Following their conquest of the Hatti, the Hittites had been
dominant in central Anatolia between 1650-1595 BC, before internal
instability ended that dominance.
A short dark age followed the Hittite collapse and the creation
of power vacuums in Babylonia and Syria (caused by the Hittites)
during the sixteenth century BC. During that time new states rose to
prominence, including the Luwian states of Arzawa and Kizzuwatna in
Anatolia, Mitanni in northern Mesopotamia, and possibly Ahhiyawa in
western Anatolia.
Other minor states which were probably
confederacies sprang up in the north-western corner of Anatolia (Wilusa),
in eastern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia (Hayasa-Azzi and Ishuwa)
and the Caucuses (Kolkis). The Syria-Palestine coastal area saw the
emergence or growth of a number of new city states, mostly under the
domination of Egypt at a time in which trade crossed a multitude of borders
and languages. This was the 'international system' in which the
great empires communicated frequently with each other, and played
power politics in Syria, using the city states there a buffer
region.
By about 1430 BC in Anatolia, Hittite power began to be
restored. They expanded into Syria and by the 1330s BC had conquered
or subjugated most of Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia. However,
within a century or so their regional dominance was coming to an
end. Somewhere around 1200 BC, perhaps up to a decade before it,
regional drought and famine began to cause massive upheaval as many
of the states shown in the map were destroyed or disappeared
entirely, and the old order was swept away.
Facebook
StumbleUpon