Egypt

[Le Chat]

What happened to Egypt, to turn it from an intelligent, wealthy, educated and cutting edge country to a poor almost third world (hotels aside) place?

[New Judge]

The same question will be asked of the United Kingdom in the not too distant future (except that our hotels, with one or two exceptions, are already the pits).

Answers on a postcard, please!

[jno]

when was it cutting edge? I think in the days of the pharaohs the poor were as poor as they are now, and the power of religious leaders even greater. They did have a better army and conquered their rich neighbours. Now, it's still largely an agricultural country and most of it is desert

[JockSporran]

Egypt was once one of the first great civilzations in the world but, as the centuries past, they were superceded by other civilations which grew and developed further. For example, the Egyptians used copper, but the Romans used Iron.

Quite simply, other empires round about grew powerful and Egypt was conquered, first by Greece, then Rome, then the Ottoman Turks. Under Ottman Muslim rule, all traces of ancient Egyptian religion and of the pharohs was removed but by then the age of pyramid building was long gone.

Between the wars Egypt became a British protectorate, with Port Said and the Suez Canal important shipping points for travel to India and the Far East, but after WW2 and independence, air travel has become more important than shipping.

[Lil O'lady]

Look at the source of wealth.
Until Rome took over Egypt after 80 BC, Egypt had dominated trade between eastern mediterranean and Indian Ocean rim - a lot of small bulk but highly expensive stuff was traded from the Silk Routes and India / China / eastern Africa, up the Red Sea via Egypt. This position was gradually lost because of successive political turmoil but especially as the Ottoman Empire lost these trade routes to Venetian thuggery.

The later Ottoman empire also did not stop foreign interests such as Britain and france from helping themselves to their land, heritage and economy - the Suez canal was built through Egypt and did not profit the country till the Suez crisis.

In the 20th century Egypt has still been caught between world powers with the USSR and the USA vying to have a foothold in the country. http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/pro files/sadat/

To overcome a legacy of decline requires international aid but when this aid comes with strings attached the long-term position is dodgy, and without peace and stability you don't get prosperity. The next biggest threat is that muslim extremists give the current regime the excuse to remain repressive.

Thing is, Egypt is still very rich agriculturally (though not in an agrinomics sense) and although you see a lot of poverty I haven't seen hungry people - and many ordinary people exhibit despite all the above a happiness with home and family that 'rich' countries might envy.