Egypt: The 5 Themes Of Geography

The 5 Themes of Geography Applied to Egypt

Environmental Geography: Egypt has many environmental and geographical benefits. It is easily to see how society have existed, and thrived, in Egypt for thousands of years. The most significant of these features is the Nile River. The Nile provides water and life to an area that was ultimately be a barren desert without it. The Nile empties out into the Mediterranean Sea at the Nile Delta. Due to the Nile’s odd characteristic of flowing North, Egypt has the advantageous situation of being the gateway for trade into Europe from Africa. The Nile Delta provides Egypt with agricultural lands, which amounts to a significant portion of their economy. Almost all of Egypt’s population lives in cities that touch the Nile. Most of the rest of the country is inhospitable desert. Nile floods and desert-causing dust storms are the two primary threats from Mother Nature.

Population and Settlement: Egypt has a population of 83,000,000 people. That is a little less than one third of the population of the U.S. Water accessibility is the most important factor in the settlement of the country’s population, with virtually every significant population center bordering the Nile. This results in most of the population being confined to a small area, leading to significant population density. The capitol city Cairo has a greater population density than every U.S. west of New York.

Cultural Coherence: Cultural unity is interestingly complex in Egypt due to its incredibly long history as a society. Over time, Egypt has been controlled by several different nations and several very different cultures. Alexander conquered Egypt and made an Egyptian city the center of Greek intellectual life. Later, the Romans controlled Egypt, and used it as a base to trade with other African cultures such as the Askum. It was later taken by Arab peoples, and Islam became the dominant cultural theme. The Ottoman Empire and Napoleon’s France would both control Egypt for some time and the British held authority from the late 1800s to the early 1950s. As a result, Egypt has been a melting pot of culture for thousands of years, with values both western and eastern, ancient and modern.

            Since Egypt’s independent in 1952, it has wrestled with its identity almost non-stop. The two main themes in the conflict are Secularism versus Religious interpretation of government. For many decades, Egypt has been the secular minority of middle-eastern (or Arab) politics, but has also created the radical Jihadist movement and inspired many of the radical Islamic terrorist organizations. As seen by the 2011 Revolution and the 2013 Coup, Egypt still has not yet established a symbiotic relationship between the two dominant political and cultural themes.

Geography of Economics: Egypt is positioned in a very advantageous position on the top of Africa. With the north-flowing Nile, Egypt has controlled the most efficient way to move goods from East, Central and South Africa to the Mediterranean. The country also borders the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea, making it and attractive trading destination for the early Arab world to access Africa. Eventually, Egypt was the gate way for Islam to enter northern Africa, where the culture utilized trade to stretch all the way to Morocco on the other side of the continent. Egypt owns the Suez Canal, which giving the Mediterranean access to the Red Sea (instead of having to sail all the way around Africa), is one of the most economically important canals in the world.

             Geopolitics: Egypt has a long history with major international cultures. Its long history of being a major international trade center, as well as either a powerful nation, or extremely profitable resource to an empire, has resulted in interesting relationships with the international community. Egypt is an Arab nation, and is devoutly Islamic, which fits in politically with much of the area around it (with the exception of Israel). Somewhat unique though is the country’s long insistence on separating religion from politics. Despite Egypt’s secular tendencies, it almost always sides with the general feeling of other Arab countries and is often considered the leader of Arab unity. This is mainly due to Presidents Nasser and Sadat, who fought to create a powerful Arab bloc in order to resist the control of imperial powers. In a small section in north-east Egypt, the country borders Israel, an enemy with whom Egypt has fought several wars against. Egypt’s Suez Canal is an extremely powerful asset to Egypt, which it nationalized in 1952. Any one that wants to ship from Europe to Asia or vice-versa over water almost certainly must be on good enough terms with Egypt to use the canal. Egypt has had a critical influence on the Muslim world (specifically the Sunnis), and is one of the most prominent Islamic powers. Despite overthrowing the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s influence on the religious culture in the area will not change for a long time