10 - Egypt, Libya and the Sudan

Summary

Historically north-east Africa is rivalled in importance by no other region of the continent. Egypt, the focal point of this region, which also comprises Libya and the Sudan, has successively been one of the cradles of western civilisation, a major centre of Muslim culture, and in more recent times a base for Pan-Arab and Pan-Islamic resistance to political or cultural domination by the west. It was in Egypt that the first political and, more important, philosophical reaction against western tutelage in Africa took place.

Libya and the Sudan, Egypt's western and southern neighbours, have been closely linked to its destiny. This was particularly the case during our period, when the revolutionary change in Egypt that took place after the Second World War had percussive effects on the social, economic and political life of her neighbours. Historical links were reflected in similarities in the political and social sphere. The three states are predominantly Muslim and had all suffered under some form of western control, from which they only finally escaped during the period under review. They shared a background of anti-imperialist agitation and an identity with Pan-Islamism and Arab nationalism. They also experienced tensions between secular political ideologies and traditional Muslim notions of the polity. Many of these tensions were attributable to the rapid socio-economic changes taking place throughout the region but, because of the very different geographical and economic characteristics of the three states comprising it, they were varied in their nature. With a combined area of some two million square miles (c. five million sq. km) and a population of less than 60 million in 1975, there should have existed a very low population density. In reality, however, this was not the case, as most of the land was uninhabitable or unfit for cultivation.