The Bronze Age Collapse. What Really Happened?

Video Description

🎬 Watch early & support the channel on Patreon: https://patreon.com/ParaBellumHistoryChannel Or become a member on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ParaBellumHistoryChannel/join to unlock early access to new videos. Music from our videos: https://share.epidemicsound.com/xk7k44/?playlist=kgati2pa4pi3mz2hsib867syv6zjdzqh Visit our website: https://parabellumhistory.com Our merchandise store: https://parabellumstore.creator-spring.com/ 🎧 Listen to our podcast: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2OdtsiTkoss7a7O090YsPz Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/para-bellum-history/id1837784993 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/85df1ed1-c405-4568-b0c2-dba307fe4996/para-bellum-history Civilizations across the eastern Mediterranean once traded, wrote letters, and fought wars in a tightly linked world. Then cities burned, palaces fell silent, and writing disappeared in places that had thrived for centuries. This documentary follows the Late Bronze Age Collapse from Egypt, Hatti, and Assyria to the Aegean—tracking how drought, famine, internal power struggles, failing trade routes, mass migrations, and the Sea Peoples combined into a system-wide failure. You’ll see Egypt rise after the Hyksos and clash with the Hittites at Kadesh, the Assyrian advance under Adad-nirari and Tukulti-Ninurta, the Minoan maritime network and the Thera eruption, the Mycenaean expansion and fortresses, the unraveling of Hittite authority, and the final shocks: Ugarit’s last letters and Ramses III’s battles described at Medinet Habu. We explain why iron-armed infantry overwhelmed elite chariot forces and how the loss of Canaan and Syria crippled Egypt’s economy for good. The goal isn’t a single culprit. It’s a clear picture of a fragile, interconnected world and the cascade that ended it. Which factor do you think carried the most weight—climate stress, war, piracy, or the collapse of trade? Share your take in the comments. If this deep dive helped you see the Bronze Age in a new way, please like, subscribe, and share. New history investigations every week. Bibliography 1. Moran, William L., trans. The Amarna Letters. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992. 2. Kitchen, K. A. Ramesside Inscriptions: Historical and Biographical. Multiple vols. Oxford: Blackwell, 1969–1990. 3. The Epigraphic Survey. Medinet Habu (series). Chicago: Oriental Institute, 1930. 4. Beckman, Gary. Hittite Diplomatic Texts. 2nd ed. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 1999. 5. Yon, Marguerite. The City of Ugarit at Tell Ras Shamra. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2006. 6. Cline, Eric H. 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed. Rev. & updated ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021. 7. Liverani, Mario. International Relations in the Ancient Near East, 1600–1100 BC. London: Palgrave, 2001. 8. Kuhrt, Amélie. The Ancient Near East c. 3000–330 BC. 2 vols. London: Routledge, 1995. 9. Van De Mieroop, Marc. A History of the Ancient Near East, ca. 3000–323 BC. 3rd ed. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2015. 10. Bryce, Trevor. The Kingdom of the Hittites. New ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. 11. Cline, Eric H., ed. The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean (ca. 3000–1000 BC). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. 12. Oren, Eliezer D., ed. The Sea Peoples and Their World: A Reassessment. Philadelphia: University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, 2000. 13. Killebrew, Ann E., and Gunnar Lehmann, eds. The Philistines and Other “Sea Peoples” in Text and Archaeology. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2013. 14. Knapp, A. Bernard, and Sturt W. Manning. “Crisis in Context — The End of the Late Bronze Age in the Eastern Mediterranean.” American Journal of Archaeology 120 (2016): 99–149. 15. Middleton, Guy D. Understanding Collapse: Ancient History and Modern Myths. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. 🎤 ⁠Voiceover by: Nick Banas Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nickbanas