A country that lies in the strategic bypass between two continents, Asia and Africa, and at the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
Egypt’s location has enabled it to be a center of trade and cultural exchange since the pharaonic period (thirty-second century B.C.E.). As one of three centers of the ancient period (with China and Mesopotamia), Egypt was a major contributor to world trade at that period. The pharaohs traded with nations throughout the world, as they knew it: Africa, Asia, and Europe. Even after the demise of the ancient pharaonic power (fourth century B.C.E.), Egypt continued to be a major element in world trade.
The emergence of the Islamic empire (seventh to ninth centuries C.E.) further intensified the importance of Egyptian trading traditions by satisfying the demands of religious pilgrimages to Mecca from North Africa, Andalusia (now the Iberian Peninsula), and sub-Saharan Africa, which went through Egypt. Cairo emerged as the economic, administrative, and cultural center and became the center of one of the most important Islamic dynasties: the Mamluks (thirteenth to sixteenth centuries).
A major source of cotton since the nineteenth century, underdeveloped Egypt has been less effective as a manufacturer of cotton goods. Much of its weaving is still done on hand looms, as this 1991 photo of Egyptian women indicates. (© Josef Polleross/The Image Works)
The Ottoman conqueror of Egypt in (1516) turned it into the center of the North African part of the Ottoman empire. The Mamluks continued to control Egypt, under Ottoman rule, maintaining the usage of the traditional trade routes. By the end of the eighteenth century, European influence in Egypt had grown. In 1798, the French, led by Napoléon Bonaparte, occupied Egypt and three years later the British occupied the territory from them. Even though Egypt remained officially under Ottoman rule, it gained independence.
Egypt’s traditional markets changed because of the European infiltration. Once the U.S. Civil War began, Egypt became the world’s biggest exporter of cotton, replacing the war-torn U.S. South. Egypt was also in the midst of one of its biggest construction periods, which expressed itself above all in the digging of the Suez Canal (1859–1869).
The end of the digging, however, brought Egypt to a bankrupt situation. European creditors took over Egypt and converted its economy to pay the debts. The Suez Canal made Egypt the most important country for the British empire. In 1922, Egypt gained complete independence, but only thirty-four years later did the last British troops leave the country, after a fierce war among Egypt, Israel, France, and the United Kingdom over the free movement of shipping vassals in the Suez Canal (1956).
Egypt today is a rather weak actor in global trade. Most of its exported products are expendable energy products (crude oil and petroleum products), cotton, textiles, metal products, and chemicals. It is also influenced by the rapid growth of its population (1.69 percent in 2001), which is unable to provide for all its basic needs. A second factor is the conflicts with Israel (1948, 1956, 1967, 1969, and 1973), which brought great economic losses to Egypt, including the closure of the Suez Canal. In 1979, Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty. Nevertheless, Egypt still spends more than $4 billion on its military. Despite its weakness, Egypt will probably continue to be an important factor in the future global economy, as the world’s largest Arab nation and the leader of the Arab world.
Nadav Gablinger
See also: Arabs; Ottomans.
Central Intelligence Agency. “Egypt.” In CIA World Factbook (www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html, accessed September 2002).
Lewis, Bernard. The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years. New York: Scribner’s, 1995.
Vatikiotis, P.J. The History of Modern Egypt: From Muhammad Ali to Mubarak. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991.