The Complete History of the Hittites

hey everyone I am absolutely stoked to bring this program to you in it we're gonna be talking about one of the ancient world's greatest empires one that for a time rivaled the Assyrians and was a formidable foe for the Egyptians it's an empire and culture that many outside of the world of archaeology and ancient history know little about because honestly unless you're from Turkey or the Middle East you probably never studied it in school so if you fall into that category consider yourself lucky because in this program we're gonna be talking about that Empire in question specifically that of the Hittites and their ancient Anatolian world first though let's take a look at this region we call Anatolia it's one of great physical contrasts jagged and snowy capped mountains on one hand and rough rocky plains on the other it's not the most hospitable place and is a wonder that people could actually live here but it's true they did in fact some of the world's oldest archaeological sites and settlements are from this region including Chatel Hyeok a site dating back over 10,000 years ago by around 2,000 BC though it becomes apparent that many settlements started to form actually you could even call them cities because they had relatively large populations of over 15,000 people many of them were focused around some type of Citadel and in many cases had thick walls they probably were not as grand as those of Mesopotamia of around the same time period but they were places where people got together traded with each other and formed their own governments now this was all during the time period which we called the early Bronze Age so why would such mountain settlements in arguably the middle of nowhere all of a sudden become important during this time well it's kind of in the name Bronze Age as you may or may not know bronze is made from other metals such as copper and tin both of which were found in the mountains of Anatolia and by this time had become extremely valuable commodities bronze and later iron was used to create strong tools weapons plows and other things that allowed people to become more productive or to kill each other better such metals found in these mountains were extremely coveted by people's further south since in the dry deserts riverbeds and marshes of Mesopotamia they were hard to come by trading delegations and even merchant colonies were sent to the region from Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean world to obtain copper tin gold and silver this made many of these new mountain cities of Anatolia extremely wealthy and with wealth comes men of power and ambition now as can be expected city and later kingdom rivalries arose sometime around 1800 BCE a man named picanha the ruler of one of these mountain kingdoms called kisara also known as co char became ruler of the prosperous city of knish this city also had an Assyrian merchant colony there something discussed in another video linked to in the description now as he may be starting to realize there were a lot of links between ancient Anatolia and Mesopotamia picanha had an ambitious son named Anita who really liked the city of knish so much so that he made it the capital of his kingdom for reasons unknown he went to war with his neighbor the city or kingdom of Atossa well this kingdom and another one called zalta which was somewhere on the Black Sea hachoo so was taken after a long siege which resulted in many of its inhabitants starving to death after destroying it he laid a curse on the city the text of which read and I quote on this site I sowed weeds may the storm God strike down anyone who becomes king after me and resettled her Tusa end of quote though the documentation from the age is scarce anita seems to have bested his rivals and declared himself great king shortly afterwards later documents tell of Anita acquiring much gold and silver from a city or Kingdom known as salata whare it's possible that it suffered a fate similar to that of her too perhaps for this reason when Annina threatened to attack the wealthy kingdom of pollution de its King had the wisdom to voluntarily submit to him he presented an in with lavish gifts including a throne and a scepter of iron and for this he was treated honorably so it seems like if you played by Anita's rules and submit it to him both your life and your City were spared now there are many of the scholarly community who say that Anita was the first king of the Hittites others give that title to someone else who we'll discuss shortly he is though the first King that we know about to Commission a document in the original Hittite language known as neset the truly original name for that document is the Anita text though a bit biased the text is a good source for the life of this early Anatolian King it's also the first text that we have in any indo-european language unfortunately for his descendants the Empire which Anita founded dissolved with his death sometime around the Year 1740 BCE so let's step back for a moment and take a quick look at the world outside of Anatolia for some context and perspective