How Powerful Was Ancient Kush?

There were many powerful states that existed throughout African history, but perhaps the most noteworthy in the ancient world was the Kingdom of Kush. Kush was well known for its military strength and the Egyptians even praised them for their skilled archers. Given this history, let's take a look at the history of the Kushites and assess just how powerful they really were. What's up African world, it's Homsey Mir and welcome back to another video of African History, Culture, and Worldview. By supporting this channel on Patreon, you're helping in the creation of these videos and supporting this content. If you'd like access to full courses and sources, or you simply want to show your support, you may do so by clicking the Patreon link in the description box below. To begin, the term Nubia is just a general place name for the ancient region just south of Egypt. There were many groups of Africans living in that region who formed their own kingdoms and principalities. The Kushites as we understand them today became popular as they began making a name for themselves because of the consistent threat they posed to Egypt. Make no mistake about it, the reason the Egyptians at times spoke harshly about Kush was because the Kushites were their equals. If we take the entire history of interaction between Egypt and Kush, we will see that both groups of Africans held sway over the other at some point in time, and in my opinion, Kush was able to outlast Egypt by maintaining its sovereignty. So, one has to ask themselves, just how powerful was Kush? Before Ancient Kush became known as a kingdom, there were several kingdoms before it like the Kingdom of Kerma and even the One thing that gave Egypt their early military advantage over the people of Nubia was because they simply unified the region before the Nubians. King Norma became the first pharaoh of a unified Egypt, thus creating a more centralized culture and civilization. The Nubians on the other hand were still dealing with the diversity, and one group couldn't gain a consistent stronghold over the other. But once this happened, the troubles for Egypt began. It would seem as though the Egyptians began to notice that their neighbors to the south were not only becoming more powerful, but forming a new identity, and thus, the term Kush began to take form around the middle kingdom. This term also happened perhaps because the Kingdom of Kerma was gaining more influence and expanding its territory as it conquered the side kingdom around the 18th century BC. This is around the time we begin to see the Egyptians more consistently refer to this region as Kush. In or around 1575 BC during the latter part of the 17th dynasty, this Kingdom of Kush invaded Egypt and actually came close to destroying it had they decided to stay and occupy, proving to the Egyptians that they were indeed a threat. Egypt eventually quelled this threat and conquered Kush during New Kingdom Egypt. But ironically, the centralizing of the Nubian region by Egypt created an even greater enemy for them down the road. This further unified the people of Nubia culturally and religiously, creating an even stronger Kush. After Egypt's grip on the south was over, the Kushites slowly began gaining more influence in Upper Egypt. They eventually conquered One thing I found very interesting about ancient Kush was the little known naval battle that took place at Thebes as King Pi's navy made their first advance into Egypt. The Kushites delivered to the Egyptians a crushing defeat in naval warfare, one that we don't often highlight at all. They then went sailing northward and they arrived at Thebes. They did exactly as his majesty had said. They then went sailing northward on the river, finding that numerous ships had come southward with soldiers, sailors, and troops of every valiant warrior of Lower Egypt, equipped with weapons of warfare to fight against the army of his majesty. Then, a great slaughter was made among them in incalculable numbers. Their army and their ships were captured and brought away as captives to the place where his majesty was. This really revealed the diversity of Kush's power and capacity. Apparently, they weren't just excellent archers, but capable seamen as well, which I find very fascinating. Very few people speak about it in this way, but after this event, Kush clearly became more powerful than Egypt and reigned supreme on the Nile. This can be proven because of how Egypt tried to conquer Kush again after the Kushite dynasty ended in Egypt. Also, all the foreign nations that thought of conquering Egypt did so with relative ease, but with Kush, all foreign nations who attempted failed. Kush became such a military powerhouse that they were even romanticized by the Greeks. I find it interesting that a Greek romance novel called The Alexander Romance mentions how the fictional advance into Nubia by Alexander the Great of Macedonia was completely halted by a fabled Kushite queen the Greeks called Candace. The novel proclaims that when the Macedonian attempted to conquer Meroe in 332 BC, the African queen assembled her army strategically, positioning herself to meet him on the battlefield. Her war elephants struck great fear into Alexander's ranks, and after assessing the strength of her armies, Alexander decided to withdraw and head back into Egypt. This legendary tale epitomizes the psychological impact Kush had on the rest of the ancient world. But historically, Kush legitimately outright repelled or greatly discouraged three foreign incursions into its territory. The first time a foreign nation was discouraged from entering Kush was the Assyrians. Even though the Assyrians were eventually able to successfully remove the Kushites from Egypt, for whatever reason, they didn't seek to take all of Kush, and via hindsight, that was probably one of the smartest things they could have done given how the Persians fared in Kush. Multiple accounts concerning the relationship between Kush and Persia paints a very complicated story. On one hand, early Persian invasion into Kush is seen by the Persians themselves as successful. They even claim Kush as part of their territory. However, upon further review and consideration from an objective Greek account, the Kushites were not subjugated at all by the Persians. The ruler Cambyses was said to have tried to invade Kush on several occasions and failed miserably. It seemed as though the terrain in Kush caused a lot of trouble for the Persians, and perhaps Kushite resistance married with navigational issues forced Cambyses to back down. All in all, the Persians did not at all have any stronghold in Kush, and the Kushites maintained their independence unlike their Egyptian neighbors. But what really makes Kush the most powerful African kingdom of the ancient world was no doubt their interaction with the Romans. There has been no other monarch in Africa that took on such a great threat in the ancient world, going on to successfully safeguard the integrity of their borders like Queen Ammonarenus of Kush. The Romans were arguably the greatest empire the world had ever seen, and was certainly the greatest military force in the ancient world at that time. There have been very few occasions where Rome's ambition was stopped in full, and the kingdom of Kush under Queen Ammonarenus was one of them. Queen Ammonarenus came to the throne around 20 BC, and under her reign, the Romans were threatening the integrity of her borders. This led to various skirmishes and brief battles lasting about five years. The Romans, under Petronius, apparently wanted to tax Nubians living in Egypt, which she naturally opposed. Rome controlled Egypt, and Petronius wanted to challenge Kush and make them a sort of vassal state. Queen Ammonarenus initially waged a successful campaign against the Romans in Egypt, even taking the head of a statue in the form of Augustus and burying it under her temple, so her people can symbolically trample over Rome. Petronius, of course, struck back and drove the Kushites southward. Two years later, Queen Ammonarenus is said to have gathered a large Kushite force and prepared to meet the Romans. Apparently, finding difficulty navigating the Nubian terrain like the Persians, the Romans were stymied and did not engage further south. Thus, a final battle never actually occurred. The Kushite perspective is unclear as we can't decipher the Nubian Meroitic texts, but it's clear that the Romans did not engage further south and it seems as though they strategically withdrew. Queen Ammonarenus is remembered by the Romans as being brave and blind in one eye due to her literal participation in battle. Under her rule, Kush secured its borders away from Roman ambition. It's really remarkable for any group to withstand the ambition and force of multiple military powerhouses in the ancient world. We see a clear comparison between how Egypt fared against these threats and how Kush did. Arguably, after New Kingdom Egypt, Kush became the most powerful African state. We can even make the argument that the difficulties ancient powers faced in Kush discouraged them from having any ambitions to penetrate deeper into the African continent. If this perspective has any merit at all, it certainly can be seen as a testament to the military exceptionalism of Kush.