As one of countries beginning with E listed on Countryaah, Egypt (Arab Republic of Egypt) is a republic in Northeast Africa. Egypt is almost three times the size of Germany and the population consists mainly of Muslim Arabs. Most of the country is desert. Most people live in the fertile river basin of the Nile and the Nile Delta, in oases and on the coasts of the Mediterranean and Red Sea.
Only about 3.5% of the land can be used for agriculture (cultivation of cotton, grain, fruit, vegetables and sugar cane). Many industrial companies did not emerge until after 1960. Crude oil is produced in the Gulf of Suez, and iron ore near Aswan. By building dams on the Nile (e.g. the Aswan High Dam), attempts are being made to artificially irrigate large areas of land and make them fertile. The Suez Canal is important for international through traffic between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. With numerous evidence of ancient Egyptian culture, Egypt has significant attractions for tourism.
History: Arable peoples settled early on in the fertile strip of land along the Nile, which irrigated the land with its annual floods. Already before 3000 BC There was a total Egyptian state, which, according to Egyptian tradition, arose from the union of the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt.
The first king of the first dynasty is considered to be Menes or Aha. The old empire existed from about 2660 to 2160 BC. Chr.; The residence was Memphis. Under the unrestricted power of the hereditary kingship, expeditions of conquest were made to Nubia and Palestine. Uprisings and social upheavals led to the empire breaking up into smaller principalities. Later the unification of the empire from Upper Egypt succeeded again; Thebes became the capital.
The Middle Kingdom (around 2040–1785 BC) already had a well-ordered administrative system. The capitals of the empire changed. New irrigation systems were built and the cultivated land was expanded. When internal turmoil weakened the empire, the Hyksos, an upper class from Asia, managed to rule Egypt for a century.
After the Hyksos were driven out, the New Kingdom was established, which lasted from around 1552 to 1070 BC. Existed; The capital was Thebes. At the height of military power, Nubia, Palestine and Syria were conquered. The trade trips to Punt (probably on the Somali coast), which had already been undertaken in the Old Kingdom, were resumed. Serious religious crises and civil unrest broke out under King Akhenaten. After a new consolidation under Ramses II. And Ramses III. Egyptian power fell through internal and external wars.
In the following centuries the country was under changing rule. For a time it was a Persian province, 332 BC. It was conquered by Alexander the Great. After that they ruled Ptolemies, among whom the country experienced great economic and cultural prosperity. The capital Alexandria became the center of Hellenistic culture (see Hellenism).
When the Romans 30 BC BC Alexandria conquered, Queen Cleopatra committed suicide. Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire, later part of the Byzantine Empire (395–640 AD).
Christian communities were formed in Egypt early on; monasticism started from here. In 640/642 the country was conquered by the Arabs. From 1517 it was a province of the Ottoman Empire, but at times practically independent. Towards the end of the 19th century it came under British rule due to economic pressure and finally military occupation.
In 1922 Egypt became an independent parliamentary monarchy, which took part in the Arab fight against Israel in 1948/49. In a coup d’état in 1952, King Faruk (1920–65) was forced to abdicate. In 1953 the republic was proclaimed. After the Suez Canal was nationalized under President Nasser in 1956, the Suez Crisis broke out in the same year. Israel, Great Britain and France attacked Egypt militarily; the UN (of which Egypt is a founding member) settled the conflict.
In 1967, Israel occupied the Sinai Peninsula in the 3rd Israeli-Arab War (“Six Day War”). After Nasser’s death in 1970, Sadat became the new president. In 1973 Egypt and Syria attacked Israel militarily, but after initial successes had to agree to a ceasefire. In 1979, with the support of the USA, a peace treaty was reached between Egypt and Israel, which led to the return of Sinai, but politically and economically isolated Egypt in the entire Arab world.
After Sadat’s assassination in October 1981, his successor, Hosni Mubarak, tried to improve relations with the other Arab states. In 1991 Egypt took part in the Gulf War against Iraq together with other Arab states on the side of the USA. In the Middle East conflict, Egypt called for rapprochement between the PLO and Israel and has taken numerous diplomatic initiatives since 1996 to keep the peace process going. In 2006, Egyptian President Mubarak called on Israel and Hamas to hold immediate peace talks and to end the violence.
After protests, mass demonstrations and bloody riots with hundreds of deaths – especially in Cairo’s Tahrir Square – Mubarak resigned in 2011. A Supreme Military Council under Hussein Tantawi took over the business of government. The winner of the first free presidential election in 2012 was Mohammed Morsi (* 1951), a candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood. However, the political situation in the country remained unstable. Again there were mass protests. In 2013, Adli Mansur (* 1945) became the interim president. The Muslim Brotherhood was declared a terrorist organization and many of its supporters, including Morsi in 2015, were sentenced to death. On November 15, 2016, the highest court of appeal in Egypt overturned Morsi’s death sentence. Abd al-Fattah as-Sisi (* 1954) has been president since the elections in May 2014. He was re-elected in March 2018.
