Egypt

Egypt i/ˈiːdʒɪpt/ (Arabic: مصر‎  Miṣr ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt (Arabic:  جمهورية مصر العربية (help·)), is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Most of its territory of 1,010,000 square kilometers (390,000 sq mi) lies within North Africa and is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west.

Egypt has one of the longest histories of any modern state, having been continuously inhabited since the 10th millennium BC.[11] Its monuments, such as the Giza pyramid complex and its Great Sphinx, were constructed by its ancient civilization, which was one of the most advanced of its time. Its ancient ruins, such as those of Memphis, Thebes, Karnak, and the Valley of the Kings outside Luxor, are a significant focus of archaeological study and popular interest. Egypt's rich cultural legacy, as well as the attraction of its Red Sea Riviera, has made tourism a vital part of the economy, employing about 12% of the country's workforce.

The economy of Egypt is one of the most diversified in the Middle East, with sectors such as tourism, agriculture, industry and services at almost equal production levels. Egypt is considered to be a middle power,[12] with significant cultural, political, and military influence in the Mediterranean, the Middle East and the Muslim world.

History
There is evidence of rock carvings along the Nile terraces and in desert oases. In the 10th millennium BC, a culture of hunter-gatherers and fishers was replaced by a grain-grinding culture. Climate changes and/or overgrazing around 8000 BC began to desiccate the pastoral lands of Egypt, forming the Sahara. Early tribal peoples migrated to the Nile River where they developed a settled agricultural economy and more centralized society.[19]

By about 6000 BC, a Neolithic culture rooted in the Nile Valley.[20] During the Neolithic era, several predynastic cultures developed independently in Upper and Lower Egypt. The Badarian culture and the successor Naqada series are generally regarded as precursors to dynastic Egypt. The earliest known Lower Egyptian site, Merimda, predates the Badarian by about seven hundred years. Contemporaneous Lower Egyptian communities coexisted with their southern counterparts for more than two thousand years, remaining culturally distinct, but maintaining frequent contact through trade. The earliest known evidence of Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions appeared during the predynastic period on Naqada III pottery vessels, dated to about 3200 BC.[21]

The Thirtieth Dynasty was the last native ruling dynasty during the Pharaonic epoch. It fell to the Persians in 343 BC after the last native Pharaoh, King Nectanebo II, was defeated in battle.

The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a powerful Hellenistic state, extending from southern Syria in the east, to Cyrene to the west, and south to the frontier with Nubia. Alexandria became the capital city and a center of Greek culture and trade. To gain recognition by the native Egyptian populace, they named themselves as the successors to the Pharaohs. The later Ptolemies took on Egyptian traditions, had themselves portrayed on public monuments in Egyptian style and dress, and participated in Egyptian religious life.[24] [25]

The Byzantines were able to regain control of the country after a brief Persian invasion early in the 7th century, until 639–42, when Egypt was invaded and conquered by the Islamic Empire by the Muslim Arabs. When they defeated the Byzantine Armies in Egypt, the Arabs brought Sunni Islam to the country. Early in this period, Egyptians began to blend their new faith with indigenous beliefs and practices, leading to various Sufi orders that have flourished to this day.[26] These earlier rites had survived the period of Coptic Christianity.[28]

Muslim rulers nominated by the Islamic Caliphate remained in control of Egypt for the next six centuries, with Cairo as the seat of the Caliphate under the Fatimids. With the end of the Kurdish Ayyubid dynasty, the Mamluks, a Turco-Circassian military caste, took control about AD 1250. By the late 13th century, Egypt linked the Red Sea, India, Malaya, and East Indies.[29] The mid-14th-century Black Death killed about 40% of the country's population.[30]

Egypt was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1517, after which it became a province of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman invasion pushed the Egyptian system into decline. The defensive militarization damaged its civil society and economic institutions.[29] The weakening of the economic system combined with the effects of plague left Egypt vulnerable to foreign invasion. Portuguese traders took over their trade.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Abu-Lughod_29-2">[29] Egypt suffered six famines between 1687 and 1731.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-31">[31] The 1784 famine cost it roughly one-sixth of its population.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-32">[32]

The brief French invasion of Egypt led by Napoleon Bonaparte began in 1798. After the French were defeated by the British, a power vacuum was created in Egypt, and a three-way power struggle ensued between the Ottoman Turks, Egyptian Mamluks who had ruled Egypt for centuries, and Albanian mercenaries in the service of the Ottomans. It ended in victory for the Albanians led by Muhammad Ali.

