History of Egypt

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History of Egypt

The history of Egypt is the longest continuous history, as a unified state, of any country in the world. The Nile

Nile

The Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the List of rivers by length in the world.The Nile has two major tributary, the White Nile and Blue Nile, the latter being the source of most of the Nile's water and silt, but the former being the longer of the two....
valley forms a natural geographic and economic unit, bounded to the east and west by deserts, to the north by the sea and to the south by the Cataracts of the Nile

Cataracts of the Nile

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The history of Egypt is the longest continuous history, as a unified state, of any country in the world. The Nile

Nile

Cataracts of the Nile

The cataracts of the Nile River are shallow stretches between Aswan and Khartoum where the water's surface is broken by numerous small boulders and stones lying on the river bed, as well as many small rocky islets....
. The need to have a single authority to manage the waters of the Nile led to the creation of the world's first state

State

A state is a political Social contract with effective sovereignty over a geographic area and representing a population. These may be nation states, State or multinational states....
in Egypt

Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders 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....
in about 3000 BC. Egypt's peculiar geography made it a difficult country to attack, which is why Pharaonic Egypt

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an Ancient history civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile in what is now the modern nation of Egypt....
was for so long an independent and self-contained state. The Nubians

Nubians

The Nubians are an ethnic group originally from northern Sudan, now inhabiting East Africa and some parts of Northeast Africa, such as southern Egypt....
and Hyksos

Hyksos

The Hyksos were an Asiatic people who invaded the eastern Nile Delta, in the Twelfth dynasty of Egypt initiating the Second Intermediate Period of Ancient Egypt....
were among the earliest foreign rulers of Egypt, but the ancient Egyptians regained control of their country soon after their invasions. The Neo-Assyrian Empire

Neo-Assyrian Empire

The Neo-Assyrian Empire was a period of Mesopotamian history which began in 934 BC and ended in 609 BC. During this period, Assyria assumed a position as a great regional power, vying with Babylonia and other lesser powers for dominance of the region, though not until the reforms of Tiglath-Pileser III in the 8th century BC, did it become a p...
also controlled Egypt for a while before native Egyptians regained control.

Once Egypt did succumb to foreign rule, however, it proved unable to escape from it, and for 2,400 years, Egypt was governed by a series of foreign powers

Historical powers

A Great power or Nation or Empire is a nation or state that, through its great economic, politics and military strength, is able to exert power and influence over not only its own region of the world, but far beyond to others....
: the Persians

Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
, Macedon

Macedon

Macedon or Macedonia was the name of a monarchy centred in the northernmost part of ancient Greece. The homeland of the ancient Macedonians, it was bordered by the kingdom of Epirus to the west and the region of Thrace to the east....
ians, Romans

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, Byzantines

Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
, Rashidun, Umayyads, Abbasids, Ottomans

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299?1923. It was Treaty of Lausanne by the Republic of Turkey, which was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923....
, French

French Invasion of Egypt

The Egyptian Campaign was Napoleon Bonaparte's unsuccessful campaign in Egypt and Syria to protect France trade interests and undermine Kingdom of Great Britain's access to India....
, and British

British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, and other Dependent territory ruled or administered by the United Kingdom , that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries....
. At certain periods during these 2,400 years, Egypt was independently governed under the Ptolemies

Ptolemaic dynasty

The Ptolemaic dynasty was a Hellenistic Macedonian royal family which ruled the Ptolemaic Empire in Egypt for nearly 300 years, from 305 BC to 30 BC....
, Ikhshidids

Ikhshidid dynasty

The Ikhshidid dynasty of Egypt ruled from 935 to 969. It was founded by Muhammad bin Tughj, a Turkic slave soldier, who began as governor, and was later given the title Ikhshid by the Caliph....
, Fatimid

Fatimid

The Fatimid Caliphate or al-Fatimiyyun was an Arab Shi'a dynasty that ruled over varying areas of the Maghreb, Egypt, Sicily, Malta and the Levant from 5 January 909 to 1171....
s, Ayyubids

Ayyubid dynasty

The Ayyubid or Ayyoubid Dynasty was a Muslim dynasty of Kurds origins which ruled Egypt, Syria, Yemen , Diyar Bakr, Mecca, Hejaz and northern Iraq in the 12th and 13th centuries....
, Mamluk

Mamluk

A mamluk was a slavery soldier who converted to Islam and served the Muslim caliphs and the Ayyubid sultans from the 9th to the 13th centuries....
s and Muhammad Ali. The founders and rulers of these governments, however, were not native to Egypt.

