During World War II (1939-1945), American and German forces first fought each other in North Africa. Britain had made a colony of Egypt after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I (1914-1918), and in October of 1941, British troops defeated the Germans at the Egyptian town of El-Alamein (pronounced el-ahl-uh-MAIN). It was to be one of the war's most important battles. The North African campaign involved an instrument of warfare that, had it existed in the time of the pharaohs, would have changed the future of Egypt: the tank. Only with tanks was it possible to invade Egypt across the great expanses of desert that protected it.
The pharaohs were long gone, but Egyptian leaders remained powerful figures in world history. The nation gained its independence after the war, and Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-1970) came to power in 1954. Under Nasser, Egypt built the Aswan High Dam in what was once Upper Egypt. Completed in the 1960s, the dam harnessed the flow of the Nile for hydroelectric power, and provided irrigation for farmers in Egypt and Sudan, ending the pattern of seasonal flooding. It also created Lake Nasser, which spans the Egypt-Sudan border and covers the Second Cataract. In 1956, Nasser seized control of the Suez Canal, which had opened the way for a sea route from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. Egypt closed the canal in 1967, after a war with Israel, and did not open it until 1975.
Nasser became the most important of all Arab leaders during his time, and his funeral in 1970 was the largest in history. It was a fitting tribute to the leader of the land once ruled by the pharaohs. Whereas Nasser built his career by waging war on Israel, his successor, Anwar Sadat (pronounced AHN-wahr suh-DOT, 1918-1981) reversed the trend. In 1978, he signed a historic treaty with Israel, which earned a joint Nobel Peace Prize for Sadat and Israeli leader Menachem Begin (pronounced men-AH-kem BAY-gin, 1913-).
World History
