The History of North Africa Explained (Morocco,Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria)

[Music] five countries span the northern coast of the african continent egypt libya tunisia algeria and morocco the region is home to approximately 200 million people the vast majority of whom nearly the mediterranean coast and along the banks of the nile river in egypt north africa is bounded by the atlantic ocean to the west the mediterranean sea in the north and the sahara the largest desert in the world to the south the north african lands to the west of egypt are called the maghreb an arabic term meaning the west the culturally linked northwest african nation of mauritania is also typically included in definitions of the maghreb the partially recognized sarari arab democratic republic also lies within the mughreb the native amazir people of this region call the land tamasga the amazir commonly known in the west as berbers formed as a distinct people group from early neolithic communities many thousands of years before in history the ancient egyptians established the first great civilization and historical records on the african continent ancient egyptian history is divided into three main periods the old middle and new kingdoms the old kingdom formed after the pre-dynastic states of upper and lower egypt were united the rule of the pharaoh was established and the pyramids built this was followed by a period of civil war known as the first intermediate period the middle kingdom reestablished pharaonic rule and expanded egyptian territory pharaohs also campaigned to the northeast extracting tribute from the kings of canaanite city-states during this time there was also a considerable amount of peaceful migration from the near east into egypt some of these migrants known as the hixos established self-rule in the nile delta expanding from there they conquered the majority of egypt the nubian kingdom of cush expanded into the south with only a small piece of territory remaining in egyptian control after a tough few centuries the egyptians regrouped and drove out the invaders establishing the very militaristic new kingdom egypt reached the height of its power it waged war signed peace treaties and made marriage alliances as it became part of the larger near eastern world an unprecedented age of commerce diplomacy and imperial might [Music] nobody expects to see people the sea people were a coalition of seafaring marauders in search of plunder and or a new home as well they were a major escalating symptom and a cause of the bronze age collapse where all major civilizations of the near east collapsed or contracted within the span of a few years libyan tribes who had opportunistically raided egyptian territory for centuries allied with the sea people egypt was able to survive the onslaught defeating and hiring many of the invaders into the ranks of its own army but it was greatly weakened in the aftermath over the next few centuries of egyptian decline and internal infighting libyans who had joined the egyptian army exerted ever-increasing control over the state in 945 bc shoshank the libyan commander-in-chief of the egyptian army seized power and united egypt like the great pharaohs of the past shoshank successfully campaigned in the near east during the two centuries of libyan rule in egypt the country saw military and economic resurgence before splitting in two and then into chaos with numerous libyan warlords ruling small city-states and regions the nubian king of cush pa brushed aside these small states uniting egypt and crowning himself pharaoh under nubian leadership egypt prospered and pyramids were regularly constructed again for the first time in nearly a thousand years however from the onset cushite egypt was at odds against the greatest military power of the day ancient assyria several campaigns were launched to help protect both the kingdom of judah and the philistines against assyrian aggression these campaigns were ultimately unsuccessful assyria later retaliated and conquered egypt installing native puppet rulers there assyrian expansionism also motivated many phoenician canaanites from modern-day lebanon to migrate to north africa where they founded many colonies most importantly carthage as the phoenician city-states gradually fell under assyrian control carthage asserted its authority over the former phoenician colonies in the west to form an empire the city-states of greece also founded colonies in north africa sicily and southern italy that rivaled carthage in commerce and in war egypt gained its independence as the assyrian empire collapsed shortly afterwards it defeated a babylonian invasion with the help of greek mercenaries only to be conquered a few years later by the persian augmented empire which was the largest the world had yet seen at that time a persian plan to conquer all of north africa was thwarted by the phoenician sailors who made up the vast majority of the persian navy when they refused to participate in any hostile actions against their own kin in carthage the carthaginian empire entered into a long series of wars