The Legacy of the Mitanni

Hello everyone of alternatehistory. I've been a big fan of this site for years, though I've mainly ghosted through it without ever doing much until recently. Its left a huge impact on how I look at history as well as fiction and I can't thank the people on this site enough for the good work they do. Now while I've been entertained by the numerous works and timelines stemming from here it does leave my imagination running when certain questions are asked. Now as you can probably guess by the name of this post, what you see here is going to be focused on a timeline during the Bronze Age. The reason I choose to focus on it is because of how unique it is. Most people choose moments in the iron age, the age of antiquity or the middle ages and while there is nothing wrong with that, but the bronze age seems to get overlooked sometimes or hyper-focused on one nation. The timelines that do exist also deals with scenarios that we already consider a lot, like what if Akhenaten succeeded in making Atenism the state religion for example. Again, there is nothing wrong with any of it as I enjoy a lot of it. But one of the most defining POD moments in history that I think is tragically overlooked because of the lack of info about it is the decline of the Mitanni.

The Mitanni people were a Indo-European group that managed to jump ahead of all the others and invade Northern Mesopotamia where they conquered the Hurrian peoples, a non Indo-European group. A few generations later and the Mitanni ruling class had been fully culturally assimilated into the Hurrian population with a few exceptions like their gods. From their position on the Khabur River Valley, the Mitanni were able to steadily conquer Assyria, Amurru, Isuwa, and Kizzuwatna. They were powerful enough for a time to keep the Hittites at bay in Anatolia, fought toe to toe with the Egyptians before signing a peace treaty and alliance later on, and they reached the height of their power and prestige under Shuttarna II who was a contemporary during the early reign of Amenhotep III, the pharaoh who brought New Kingdom Egypt to its greatest height during the 18th dynasty.

Now while we don't know exactly what or when it happened here, at some point before Amenhotep's 30th year jubilee celebration, Shuttarna II died and was succeeded by a man who may or may not have been his first born son by the name of Artashumara. Artashumara died within a year or two due to an assassination attempt on his life and the Mitanni throne passed to the underage Tushratta who ruled with the help of a regency who only intended to use him as a figurehead and this is roughly where the troubles seem to start. Even after Tushratta ascended to the throne as an adult, he still had issues with his former regents, had to track down his brother's killer, deal with the rebellion of Aziru of Amurru which destabilized the region, suffered invasions by the Hittites under Suppiluliuma I who took all the Mitanni lands west of the Euphrates, lost the alliance with Egypt due to Akhenaten, and watched as Assyria began regaining its dominant position in northern Mesopotamia while under his rule. Suffice to say that by the time he passed, the Mitanni Empire was swiftly on the decline and his descendants were trapped ruling a shrinking kingdom that was being fought over between the Hittites and the Assyrians which lead to a number of problems that would in turn lead up to the Battle of Kadesh with Ramesses II.

But what if all that didn't happen? What if the assassin who killed Artashumara failed in his attempt and the Mitanni golden age was able to last a bit longer without the political instability that followed his death in OTL? How would the Near East look as a result and how would this effect later developments in the historical record? I was genuinely curious about all this so I decided to try and give it a shot. Now I don't know if I'll be able to consistently make a timeline about this, though I'm hoping I'll have the time to do so, but I invite all of you to actually talk about it, tell me what you honestly think, share your ideas, and just have fun with the speculating. So ladies and gentlemen, I give to you The Legacy of the Mitanni. I do hope you enjoy it and I hope it inspires somebody else if I'm unable to continue. Thank you.
 
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Metaverse

Banned
Mitannis ruled Northern Syria and Southern Anatolia with a Hurrian population and initially, a Indo-European speaking ruling class, which was probably diverse containing Indo-Aryan speakers.

So what's the extent you want the Mitanni to rule, in the Middle East? A highly contended area, they could be overshadowed by multiple superpowers that would rise in the Mediterranean and Anatolia. You definitely can't keep them alive "all by themselves" in such a region.
 
For the Mitanni to succeed long term, they must find venues to maintain their conquest, as in the Middle East in the Bronze and post-Bronze age, states that became empires, only did so via creating some sort of synthesis to what exists near them. The only exception to this, is the Egyptian civilization based solely upon the Nile and the Hittites, whose base was far to the north of the Mitanni.

In otl, I am not familiar with how the Mitanni made their empire resonate, but one thing is clear, their empire must do one thing, that is of enormous import. That is, they must conquer, maintain and create a synthesis with Assyria. There was a great struggle for space in this area of Assyria between many different peoples, most clearly, the Akkadians, the Hurro-Biai, Indo-Europeans, Mannaeans, Kassites and others. Assyria was littered with diverse cities and communes, Nizzu and Musasir are the best examples of this diversity in major cities in Assyria of non-Akkadian extract. Mitanni has thus, some advantage of cultural and linguistic links to Assyria and as such, should seek to mold themselves to that grand Akkadian tradition and create a unified kingship.

Assyria did this in order to create its empire, it patronized the great legacy of Sargon of Akkad and ruled Babylon according to ancient custom, as a dual-monarchy. Mitanni existing in the same space, may need to do the same, except between itself and Assyria. The spiritual successor of Mitanni, the Biai or Urartu, did exactly this and in its propaganda, attempted to rule Assyria-Babylon, as part of a grand empire. This was not fated to be, but Urartu was quite close to doing so and if Tiglath Pileser III and Sargon II had never ascended to the throne, what would be similar to a Mitanni ruled Bronze Age, may have occurred.
 
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