for the most part the ancient Near East had been dominated during the past few centuries by the likes of great powers for quite some time you first had the Empire of Sargon the great and later his grandson Narim sinned after a short dark interlude you had the prosperous and enlightened neo Sumerian Empire at least that's the way it's been depicted in many texts even when this collapsed it resulted in successor states that eventually held great power and wealth to put it succinctly Mesopotamia had access to wealth and trade and the kings of Anatolia wanted a piece of that action there was only so much that could be attained from living in a rocky periphery with few good areas to farm which was essentially what their land in Anatolia consisted of though Anita had laid a curse on her Tusa that doesn't seem to have stopped others from resettling the city about a hundred years after he destroyed it a to sow was not only reoccupied but rebuilt this could have been due to its original advantage of sitting high atop a rocky plateau making it the prime place for a citadel it also kept it at a safe distance from hostile tribes to the north as well as relatively close to all of the action that was going on in ancient Mesopotamia at the time all of these may have prompted a local chieftain or Prince to take his chances with Anita's curse and make Atossa his capital he himself took the name hakushi Lee meaning man of Atossa nawaz hakushi Lee related to Anita maybe but honestly there's been no conclusive proof of this his father is actually listed in the Hittite chronologies as lebara so lebara is considered to be the first of the Hittite line or dynasty as we'll call it without a doubt though hakushi Lee was one of the greatest kings of that line and he is often regarded as the founder of the hitch height alder Kingdom there seems to be no doubt that how to see Lee had great ambitions for his kingdom but first he had to deal with consolidating his power and putting down rebellions at home it was after this that he established a new capital for himself atop the ruins of Hattusa and took the lion as a symbol something that would remain a motif or a symbol of the Hittites for years to come after securing his kingdom at least for the time being hakushi Lee engaged in his goal to get his share of mesopotamias wealth he assembled and marched a great army southeast towards what is today northern Syria here was the powerful amorite kingdom of llamada with its capital at Holub today modern-day Aleppo knowing that he probably didn't have the manpower nor the ability to mount a successful direct attack on halab he instead chose to attack another city of yamaha called a lock in this he was successful any more or less destroyed a lock this may have been foolish because a lock was a great trade center but destroying it definitely gave him unopposed access to the Mediterranean Sea it also meant that he didn't have to spend it necessary resources and manpower to administer what he would have no doubt been arrested and rebellious population if stain the South though was short because news reached him that his Anatolian rival the kingdom of arzawa was invading his territories from the West now we don't know much about arzawa or even as exact borders only that it's mentioned in hittite texts what we do know is that hottish Ely was successful in neutralizing the arzawa threat and afterward he once again returned to his obsession with conquering Yamaha and taking over all of northern Syria however this was not to be hotter Chile would die before he could resume his plans a very fortunate circumstance or Yamaha de the story of how to seal his death though is worth mentioning before his final passing he had gathered around him the leading men of the kingdom in order to inform them of his successor they all met at his ancestral home the city of kisara a to Schilly was on his deathbed and exactly what happened is a mystery but it seems that he was betrayed first by his sons then his nephew and perhaps even by one of his daughters all of whom were in contest to obtain his throne well not the daughter since the hittites didn't have queens her reason for betrayal isn't exactly clear as a successor hakushi Li chose his grandson mushi Li who was then just a miner probably in his late teens what would happen though - ha - Chili's now growing an expanding Empire but the old kingdom dissolve just like Anita's did a century before with the betrayals of hakushi Li's sons and daughters along with Marshallese inexperienced and young age a betting man would say the Empire would most likely dissolve of course history is full of surprises hey tight history being no different when were shilly ascended the Hittite throne he was probably just in his teens he had little of any experience in both matters of state or as a warrior despite his age where shilly either had extremely capable commanders was innately a Greek leader or just had a lot of luck perhaps it was all three he resumed his attack on Yamaha to finish what his grandfather had to Philly the first had started his attacks on what remained of jihad mainly