The Battle Of Kadesh: The Uneniable Proof Of War
Is it greed? Or even possibly power? Or even just for the enjoyment? Nobody knows why war has started but we do know that war has been going on since man was born, there is an undeniable proof of war all throughout history. War has been compared to as a chest match, the whit and strategy of one general versus another army to army; some generals chose to just try to outpower their enemies, while others tried to outsmart them. Phillip De Souza in The Ancient World at War writ “Once people have invested in one location, there is something to be both lost and gained through combat.” Jebel Sahaba was a burial site that was discovered in Sudan containing fifty-eight skeletons with almost half of them having stone marks and penetration marks in
…show more content…
The battle was fought between Egypt and the Hittites. Kadesh was a city that is now located in modern day Syria, it was often known as one of the most important trade centers during the ancient times. The Hittites were a small nation in Anatolia but eventually grew and around 1530 BC replaced the city-state Babylon. The battle began in 1275 B.C.E. The commander of Egypt was Ramses II who has been known as one of Egypt’s greatest warrior to have ever lived. “Ramses II turned his attention on Palestine and Syria and undertook a series of military incursions that brought him into direct conflict with the Hittites and resulted in the battle at Kadesh.” (Richard A. Gabriel). In this war he showed that he was a very bold and optimistic commander being outnumbered yet still giving the orders to attack and he expected to win. The commander of the Hittites was Muwatallis II he was considered more of a tactician, using ambushes and surprises as his main technique in war rather than straight man to man …show more content…
The Hittites had around 50,000 men. During this war they used spears, bows, swords, as well as shields; but their most important piece of equipment during this war was the chariot. Also like I mentioned above Commander Muwatalllis was a tactician, he started the war off with a sneak attack sending a bunch of soldiers on chariots to quickly take out small groups of the invading Egyptians scouts. And because of this the location of the Hittites became hard to keep track of. There is knowledge of a scout reporting that the Hittites were 200km away but truly they were only 11 km away. Another way that the Hittites got an advantage was that Ramses split up his army and marched them further out (which also increases the distance between the groups) thinking he had time to send reinforcements if needed before battle. The Hittites were of course closer than expected and instantly wiped out groups of soldiers before back up could arrive. Ramses at this point knew that the only way to have a fighting chance was to just try to overpower their enemies, which just so happened to be their strong suite. This was extremely effective because the Hittites thought that Ramses and his army were practically gone and they were looting their camps making them very vulnerable to attacks. The Egyptians
The battle was fought between Egypt and the Hittites. Kadesh was a city that is now located in modern day Syria, it was often known as one of the most important trade centers during the ancient times. The Hittites were a small nation in Anatolia but eventually grew and around 1530 BC replaced the city-state Babylon. The battle began in 1275 B.C.E. The commander of Egypt was Ramses II who has been known as one of Egypt’s greatest warrior to have ever lived. “Ramses II turned his attention on Palestine and Syria and undertook a series of military incursions that brought him into direct conflict with the Hittites and resulted in the battle at Kadesh.” (Richard A. Gabriel). In this war he showed that he was a very bold and optimistic commander being outnumbered yet still giving the orders to attack and he expected to win. The commander of the Hittites was Muwatallis II he was considered more of a tactician, using ambushes and surprises as his main technique in war rather than straight man to man …show more content…
The Hittites had around 50,000 men. During this war they used spears, bows, swords, as well as shields; but their most important piece of equipment during this war was the chariot. Also like I mentioned above Commander Muwatalllis was a tactician, he started the war off with a sneak attack sending a bunch of soldiers on chariots to quickly take out small groups of the invading Egyptians scouts. And because of this the location of the Hittites became hard to keep track of. There is knowledge of a scout reporting that the Hittites were 200km away but truly they were only 11 km away. Another way that the Hittites got an advantage was that Ramses split up his army and marched them further out (which also increases the distance between the groups) thinking he had time to send reinforcements if needed before battle. The Hittites were of course closer than expected and instantly wiped out groups of soldiers before back up could arrive. Ramses at this point knew that the only way to have a fighting chance was to just try to overpower their enemies, which just so happened to be their strong suite. This was extremely effective because the Hittites thought that Ramses and his army were practically gone and they were looting their camps making them very vulnerable to attacks. The Egyptians