The Great Sea Used as a Military Strategic Advantage: The Wars of Tuthmoses III and the Mediterranean

On the twenty-ninth year of Tuthmoses III reign, a new rebellion against the central power of Egypt started on the distant lands of Lebanon.
In a swift strategic move, the pharaoh sent his army through the Mediterranean, bypassing Canaan and appearing in what might have felt as a blink of an eye in the Lebanon coast, conquering Ullaza and Ardata. This move was not a novelty for the ancient Egyptians of the New Kingdom, it had been used before, although more as a strategy to circumvent the mighty Mitanni, however never as a persistent military offensive tactic. What one proposes to present in this paper is exactly what could have changed on the Egyptian mind to generate such a different set of tactical responses? Is the answer in the view the pharaoh had of the world and the way Egypt should act on it to protect itself? What about the use of new military strategies, where did they come from? Was it a legacy from a country that had to forge its unity once again a century before, survival at all cost? Whatever the answers to the questions this paper will propose are, one fact is clearly true and unavoidable, the changes made by the brilliant military mind of Tuthmoses III profoundly altered the world panorama for half a millennium to come and placed Egypt in the center of history for many centuries after that.