Aleppo and karkemish were relentless finally some say in 1600 others say in 1595 but surely captured and destroyed Aleppo yes the once powerful amirite kingdom that during its height under areum Lim was possibly the most powerful state in the world at least politically was now in ruin only the city of Carr commish defied Marshallese full control though not being able to penetrate its walls he had it totally surrounded besides it wasn't going anywhere he could starve it out if he had to as for Yamahas king Hammurabi the third were simply told that he was captured and quote made atonement to mursili so let's get into the mind of this relatively young king he was not destined to be king he was made so by his grandfather when another should have taken his place he comes of age and realizes that he has all the resources of the hittite state to back him he rules unchallenged for several years and then decides to finish what his grandfather started conquering all of yum HOD he does this sacking Aleppo and taking its great wealth which can ultimately be used to replenish his old army and essentially buy a new one now all of these things also indicate that the gods must favor you how else could one be so successful you then hear that the fabled kingdom of Babylon the babylon and babylonian empire that Hammurabi built is weak so if you were in Marshallese place what would you do would you go so far to the east and attack babylon most i think would say that it's an over-ambitious if not foolish venture especially for a band of Hittites from Anatolia venturing into a land they knew little about where shilly though decided to maintain the momentum of his successes and marched south east along the Euphrates into the heart of Mesopotamia itself and to Babylon during that same year he conquered yam had at least according to the Babylonian chronicles namely 1595 BCE he reached the city of Babylon attacked it and captured it the details of just how he did this are scarce in a later Hittite document known as the proclamation of tele P nu we are simply told and I quote he were silly the first March to Aleppo and destroyed Aleppo and brought captives and possessions of Aleppo to hachoo sir then however he marched to Babylon and he destroyed Babylon and he defeated the hurryin troops and brought captives and possessions of Babylon - huh - sir end of quote a chiusa was the Hittite capital in Anatolia now as powerful as he might have been it's likely that Marshallese Hittite forces had some help from what were babylons many local enemies at the time including a group of people originally from the Zagros Mountains known as the cast sites pay attention to that name the casts i'ts because they would later go on to rule Babylonia for at least 400 years so why did mer surely go to Babylon in the first place as mentioned earlier he was a young king who probably thought that his protection from the gods made him invincible but more than that babylon though not the same power as when Hammurabi ruled it was still an extremely wealthy city plus bascially would get a lot of prestige by conquering it his name would be remembered and the Hittites would be both feared and respected as a major power in the geopolitical landscape of the ancient Near East now maybe Vasily did want to stay in Babylon it was probably considered to be in those days the most beautiful city in the world although it's possible that Memphis or thieves could have also held that same title it's hard to compare but it was probably much better than a Tusa speaking of which there was some trouble on the homefront with Marshall II being gone for so long fighting in northern Syria and conquering Babylonia members of the hittite royal family were plotting against him when he got news of this he hastily had to abandon his new babylonian prize and head back home after all he was first the king of the Hittites not of the Babylonians besides he probably couldn't hold on to Babylon for long anyway Vasily had spread himself a bit thin and didn't have the manpower nor the administrative resources to keep the lands that he had conquered in Mesopotamia as the Hittites left the kassite scam in and as mentioned before Babylonia was ruled by them for the next 400 years upon his return home where shilly was assassinated and then succeeded by his brother-in-law canta Lee this though caused tremendous instability and the following years were filled with coos and possibly more assassinations of royal family members in a nutshell his successors Siddhanta emunah and kuzia were weak rulers and the once powerful hittite state began to lose a lot of its territory and prestige in Anatolia nearly all of the Syrian domains of the Hittites had conquered evaporated and their once great but subdued Western Anatolian rival the arzawa gained their independence a tribal people north of a Tusa called the Koshka were raiding and plundering Hittite towns and cities a document claims that at one point the Koshka were only a few kilometers away from the Hittite capital of hattusa the kingdom was a mess so all that worked at hotter Schiele and mursili put into obtaining