Ancient Egyptian Warfare: The Force That Built an Empire

The Egyptians considered their land the most perfect in the world and were not so much interested in conquest as in preservation of what they had. The early records of Egyptian warfare all have to do with civil unrest, not conquest of other lands, and this would be the paradigm from the Early Dynastic Period in Egypt (circa 3150-2613 BCE) until the time of the Middle Kingdom (2040-1782 BCE), when the kings of the 12th Dynasty maintained a standing army which they led on military campaigns beyond their borders.