Egypt as World's Most Powerful Nation from 1258 BC to 356 BC

Sternberg

Banned
I'm planning on restarting a timeline of mine from earlier this year as CivWank: Egypt, but before I go about doing that, I would like to discuss the possibilities of the scenario I'm using for the timeline, as presented in the title of this thread.

I'm using the following settings for this timeline:

-A point of divergence on May 25th, 1258 BC, during the reign of Ramesses II of the 19th Dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt, that results in Egypt becoming the world's most powerful nation.
-The 19th Dynasty of the Egyptian New Kingdom being the world's prime power until August 27th, 356 BC.
-Ramesses II living until August 15th, 1168 BC, dying at the age of 135.
-Carthage and Babylon, or closely-related equivalent nations based around modern-day OTL Tunisia and Iraq respectively, being Egypt's primary rivals.

With the above, how can I make CivWank: Egypt as plausible as possible all while making it as divergent from OTL as I can?
 

Sternberg

Banned
I'm sorry if I'm bothering anyone by bumping this, but since I've got no motivation to work on my current stories and timelines, and also since I wish to keep my mind occupied, I would really like to start some discussion here, so that I have a better idea of how to start up and continue with CivWank: Egypt.
 
Several problems present themselves.

1) Ramesses II was already extraordinarily long-lived for his time period. Having him live to the age of 135 is REALLY testing suspension of disbelief - chances are he'd be a vegetable for most of the latter part of his reign.

2) Egyptian dynasties tended not to last longer than a couple hundred years (at their longest). You are asking for nearly 1,000 years of rule by the same dynasty. That's not likely in ANY civilization...

3) The founding of Carthage will likely be butterflied.

4) What about the Sea People?

5) What about the Libyan migrants into Northern Egypt? Their migrations are already well established by this point, and their tide will be difficult to stem...

6) Egypt will need to maintain a constant buffer zone in the Levant if it wants to keep any Mesopotamian powers at bay, for that it will need gold, which...

7) ... Is mostly in increasingly unstable/rebellious Nubia, and is usually funnelled into the coffers of the priesthood.

I'd argue it's possible to keep Egypt flying high, but not necessarily with all the parameters you want (e.g. everlasting 19th dynasty)... And it may have to wax and wane a few times within the timeframe you want... The seeds of decline were already well-sown in Ramesses II's time.

What PoD do you have in mind? Knowing that might be helpful...
 
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