Chapter 57: The Hittites Foster the Mitanni Separatist Forces
readx;? In the time of his father, Hatushili II, the city-states of Kizuvatna, Aleppo and others betrayed the Hittites. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
At this time, Mitanni's control over the vassal states weakened. Azru, the king of the Amuru city-state, seized this favorable opportunity and made a secret deal with the Hittite king Supiruliuma I and took refuge in the Hittite.
In that year, under its betrayal, Kizuvatna of Cilicia was reconquered by Supiruliuuma I. In this first Syrian war, known as him, Supiluluma I, after conquering Kizuwatna, then invaded the valley on the west bank of the Euphrates, and the Amuru city-states and Nuhashshesheh became Hittite vassals.
In the Second Syrian War, the Hittites again crossed the Euphrates and attacked Aleppo, Mukish, Niyaniya, Allahati, Apina, and Katna, as well as a number of cities that did not leave their names.
Supiruliuma I made his sons kings of the city-states he had annexed.
In northern Syria, Aleppo's position was paramount, and the Hittite king Supilulium I appointed his son Telipinus as king of Aleppo to manage the affairs of northern Syria. From then on, the descendants of Supiruliumas I ruled Aleppo and established the Supiruliuma dynasty.
In this way, after two Syrian wars, the Hittites invaded Mitanni's vassal states in northern Syria, replacing Mitanni in northern Syria, and parts of central Syria were also included in the Hittite territory.
The former rulers of these city-states fled to Ishuva and established a government-in-exile, which was located in the heart of Mitanni.
Treaties between sovereign states, as well as treaties between suzerains and vassals, made Ishuva's harboring of Hittite fugitives a pretext for Hittite invasion.
But the Hittites did not have the strength to confront Mitanni head-on, so they could only endure for the time being.
In Allahati, the Hittites got charioteers. Charioteers and all their possessions were taken to the Hittite. Although this was a common practice in warfare, it was the most powerful weapon for the Hittites to completely overtake Mitanni.
At that time, Mitanni's two-wheeled chariot technology was the most advanced in the Near East, and the Hittite absorbed these technologies, which became the key to the Hittite's ability to grow into a state that could compete with Egypt after Mitanni.
The most advanced weapons used on a large scale at the time were cast in bronze, and the most advanced bronze products were Mitanni's two-wheeled chariots.
The Hittites acquired this technology, but were constrained by the lack of raw materials for bronze, and were unable to manufacture bronze chariots in large quantities, so that they could still not compete with Mitanni.
The most important adjunct for bronze refining was tin, and the tin trade route, which consisted of Afghanistan - India - Mesopotamia - Syria - Asia Minor, as the end of the trade route, the Hittites in Asia Minor were at a disadvantage, and the great powers on this trade route restricted the Hittite tin trade in order to stifle the development of the Hittites.
In order to reverse this unfavorable situation, the craftsmen obtained from Arahati were greatly valued by King Supiruliuma I.
They were asked to study alternative techniques for bronze, and the first focus was on iron.
The Sumerians and the ancient Egyptians were the first to use iron, and by 4000 BC it had been used in very small quantities, but most of the iron was obtained from meteorites rather than from iron ore.
Between 3000 and 2000 BC, in Asia Minor, Egypt and Mesopotamia, iron was increasingly refined from meteorite mines, but mostly for ceremonial purposes. And iron was an extremely expensive metal at the time, even more expensive than gold. There is some archaeological evidence that iron was produced at the time as a by-product of copper extraction, called sponge iron, and that it was not possible to produce it in large quantities by smelting technology at the time.
Craftsmen from all over the country were gathered to study how to extract iron from sponge iron and carry out the technique of casting.
At the attention of the king, it took only a few years for the technology of mass production of iron to be worked out. Supiluluma I was overjoyed that the Hittites had completely freed themselves from the trade blockade of the surrounding powers.
King Supiruliuma I ordered the blacksmiths who had mastered the technique to be detained and kept under strict control.
Both the Hittites and Mitanni mastered the technology of two-wheeled chariots, but because bronze was the most expensive, the number of Mitanni's two-wheeled chariots was limited, and the Hittite did not need the most expensive auxiliary tin due to the maturity of iron technology, so the number of iron two-wheeled chariots was more, and Mitanni's military superiority was surpassed by the Hittes for the first time.
The Egyptian pharaoh Ehatun was late in his reign, when the Egyptians may have sensed that Mitanni's good days were coming to an end. In order to protect Egypt's Syrian border, Ekhatun turned his back on Mitanni and accepted the envoys of the Hittites and Assyria instead in violation of the Egyptian ruling philosophy that had prevailed for generations.
Previously, the marriage relationship between Egypt and Mitanni had lasted for several generations and was very close, but at that time, Eheaton was busy with the Reformation and had no intention of dealing with complex diplomatic relations, when Mitanni gradually showed weakness, and Hittite and Assyria were getting stronger, so Ekhathong chose the stronger Hittite and Assyria, if not so chosen, then Egypt had to send troops to help Mitanni, which was not in line with the turbulent domestic situation after the Egyptian Reformation.
Tushrata recognized that without Egypt's support, Mitanni's turbulent domestic situation would not be able to cope with the challenges of the Hittites and Assyria. Tushrata personally wrote to Eheatun asking Egypt to provide a golden statue to resolve the diplomatic crisis, in effect forcing Egypt to make a statement, but Egypt apparently refused this request.
In his letter to Eheatun, Tushrata wrote: "When Thutmose IV, the father of Amenhotep III, wrote to my grandfather, he asked to marry my grandmother's daughter, my father's sister, to him. He wrote 5, 6 times, but my grandfather did not promise. When he wrote for the 7th time, under great pressure, my grandfather agreed. The letter mainly described the relationship between the two countries and diplomatic relations, hoping that Egypt would send troops to help, but Egypt was in the turmoil of the Reformation at that time, and it was unable and did not want to intervene.
Under the pretext that Ishuva was harboring Hittite fugitives, the Hittite army crossed the border with Mitanni and entered Ishuva, repatriating and releasing the exiles of these city-states to their origins in the city-states under Hittite rule. Reuniting all the exiles with their former subjects, the Heti will protect their land.