The History of Egypt (After the Pharaohs)

the last Pharaoh Cleopatra died in 30 BC she was descended from the Macedonian general Ptolemy who had seized control of Egypt after the death of Alexander the Great in the 1,000 years before Cleopatra Egypt was more often than not under foreign domination Libyans Nubians Assyrians and Persians had come before the Macedonians in some cases local puppet rulers were installed while most foreign conquerors chose to adopt much of Egyptian culture like the Hellenistic Ptolemies who Cleopatra was a descendant of she had chosen to back to losing side in a Roman Civil War in the aftermath Egypt was annexed into the Roman Empire by Octavian later known as Caesar Augustus the first Roman Emperor for more than 600 years Egypt played a vital if not central role in the Roman Empire's economy under efficient Roman management Egypt produced a large surplus of grain this kept the large cities of the Eastern Roman Empire fed for generations Egypt also contained the most prolific gold mines of the ancient world while massive tax revenues were generated not only from its population but also from the significant amount of trade that flowed through Egyptian ports and down the Nile River which is the longest river in the world Alexandria named after Alexander the Great was arguably the Empire's second most important city after Rome it was both a commercial and intellectual hub scholars like Claudius Ptolemy Harrow and Hypatia made important discoveries and innovations in the fields of mathematics astronomy and engineering while in Alexandria and the city attracted scholars from around the world Rome's lengthy rule in Egypt changed Egyptian culture far more than any previous conquerors head particularly after the province had largely converted to Christianity two important movements which developed there were the monastic movement where adherents denounced a material world and took up a life of seclusion silence fasting and prayer the movement of hermits was so popular that the Roman government sought to limit the number of initiates and regulate the practice which spread throughout the Roman Empire Africa and the Near East the other major development was the split between the Roman Orthodox Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria later Rome's great rival was assasinated empire in the last of their many Wars they conquered Egypt holding it for ten years the Romans were nearly defeated before making a comeback taking the borders back to how they initially had been before the war this is when the tribes of the Arabian desert united behind a new faith and attacked both empires both the Persians and Romans were greatly weakened from their many years of war but it is important to note that their manpower and resources still greatly outnumber those of the invading Arabs the first Arab Empire was characterized by 25 years of unrelenting conquest and then 5 years of internal strife after which the Umayyad dynasty established its hereditary rule over the empire they established Arabic is the official language in Egypt who Maya rule in Egypt was marked by frequent revolts and civil unrest this was primarily due to the heavy taxation imposed by the largely independent governors of the province the population of the Empire was overwhelmingly non-muslim and even those that converted were treated like second-class citizens this led to the Abbasid Revolution during the rule of the more inclusive Abbasids provinces were given a greater amount of autonomy for approximately a century the Empire enjoyed a golden age of strength an advancement of the arts sciences and mathematics after to disastrous campaigns against the eastern Romans and their successful counter assault on the Nile Delta the Abbasid Empire fell into infighting this enabled already powerful regional governors to break off and form their own independent emirates in egypt a former slave soldier seized power the prestigious opposite calif in baghdad continued to be recognized as the paramount political authority in name but not in practice egypt was fully independent for the first time since the death of cleopatra egypt's great wealth was not being exported at a disk to an imperial overlord this enabled the tula needs to go on a massive spending spree they significantly developed each of segregation systems infrastructure and built a formidable Navy they also hired or purchased all mercenaries and slave soldiers they could find the armies they purchased were moved to the north to occupy the Levant this created a formidable buffer between them and the Abbasids after three decades of effective management the Tula needs were ruled by ineffectual children who are controlled by the mercenaries and slaves they had previously purchased when the army turned on itself fighting over the country's great riches the abbasids moved in to reassert control for a short time but the chaos continued there was widespread factionalism pillaging plundering raiding and ransacking in addition to attacks from neighbouring Nubians Berbers and Bedouins and many turn to banditry this ended when the Abbasid governor of Damascus was sent to restore order he formed to the semi-independent exited dynasty large numbers of Turkic slave soldiers and sub-saharan African mercenaries were hired a practice continued by the Shia fatimids who conquered Egypt in 969 they established a new capital city at Cairo their territory in the West was lost to local tribal Confederations while in the east their territory was lost to invading Seljuk Turks and Western European Crusaders in 1171 Saladin the Kurdish Vizier of Egypt abolished the fatima dynasty under his leadership he decisively defeated the Crusaders at the famous Battle of Hattin recapturing Jerusalem shortly afterwards because of his honourable conduct in the conquest Saladin was considered a paragon of mercy for a true in chivalry not only in the Arab world but throughout Europe centuries later in the epic poem Dante's Inferno Saladin is mentioned as a chivalrous and virtuous non-christian his successors ruled for a little more than a half century their greatest achievement was the defeat of the seventh Crusade intended to conquer Egypt the French King Louie the ninth was captured during the disastrous assault on the Nile Delta and then ransom back for an extravagant sum Mameluke slave soldiers who were in her mental in the victory over through the IO bids they soon faced a threat far more formidable than the Crusaders had been the Mongols the Mongols created the largest empire the world had ever seen and their emissaries demanded that the Mamluks surrender or be wiped off the face of the earth the Mamluks responded by killing the Mongol emissaries which said the stage for the Battle of ein Tillett where the Mamluks defeated a battle-hardened Mongol army this battle is often considered to be one of history's major turning points the Mongols had plundered and/or destroyed many of the great cities of the Iranian plateau and Mesopotamia including Baghdad which had been the cultural and intellectual