When Gamal Abdel Nasser

Gamal Abdel Nasser

Gamal Abdel Nasser was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death in 1970. Along with Muhammad Naguib, he led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, which removed Farouk of Egypt and heralded a new period of industrialization in Egypt, together with a profound advancement of Arab nationalism, including a short-lived United Arab Republ...
(President of Egypt

President of Egypt

The President of the Arab Republic of Egypt is the elected Head of State of Egypt.Under the Constitution of Egypt, the President is also the Commander-in-chief of the armed forces and head of the Executive branch of the Cabinet of Egypt....
) (1954–1970) remarked that he was the first native Egyptian

Egyptians

Egyptians is the name of the nationality and Mediterranean North African ethnic group native to Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to the Geography of Egypt, dominated by the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the Cataracts of the Nile to the Mediterranean Sea and enclosed by desert both to the Easte...
to exercise sovereign power in the country since Pharaoh

Pharaoh

Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt, only during the New Kingdom, specifically, during the middle of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt....
Nectanebo II

Nectanebo II

Nectanebo II , also known by the name Nakhthoreb, was the third and last king of the Thirtieth dynasty of Egypt and also the last native List of pharaohs of the country in antiquity....
, deposed by the Persians in 343 BC, he was exaggerating only slightly.

In this encyclopedia, Egyptian history has been divided into eight periods:

History of ancient Egypt
History of Ancient Egypt

The History of ancient Egypt spans the period from the early Predynastic Egypt settlements of the northern Nile Valley to the History of Roman Egypt in 30 BC....
: 3100 BC to 525 BC
History of Achaemenid Egypt: 525 BC to 332 BC
History of Ptolemaic Egypt: 332 BC to 30 BC
History of Roman Egypt: 30 BC to AD 639
639

Events...
History of Arab Egypt: 639
639

Events...
to 1517
History of Ottoman Egypt
History of Ottoman Egypt

Egypt was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1517. Egypt was always a difficult province for the Ottoman Sultans to control. It remained dominated by the semi-autonomous Mameluks until it was conquered by the France in 1798....
: 1517 to 1805
History of Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty: 1805 to 1882
History of modern Egypt
History of Modern Egypt

The History of modern Egypt conventionally begins from 1882 when Egypt became part of the British sphere of influence in the region, a situation that conflicted with Egypt's position as part of the Ottoman Empire....
: since 1882

Upper Paleolithic: 30,000 - 10,000 BC

Ancient Egypt was one of the places in Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
where Civilization

Civilization

A civilization is a society or culture group normally defined as a complex society characterized by the practice of agriculture and settlement in towns and city....
began. The Upper Paleolithic

Upper Paleolithic

The Upper Paleolithic is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. Very broadly it dates to between 40,000 and 9th millennium BC years ago, roughly coinciding with the appearance of "high" culture and before the advent of agriculture....
region of Egypt happens to be one of the locations where archeologists have found ancient tools and technologies, but there are many other places in Africa where these things were found, predating 10,000 BC.

Qadan and Sebilian Cultures (Late Paleolithic)

Twenty some archaeological

Archaeology

Archaeology, archeology, or arch?ology is the science that studies Homo cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, Artifact , features, Biofact s, and cultural landscape....
sites in upper Nubia evidence a grain

Cereal

Cereals, or cereal grains, are mostly Poaceae cultivated for their edible brans or fruit seeds . Cereal grains are grown in greater quantities and provide more energy worldwide than any other type of crop; they are therefore staple foods....
-grinding Neolithic

Neolithic

The Neolithic period was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 Before the Christian Era in the Middle East that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age....
culture

Culture

Culture is difficult to define. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions....
called the Qadan Culture

Qadan Culture

Archaeological evidence suggests that the Qadan Culture originated in Northeast Africa approximately 15,000 years ago. Evidence of this way of life suggests that it existed for approximately 4,000 years, and was characterized by hunting, as well as a unique approach to food gathering that incorporated the preparation and consumption of wild grasse...
, which practiced wild grain harvesting along the Nile

Nile

The Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the List of rivers by length in the world.The Nile has two major tributary, the White Nile and Blue Nile, the latter being the source of most of the Nile's water and silt, but the former being the longer of the two....
during the beginning of the Sahaba Daru Nile phase, when desiccation in the Sahara caused residents of the Libyan oases to retreat into the Nile valley.

External links

- A comprehensive & concise educational website focusing on the basic and the advanced in all aspects of Ancient Egypt

History of Egypt

Upper Paleolithic: 30,000 - 10,000 BC

Qadan and Sebilian Cultures (Late Paleolithic)

See also

External links