The occupants designated themselves under the Egyptian term of "heka khasout" ("prince of the mountainous countries") from which proceeds the name "hyksos" given to them by Greek historians. They established their capital in the city of Avaris east of the delta and took for dynastic god the Egyptian god Seth they assimilated to Sutech, god of the storm also present at the Hittites. And they honored only Sutech under the shape of Seth, rejecting all the other gods of Egypt whose they destroyed the temples and killed the sacred animals. This could be considered as a first example of an intolerant monotheism in the Middle East.
After the flee of the Theban king Antef VII, it seems that Hyksos shared between themselves the territory of Egypt. Though until now there is no formal proof, some archaeological indications exist which suggest that queen Ah-hotep and his brother-spouse pharaoh Seqenenrere Tao who reigned together in Thebes at that time were not of Egyptian origin but were near relatives of the ruler of Avaris, the terrible Apophis Aaqenenre who could be their brother, their cousin or their uncle. But after some years of statu quo and compromise between the North and the South, he seems that some partisans of the reconquest of North have begun to agitate in Thebes as to the point that their vengerous vociferations had arrived to the ears of the ruler of Avaris ; because king Apophis sent an emissary to the pharaoh of Thebes in order to complain about some clamors of the hippopotames of the Theban swamps which forbade him to sleep at 900 km from there...
Papyrus of Leiden "The admonitions of an Egyptian wise man":
"The virtuous man cries because of what has happened to the country. Tribes of desert became Egyptian everywhere. The desert is all over the country, the nomes are ravaged. Barbarians came from outside to Egypt and there are no more Egyptians (natives) anywhere."
Speech of queen Hatshepsout (18th dynasty) in the Speos Artemidos inscription :
"I have not slept forgetfully, (but) I have restored that which had been ruined. I have raised up that which had gone to pieces formerly, since the Asiatics were in the midst of Avaris in the Northland, and brigands were in the midst of them, overthrowing that which had been built."
But the threat of the Hyksos ruler was not vain : the mummy of the Theban king Seqenenre Tao was found frightfully disabled: the five injuries in his head were caused by Asiatic weapons. There is no doubt that he was fallen in an ambush offered by his enemy who was however his near relative.
At the death of the king his son prince Ahmose was still a small child. Facing his powerful enemy in the North, queen Ah-hotep could not assume alone the regency of the Theban kingdom. She appealed therefore to his eldest son Kamose and appointed him general in chief of the armies. Kamose became quickly the most influential official of the kingdom as attested by his title of "pa heka aâ" the great prince (regent).
As, in that time following the weakening of the pharaonic power after the end of the 13rd dynasty, anarchy reigned in Egypt and famine and epidemics had become endemic. Finally an Egyptian seer accused Amorite emigrants to be responsible for all these misfortunes and advised the king to get rid of them by sending them to the desert pretexting that they propagated leprosy. These wretches being threatened of extermination decided to rebel against pharaoh with the help of Solymes, a nation of fierce warriors coming from Taurus mountains with whom they made an alliance. But these mercenary soldiers were only looters drawn by the promise of plunder. Relatives of the Hourrites of Anatolia, the Solymes or Pisidians (called Solymites by Fl. Josephus C.A. I, XXVI:248) fought with weapons in brass, whereas Egyptian soldiers were only equipped of less resistant weapons in copper. Renouncing to a beforehand lost fight, king Antef (VII) Nubkheperre, last Egyptian ruler of the 17th dynasty, ran away hastily in exile to Upper Nubia with all his court, abandoning his army which didn't have any other choice that rallying to the enemy.
The newcomers have been firstly welcomed by the Amorite colonists installed in the North of Egypt from the 12th dynasty. Formerly bedwins breeder of sheeps and goats (from where come their name of "Shepherds"), these peaceful people were become farmers and officials of pharaoh and were well inserted in the Egyptian economy since the reign of Sesostris II. But the powerful invaders rapidly reduced in slavery all the population of Lower Egypt at the service of the terrible Apopi, a pitiless ruler, hungry of all the wealths of Egypt. He took as emblem the great snake Apop the worst ennemy of Re in the Egyptian mythology, showing by this way his intention of seizing all the Egyptian territory.
(My personal view of these historical events is based on the reports of Flavius Josephus citing ancient historians in his book "Against Apion". Click to see these texts). Flavius Josephus : Contra Apionem, book I, chapter 14, paragraphe 75 à 77) :
"Tutimaios. In his reign, for what cause I know not, a blast of God smote us; and by a strange way invaders of obscure race come from the regions of the East and marched in confidence of victory against our land. By main force they easily seized it without striking a blow. Having overpowered the rulers of the land, they then burned our cities ruthlessly, razed to the ground the temples of the gods, and treated all the natives with cruel hostility, massacring some and leading into slavery the wives and children of others. Finally, they appointed as king one among them whose name was Salitis. He had his seat at Memphis, levying tribute from Upper and Lower Egypt, and always leaving garrisons behind in the most advantageous places....In the Sethroite nome he found a city very favorably situated on the east of the Bubastic branch of the Nile, and called Avaris according to an ancient religious tradition.
Amorite Colonists and Hyksos Pharaohs
or the tale of the frogs which claimed for getting a king...