* Not-So-Ancient Egypt

Egypt has one of the world's oldest civilizations, dating back more than 5,000 years. But for many of those millennia, the country has been ruled by foreigners--including Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and Turks.

More than once, Egyptians have debated whether the latest wave of conquest was occupation or liberation. So it was when Arab armies arrived, bearing Islam, in 641. So it was when Ottoman armies arrived, bearing cannons, in 1516.

In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte arrived, bearing ill will toward the British. As usual, France and Britain were at war, and Napoleon wanted to disrupt British commerce in the region. The French stayed in Egypt only briefly--by 1801, British and Ottoman troops had driven them out--but Napoleon's visit helped give birth to modern Egypt.

Float Like a Pharaoh, Sting Like an Asp

During the late 18th century, a series of Mamluk princes named Bey had attempted to seize Egypt from the Ottomans. Even before Napoleon arrived, they had significantly weakened Ottoman control there. When the French army left, an Ottoman officer named Muhammad Ali stepped into the power vacuum and picked up where the Beys left off.

Over the next four decades, Muhammad Ali consolidated his control and freed Egypt from Ottoman rule in all but name. He eliminated local rivals and defeated an invading British force. He drafted Egyptian peasants and turned them into a large, European-style army. He conquered much of Sudan. He also secured hereditary rule for his family, which lasted, in name at least, until 1952.

Boom, Bust, and Brits

Under Muhammad Ali and his early heirs, Egypt modernized and westernized. Agribusiness took root, with cash crops replacing subsistence farming. For a while, the economy boomed, and European moneylenders took their cash to Cairo. Western money helped pay for new irrigation systems, railroads, telegraph lines, and the Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean and Red seas. The Ottoman sultan even granted Muhammad Ali's son Ismail the hereditary title khedive ("lord").

Yet boom eventually led to bust, and Khedive Ismail found himself financially overextended. Desperate, the Egyptian government sold off its shares in the company that ran the Suez Canal, but Egypt still went bankrupt. After that, European influence over Egyptian affairs increased dramatically. In 1876, British and French commissioners were appointed to monitor Egypt's finances. In 1879, Ismail was forced to abdicate in favor of his son Tawfiq.

Increasing European influence led, in turn, to increasing Egyptian nationalism--and to the creation of the National Popular Party, led by Colonel Ahmad Arabi. In 1882, anti-European riots broke out in Alexandria, and the British fleet responded by bombarding the city. More riots followed, prompting Colonel Arabi to claim that Egypt was locked in "an irreconcilable war" with Britain. Khedive Tawfiq, however, sided with the British and declared Arabi a rebel. Soon British forces had invaded and occupied Egypt.

Imperialism and Not-So-Independence

Officially, Khedive Tawfiq was still in charge, but after 1883, real power rested with the British consul general. Foreign investment and public works projects resumed, but top jobs in the Egyptian government and military increasingly went to British applicants. Meanwhile, an Egyptian lawyer, Mustafa Kamil, led a resurgent nationalist movement.

During World War I, the British imposed martial law and stationed some 100,000 troops in Egypt, squashing dissent even as Egypt's poor were forced to endure new hardships. After the war, a nationalist delegation (wafd in Arabic) attended the Paris Peace Conference. The Allies ignored its calls for Egyptian independence, but "the Wafd" became the voice of Egyptian nationalism.

A few years later, Britain consented to Egypt becoming an independent constitutional monarchy--though they reserved the right to intervene in Egyptian affairs. In 1924, the Wafd won big in Egypt's first parliamentary elections.

From World War to Cairo Coup

Despite much talk of independence, British troops were still in Egypt when World War II began in 1939. Many in Egypt hoped their old imperial masters would lose, and the Wafd actually lost some credibility by supporting the Allied war effort. Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group, began to gain prominence, especially after British troops remained in the Suez Canal zone after 1945.

In 1948, Egypt and other Arab nations went to war to stop the nation of Israel from forming, but it didn't work. By 1949, Israel was firmly established, and many Egyptians lost faith in their government. In 1950, a Wafd-controlled parliament abrogated a 1936 treaty with the British, and Egyptian students and the Muslim Brotherhood launched a guerrilla war against troops in the canal zone. Then, in 1952, British troops killed 50 Egyptian police officers in a confrontation over a police barracks. Riots, looting, and arson rocked Cairo.

A few months later, the Free Officers, a secret Egyptian army group led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, seized power. The next year, they declared Egypt a republic and named General Muhammad Naguib president. In 1954, the Muslim Brotherhood tried to assassinate Nasser, and President Naguib was promptly arrested. Nasser assumed control and cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood.

Nasser held power until his death in 1970. He was succeeded by his vice president, Anwar Sadat, who was assassinated by Islamists in 1981. Sadat was succeeded by his vice president, current president Hosni Mubarak. To this day, Egypt's president has near-total power.

~ Steve Sampson
September 7, 2005