This transformation coincided with the onset of the Second Intermediate Period (c.
However it happened, by about 1720 BCE, they were so numerous in Lower Egypt that some of their chieftains began to assert control over many local areas. Others suggest the early Hyksos may have been traders who settled in Egypt and later brought their extended families and others. It is not entirely clear to historians what prompted these Hyksos to leave Canaan, but some suspect they were driven into Egypt by foreign invasion of their land.
The result was that Semitic-speaking immigrants from Canaan flowed into the Nile delta.
\)Īs centralized power in Egypt declined during the late Middle Kingdom, Egyptians were less able to enforce their borders and preserve their state’s integrity.
