Egyptian History Brief

The regularity and richness of the annual Nile River flood, coupled with semi-isolation provided by deserts to the east and west, allowed for the development of one of the world's great civilizations. A unified kingdom arose around 3200 B.C. and a series of dynasties ruled in Egypt for the next three millennia. The last native dynasty fell to the Persians in 341 B.C., who in turn were replaced by the Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines. It was the Arabs who introduced Islam and the Arabic language in the 7th century and who ruled for the next six centuries.
A local military caste, the Mamluks, took control about 1250 and continued to govern after the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517. Following the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, Egypt became an important world transportation hub, but also fell heavily into debt. Ostensibly to protect its investments, Britain seized control of Egypt's government in 1882, but nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Empire continued until 1914.
Partially independent from the UK in 1922, Egypt acquired full sovereignty following World War II. The completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1971 and the resultant Lake Nasser have altered the time-honored place of the Nile River in agriculture and the ecology of Egypt. A rapidly growing population (the largest in the Arab world), limited arable land, and dependence on the Nile all continue to overtax resources and stress society. The government has struggled to prepare the economy for the new millennium through economic reform and massive investment in communications and physical infrastructure.

Egyptian history can be roughly divided into the following periods:
Prehistoric Egypt
Ancient Egypt
1.Early Dynastic Period of Egypt: 31st to 27th centuries BC
2.Old Kingdom of Egypt: 27th to 22nd centuries BC
3.First Intermediate Period: 22nd to 21st centuries BC
4.Middle Kingdom of Egypt: 21st to 17th centuries BC
5.Second Intermediate Period: ca. 1640 to 1570 BC
6.New Kingdom of Egypt: 1570 to 1070 BC
7.Third Intermediate Period and 1070 to 664 BC
8.Late Period of ancient Egypt
9. Achaemenid Egypt: 525 to 402 BC and 343 to 332 BC
10. Greco-Roman Egypt
11. Ptolemaic Egypt: 332 to 30 BC
12. Roman Egypt: 30 BC to AD 395
13. Byzantine Egypt: 395 to 645
14. Medieval Egypt
15.Arab Egypt: 639 to 1250
16.Mamluk Egypt: 1250 to 1517
17. Ottoman Egypt: 1517 to 1805
18. Modern Egypt
19. Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty: 1805 to 1882
20. Modern Egypt: since 1882-1920
21. the Egyptian Kingdom 1920-1953
22. The Republic of Egypt 1953-1959
23. The United Arab republic 1959-1973
24. The Arab Republic of Egypt 1976- 2020