Sino-Egyptian Relations Established During the Reign of Hatshepsut

Point of Divergence ... We know from historical records that contact between Rome and the Han Chinese Empire occurred during the 1st Century AD via what would eventually become known today as the Silk Road. The first known embassy to China from Rome established itself around 166AD. Underneath this relationship, trade flourished, and many Chinese items, such as silk, were brought to the Empire and became prized for its feel and expensive touch.

What if relations had been established with another super power much earlier than that of the Chinese and Romans? For me, it would be possible that this contact could have been established by the female Pharaoh Hatshepsut, during her reign from 1478 to 1458 BC. She was well known as a builder and explorer who strengthened Egypt's economy and trade. What if she had sent a ship that made contact with China during the Shang Dynasty. Would this have established trade and relations much earlier, and how would this have impacted the world as we know it today?
 
Was there any kind of Chinese state yet? At least it wa<sn't so impressive as Han was. And travel would be at least with ships hellish long and land route was too dangerous altough hardly it was much safer on 2nd century tough.
 
For the sea route, intermediary ports were missing between the Indus and the Austronesian sphere.
Overland would not lead to mutual knowledge of each other.
 
First: I love the fact that you want a POD with one of my all time favorite female rulers of history (and I've been on an Egyptian history kick lately, so double hurray). That being said: a ship from Egypt traveling to China at this time sounds pretty extreme. King Hatshepsut did send expeditions out, such as one to the legendary land of Punt, which is believed to be somewhere around modern Ethiopia/Somalia. Remember the Nile was just called The River in Egyptian because to them, it was the only body of water that counted, and most of their sailing was up and down this river, especially to Kush. If they wanted to go farther inland than the river went, I believe the boats were made in such a way that the sailors could easily deconstruct them and carry them with them to the next body of water (someone correct me if I'm wrong, remembering back to some podcasts I heard back in January).

The point being that these ships were not made to be great ocean liners, but rather to take advantage of the Nile's nature currents, and to be lightweight enough to move on land if necessary, hardly the vessel you'd need to get all the way to China at this point in history.

However, if we go with the idea of China being an eventual contact rather than immediate one, and want to start leaning in that direction so that Egypt eventually gets there, we could start by establishing an Egyptian colonial presence in Punt. Now, as I understand it, that would be a serious change in mindset for the Egyptians, as Punt and Kush were places that you went and visited/raided rather than settled in. Even the territory her successor Thutmose III gains in the Middle East is really more of military garrison/mining operation rather than a true colony where Egyptians would go and settle and become residents. Egyptians believed in living by the Nile, and definitely believed that the only way to achieve a good afterlife was for your corpse to be returned home (which puts a damper on the pioneer spirit).

So we have to come up with something that causes a major change/upheaval for Egyptian society to adopt the idea of invading and actually inhabiting a territory outside the traditional two Kingdoms. We also have to refocus attention away from the Middle East and Kadesh (in modern Syria) and down toward Kush (Nubia) and eastern Africa. We know that Hatshepsut's original expedition to Punt was overseen by a court official in her ninth year of reign. After that she pivoted back to Lebanon and the Sinai. So what stops that pivot and keeps her more focused on the Horn of Africa? Or at least gets a colony of some kind going there, even if officially she keeps doing her thing back home?

We know that her chief minister Senenmut drops out of the historical record after a certain point, despite enjoying very privileged access to the court and getting to build a tomb close to his king, and also that his body was not found in said elaborate tomb (though whether that came about due to later grave robbers is unknown). We also know he was the tutor of Hatshepsut's daughter Neferure, a position he seems to have valued higher than many of his other more distinguished titles based on his clear affection for this girl, portraying her in statutory almost as his own daughter in an uncle/fatherly role.

Just to be clear because Egyptian genealogies get confusing: Hatshepsut is the daughter of King Thutmose I, third king of the 18th dynasty (the first after overthrowing the Hyksos), and the wife of her half-brother Thutmose II (incest being a common practice of Egyptian royalty: and you thought the Habsburg were inbred). He died young, leaving Hathsepsut as ruling regent for the two-year-old heir Thutomse III, her stepson born to a secondary wife. Neferure was the only child born to Hatshepsut, a daughter of Thutmose II and half-sister of Thutmose III. It's speculated she may have eventually married him and given him a child, but we're not sure, and she may have died during her mother's reign.

Now, some scholars have speculated that Hatshepsut may have been positioning her daughter to succeed her instead of her stepson, as Neferure had an expanded role in the Egyptian court compared to previous royal daughters and also appears to have served as the God's Wife of Amun, the same position Hatshepsut served prior to taking the throne. For the sake of this TL, let's say Hatshepsut did want her daughter to become pharaoh after her, creating a new dynastic line over her stepson/nephew. In the year of the Punt expedition Thutmose III is 12 (not quite old enough to rule yet); we're not sure exactly when Neferure was born, but for the sake of convenience let's say she's roughly similar in age to him (Hatshepsut and her own brother-husband were only three years difference in age).

