Egypt Nation Profile – BBC Information

Egypt is the biggest Arab nation and has performed a central function in Center Jap politics.

Within the 1950s, President Gamal Abdul Nasser pioneered Arab nationalism and the non-aligned motion, whereas his successor Anwar Sadat made peace with Israel and turned to the West.

Egypt's main cities – and virtually all agricultural exercise – are concentrated alongside the banks of the Nile and its delta.

The economic system relies upon closely on agriculture, tourism and remittances from Egyptians working overseas – primarily in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf international locations.

Nevertheless, speedy inhabitants development and a restricted quantity of arable land are straining the nation's sources and economic system, and political unrest has typically paralyzed authorities efforts to handle the issues.

President: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi

President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi received a 3rd six-year time period in December 2023. The previous military chief defeated three low-profile candidates – important opposition candidate Ahmed Tantawy had withdrawn earlier than the election, alleging intimidation and violence in opposition to his marketing campaign.

Egypt's faltering economic system and the warfare in Gaza have been key electoral points.

Sisi first turned president in 2014, a yr after he led the navy overthrow of his Islamist predecessor Mohammed Morsi. He received once more in 2018. He shall be in energy till 2030, when the structure bars him from operating once more.

Below his management, enormous sums of cash have been spent on main infrastructure initiatives. Roads have been widened and overpasses have been constructed. A brand new capital costing billions of has been constructed close to Cairo, however it’s barely inhabited.

Critics say this has drained a lot of the nation's financial sources and created unprecedented ranges of debt which have crippled the economic system.

Egypt is a serious regional media participant. Its tv and movie industries provide a lot of the Arabic-speaking world with content material, and its press is influential.

TV is the popular medium and there are a number of main gamers within the sector, together with the state broadcaster.

Authorities have elevated controls over conventional and social media to an unprecedented diploma.

Reporters With out Borders says Egypt is “one of many largest prisons on this planet” for journalists.

Some key dates in Egyptian historical past:

3150 BC – Egypt is united beneath Menes, resulting in a sequence of dynasties that rule the nation for the subsequent three millennia.

c. 2700-2200 BC -The Outdated Kingdom. Sees the development of quite a few pyramids, most notably the Third Dynasty pyramid of Djoser and the Fourth Dynasty pyramids of Giza.

c. 2181-2055 BC – The primary intermediate interval. The top of the Outdated Kingdom and the interval of political instability.

c. 2040-1782 BC -The Center Kingdom. See political reunification.

c. 1700-1550 BC – The second intermediate interval. Renewed political instability. The Hyksos, from the Levant, rule Egypt from the Delta.

c. 1550-1070 BC -The New Kingdom. Marks the rise of Egypt as a world energy extending pharaonic rule into Nubia and the Levant. Recognized for among the most well-known pharaohs, together with Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Akhenaten and his spouse Nefertiti, Tutankhamun and Ramesses II.

525 BC – The Achaemenid Persians, led by Cambyses II, started the conquest of Egypt.

332 BC – Egypt falls to Alexander the Nice as a part of his conquest of Achaemenid Persia.

305-30 BC – The Greek normal Ptolemy and his descendants rule as pharaohs.

30 BC – Egypt falls to Octavian – the longer term Roman emperor Augustus – after his forces defeat these of rival Mark Anthony and the Egyptian queen Cleopatra on the naval battle of Actium in 27 BC.

Egypt is a key province of the Roman and later Byzantine empires.

639-642 AD – Byzantine Egypt conquered by Muslim Arab armies. Muslim rulers remained in command of Egypt for the subsequent six centuries.

1250-1517 – Mamluk Egypt. The nation is run by a caste of freed slave troopers.

1260 – The Mamluks beneath Sultan Kutuz and Baybars route the Mongols, stopping their southward growth.

1517 – Ottoman Turks conquer Egypt, which turns into a part of the Ottoman empire, however a semi-autonomous province beneath the Mamluks.

1798 – French troops led by Napoleon Bonaparte invade.

1801 – The defeat of the French forces by the Ottomans and the British.

1805 – The Ottoman Albanian commander Muhammad Ali founds the dynasty that guidelines till 1952, though nominally a part of the Ottoman Empire.

1867 – Egypt turns into a Khedivate with the Ottoman Empire

1869 – The Suez Canal is accomplished in partnership with France, nevertheless it and different infrastructure initiatives practically bankrupt the nation and result in a gradual British takeover.

1882 – British troops defeat the Egyptian military and take management of the nation.

1914 – World Conflict I Egypt formally turns into a British protectorate. The interval is marked by rising nationalism and dissatisfaction with British rule.

1919 – Egyptian Revolution – a nationwide revolution in opposition to the British occupation of Egypt and Sudan, brought on by the expulsion of nationalist leaders.

1922 – Egypt features independence, though British affect stays important till the mid-1950s.

1949 – The Free Officers Motion Committee was fashioned to overthrow the monarchy.

1952 -Coup d'état sees Gamal Abdel Nasser change into prime minister in 1954 and president in 1956. It units Egypt at odds with the conservative Gulf Arab monarch and Western pursuits within the Center East.

1954 – The Evacuation Treaty is signed. British forces, which started a gradual withdrawal beneath the 1936 treaty, lastly go away Egypt.

1956 – President Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal to finance the Aswan Excessive Dam, after Britain and the US withdraw funding. Britain, France and Israel invade for the nationalization of the Suez Canal, however withdraw on the insistence of the US.

1958-61 – Egypt and Syria fashioned the short-lived United Arab Republic.

1967 – Israel's pre-emptive strike defeats Egypt, Jordan and Syria, leaving it in command of the Sinai to the Suez Canal and Egyptian-occupied Gaza.

1973 – Egypt and Syria go to warfare with Israel to regain land misplaced in 1967.

1975 – The Suez Canal has been reopened for the primary time because the 1967 warfare.

1978 – President Anwar Sadat makes peace with Israel in change for Israel's withdrawal from Sinai.

1981 – President Sadat was killed by Islamic extremists.

1997 – 62 individuals, principally vacationers, are massacred close to Luxor.

2011 – The favored rebellion of the Arab Spring sees the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak.

2012 – Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, is elected president.

2013 – The nation sees widespread unrest between liberals and Islamists over the longer term path of Egypt Following public discontent with the autocratic strikes of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood authorities, the navy staged a coup to oust Morsi. Military chief Abdul Fattah al-Sisi takes workplace.

2014 – Abdul Fattah al-Sisi was elected president.

2020 – Relations between Egypt and Ethiopia deteriorate because of the latter's Grand Renaissance Dam. Egypt sees the dam as a risk, fearing that it’s going to scale back the quantity of water it receives from the Nile.

2023 – President al-Sisi wins a 3rd time period.