AHC: Prolong Mitanni Empire

[John Fredrick Parker]

With no PoDs prior to the reign of Amenhotep III*, and preferably not before the Assyrian King Ashur-ubailit,** how can the Assyrian rebellion against Mitanni domination, and subsequent domination and conquest of the Mitanni, be prevented? Given this PoD, let's say the Hurrian Empire continues to endure for another century or so, right up until the events of the Bronze Age Collapse (which, broadly speaking, still happen).

Can the Mitanni Empire, which just managed to avoid being overthrown by Assur, continue to survive without the complex economic and political ties that defined the Bronze Age? If not, is the fate of their now devastated realm? And how does this affect other Bronze Age Civilizations -- for example, can the Kassite Babylonian Empire now continue to endure (without the threat of being conquered by the Assyrians, as was their fate OTL)? And with all these changes taken together, how are the subsequent "Dark Ages" (the next six centuries of history in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East) now altered?

*began circa 1390 BCE -- but that was as a child, so let's say 1380 BCE or so
**began 1365 BCE

 

[Achaemenid Rome]

Assyria still would become important due to their strategic resources like iron. I can't comment on the Mitanni empire, however.

 

[John Fredrick Parker]

Assyria still would become important due to their strategic resources like iron.

So if nothing else, the city of Assur is in a very good position to expand its influence following the collapse of the Mitanni; is that right? If so, how does their empire founding change if it's done in the context of the Collapse, instead of over a century earlier?

 

[Achaemenid Rome]

So if nothing else, the city of Assur is in a very good position to expand its influence following the collapse of the Mitanni; is that right? If so, how does their empire founding change if it's done in the context of the Collapse, instead of over a century earlier?

There's a small chance Assyria could profit massively from the Collapse and Assyrians would pillage the Levant while old empires collapse. Most likely though, they are placed in a largely defensive and not particularly expansionist stance for a while, before recovering.

 

[Faeelin]

Huh. Be interesting to see how they would interact with Nantucket.

 

[John Fredrick Parker]

On the question of whether the Kassites still fall -- it seems that the Assyrians started dominating the Babylonians earlier than I thought, since they managed to take the city as early as 1333-32 BCE and install a puppet king. So I think we can safely say Assyria will still conquer Lower Mesopotamia, regardless of whether their rise is delayed or not.