Quick questions on Amenhotep I and Thutmose I in New Kingdom Egypt: HSC Ancient History

Amenhotep I succeeded his father Ahmose I, the king credited with expelling the Hyksos and reunifying Egypt. His reign is best understood as consolidation rather than conquest. He inherited a state whose central authority had only recently been rebuilt, and his priority was to make that recovery permanent: securing the frontiers, maintaining the loyalty of the elite, and channelling wealth into the cult of Amun at Thebes, the god increasingly credited with Egypt's revival.

Thutmose I's origins are revealing. His mother, Senseneb, held no royal title, and it was his queen Ahmose (probably connected to the previous royal house) who tied him to the dynasty; he was most likely not a direct-line heir but a senior figure, perhaps a military man, who secured the throne. Whatever his background, his short reign transformed Egypt's strategic position at both extremes.

Thutmose I marched an army through Syria-Palestine against the rising kingdom of Mitanni, which the Egyptians called Naharin. He reached the Euphrates River, and on its far bank he set up a boundary stela marking the northern limit of Egyptian arms, a claim no earlier pharaoh had made. The Egyptians noted with wonder that this was the river that flowed "the wrong way" (south, unlike the Nile).

In Nubia, Thutmose I pushed Egyptian control far past earlier frontiers, beyond the Fourth Cataract to Kurgus. His Year 2 Tombos stela records the crushing of Nubian resistance, and the veteran Ahmose, son of Ebana, again describes serving on the campaign. Nubia was placed under the authority of a viceroy (the "King's Son of Kush"), the administrative backbone that turned conquest into a governed, gold-yielding province.