a vast Kingdom for the Hittites not to mention the destruction of both Yamaha and Babylonia were pretty much all in vain all for nothing in the end little if anything substantial had come from it now things didn't get a little better around 1500 BCE with the ascension of telly pnew to the Hittite throne though he can't really be described as a great Conqueror what telly pino did was to consolidate the land's already within his kingdom essentially preventing them from slipping away not a fan of unnecessary armed conflict telly pino also created many alliances with his neighbors probably the most for the survival of his dynasty he created a proper system for royal succession that every time a king died there was less chance of in fighting and assassinations between various claimants for the throne for a while all of these seem to have worked as they gave the hittite kingdom valuable time in recovering from all of the chaos of the past few decades unfortunately after tele Pinos death his successors seem to have done away with basically everything that he had accomplished domestically the next fifty or so years were ones of stagnation overall decline and of course weak rulers who for the most part weren't in power for very long around the Year 1450 BCE we don't know the exact date but a king by the name of - Thalia the first took over the Hittite throne it turns out though that the beginning of his reign was quite troublesome or at least there were troublesome events one a relatively new power the Mitanni were on the up to that new power the Mitanni pretty much destroyed or took over other kingdoms that were once he tight allies there was really no doubt in anyone's mind the Mitanni were coming for her - sir and Tattaglia had to be ready to test - Thalia the Mitanni decided to inspire revolts in hittite health cities one of these was a city called Yahshua on the Euphrates River fortunately tattaglias troops were able to regain control of the situation and the city but it proved a point that the Mitanni had their eyes on his kingdom [Music] [Music] these campaigns with the arzawa diverted them several times from their greater goals of conquering Yamaha and other lands to their Southwest to Thalia though seems to have learned from his ancestors history with these people and prepared for an ARS AMA attack from the West when it came he was able to crush it which not only pacified his western borders but when news reached the Mitanni of his victory they decided to also stay put dude Hawley apparently had the gods on his side so in Mitani eyes it was best not to provoke him or at least not yet after such a resounding victory this though would not be the last time that the Mitanni would provoke the Hittites Tattaglia though was developing a reputation not just in the region but internationally this is probably what inclined the Egyptians to make a treaty of friendship with the Hittites during his reign perhaps the Egyptian pharaoh knew that eventually their armies would meet in battle because shortly afterward Tattaglia launched a campaign into Syria this time the city of Holub aka Aleppo surrendered more or less without a fight and accepted Hittite sovereignty over what was once the great kingdom of Yamaha with more wealth and resources under his belt - Talia launched a campaign north of Syria and into Mitani territory in this he was also victorious though not completely destroyed the Mitanni were pacified for the foreseeable future like his ancestor mercial either first before 'm Tattaglia also seemed to have the favor of the gods well maybe not you see soon after all of this - Talia died his son our nuwanda took power in 1420 BCE perhaps he though wasn't as feared as his father because renewed problems with the Koshka people of the north emerged to the point that they were strong enough to plunder many Hittite shrine cities the Mitanni were also once again causing problems by obtaining allegiances from tattaglias former allies not only this but as that occurred many times in the past plots to assassinate the king were revealing themselves making our new Wanda extremely paranoid from all of this it seems clear that our new Wanda was not respected nor feared like his capable father our new Wanda's son - talia ii seemed to fare no better and suffered attacks from nearly all directions the Koshka to the north the arzawa to the west and again the Mitanni to the east things got so bad that eventually even the capital of a Tusa was captured and burned to the ground that though is at least what Hittite records say when archaeologists surveyed the area they found no trace of destruction by fire to match the timing of the event so there's debate as to whether or not this actually happened to be honest though whether or not the city burned to the ground is a moot point what was certain is that Hittite fortunes had clearly reversed for example the king of arzawa was now proclaiming himself to be the master of Anatolia and attempted to forge his own alliance with Egypt through marriage for all practical purposes the Hittites were no longer a power to be reckoned with the wonderful