center of the Muslim world for the next few centuries Cairo would replace Baghdad in that role the Mamluk commander Beiber's who had fought against the French in the Nile Delta and the Mongols at ein jalut seized power in the Sultanate during his rule he defeated the last major Crusade attempting to retake Jerusalem as well as defeat to Nubian Christian kingdom of McCrea in the South Bay burrs became an even more prestigious figure and Saladin had been this prestige was bolstered by the re-establishment of the Abbasid caliph at Cairo the Mamluk Sultanate seemed as if they were on the brink of a golden age however they became increasingly corrupt over time the dictatorial military ruling class funded a lavish lifestyle for themselves through exorbitant tax rates imposed on the majority of the population its merchants and industry as the Mamluks descendants of slaves enjoy palaces and parties not only the economy stagnated and then declined but also the military in 1516 the Ottoman Turks invaded their superior discipline and knowledge of firearms greatly aided them in their rapid conquest of the Mamluk Sultanate which took less than a year the ottomans had very little interest in directly ruling over Egypt and after widespread revolts and civil unrest they were even less interested and during Ottoman rule power gradually reverted back to the Mamluks they were allowed to hold power as long as they kept the peace and delivered the taxes to the Ottoman in Constantinople another trend throughout Ottoman rule was a decreasing importance of red sea trade this was caused by innovations and sailing technology which allowed the Portuguese and then other European powers to trade directly with India by circumnavigating Africa it was during this period of Egyptian decline that one of history's more strange events took place in 1798 the french general napoleon bonaparte accompanied by an army of 40,000 soldiers sailed across the Mediterranean to invade Egypt to avoid the fleet's interception by the British the missions target was kept a secret from his troops Napoleon quickly conquered Egypt decisively defeating the Mamluks at the Battle of the pyramids Bonaparte justified the imperialistic adventurism by trying to convince the Egyptians that he was liberating them from Mamluk oppression he went on to invade the Ottoman province of Syria where his army's initial success was halted by plague in the excellent hour-long documentary Bonaparte the Egyptian campaign available on this video sponsor curiosity stream the fascinating details of this highly unusual campaign are brought to life since we are all spending more time at home these days like those who endured a medieval siege curiosity stream invites you to stay home and stay safe while having fun with unlimited access to the world's top documentaries as well as others about Napoleon Egypt history and many other topics the annual plan which is less than $20 is of incredibly good value so go to curiosity stream comm /fe and for my viewers enter the promo code epi during signup to get 30 days membership for free after Napoleon ditched his Deutz and went back to France the remaining French were attacked by the British Ottomans and Mamluks the French surrendered and returned for a ride back home and Ottoman rule was loosely reestablished with the Ottomans and Mamluks fighting each other for supremacy the Egyptians had not been fans of the French but had enjoy the absence of the Ottomans and especially the Mamluks who had ruled them for 600 years this is when Muhammad Ali arrived in Egypt he was an albanian mercenary born in what is now northern Griese and a former Ottoman tax collector while in Egypt he defended the interests of the common people and protected civilians which made him so popular that a delegation of Egyptians demanded that the Ottomans make Muhammad Ali the governor of Egypt the ottomans agreed once he solidified his power the Mamluks were massacred and hunted down which was popular with the common people under Mohammed Ali Pasha's leadership Egypt's modernized the military reorganized modern ships and firearms were produced there a medical school for women opened and cotton became a very profitable cash crop as the Ottoman Empire steadily declined Egypt expanded its influence and territory in the region during the reign of his Maya Pasha the Suez Canal was built linking the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea a disastrous campaign was launched in an attempt to conquer Ethiopia Ismail Pasha sold his stock in the Suez Canal Company to the British in order to pay his debts three years after he died the British invaded under the pretext of defending the canal against civil unrest the British took full control of the canal and occupied Egypt to make sure it was safe Muhammad Ali's dynasty continued to rule under British occupation until 1922 when mass demonstrations and uprisings caused the British to leave then the independent kingdom of Egypt was established in 1952 the military removed to the king in a coup d'etat military rule transitioned into a republic in 1956 when Egypt held its first election Gamal Abdel Nasser Egypt's first president was a pan Arabist who believed all Arab speaking people should be united into one country Syria temporarily got on board with the idea and Nasser lost a six-day war and the Sinai Peninsula his successor Anwar Sadat recovered the Sinai Peninsula after a short war he signed a peace treaty and won a Nobel Peace Prize he was succeeded by Hosni Mubarak who was president of Egypt for 30 years Mubarak initiated many wide-reaching programs to raise the standard of living in modernize the country blue barks formidable popularity steadily declined over his decades in power he was accused of being a dictator fixing elections and sanctioning human rights abuses in 2011 after mass protests he resigned from power someone even more unpopular than Mubarak replaced him and after a year of protests the military removed him from office he was placed on trial in died of a heart attack and now Egypt has another military man in the highest office this has been Epimetheus hope you enjoyed the video be sure to leave a like if you did and a huge thanks to my patrons over on patreon

Channel: Epimetheus

Views: 102,418

Rating: 4.9121027 out of 5

Keywords: Egypt, Egyptian, history, egyptian history, documentary, mamluk, hattin, crusades, abbasid, Umayyad, Rashidun, Byzantine, Egyptian republic, mamluk sultanate, mameluk, Ottoman, ottoman empire, Ayyubid, Fatimid, Tulunid, Ikhshidid, saladin, baibars, kingdom of egypt, sultanate of egypt, ottoman egypt, turk egypt, turkish egypt, British Egypt, Egypt Ethiopia, Egypt arabia, arabia, Napoleon egypt, france egypt, The history of Egypt after the Pharaohs, cleopatra, roman egypt, sassanid egypt, mamluks

Id: 4enwjP_23XM

Length: 13min 46sec (826 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 09 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/JediMasterZao]

the voiceover is just not very good... dude sounds like... angry macho low-growl? it just doesn't work.