence of larger armies gave rise to the need for good military organization. The Egyptians were the first to introduce specialized military staffs (even in the Old Kingdom period), which dealt with quartermaster matters, recruitment, ways of fighting in the desert, the construction of fortifications, or gendarmerie matters. For the first time there was a department dedicated to spying on the enemy. The army was mainly recruited from a pool of poor peasantry. As a rule, it was the second son of a farmer who joined the army. He had no right to inherit the property of his father, so he usually enlisted as a volunteer. In general, the expenditure on the army had a very negative impact on the wealth of society, which fell deeper and deeper into poverty. During the Middle Kingdom, the profession of soldier enjoyed great prestige, but there were recruitment problems due to the increase in the size of the army. These problems were also remedied by partial compulsory conscription. Soldiers in barracks were subjected to strict training and weapons handling. There was also a well-developed system of rewards for valour in battle - from medals and booty to a commitment by the state to perform a burial at the king's expense. In addition to native troops, Egyptian rulers increasingly began to hire foreign soldiers, mainly Greeks, Libyans, Jews, Philistines, Amorites, Sea Peoples, Armenians and Canaanites. They were commanded by their own commanders, and were also stationed separately from the Egyptian troops. Those mercenaries were also much better paid and often better organized than Egyptian units. At certain times, mercenaries constituted the majority of Egypt's armed forces and its main strike force. Some rulers, such as the founder of the twenty-sixth dynasty, Psametik I (663 – 609 BC), even came to power owing to the help of (Greek) mercenaries and fought external enemies based on mercenary troops. This ruler, putting an end to the strong position of Egyptian priests and officials, also based his army on Greek and Judean soldiers. The mercenary troops manned important strategic points in the Nile Delta and border posts. The native Egyptian-Libyan troops were relegated to second class soldiers.
The most effective and numerous (about half of the army) Egyptian troops were the archers, already armed with the so-called composite bow (made from horn, wood, and sinew laminated together), almost twice as strong as the regular bow. The bow was made from a flexible piece of bull (or antelope) horn, giving it both flexibility and power. The famous Egyptian archers fought in a compact formation and wore no armour, only light clothing. This increased their flexibility. There were also units of Nubian archers in the Egyptian army, who performed very well in ambushes and skirmishes. Since most of the Egyptian army's opponents were lightly armed, the bow remained the main weapon, despite the fact that spears had greater penetrative power. An additional advantage of this weapon was its low cost of manufacture and speed in producing large numbers of arrows. Nevertheless, the traditional bow did not completely fall out of use. Archers were very often accompanied by a person carrying a shield; it was a shield about the size of an adult (this support was abandoned later).
The infantry strike force consisted of soldiers armed with spears (with bronze spearheads), fighting with a phalanx-like system. The Egyptians favoured a frontal attack on the enemy, protecting themselves with shields and striking their opponents with spears. The rest of the infantry wore similar shields to the archers, which, although they offered good protection from a hail of arrows, were very unwieldy in direct combat and attack. The first clashes with the armies of the Asiatic empires proved this (they limited the visibility and speed of the soldiers). Therefore, large shields were replaced by smaller, round ones (adopted from the Hyksos) and later conical ones, whose size made it easier to defend against the swords and axes of enemy warriors. Other Egyptian troops were armed with the weapons of second choice - sickle-shaped swords (bronze khopesh), axes, daggers (used for thrusting) and slings. The khopesh was later replaced by a straight, double-edged sword 75 cm long (used for cutting and thrusting). They were manufactured from iron, which allowed them to be lighter and thinner while retaining their hardness (borrowed from the Sea Peoples).
War Chariot
Like every Middle Eastern power, the Egyptians had also war chariots. Undoubtedly, these were copied from Asia and adapted to Egyptian conditions. They were made decidedly lighter and faster, as well as more manoeuvrable (facilitated by the special arrangement of the cart's axles). Unlike the Hittites, Mitanni or Assyrians, Egyptian chariots did not play such a huge role on the battlefield. They rather served as protection for infantry against enemy chariots and a mobile platform for archers. The chariots therefore fought in a loose formation. The crew consisted of three people - a rider, an archer and a person holding a shield (to protect the fighting warrior). Chariots often initiated the battle by trying to weaken the enemy formation with a hail of arrows. If the arrows were exhausted, the warrior would fight with several short spears. Chariot squads included between 10 and 50 carts. They were also used for pursuit, and even more often they were used for hunting. A soldier fighting in a chariot was considered to be the elite of the army. Being a charioteer also emphasized social status, as owning a chariot was an indication of the owner's wealth.
Siege Warfare
The Egyptians, unlike the Near Eastern powers (mainly Assyria), did not develop their siege tactics. They preferred to settle the outcome of wars on the battlefield (sometimes the place and time of the battle was agreed with the opponent by negotiation). Nevertheless, the large number of heavily-fortified cities and fortresses, in the direction of expansion through Palestine and Canaan, required some siege solutions. Direct assault on the fortress, using ladders and battering rams, was the most popular method. Warriors armed with axes attacked the gates. Doing so they were protected by portable shields over their heads and archers who cover their assault with a hail of arrows. Occasionally, siege towers were used in the later period. As assaults inflicted huge casualties, very often the army passively besieged the fortified places, waiting to starve the besieged garrison and inhabitants into submission. If they found themselves in enemy territory, the Egyptian army prepared a defensive camp for the duration of their stopover, which was surrounded by a wall of shields. In the camp, the slaves put up simple desert tents. In the centre was the tent of the king or priests bearing a statue of the gods Horus or Seth.