Political history of modern Egypt

Abstract

Under the Ottoman Empire, Egypt was granted some autonomy because as long as taxes were paid, the Ottomans were content to let the Egyptians administer them. Nevertheless, the 17th and 18th centuries were ones of economic decline for Egypt.In 1798, the French army led by Napoleon Bonaparte landed in Egypt and defeated the Egyptians on land at the battle of the Pyramids, but he was utterly defeated at sea by the British navy, which made him abandon his army and leave Egypt. Subsequently, British and Ottoman forces defeated the French army and forced them to surrender.In particular after the last quarter of 19 century, in Egypt began colonizing activities by Western European countries, while the reaction to such events occurred within “the Egyptian national movement.”With its history of five thousand years, Egypt is considered as the first modern state of the Arab world. Ottoman military representative Mehmet Ali Pasha takes a special place through his contribution to this process. He is seen as a statesman who carried important reforms, which can be compared even with the ones of Tanzimat. He managed to build Egypt as an independent state from the Ottoman Empire, standing on its own power.Gamal Abdel Nasser was the one who established the Republic of Egypt and ended the monarchy rule in Egypt following the Egyptian revolution in 1952. Egypt was ruled autocratically by three presidents over the following six decades, by Nasser from 1954 until his death in 1970, by Anwar Sadat from 1971 until his assassination 1981, and by Hosni Mubarak from 1981 until his resignation in the face of the 2011 Egyptian revolution.