Thutmose III

Thutmose III had a co-regency with Hatshepsut for a period of time and was considered a military genius. He greatly expanded the borders of Egypt and brought the area of Canaan as subjects.

Widely considered a military genius by historians, he was an active expansionist ruler who is sometimes called Egypt’s greatest conqueror or “the Napoleon of Egypt.”[14] He is recorded to have captured 350 cities during his rule and conquered much of the Near East from the Euphrates to Nubia during 17 known military campaigns. He was the first Pharaoh to cross the Euphrates, doing so during his campaign against Mitanni. His campaign records were transcribed onto the walls of the temple of Amun at Karnak, and are now transcribed into Urkunden IV. He is consistently regarded as one of the greatest of Egypt’s warrior pharaohs, who transformed Egypt into an international superpower by creating an empire that stretched from southern Syria through to Canaan and Nubia.[15]

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Thutmose_III

“Thutmose III began the first and most decisive of the great conqueror’s campaigns in the region of Canaan and Syria establishing Egyptian dominance over the region.”
https://biblicalhistoricalcontext.com/i … of-canaan/

The Egyptians had a policy of keeping the Canaanites weak after conquering them.

But, what stands out most in the archaeological record from the time period of Egyptian domination isn’t so much what was there as wasn’t– from the time of Thutmose III until the end of Egyptian rule, almost all towns in Canaan had no city wall.13 Excluding Hazor, Megiddo, and (possibly) Gezer – the very largest Canaanite cities – the only towns with walls constructed in the Late Bronze age are Ashdod, Tel Abu Hawam, and Tel Beit Misrim.14 The rest stood vulnerable and unprotected – just how Pharaoh wanted them.

https://biblicalhistoricalcontext.com/i … of-canaan/

“from the time of Thutmose III until the end of Egyptian rule, almost all towns in Canaan had no city wall.”
https://biblicalhistoricalcontext.com/i … of-canaan/

“We’re going to come back to the topic of Late Bronze age deportation in a future post and get into the detail there, but for now we just need to understand that depopulation happened, and it left Canaan all the more weakened and all the more in the shadow of Egypt.”
https://biblicalhistoricalcontext.com/i … of-canaan/

So, most of the area of Canaan was made weak and vulnerable during this time. For any invader, it would’ve been the perfect time to attack the area of Canaan.

During the reign of Thutmose III, Hatshepsut died for unknown reasons and following her death, Thutmose III ruled Egypt alone for 33 years. There was also an attempt to erase the memory of Hatshepsut. It is theorized it was Thutmose III who ordered this.

“No contemporary source, including that stela, mentions how she died. Her mummy was not in her prepared tomb, and many of the signs of her existence had been erased or written over, so the cause of death was a matter of speculation.”
https://www.thoughtco.com/how-did-hatsh … ie-3529280

“Until recently, a general theory has been that after the death of her husband Thutmose II, Hatshepsut ‘usurped’ the throne from Thutmose III. Although Thutmose III was a co-regent during this time, early historians have speculated that Thutmose III never forgave his step-mother for denying him access to the throne for the first two decades of his reign.”
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Thutmose_III

Whatever the case, upon her death, Thutmose III ascended to the position of pharaoh. As mentioned, he now presided over an Egypt that had prospered greatly under Hatshepsut’s rule. However, about two decades into his reign, for reasons unclear today, he began ordering his men to remove mentions of Hatshepsut as pharaoh. Her name and image were destroyed, scraped form engravings and her statues toppled- no easy task considering the numerous buildings and other works built under her rule, often featuring her in some way in them.

https://www.todayifoundout.com/index.ph … ake-beard/

Before his own death, Thutmose III moved to erase Hatshepsut from the historical record by defacing her monuments and removing her name from the list of kings.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/cult … hatshepsut