thing though about history is that like in any story anything can happen though he had been defeated on many occasions to Thalia ii had not been captured nor had he died strangely enough he wasn't assassinated a faith that many of his previous ancestors had suffered in the past probably his greatest blessing though was his son Chappell o pneuma I will admit that is a very difficult name for me to pronounce it is a name though that history should remember now this is what historians have essentially concluded from all the evidence that's available it seems that at this time father and son along with the main Hittite Army were camping out in the highlands of Anatolia waiting for the right time to make their comeback this kind of reminds me of King Alfred of Wessex when he was camped out in the Somerset marshes evading the Danes who had all but conquered his kingdom it was definitely a tough and trying time for the hittite king now before he passed away around 13 80 BCE to tally at the second and Chappell ooh looma launched an attack against the king of the Mitanni Tushratta which actually ended in a complete failure to show his power to schwate said some of the spoils of war to his new ally the Pharaoh of Egypt to Holly and his sons Chappell Illuma and another son named Tattaglia who will call to Talia junior went with whatever remained of the Hittite Army and ventured to the north of Atossa there they fought against and had much better luck against the northern tribes including the Koshka it was in these campaigns that Chapelle Illuma proved himself to be a great warrior when - talia ii died could Holly a junior became - Talia the third now for whatever reason the officers of the Hittite Army did not support Talia and when a coup killed him and gave the crown to Chappelle ooh luma now is unethical as this may have been it might have ultimately proved to have been the right thing for what remained of the Kingdom at the time supa Lulu Yuma's first priority was to take back to lands that had been seized by his enemies for 20 years he battled in campaign after campaign against the Koshka and the other tribes in the north as well as the arzawa in the West he fought what must have initially been guerrilla campaigns but with each victory supa Lulu Yuma was able to rally more people and fighting men to his cause he was acquiring quite a reputation not only as a great warrior but also as a great leader by around 13 40 BCE he had defeated his enemies as well as taken back the old hittite lands to the north and the West a to sell was also his once again however he still had to deal with the Mitanni to the east they could actually destroy everything that he had worked for these past 20 to 25 years it turns out though that the geopolitical situation at the time favored supa Lulu Yuma Egypt was now being ruled by the so called heretic King Amenhotep the fourth also known as Akhenaten this was a king who in a sense established a monotheistic religion where he rejected all of Egypt's many gods and worship only Aten the God associated with the Sun fully focused on his God his gaze turned away from his Mitani and Syrian allies thus the Mitanni King Tushratta more or less lost his most powerful ally domestically Tushratta had challenges as well as rival claimants to his throne now super Lulu Yuma had a sort of personal grudge against Tushratta and seemed to be willing to do anything to hurt his great enemy thus he allied himself with many of these rival claimants he made the following proposal they did not have to swear fealty to him and become his allies but they must not interfere with his mounting war with Tushratta it seems that they obeyed his wishes because Schiphol Illuma was able to venture deep into Mitanni territory that took him through Syria and possibly as far south as the mountains of northern Lebanon now perhaps thinking that the high tide King had ventured too far into his own turf which also may have given him an advantage to SH rata attacked supa Lulu Amado was able to defeat him and Tushratta was forced to withdraw further back into northern Syria Chapelle Julio must spent the next year harassing Tushratta forces all over Syria at one point Chapel Illuma even made it to the Mitanni capital of wash pukani and conquered it to SH rata and whatever forces he had left were now on the run defeating the Mitanni also opened up northern Syria and the kingdoms of Holub alaq Kadesh and ammoru all which now fell into the Hittites sphere of influence the conquest of these wealthy States gave Chapelle Illuma greater abilities to both mop up what was left of the Mitanni Kingdom as well as attack Egyptian territories to the south there was though one Syrian state that still opposed the Hittites karkemish not only had karkemish remained independent but the city was also still allied with the Mitanni the timing was also bad for su culo luma because he had to return to the hittite homeland for other matters in his place he dispatched his son telle pnew to take out the troublesome kingdom well tell if he knew was able to take the area surrounding it he could not get the city of