In the late Bronze Age there were two major powers, the Hittites and the Egyptians and they, as a result, were in competition with one another for resources—most particularly in the region that lay between the region of the Levant, Syria and Palestine. And the resulting tension culminated eventually in a great battle at the site of Kadesh in Syria. And this battle was epic for the time; Ramesses the second, Ramesses the Great, fought King Muwatalli.
The battle resulted in what is, more or less, a draw, different sides argue who won the day; but ultimately both sides withdrew, and later in Ramesses’ reign, he concluded a peace treaty with Muwatalli’s brother and successor, Hattusili III, and it was the world’s first international peace treaty. It was a treaty between equals and this treaty introduced a period of peace unheard of in the region up to that time; and it’s known as the Pax Hethitica or the Pax Aegyptiaca depending on your perspective.
But, this introduced a peace that lasted in the region through the end of the Bronze Age and this is a period in which the Hittites and the Egyptians cooperated in the region and communicated and the flow of trade and goods and ideas ran through the region as it never had before; and this is a period of cross-fertilization and contact and communication and a time that is fertile for influence from both sides to come into the Levant. The Hittites then married a daughter, Hattusili’s daughter, became one of Ramesses’ wives and, again, this peace lasted until the end of the Bronze Age. And it was a rare time of prosperity and peace in the Near East.