Let's move forward in time to Year 16 of Hatshepsut's reign; Thutmose III is now 19 and probably getting anxious to "take the reign" (sorry, bad pun). Again, he may have married his half-sister at this point, but for the sake of this TL let's say Hathsepsut is keeping them apart and pushing for her girl to be seen as the next leader. Year 16 is a big one for Hatshepsut because she celebrated her kingly Sed festival, traditionally held after 30 years of rule. She seems to have bent the rules a bit and dated back 30 years to the death of her father, claiming she was his chosen heir and the real power in the land during Thutmose II's time. The Sed festival was a celebration of the king's right to rule as god on earth, a display of physical process and spiritual rebirth. It cemented the king's place as absolute ruler. It sounds like a good time to position her daughter Neferure as the next king.

Now, Hathsepsut was a savvy lady, so I don't think she's going to just wholesale announce a new succession and have a potential uprising on her hands. Instead, she might use the Sed Festival to announce that as god on earth, the living Horus, she's going to make Egypt even greater in her next "30 years." After ceremonially being crowned again with the symbols of Upper and Lower Egypt, let's say she announces that Egypt is going to expand to the farther reaches of the world, cementing god's rule, you get the idea (lots of drinking and partying going on here, people are in a good mood for power slogans). She tells everyone that Thutmose III will play his role as a commander of the army in Kadesh and their northern territory. Lots of cheers, maybe a ceremonial handing over of a whip to him, it's a big moment. Then, as everyone's pumped, she tells them that she will send another expedition to Punt, bigger, better than before, and establish a permanent base to bring back riches to the homeland. Again, lots of cheers, more celebrations. Then, almost as an afterthought, she finishes by saying that her emissary to lead and guide this new mission will be the God's Wife, the child of Horus, Neferure, with her old tutor Senenmut going too as the King's administrator. By this point Senenmut had become one of the most powerful men in the land; sending him sends a clear signal this trip is big time, and he serves as a male figure to be seen as the real power there. But it also shows clear signs of Hathsepsut setting up the same power structure in Punt as she's enjoyed in Egypt: Senenmut as the chief officla, Neferure as a miniature pharaoh. It's far away, so not a threat to the "real" heir yet, but it sets a precedent.

Much as I love the idea of Neferure eventually becoming pharoah herself and Egypt becoming a matriarchy, that's not really our goal, and I think it's a major hurdle to cross, and definitely impossible without getting rid of Thutmose III (which seems unlikely outside of a huge butterfly hitting him on the head, he was a major military leader and tactician). Instead, let's say the colony in Punt thrives, sending a steady stream of tribute back to Egypt, enriching people, and leading to more settlement of merchants and others outside of the military down into Kush and toward Punt, expanding the concept of Egypt. Eventually Neferure returns to Egypt, not as pharoah, but as wife of her half-brother; since we're in an ATL, let's just say she's the mother of his heir Amenemhat (there's some debate there in OTL as to his mother), and the dynasty continues apace with his death and the ascension of his half-brother Amenhotep II.

But the Punt legacy has grown: Senenmut on his death is buried there instead of his original planned tomb back in proper Egypt, which may in part be due to the sea change that happened when Thutmose III took over after Hathsepsut's death. Neferure, as one of her last recorded acts, goes to bury her old tutor, bringing with her elements from his original tomb work back home, and establishes a grand chapel and mortuary cult for him. Other Egyptians in the area also built tombs there, and so rather than establish a new dynasty, Punt establishes a funery practices: an Egyptian can now be buried outside of the traditional two lands, even if at first it is traditional to still have your tomb prepared and built back in the homeland and traveled down the Nile to your new dwelling, those soaking in the spiritual richness on its trip. Once Egyptians are no longer bound by the one River to establish their life after death, we can finally start moving in the direction of longer voyages and farther trading posts.
 
@woodmr
that was an excellent read, thank you for making my morning!

An alternative approach would be to work on the other end of the dyad:
In the 15th century BCE, a technologically and socially advanced trading partner for Egypt in "China" would be the Yellow River-based Shang. Now, that is rather unfortunate for the establishment of maritime contacts, because it's very much an inland state with little maritime operations of its own.
We could try to change THIS if, several centuries earlier, we let the Liangzhu culture survive. They appear to have been so ocean-oriented that, when whatever disaster it was that annihilated the home core of their civilization, hit them, they began to sail the Pacific and colonise countless islands there. If they survive (which might be ASB if the theory is true that they were hit by a meteor) OR if they turn in a different direction when they emigrate, for example Southward along the coastlines past what is today Vietnam, then settling Westwards in what is today Cambodia and Thailand, then we'd have a much better starting point. If that happens at the end of the 3rd millennium BCE, they might have rebounded with colonies all over the place from Southern China to East India by Hatshepsut's time. Presumably, the Yangze civilizations developed bronze-making autochtonously (whereas the Yellow River civilizations possibly adapted it from Indo-European steppe dwellers from the West), so maybe they have other interesting stuff to export, too. (Later OTL examples would be spices. Maybe the Egyptian upper class takes a liking to jade, too?) Now that's an attractive trading partner, and at a distance that's at least half-way imaginable to cross from the Horn of Africa, with stopovers in Balochistan and at the mouth of the Indus, although circumnavigating the rest of the Indian subcontinent still begs the question of why they'd do that because there's still not yet much there. (But probably there is? Butterflies from an Austronesian-Chinese expansion up the Burmese coast and into the Brahmaputra / Ganges deltas could push Indo-Aryan groups towards faster expansion to the South along the coasts, maybe?)

