For the first time that we know of in Egyptian history, Senwosret I was made a co-regent in the 20th year of Amenemhet I's rule, and so was by the time of his father's death firmly established as the heir to the throne. Therefore, regardless of the intentions of the conspirators, he managed to ascend the throne with little difficulty.

His Queen was Nefru, who was the mother of his son Amenemhet II, who was his co-regent and who succeeded him. The coregency was recorded by a private stele of Simontu that is now in the British Museum.

Sewosret I (Senusret) ruled Egypt for 34 years after his father's death during a period in Egypt's history where literature and craftsmanship was at its peak.  He probably ruled Egypt from about 1956 through 1911 BC.

It was a period of affluence, and a remarkable time for mineral wealth, gold and the fine jewelry produced with this abundance. Jewelry masterpieces have been found, particularly in the tombs of the royal ladies at Dahshur and Lahun, attributable to his reign. But it was also a time of great stability and development.

Letters of an old farmer named Hekanakhte to his family record a famine during the time of Senusret, a fact that is also implied by an inscription in the tomb of a nomarch (governor) named Amenemhat at Beni Hassan.

Senwosret continued many of his father's policies, including the expansion in northern Nubia. He sent one expedition to Nubia in his tenth year of reign, and later he sent another army as far south as the second cataract. His general, Mentuhotep, went even deeper into Nubia. However, Senusret I established Egypt's southern border at the fortress of Buhen near the second cataract, where he placed a garrison and a victory stele. There were at least 13 fortresses that extended as far as the Second Cataract, and while Egypt's border may have been at the Nile's second cataract, he exercised control of Nubia as far as the Third Cataract. Inscriptions attributable to Senusret I can be found as far south as the island of Argo, north of modern Dongola.

Senwosret I and his father had built extensively as co-regents, particularly at Karnak. He is considered to have founded the temple of Ipet-isut (Karnak), and Heliopolis. At the temple of Re-Atum at Heliopolis, a center of the sun cult, he had two massive 20 meter (66 foot) red granite obelisks erected. These monoliths weighed 121 tons each. One of the pair remains the oldest standing obelisk in Egypt. He also built the famous bark shrine, or White Chapel, that has been reconstructed by Henri Chevrier in the Open Air Museum at Karnak. A scene within the White Chapel records the coronation of Senwosret I, and is the oldest such scene so far discovered.

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