So a relatively simply question. What would it take for New Kingdom Egypt to emulate or outcompete Mesopotamian and Iranian empires, ie conquer a broader empire outside of Egypt proper.
The new kingdom did do that and took over most of the Levant and had to stop because the Hittites were the northern border and east of them was Mesopotamia not to mention how overextended they probably were
Well remember the Egyptian Empire also went down into Nubia.That's true but it never reached to quite the extent that say Persia or Assyria but had a relatively similar power base. I was wondering part of the problem was a less militant ruling class and how that could be changed to drive Egypt to expand eastwards.