Kharkov ich itself to surrender eventually the Mitanni were able to launch a counter-attack which repelled at LEP new from the area the situation in newly-acquired Kadesh was also tenuous as Egyptian forces attacked there these two problems forced chapelle de uma to act or else lose all that he had gained in Syria he relieved his Santelli Pino from taking karkemish and instead sent him to deal with the Egyptians at Kadesh Chapelle Illuma decided that he himself would take commish once and for all again though geopolitical events seem to have fallen in favor of shipping Lulu Yuma is two main enemies the Mitanni and the Egyptians were going through internal problems of their own Josh ratta Chipola Lumas main nemesis was assassinated in a dynastic struggle for the Mitanni throne went into full swing this also forced the Mitanni to abandon their defense of karkemish shortly after this the city fell to the Hittites so around this time also a really strange thing happened so strange and really just out of the ordinary that many scholars even doubt that it even occurred it's kind of something right out of a soap opera or a telenovela the young Pharaoh of Egypt took uncommon I just died without leaving an heir chupa Lulu Yuma received a letter from his widow what she wrote in this particular letter was truly stunning and I quote my husband has died I have no sons they say you have many sons if you were to give me one of your sons he would become my husband I will never take a servant of mine and make him my husband I am afraid end of quote the rumor was that Hood uncommons Widow was to now marry her Grand Vizier a man named I who some speculate may have even been her grandfather regardless of the relation she was a queen and in her mind it was beneath her to marry the Vizier someone who was technically her servant thus out of pride she appealed to super Lulu Yuma for a marriage to one of his sons this would have made the son a hitch height Pharaoh of Egypt the Egyptians generally viewed foreigners as inferior to them chupa Lumis sons were obviously a royal blood and so fit her requirement as a possible suitor and not a servant this for sure coolly luma was an incredible offer so incredible in fact that he honestly didn't believe it his son the future more surely the second recalls the incident and I quote when my father heard this he called the great ones into council and said nothing like this has ever happened to me before and of quote Chipola glioma thought this was a trick and dispatched one of his men to confirm that if indeed the situation in Egypt and the events described were actually true shortly afterward he received another letter from the egyptian queen in this new letter she seemed to be a little ticked off she says and I quote why do you say they are playing tricks on me like that if I had a son would I have written to a foreign land about my son and my country's humiliation you did not believe me and have actually spoken like that to me I have not written to any other country I am only written to you give me one of your sons he will be my husband and in Egypt he will be king end of quote chippy Lulu Yuma took this as confirmation and sent one of his sons southward to Egypt he couldn't give up on the possibility of his son and by extension himself becoming the ruler of Egypt but on the way his son died under mysterious circumstances most likely by Egyptians who are trying to prevent a foreigner one with whom there had actually been conflict with in the past and who was also seen as inferior to them become the next Pharaoh of Egypt [Music] sometime during the early 1300s BCE the Hittites and the Egyptians met in battle somewhere in Canaan the Hittites were victorious and took many prisoners it was an astounding victory to say the least but it came with a huge cost the prisoners brought back a plague into Hittite territory ultimately claiming the life of both Chappell uluma and his successor our nuwanda the second best was the death of one of the greatest hit kings of all time without super Lully OMA the Hittite Kingdom may have never survived let alone thrive later Hittite Kings would build upon the strong foundation which to pollute glioma had created luckily for him though he had many sons the one who succeeded him became more Schiele the second with the help of his brother Michelli was able to hold on to syria without much trouble and so he decided to head back to Anatolia and further he type domains there besides there were scores to settle with traditional enemies and troublemakers one of these was the Koshka who occupied the regions just north of the Hittite capital of Atossa after pacifying them yet again we're surely the second turned his gaze d'huez towards the arzawa now this kingdom and the region in general had always been a perennial threat to his height ambitions nearly every time the Hittites would venture south to Syria or to the frontiers of Mesopotamia the arzawa would strike the Hittites state from the West wouldn't into them and their troublesome allies once and for all where shilly launched a punitive campaign that lasted about two