Egyptian Imperialism Durning the New Kingdom Period

In his article "Egyptian Imperialism" Paul John Frandsen discusses the existence and nature of Egyptian empire during the New Kingdom period. He begins his essay by briefly commenting on other scholars' theories about the Egyptian possession of the Asiatic and Nubian regions. He remarks that the popular practice of referring to the New Kingdom process of expansion as simple occupation is not justifiable because the measures adopted by the Egyptians in relation to the two areas were so different. He then states that his purpose is to describe the different methods employed by the Egyptians in each respective territory.
In Nubia, the first area Frandsen addresses, he argues that the Egyptians were consciously attempting to fully assimilate the Nubians into the larger Egyptian culture - a process he calls Egyptianization. Frandsen contends that the Egyptians focused their efforts to achieve this assimilation in five different approaches. The first is the restructuring of the political and administrative institutions in such a way that allowed for those of Nubian decent to still achieve high status not only within Nubia but all of Egypt. The next point focus was the acculturation of, if not the entire population, at least the higher social classes of Nubian society. Thirdly, Frandsen cites the change in the settlement pattern during this period of Egyptian presence as a pointed attempt to influence the Nubians. The next focal point the author highlights is an ideological expansion in which the Egyptian deities were introduced to the Nubians in a propagandist way. The last piece of evidence offered, and considered the strongest by Frandsen, is the integration of the Nubian economy into the Egyptian redistributive system. As proof of the success of these approaches Frandsen signals to the existence of Nubian regiments within the Egyptian army and scenes of tribute bearers in the tombs of Raekhmire which depict Nubians dressed in the same fashion as Egyptians.
In contrast to the Egyptianzation methods employed in the Nubia region, Frandsen claims that the methods employed in the Syrian and Palestinian area seem to be focused on maintaining ordered relations and protect trade routes. Here, unlike in the Nubian dominion, the author claims that the system of government was much like the European feudal society, and that the local rulers, while still sending their sons to Egyptian court like the Nubians, did not achieve the same status within the Egyptian government system that their Nubian counterparts did. Another difference cited by Frandsen is found in the economic model employed in the Asiatic region. The author states that the Nubian economy was integral to the larger Egyptian economy, but the economy of the Asiatic vassal-states was not. Rather it functioned as a peripheral to the larger economy in which Egypt took a part of the excess.
However, while the Syria-Palestine area did not enjoy some of the integral benefits the Nubia region did, it enjoyed a measure of autonomy that the other did not. In fact, several of the pharaohs married princess from the Asiatic principalities while, according to Frandsen, no such marriages occurred with the Nubians. For this reason and others the author suggests that the Egyptians had a respect for the technology and religious practices of the Asiatic regions while no such respect existed for the Nubians. The author then concludes with musings over why the Egyptians chose to expand and suggests that perhaps scholars are focusing on the wrong aspect of the question. Stating that instead of looking for outside causes scholars should be looking for "who in Egypt benefitted from the empire" in order to ascertain why an expansion took place.

Analysis

Paul John Frandsen's essay "Egyptian Imperialism" is fundamentally static and hypothetically based in many instances. However, while it is passive in nature and the validity of some of his facts may be questionable, the questions that he raises about the psyche of the Egypt during the New Kingdom have the potential to illuminate the motives behind the aggressive expansion polices of the period. His "working hypothesis" directly challenges the largely accepted theory that both the Nubian and the Syrian-Palestinian regions were merely part of a simple occupation based expansion process employed by the pharaohs of the New Kingdom. This challenge is largely accomplished by proving that the Nubian and Asiatic areas were approached by the Egyptians in very different ways, and that difference prompts the question of how the two different forms of imperialism came about. This in turn leads to another more fundamental question, that of why the Egyptians wanted to expand at all. Frandsen begins his "working hypothesis" by pointing out that most scholars assume that the Egyptian method of empire building is essentially static and therefore make not inquiry into why the Egyptians undertook an expansion at all. William H. Stienberg is one such scholar. In his book Ancient Near Eastern History and Culture, he makes no suggestions as to why the Egyptians would want to expand; he only mentions that they did. Therefore, Frandsen devotes the majority of his essay to the passive task of delineating the differences between the Egyptian methods of imperialism employed in the Nubian and Asiatic states in order to establish a base from which he may counter the "common knowledge" about the motives behind Egyptian expansion.
It must be noted that in constructing this base Frandsen relies on factual archaeological evidence when discussing the methods employed in dealing with the Nubian, but in the dealings with the Asiatic states some of the evidence that he employs is very hypothetical and in his own words he refers to it as "guess work." However, even though his assumptions about the economic relationship between the Asiatic states and Egypt is purely theoretical, it is strong enough to serve his larger purpose, which is to suggested a new approach to discovering the motives behind the Egyptian expansion during the New Kingdom.
It is Frandsen's suggestion to discover why Egypt chose to expand that makes this particular essay valuable. That the essay is static and some of the evidence is questionable is recognized by Frandsen himself, but these shortcomings are not point of the essay, nor do they deter from that point, which is to raise questions about the current view Egyptian empire building and posit a new way of thinking about Egyptian imperialism during the New Kingdom. His suggestion to look at "Who in Egypt benefited from this empire?" rather than what external forces caused the expansion, promises to encourage some very illuminating and interesting work on the subject of imperialism during the New Kingdom.

Source: Frandsen, Paul John "Egyptian Imperialism" Section 6 2008