14 ATLASES

History of Egypt in maps

Egypt as it appears in 14 interactive history atlases, from 264 BC to 2015: Egypt, Egypt — Fatimid, then Ayyubid & Mamluk, Mamluk Egypt. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.

What was Egypt before it was Egypt? The sections below follow this land through every era covered by the Maps of History atlases: who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed. Each line links to the dated map. Modern borders serve as an approximation, as each atlas says on the map itself.

Egypt · Ancient Rome

The Ptolemies ruled the last and richest Hellenistic kingdom from Alexandria, a center of ancient science. Cleopatra VII sought to keep Egypt independent through her relations with Caesar and Antony. Actium in 31 BC and the defeat of Cleopatra and Antony in 30 BC ended that independence. Egypt’s grain fed Rome, and its taxes supported the eastern empire, helping to explain its survival (Ch. 11).

ANCIENT ROME: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Egypt — Fatimid, then Ayyubid & Mamluk · Crusades

Egypt was the strategic key to the war. The Shia Fatimid caliphate ruled there until 1171, when Saladin abolished the dynasty and returned Egypt to Sunni Islam (watch the grey turn charcoal). His Ayyubid heirs and, from 1250, the Mamluk slave-soldiers made Egypt the region’s greatest power. Every later crusade understood that Jerusalem could only be secured by taking Egypt, and most were destroyed on the Nile while trying.

CRUSADES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Mamluk Egypt · Mongol Empire

The Mamluks who defeated the Mongols had roots on the same steppe. Sold as Qipchaq boys and raised in Cairo’s barracks as slave-soldiers, they became sultans by coup. They used the Mongols’ own methods against them at Ain Jalut in 1260 and again at Homs in 1281. The Mamluks also sheltered a shadow caliphate and ruled as Islam’s sword for 250 years.

MONGOL EMPIRE: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Egypt · Industrial Revolution

Muhammad Ali, who ruled Egypt from 1805 to 1848, attempted to industrialize from above. During the 1830s he built some thirty state cotton mills, worked by conscripted labor. The effort collapsed in a country without coal and under treaties that forced its market open after 1838–41. Egypt instead exported cotton, enjoyed a boom during the American Civil War, borrowed heavily and fell under British occupation in 1882.

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Egypt · Age of Revolutions

AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Egypt · Meiji Japan and post-Soviet Russia

MEIJI JAPAN AND POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Egypt (British occupation) · WWI

Egypt was nominally Ottoman, although Britain had controlled it since 1882 and made it a formal protectorate in December 1914. As the Entente’s Middle Eastern base, it supplied the starting point for the Palestine campaign and the defense of the Suez Canal. Some 1.5 million fellahin were conscripted into labor corps. The 1919 revolution brought the bill due; nominal independence followed in 1922.

WWI: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Egypt · Stalin’s Soviet Union

STALIN’S SOVIET UNION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Egypt · Road to WW2

ROAD TO WW2: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Egypt · WW2

Egypt was nominally independent, but it served as Britain’s Middle East bastion. The Mediterranean Fleet was based at Alexandria. At El Alamein (Ch. 9), 100 km from Cairo, the fighting helped keep Suez and Persian oil out of Axis hands.

WW2: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Egypt · Cold War

Egypt’s changing alignments made it a bellwether of the Third World. It moved from British client to Nasser’s non-aligned champion at Suez (Ch. 5), then became Moscow’s biggest investment. After October 1973 bought back its honor and Sinai, Egypt became Washington’s second-largest aid recipient (Ch. 8). Its changing colors on the map let us follow that auction of alignment in real time.

COLD WAR: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Egypt · Decolonization of Africa

Egypt had been nominally independent since 1922, although it remained under British sway until Nasser’s Free Officers deposed the king in 1952. Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956 and survived the Anglo-French-Israeli invasion that followed. His stand made him a hero of Arab and African nationalism. Cairo became both a megaphone and a training ground for liberation movements from Algeria to the Congo, making Egypt a pivot of the continent’s north.

DECOLONIZATION OF AFRICA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Egypt · Feminism and the Tunisian Revolution

Egypt’s revolution began on 25 January 2011, eleven days after Ben Ali fled, and Hosni Mubarak resigned on 11 February. Egyptians elected the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi president in 2012. On 3 July 2013 the army removed him, and in August it killed hundreds of his supporters in Cairo. Tunisia’s politicians watched these events and chose compromise.

FEMINISM AND THE TUNISIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Egypt · Refugee crises

REFUGEE CRISES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

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• Ancient Rome timeline and maps
• Crusades timeline and maps
• Mongol Empire timeline and maps
• Industrial Revolution timeline and maps
• Age of Revolutions timeline and maps
• Meiji Japan and post-Soviet Russia timeline and maps