While he carried the title of viceroy of Egypt, his subordination to the Ottoman porte was merely nominal. Muhammad Ali established a dynasty that was to rule Egypt until the revolution of 1952. In later years, the dynasty became a British puppet.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Nejla_M._Abu_Izzeddin_1973.2C_p_2_33-0">[33]

On 18 June 1953, the Egyptian Republic was declared, with General Muhammad Naguib as the first President of the Republic. Naguib was forced to resign in 1954 by Gamal Abdel Nasser – the real architect of the 1952 movement – and was later put under house arrest. Nasser assumed power as President in June 1956. British forces completed their withdrawal from the occupied Suez Canal Zone on 13 June 1956. He nationalized the Suez Canal on 26 July 1956, prompting the 1956 Suez Crisis.

Three years later (1970) President Nasser died and was succeeded by Anwar Sadat in 1970. Sadat switched Egypt's Cold War allegiance from the Soviet Union to the United States, expelling Soviet advisors in 1972. He launched the Infitah economic reform policy, while clamping down on religious and secular opposition. In 1973, Egypt, along with Syria, launched the October War, a surprise attack to regain part of the Sinai territory Israel had captured 6 years earlier. While the war ended with a military defeat, it presented Sadat with a political victory that later allowed him to regain the Sinai in return for peace with Israel.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-41">[41]

Sadat made a historic visit to Israel in 1977, which led to the 1979 peace treaty in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from Sinai. Sadat's initiative sparked enormous controversy in the Arab world and led to Egypt's expulsion from the Arab League, but it was supported by most Egyptians.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-42">[42] However, Sadat was assassinated by an Islamic extremist. Hosni Mubarak came to power after the assassination of Sadat.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-nytimes.com_43-0">[43]

On 25 January 2011, widespread protests began against Mubarak's government. On 11 February 2011, Mubarak resigned and fled Cairo. Jubilant celebrations broke out in Tahrir Square at the news.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-54">[54] The Egyptian military then assumed the power to govern.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-55">[55] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-56">[56] Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, became the de facto interim head of state.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-57">[57] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-58">[58] On 13 February 2011, the new military dissolved the parliament and suspended the constitution.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-59">[59]

A constitutional referendum was held on 19 March 2011. On 28 November 2011, Egypt held its first parliamentary election since the previous regime had been in power. Turnout was high and there were no reports of major irregularities or violence.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-60">[60] Mohamed Morsi was elected president on 24 June 2012.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-61">[61] On 2 August 2012, Egypt's Prime Minister Hisham Qandil announced his 35 member cabinet comprising 28 newcomers including four from the Muslim Brotherhood.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-62">[62]

First Tiberium War
GDI forces were expelled from Egypt by the Brotherhood of Nod during the First Tiberium War (an event known as the Campaign of Egypt), after which the country became a Nod stronghold. Back during the 1990s, the country was a republic, home to 56,368,000 citizens, with its capital in Cairo. Government corruptibility was rated at a low 18%, while the net worth carried over 39.2 billion dollars. It had a formidable military with an 82% military resistance factor.

Second Tiberium War
During the early days of the Second Tiberium War, the Nod General and GDI collaborator Hassan based himself in Egypt, commanding from a pyramid outside the capital, Cairo, until he was defeated by Slavik. As Kane prepared to launch the World Altering Missile from his Pyramid base in Cairo which would have covered the Earth's surface in Tiberium, Egypt began to become unsettled as some citizens began to ally themselves with GDI upon seeing the state the conflict was now in. In response to this the city that allied itself with GDI was massacred in the early stages of the Cairo invasion. Cairo was attacked by GDI troops led by McNeil, ending the Second Tiberium War.

Third Tiberium War
After the Second Tiberium War, Egypt remained a Nod stronghold. The country was severely affected by the spread of Tiberium, to the point that parts of the country was transformed into uninhabitable Red Zones. During the Third Tiberium War, Egypt became a battlefield once again. GDI forces launched an assault on the country, destroying Nod port facilities in Alexandria, and a Nod nuclear missile silo in Cairo, along with a secret lab in Casabad where Kane was developing a Liquid Tiberium bomb. Nod's long time control of Egypt was finally ended when GDI troops destroyed the Nod Headquarters outside Cairo.