=Disastrous Effects of Egyptian Rule.= The Egyptian rule of Palestine put a stop for a time to the wars between the petty city states and brought them all into close contact with the life and culture of Egypt. But the fertile Nile valley, with its warm climate and luxurious atmosphere, was not a land to produce a great colonizing or organizing power. Egypt, because of its shut in position, was always selfish and provincial. None of the Egyptian rulers of Palestine sought to develop the interests and resources of the native peoples or to unite them under a common government. Their sole interest in Palestine was to protect themselves from the danger of invasion from that quarter and to extract the largest possible tribute from its inhabitants. Egypt willingly left the native chiefs of Palestine in control as long as they paid tribute and did not rebel, for the sharp contrast between the soft, equable climate of the Nile valley and the winter cold of the eastern Mediterranean coast lands made residence there exceedingly distasteful to the Egyptians. The few resident Egyptians were officials, whose chief duties were to collect the tribute and to report conditions to their king. Apparently the Pharaohs never attempted to establish a standing army in Palestine or Syria; but to maintain their rule they depended upon the rivalry of the local princes and upon intimidating the natives by campaigns characterized by the greatest severity and cruelty in the treatment of rebels. Thus Egypt took the wealth and life blood of Palestine and gave almost nothing in return. =Lack of Union in Palestine.= On the other hand, the topography of Palestine was such that it furnished no basis for a broad patriotism that would unite all the petty kingdoms and races in its narrow bounds. This inability successfully to combine against the common foe, and the broad valleys that opened into central and northern Palestine from the south and west, made its conquest by an Egyptian army very easy. =Exposure to Invasions From the Desert.= Another marked characteristic of Palestine is the key to the understanding of the next stage in its history. As has been noted before, "it lay broadside on to the desert." As surely as air rushes into a vacuum, so the tribes from the desert steppes irresistibly surged into Palestine through its eastern gateways the moment its internal strength was relaxed. The selfish, intermittent, destructive rule of Egypt not only repeatedly decimated the population of Palestine but weakened its outposts. In time they even goaded on the native princes to call in the Bedouin tribes to aid them in throwing off the conqueror's heavy yoke.