years when it was all over arzawa firmly became a hitch height territory and Marshallese growing Empire now reached the Aegean Sea this along with the territories north of Achutha made Marshall II the master of Anatolia the Egyptians though had not forgotten about their defeat in Canaan and inspired revolts in car commish where she Lee's brother was not able to quell these due to falling ill and dying unexpectedly in the end order was restored and mursili the seconds nephew was put in charge of car commission for the time being which Tilly's territories were secured he died a very happy King so as we've seen in the past the Egyptians and the Hittites didn't always have the most fruitful relationship with ambitious leaders on both sides war was bound to occur and it often did this came with the Ascension of Moshe Lee the second son who wa tallied the second to help better govern his empire and remain closer to the action in Syria Mitali moved the Hittite capital from Hattusa to the city of Turku natascha now during this time in history Egypt was ruled by one of its most famous Pharaohs ramses ii he was determined not only to just avenge past egyptian defeats but to further expand egypt's influence into palestine and the Levant Rameses attacked the Hittite border near the town of Kadesh and the two sides fought a battle which most scholars agree was a military stalemate however the outcome forced Ramses to withdraw Egyptian forces from the area thus Syria was firmly within the Hittite sphere of influence though successful in the war with Egypt the Hittites were unable to prevent what was going on in the Mitanni lands that technically were under their rule [Music] the once-proud mitanni had become a hittite Bassel under Tushratta sun but the Hittites though focused on their border war with the Egyptians they were caught by surprised when a new more powerful adversary reared its head these were the Assyrians and like the Hittites they were an expansionist warrior society with ambitions of their own drool the entire Middle East now in the past there had been bad blood between both the Assyrians and the Mitanni the Assyrians actually were once vassals of the Montagna things though had changed with the Mitanni becoming weaker and the Assyrians becoming much more powerful in fact things had changed so much that the Assyrians marched into modani lands virtually unopposed and made it a vassal of Assyria at the time there was little that mo Attali could do the death of Mullah Tully the second brought his son Marshall II the third to power while the transition of power was initially peaceful where shilly was generally paranoid that he would lose his position as king one of the people were shilly seems to have been afraid of was his uncle hakushi li being the governor of the Empire's northern frontier the area where the Koshka often caused trouble hakushi Li was quite the capable administrator and military tactician he absolutely resented being told what to do or how to govern by a young king with little real experience after seven years or so how - she Li got fed up with his nephew and deposed him and thus he became hot - she lead the third so I suppose most surely the third was right to be paranoid though arguably he himself was the cause of his own loss of power now one of the first things that hot really the third did was to move the high tide capital back - huh - saw it probably did this because it was closer to his old power base the area to the north where he used to govern more than a warrior he's better known as being a shrewd statesman not only did he reaffirmed and realign alliances but he also was skilled at playing the Assyrians and the Egyptians off of each other all while maintaining Hittite influence in the region things though got a lot more dangerous when the Mitanni King who was technically an assyrian vassal rebelled against his overlords one thing about the Assyrians you should know they didn't mess around they were able to crush the revolt of the Mitanni King instead of appointing a new king as their vassal the Assyrians created a new province with the Mitanni lands and installed their own governor this was a game changer no longer was there a sphere of influence or a vassal in between them now the Assyrians officially shared a border with the Hittites ha to Schilly needed allies he wrote to the kassite King of Babylonia Kadosh mentor gu and proposed that they form an alliance this was concluded between the two kingdoms but when Kadosh mentor GU died his successor Kadosh man Enlil ii terminated the alliance perhaps due to pressure from the Assyrians when you think about it it was a pretty practical move and made sense the Hittite Empire was relatively far from Babylon while the Assyrians were just north and posed a much more formidable threat to Babylonian independence meaning allies hot to Schiele did the unthinkable he initiated peace with the Egyptians and concluded a treaty with them hakushi Lee even gave his daughter in marriage to the Egyptian pharaoh that Pharaoh I might add was Ramses the second it's pretty incredible that two bitter rivals became