History: Egypt Invaded
After the 20th dynasty, which ended around 1070B.C., Egypt went into a rapid decline.
Nubians, Assyrians, and Persians
each conquered the country to found their own short lived line of kings.
In 332B.C., Alexander the Great swept out of Macedonia with his mighty army and made Egypt part
of his vast empire.
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He stayed in Egypt for a few months, and in that time founded the city of Alexandria. After his death, Egypt came under
the control of a general called Ptolemy ("TAWI,-uh-mee"), who founded the Ptolemaic dynasry. At first Egypt fared well
under Greek rule and the new capital of Alexandria became a great city of trade and culture.
Cleopatra and Anthony
Cleopatra VII was the last of the Ptolemy rulers,
and Cleopatra found herself caught up in the politics of the Roman
empire that was by then dominating the Mediterranean. Cleopatra married
Anthony, co ruler of Rome, in an alliance
against Anthony great rival, Octavian. However, Cleopatra and Anthony combined fleets were defeated at the Battle of Actium in 30 B.C. The following
year by which time Cleopatra and Anthony position had become hopeless they committed suicide.
Egypt now came under Roman rule. Rome wanted little from Egypt except wheat to feed the great Roman empire. Like the
Greeks before them, the Romans left the Egyptians to their own ancient religion. That changed with the arrival of
Christianity, and from A.D. 600 onwards Egypt was rapidly converted to a Christian country.
After the division of the Roman empire into two parts in A.D. 395, the Byzantine emperors ruled over Egypt. Their
rule ended in A.D. 639, when Egypt fell to the Arabs. The Arabs established a small fortress town, later called Fustat,
that was soon to grow into the great city of Cairo.
Egypt under the Arabs and Ottomans
The Arabs influenced the lives of the ordinary people of Egypt more than any of the earlier conquerors. The Arabic
language became widely spoken, and the majority of people embraced Islam. Egypt was now governed by Muslim leaders
known as caliphs and was part of a larger empire. First the Umayyad dynasty ruled the country from Damascus, then Egypt
came under the jurisdiction of the Baghdad based Abbasid dynasty. From A.D. 868 to 969, two Turkish dynasties, the Tulunid
and Ikhshidid, ruled Egypt with only token acknowledgment of Baghdad's overall authority.
In 969 Egypt saw the rise of the Shi'a Muslim Fatimid dynasty. The Fatimids, who came from Tunisia, transferred their
capital to Cairo. In the 12th century, Crusader forces from Europe invaded Egypt. The Fatimid rulers asked the caliph
of Syria in 1169 to send them military assistance. A Kurdish general called Salah al-Din, better known as Saladin,
commanded the forces that defeated the Crusaders, but he also overthrew the Fatimid rulers in 1171 and made himself
prince of Egypt. He returned Egypt to Sunni Islam, and became a hero of the Muslim world by driving the Crusaders out of
Jerusalem in 1187.
The descendants of Saladin employed a group of former Turkish slaves known as the Mamluks ("mahm-LOOKS") for their
bodyguards. Because of their loyalty, they quickly rose to high positions in the government and army. In 1250, they were
strong enough to rebel and seize Egypt for themselves. Even after the Mamluks were overthrown by the Ottoman Turks in 1517,
they continued to act as governors and often seemed to hold more power than their masters.
The Europeans Arrive
During the 16th and 17th centuries, Egypt became a forgotten corner of the world. However, in 1798, the country was
dramatically returned to the world stage when it was invaded by a large French army under Napoleon Bonaparte. It was his
ambition to found a French colony and disrupt England's communications with its empire in India.
Such hopes were destroyed with the defeat of the French navy by Admiral Nelson's British fleet. The following year,
Napoleon left his army and returned to France. Without Napoleon's inspiration, the French forces were driven out of
Egypt by the Ottomans and their allies.
As in the time of Saladin, an army officer sent to aid Egypt from outside forces took the opportunity to take power for
himself. In this case, it was a young Albanian officer called Mohammed Ali. He proved to be a remarkable ruler, who
worked hard to modernize the country, and under his guidance Egypt established much closer contacts with the West.
In 1854, France was granted a contract to build a canal through the isthmus of Suez. The building of the Canal of Suez was
to make Egypt strategically important to the great European powers. From then onwards, Egypt was to be increasingly
vulnerable to political events in other parts of the world. Lavish spending by its rulers put Egypt into debt, and
in 1875 they sold their shares in the canal to Britain. British influence in Egypt grew so powerful that they were soon
interfering in Egypt's domestic issues.
Anti British uprisings in 1880 and 1882 led to a British military invasion. Although Egypt had a king and was still part
of the Turkish empire, it was the British administrators who now held the real power. In areas such as banking the
British made some excellent reforms, but they neglected education and public health, and an increasingly strong
independence movement developed.
The Struggle for Independence
In 1914, World War I broke out in Europe. When Turkey sided with Germany, Britain declared Egypt a protectorate
and sent a large number of troops to guard the Suez Canal. This created more anti British feelings and the nationalist
movement, led by Saad Zaghlul, became increasingly powerful. In 1922, Britain granted Egypt independence, but still
retained the right to station troops in the country.
World War II once again saw Egypt involved in European politics. This time the country became a major battlefield
for foreign armies. German forces invaded Egypt in an attempt to capture the Suez and the Middle East oil fields.
At one point they were only a hundred miles from the Nile Delta, but were defeated at the Battle of El 'Alamein in 1942.
Throughout the war, Egypt was a major British base, and hundreds of thousands of troops passed through the country.
Egypt emerged from the war all the more determined to remove foreign influence from the country. In 1945, it became a
founding member of the United Nations and was involved in the formation of the Arab League.
In 1948, Palestine was divided into Jewish and Arab states, and Egypt became involved in the war with Israel.
Egypt's defeat fueled a growing feeling of discontent and led to violent riots in the country. In July 1952, after three
years of disturbances, a group of army officers seized power. King Farouk was sent into exile, and the country became a
republic. Shortly after the revolution, Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser replaced Mohammed Naguib as president and started to
tackle Egypt's serious social problems. A major reform was the Land Act that broke up the big estates and gave land to
the fellahin ("fel-lah-HEEN"), Egypt's farm laborers. On the international scene, Nasser negotiated a withdrawal of all
British troops, to be completed by June 1956.
Nasser also dreamed of building a new dam at Aswan, and had expected the Western powers to assist with the project.
When they refused, Egypt seized control of the Canal of Suez, intending to use the tolls to pay for the dam. In October
1956, Egypt was invaded by Israel, and the following month Britain and France landed troops in the Canal Zone and
captured Port Said. Although Egypt could not defeat the European powers on the battlefield, world opinion forced the
Anglo-French forces to withdraw.
The failure of the Suez invasion left Nasser a powerful figure in both regional and world politics. In 1958, Egypt and
Syria formed the United Arab Republic. Such a union was never really likely to succeed, and Syria withdrew in 1961.
Egypt, however, retained the title United Arab Republic until 1971.
The years following World War II saw Egypt emerge as an independent country, ready to take a central place on the world
stage. However, Egypt and Israel remained hostile toward each other, and this relationship was to dominate events for the
next two decades.
Extract from “Cultures Of The World Egypt”, Written by Robert Pateman. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 1996.
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