So, I’ve always been a history buff, you know, and during that endless lockdown last year, I got stuck binge-watching old documentaries. One was about these Sea People guys wrecking stuff in the Bronze Age. And I thought, “Huh, I gotta dig deeper into how these folks actually caused the whole collapse.” It started simple, just killing time while stuck indoors.
How I kicked things off
First, I jumped online and googled like crazy. Typed in “Sea Peoples bronze age collapse” and sifted through a ton of junk sites. Found a free ebook—don’t remember the name, but it was messy and full of holes. Pulled out my notebook and started scribbling notes. Realized quickly that nobody agrees on what exactly happened, which was frustrating as hell.
The messy research phase
Next, I headed over to the local library after they reopened, grabbing whatever dusty books looked promising. Flipped through ’em all afternoon, comparing stories. One book said the Sea People were pirates, another called them refugees. I leaned back in my chair and muttered, “Why can’t this be simpler?” Decided to map out timelines myself, using a whiteboard in my garage. Pinned up dates like when cities fell and where invasions hit. But half the info was contradicting itself, so I ended up drawing arrows and circles, feeling totally lost for weeks.
Putting the puzzle pieces together
After banging my head against the wall, I took a break and chatted with my buddy Dave, who knows squat about history but loves a good story. He said, “Just pick the big picture stuff, man.” So I refocused on what actually changed after the Sea Peoples showed up. Scoured through more books—this time sticking to basics—and jotted down the main shifts I saw. Slowly, three huge impacts started jumping out at me.
What I finally revealed: the three big impacts
By this point, I’d spent months of my free time on this, and it felt like unlocking a door. Here’s the straightforward way it came together:
- Economy tanked bad: When the Sea Peoples raided and burned cities, trade routes just vanished overnight. Merchants stopped sailing, markets dried up, and everyone struggled to find basic stuff like copper or grain—like supply chains snapping.
- Kingdoms fell apart: These attacks created chaos, and leaders couldn’t keep control. Palaces crumbled, armies scattered, and no one trusted each other anymore. Power shifted fast, leaving a mess everywhere.
- People on the move: Entire groups got displaced, fleeing to new areas or mixing with others. This reshaped cultures and spread new ideas, but it also meant old ways died out—kind of like a big reset button.
And boom, that’s how it played out. In the end, this whole journey was a real slog, but I learned heaps just by grinding through it. Crazy to think I started this while hiding from the world, and now I can’t stop sharing it with others. Like, why let history just sit in books, right?