with the cities of magnagresia over the control of mediterranean trade with mixed results in the east alexander iii of macedon conquered the persian empire only to die a few years after that massive accomplishment alexander's empire fractured and one of his generals named ptolemy seized control of egypt he and his macedonian descendants ruled in the style of egyptian pharaohs for nearly three centuries prosperous trade relations between ptolemaic egypt and carthage were long-standing while a new more formidable power rose in the western mediterranean rome the romans and carthaginians fought three brutal wars against each other after the first punic war carthage lost its possessions in corsica sardinia and sicily during the second punic war the carthaginian general hannibal and his army crossed the alps into italy where they campaigned for 15 years hannibal repeatedly defeated roman major battles however he was never able to secure decisive victory in the war hannibal was ultimately defeated when he returned to north africa to defend carthage against a roman counter-attack at the battle of zama rome's native north african numidian allies who had switched sides to join their cause played a decisive role in defeating carthage half the casualties on the roman side were their numidian allied cavalry the third punic war was basically just the unprovoked attack sack and utter destruction of carthage in the aftermath two native north african tribal confederations the romans called the new midians and the more which the word more is derived from formed formidable kingdoms allied with rome but frequently at war with each other and themselves during the roman civil wars which ended the roman republic and brought about the roman empire numidia and egypt were both annexed by rome the emperor claudius later annexed mauritania which is not to be confused with a modern country of the same name rome ruled north africa for 600 years roman north africa played a vital role in the roman empire grain provided from the twin bread basket provinces of egypt and africa fed the city of rome's massive population as well as other major cities throughout the empire the province of africa centered around a rebuilt roman carthage was the second wealthiest in the roman west while the province of egypt was by far the wealthiest roman province in the east of the empire roman rule in egypt was briefly interrupted by the short-lived palmyran empire of the empress zenobia in the year 395 a.d the roman empire permanently split between east and west in the latter days of the western roman empire the germanic vandal tribe established a kingdom in north africa with its capital at carthage without its most lucrative source of income and grain defeated citizens the western roman empire suffered a blow it would not recover from the vandal kingdom brutally sacked rome defeated a massive roman fleet sent to reconquer carthage and lasted one year shy of a century before finally being reconquered by the eastern romans during the reign of the emperor justinian the eastern roman empire fought the sassanid persians for more than four centuries with most of their conflicts ending in stalemate or one side achieving minor gains both sides were severely weakened after the last and most brutal of their many wars the persians took egypt and nearly emerged victorious before being beaten back to their original borders and making peace taking advantage of the battered empires the arab rashid and caliphate conquered the sassanid persian empire as well as roman egypt and the levant the arab umayyad caliphate that succeeded the rashidun conquered carthage from the romans only to have it retaken shortly afterwards by a surprise amphibious assault on the harbor where the city's population rose up to support the roman marines a larger arab army was dispatched from egypt and upon retaking the city utterly destroyed it in a similar manner to that which the romans had inflicted on the original carthaginian city eight and a half centuries before the umayyads completed the conquest of north africa which they used as a staging ground for the conquest of spain the umayyad caliphate was overwhelmingly non-muslim and the tiny arab ruling class treated all non-arabs as second-class citizens this led to the abbasid revolution where a more inclusive multi-ethnic state was established during the umayyad collapse several small arab and river states formed in the west including the idracids who are considered the founders of the first moroccan state the massive abbasid empire gradually fragmented into semi-autonomous regional dynasties becoming more of a confederation than a united nation the aglabid dynasty was the westernmost of these largely independent vassals of the abbasid caliph they were overthrown by the shia fatimids a dynasty who followed a very different interpretation of islam compared to the sunni abbasids the fatimid caliphate conquered the western half of the abbasid empire and established a new capital city cairo in egypt in the west another new rival self-proclaimed caliphate of cordoba expanded its territory into north