Internal political stress was another factor.

The Late Bronze Age palace economies were elaborate and rigid systems — efficient in good times but brittle under stress.

When the agricultural base was weakened by drought and the trade networks that provided essential materials were disrupted, the palace administrative systems may have been unable to adapt.

Evidence of social unrest, redistribution problems, and possibly uprising or revolution has been proposed at some sites.

And finally, the Sea Peoples themselves — migrations and raids by peoples from the Aegean and possibly Anatolia who were themselves refugees from the collapse occurring in their homelands, and who became an additional stressor on already weakened systems.