Either way, the big thing between China and Egypt (besides lots of water, but if you can sail to Cyprus, you can hop along the coast of the Indian Ocean, too) is India. Direct contact between Egypt and India would be a big thing in itself.
 
Thanks @Salvador79, and hey, I get to learn about yet another ancient culture I didn't know about (always a treat). I think ancient Egyptians would be quite into jade considering how much they loved their bling, and spices could be useful for funerary/burial practices. You're right, getting Egypt and India as trading partners is a feat unto itself that would cause quite a few ripple effects in the world. Hmm... looks like the Indus Valley civilization is still around during this time, a logical trading partner for people on the Horn of Africa and possibly extending into modern Yemen. Perhaps we could extend that society's lifespan a bit (I've always had a soft spot for this culture, especially since they had indoor plumbing).
 
While for China, later is better, for the IVC th time frame is a lot too late. Best would be to have an early Middle Kingdom-IVC interaction directly. Maybe that is even what buys them time? (How, though...) IVC's Main exports were lapis lazuli and sesame, if i remember correctly...
 
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In that case, could we get trade jumpstarted between IVC and Egypt during the reign of Thutmose III, leaving China for later? I'm thinking that he still remains the Napoleon of Egypt in the Middle East and lets his bureaucrats back home (and made his wife) worry about colonies down south. When I think the Punt colony really becomes important is four kings later during the rule of all-around weirdest pharoah ever Akhenaten. In OTL there was no active rebellion against his decisions to move the capital city and found a new religion: after all, pharoah is god on earth, you don't mess with him. But if there was a place farther away that had largely grown into a self-sustaining branch of the kingdom without as much oversight, it might be an attractive place to move for anyone not onboard with the new cult, and could lead to some new power dynamics, especially since there's always been some rumors swirling about the deaths of Akhenaten and his queen. After him the dynasty went through a bit of a rough patch for a while, with several kings of little historical note (or at least that we have little historical writings about), the famous Tut who died young, and eventually decayed into a situation that the next dynasty was founded a military leader who gained control of the kingdom. If Punt is a religious counterbalance to Akhenhaten's new city and gets the Nubian mercs on their side, we could see war or merely a takeover by the Punt military governor, especially if the main funds are coming from the rich trade routes developed there. After all, Punt's closer to Kush, and might take over as the main employer of their mercenaries. The power dynamics of the Egyptian monarchy could then shift with Thebes returning as capital but instead of being the most Upper city being the middle one, straddling the divide between the fertile Memphis basin and the rich Punt outpost, with all "roads" leading there.
 
Great ideas! So what would an egypt-con-punt and IVC trade with each other and learn from another? Btw, you're aware that by extending the latter's lifespan, you've blocked the Indo-Aryans from migrating into the subcontinent... butterflying vedic culture as we know it.
 
There is evidence of Sumerians interacting with the IVC, Egypt may be a bit further but you can do it with the right PoD.
 
Btw, you're aware that by extending the latter's lifespan, you've blocked the Indo-Aryans from migrating into the subcontinent... butterflying vedic culture as we know it.

Yet another moment to bemoan the fact that we can't decipher the written records of the IVC. :closedtongue:

Per trade: gonna have to read up some, my last venture into this culture was many years ago and I'm not as confident on the latest research. Egyptians are into gold and precious metals, so the lapis lazuli is a good bet. Post Hyksos expulsion the Egyptians adopted horses & chariot warfare; would new horseflesh from the Indian subcontinent be a thing? Also, just a cursory glance at Wikipedia reminds me that the IVC had great building projects (and we already know they have some plumbers), and if there's one thing Egypt is really into is some good engineering: maybe there's some cross pollination of building techniques. Of course, that brings up the question of what Egypt provides IVC. Neither civilization was usually in want of food due to their respective river basins, though of course different crops are cultivated. Egypt also had linens and at this point a well-trained army (with many captives from Kadesh and Kushite mercenaries), either of which could be valuable in a trading partner.

*smacks head* I forgot the single most important material Egypt was always getting from somewhere else: lumber! Egypt doesn't really have a lot in the way of native trees, so it was always importing cedars from Lebanon to use in those massive constructive projects. Perhaps Punt and the IVC funnel in an alternative source of lumber?
 
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