africa from spain where it defeated a major fatimid invasion shortly after the height of its power cordoba's fabulously wealthy empire disintegrated into numerous small kingdoms in the early 11th century these were conquered by the al-murvid dynasty spreading from the mountains in what is today morocco into spain in the 1040s the amazir zirid declared independence from the fatimids the fatimids then lost their territory in the levant to seljuk turks and western european crusaders sicily was also lost to the normans who also took territory in north africa for a few decades the amurovit dynasty collapsed due to pressure from crusading spaniards to the north and the competing amazir almohad dynasty to the south which fully overthrew them by 1147 and expanded over north africa to the border of egypt in 1171 saladin the kurdish vizier of egypt abolished the fatimid caliphate under saladin's leadership he decisively defeated the crusaders at the decisive battle of hatin recapturing jerusalem shortly afterwards following saladin's death his ayubid dynasty lasted for another half century his successor's greatest achievement was defeating the seventh crusade intended to conquer egypt the french king louis ix was captured in battle and ransomed back for an extravagant sum mamluk slave soldiers who were instrumental in that victory overthrew the ayabids they did not get to celebrate their ascension for very long the mongol horde had recently defeated the celtic turks and destroyed baghdad a city said to have had over one million inhabitants which was also the cultural and intellectual center of the islamic golden age the mamluks were the last great muslim power left standing in the near east mongol envoys sent to cairo demanding capitulation were dismembered and beheaded the mamluks knew based on the mongol's recent track record that their only possible outcomes were utter annihilation or victory fortunately for the egyptians this victory came at the battle of angelut a rare case of the mongols being defeated in their prime over the next few centuries cairo succeeded baghdad in becoming the cultural and intellectual hub of the medieval islamic world in the early 13th century the almohad empire rapidly collapsed as they were driven out of spain their holdings in the maghreb fractured throughout the region the population rose up in mass revolt desiring local rule the territories of these arabized native amazir dynasties roughly correspond with the modern nations of the maghrib mammalic sultans re-established the abbasid caliphate essentially in name only where the caliph in cairo legitimized the mamlik sultan's authority three more crusades were launched against north africa with largely inconclusive results during the 15th century north africa enjoyed a period of relative peace compared to prior centuries this came to an end with the ottoman turkish conquest of nearly all of north africa in the 16th century as ottoman power declined over time as north african territory transitioned from direct turkish rule to autonomous vassal states that paid tribute in exchange for self-rule during the later 19th and early 20th centuries power in these states was usurped by western european empires egypt became an independent monarchy in 1922 but the majority of egyptians viewed the royal family as corrupt puppets of the british during the second world war axis powers occupied the maghreb which was the stage for nearly three years of mechanized desert warfare after the war the united kingdom administered a military government in libya until 1951 when it became independent two years later in 1953 egypt's monarchy was disestablished by the military and a democracy set up in its place france left both tunisia and morocco in 1956. spain seeded the tip of morocco a couple years later while still holding on to a couple of cities in north africa till this day france fiercely held on to algeria where a brutal seven-year-long war was fought before algeria's independence was recognized in 1962 the spanish sahara was also the stage for conflict the spanish left in 1976 but the conflict continues till the present day over the past six decades the region has rapidly modernized its population has more than tripled and unfortunately has experienced conflict this has been epimetheus and i'd like to thank my patrons who have supported the growth of this channel and you for leaving a like and a comment because that also really helps me out

Channel: Epimetheus

Views: 914,160

Keywords: The History of North Africa, North Africa, history, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Carthage, Rome, ancient rome, ancient egypt, ancient history, Documentary, north africa every year, north africa geography, north africa documentary, north africa travel, Egyptian history, morccan history, carthaginian empire, roman empire, abbasid, umayyad, rashidun, Libyan history, arab, almohad, almoravid, beber, berber history, berber documentary, amazigh, mamluk, mamluk mongol, mongol, phoenician, Maghreb

Id: kyBNJAs1HWc

Length: 15min 0sec (900 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 18 2020