palace the great hot Russia Lee passed on and his son to Thalia the fourth took his place now in short this was the beginning of the end of the Hittite Empire Tattaglia tried to rule as his father had maintaining good relations with Egypt and avoiding an all-out war with Assyria he placed economic sanctions on Assyria preventing them from trading with his vassals in the Levant and the greater Mediterranean this though failed and soon armed conflict broke out the Assyrians bested to Talia's forces and the king and his men were forced to return back to Hittite territory in disgrace then his cousin Karuna who was the governor of the old temporary capital of Tarkin Tasha rose up in rebellion captured the current capital of Atossa and set it on fire Karuna then declared himself king though eventually - talia was able to overpower him and take back the throne regardless though both of these events had severely weakened his position and stature as king add to this the perennial rabble-rousing of the Koshka in the north and the arzawa to the west and a new round of chaos went into full swing the one success that - Talia did have was that he was able to conquer the island of Cyprus and secure its rich copper supplies also - Talia went on a large building spree in a Tulsa which indicates that despite political troubles and enemies all around the Hayti treasury was still in good shape - Talia the fourth was succeeded by his son our new Wanda the third but he died after a short time in office another son Chappell Illuma the second then took the throne under him things went from bad to worse the provinces were Restless and high tide authority was increasingly growing weak outside of the areas around Hattusa however the biggest threat to the Empire wasn't the Assyrians a resurgent Mitani or even a renewed conflict with Egypt historians actually believe that the main culprit was climate change rising temperatures and decreasing rainfall led to failing harvests and the reliance of grain from areas outside of Hittite control specifically Canaan and Egypt then a great movement of peoples who historians simply call the sea peoples swarmed through the famine ridden lands causing chaos and ultimately leading to the breakdown of law and order not just in Anatolia but Syria the Levant Canaan and other places the Egyptians were also affected but they seemed to have been able to weather the storm much better than others who these sea people were is not 100% for certain the many scholars believe that they probably came from the Aegean and were migrating eastward to escape famine in their own lands we just know that this swarm of migrants caused havoc for the Hittites who were unable to control them or do much to stop their advances with hittite authority broken in almost all areas the various provinces towns and cities were left to fend for themselves some declared independence others simply lived in anarchy doing whatever they could to live through the famine again it wasn't just the Hittites who were affected their enemies such as the arzawa Mitani and the rebellious city-states in Syria such as karkemish and halab suffered in much the same way and in many cases even worse the calamity affecting the region emboldened the Koshka people to mount one last offensive on hattusa in this they were successful they captured the great Hittite city and put it to the torch it's not known exactly when or how Japan Lulu ii died but it was likely between the years 1182 1176 BCE thus ended the Empire of the Hittites there were a powerful people while they lasted but they didn't have the longevity or the continuity as a people or culture as say the Egyptians Assyrians Babylonians and the other great powers of the region what had once been the Hittite Empire afterward disintegrated into smaller petty kingdoms these little neo-hittite states as we'll call them were later absorbed into the empires of others most notably the Assyrians that though is a story for another program at another time [Music] thanks so much for stopping by the channel if you learn something please like the video and subscribe to the channel because it really helps out a lot in addition you can follow history with psy on Instagram Facebook and Twitter thanks again and hopefully I'll run into you soon take care you

Channel: History with Cy

Views: 402,031

Rating: 4.8167782 out of 5

Keywords: Hittites, Hittite, Anatolia, ancient Anatolia, Hittite Empire, Empire of the Hittites, Hittite Old Kingdom, ancient egypt, Mitanni, Kingdom of the Mitanni, battle of Kadesh, battle of Qadesh, Kadesh, Qadesh, Assyrian Empire, mutawalli, Hattian, Hatti, sea people, sea peoples, ramesses II, hittites bible, Tushratta, Tudhaliya, suppiluliuma, bronze age, bronze age empires, Amenhotep III, akhenaten, ancient near east, ancient history, who were the hittites, hittite history

Id: amcowif39mI

Length: 45min 59sec (2759 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 15 2019

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[u/JuicyLittleGOOF]

This channel is a goldmine if you are into ancient near Eastern history. Enjoy guys and gals!