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The government that the ancient Egyptians had was in its most simplistic form, a monarchy. However, the Pharaoh was seen as a living god on earth. Quite simply, the kingship of the Pharaoh and his authority could not be questioned. That's not to say it didn't happen, but it reinforced a completely different worldview than the one we have today. The Pharaoh was worshipped alongside the gods, and when the Pharaoh died, he would take his rightful place as king of the underworld.

This had immense implications, especially when looking at the reign of Akenaten. He attempted to force worship of the Aten (or sun disc) as a new monotheistic national cult. He built a new center of religious activity for the whole of Egypt, and got away with it for most of his reign. This would be akin to a President in the United States suddenly declaring that Mahayana Buddhism was the national religion and nobody doing anything about it until he died. When Akenaten died, his son, Tutankhamun, destroyed the cult of the Aten and restored the old religion. But in today's world, such a drastic and unilateral policy decision would never be tolerated. But that's the way it was with a god-king. :)

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15y ago

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