Egypt

Egypt is a nation in northern Africa. It borders Libya to the west, Sudan to the south, and Israel to the northeast. Its capital is Cairo, one of the largest cities in Africa. Although geographically located in Africa, Egypt is linguistically, religiously, and politically tied to Asia and especially the Middle East.

History

Egypt has one of the longest recorded histories in the world. 5,000 years ago, the pharaohs ruled Egypt. They built the pyramids and lasted through 30 dynasties and almost 3,000 years. In 305 BC, Alexander the Great invaded Egypt and established a Greek kingdom. In 30 BC, the Roman Empire conquered Egypt from Cleopatra VII and ruled it (through the Byzantines) until the Arab conquest in the 639. From then until 1517, Egypt was ruled by the Arabs. In 1517, the Turks invaded the Mamluk Sultanate and claimed Egypt for their own.

In 1914, the British established a protectorate that lasted until 1922. In 1922, the Kingdom of Egypt was established, but it was still considered a British client state. In 1953, the Egyptian Revolution overthrew the King and Muhammed Naguib became the first President. In 1954, Muhammed Naguib was replaced by Anwar El Sadat. In 1958, Egypt was merged with North Yemen and Syria to form the United Arab States. In 1961, the confederation fell apart, although Egypt kept the name until 1971.

In 1966, the Six-Day War commenced against Israel after a large military buildup and the Arab nations were quickly defeated. The Arab nations, humiliated by their defeat, planned another war during Yom Kippur, the most important Jewish holiday. The Yom Kippur War started well for Egypt, but after Syria was defeated in the north, Egypt went on the offensive and suffered a decisive defeat. However, the initial Arab victories ended Israeli illusions of invincibility. The 1978 Camp David Accords resulted in the recognition of Israel by Egypt. Since then, relations between the two nations have improved. In 2005, Egypt was chosen by Goldman Sachs as a member of the Next Eleven, the eleven largest economies in the 21st century, along with Brazil, China, India, and Russia.

Politics in Egypt

Since 1981, Egypt is in permanent state of emergency, ruled by Muhammad Hosni Mubarak. International supervisors claim that Egyptian votes are rigged in Mubaraks favor. Demonstrations and political meetings of more than 5 persons are illegal, but there is a growing movement for social change, for example the Kefaya-movement, the growing workers union movement or net-activists, defying the strong repression. A fundamentalist-religious opposition to the government is the Muslim Brotherhood.

The present Egyptian anarchist movement is extremely small, but has a history dating back to the 19th century founding on radical Italian and Greek workers movements. Errico Malatesta and other italian anarchists took part in the Urabi-revolt in 1882, being evicted one year later. To the turn of the century there were 4 anarchist papers in Egypt: Il Lavatore, Il Domani and La Tribuna Libera (Italian) and O Ergatis(Greek). The first union of Egypt was founded by Anarchosyndicalists.