5 ms·

How is Egypt a mess before the British came exactly? How was India a mess?

test_epsilon 5y ago
I'll assume you're genuinely ignorant and not asking rhetorical questions here. In which caseWikipedia gives a good starting point. Egypt: > Muslim rulers nominated by the Islamic Caliphate remained in control of Egypt for the next six centuries, with Cairo as the seat of the Caliphate under the Fatimids. With the end of the Kurdish Ayyubid dynasty, the Mamluks, a Turco-Circassian military caste, took control about AD 1250. By the late 13th century, Egypt linked the Red Sea, India, Malaya, and East Indies.[21] The Greek and Coptic languages and cultures went into a steep decline > After the 15th century, the Ottoman invasion pushed the Egyptian system into decline. The defensive militarization damaged its civil society and economic institutions.[21] The weakening of the economic system combined with the effects of the plague left Egypt vulnerable to foreign invasion. Portuguese traders took over their trade.[21] Egypt suffered six famines between 1687 and 1731.[23] The 1784 famine cost it roughly one-sixth of its population.[24] India similarly, it's full of wars and empires and atrocities and disasters. Hope this helps.
- ilstormcloud 5y ago
  It doesn't. It just shows you think Islamic Caliphate means a mess.
- yunohn 5y ago
  > India similarly, it's full of wars and empires and atrocities and disasters But the British came in, and committed atrocities and enslaved the country. How is this a good change?
- boomboomsubban 5y ago
  Nothing about your first quote shows Egypt in any kind of mess. Your second quote ends over a century before the British protectorate, and at best pushes the blame onto Portugal or the Ottomans. You seem to be condensing centuries of history into only the worst parts. Yes, bad things happened before colonialism. Colonialism was still horrible.
- dang 5y ago
  We've banned this account for using HN primarily for ideological battle. That's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for—therefore we ban accounts that do it, regardless of which ideology they're battling for or against. Please don't create accounts to do this on HN. It will eventually get your main account banned as well. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
COGlory 5y ago
Didnt egypt take on loads of debt, invade Ethiopa, get absolutely defeated, and then have their government collapse, which was the event that allowed the British to take over? I'm no fan of colonialism, but does Egypt really count when they were basically already a modern western power?

I'll assume you're genuinely ignorant and not asking rhetorical questions here. In which caseWikipedia gives a good starting point. Egypt: > Muslim rulers nominated by the Islamic Caliphate remained in control of Egypt for the next six centuries, with Cairo as the seat of the Caliphate under the Fatimids. With the end of the Kurdish Ayyubid dynasty, the Mamluks, a Turco-Circassian military caste, took control about AD 1250. By the late 13th century, Egypt linked the Red Sea, India, Malaya, and East Indies.[21] The Greek and Coptic languages and cultures went into a steep decline > After the 15th century, the Ottoman invasion pushed the Egyptian system into decline. The defensive militarization damaged its civil society and economic institutions.[21] The weakening of the economic system combined with the effects of the plague left Egypt vulnerable to foreign invasion. Portuguese traders took over their trade.[21] Egypt suffered six famines between 1687 and 1731.[23] The 1784 famine cost it roughly one-sixth of its population.[24] India similarly, it's full of wars and empires and atrocities and disasters. Hope this helps.

ilstormcloud 5y ago
It doesn't. It just shows you think Islamic Caliphate means a mess.
yunohn 5y ago
> India similarly, it's full of wars and empires and atrocities and disasters But the British came in, and committed atrocities and enslaved the country. How is this a good change?
boomboomsubban 5y ago
Nothing about your first quote shows Egypt in any kind of mess. Your second quote ends over a century before the British protectorate, and at best pushes the blame onto Portugal or the Ottomans. You seem to be condensing centuries of history into only the worst parts. Yes, bad things happened before colonialism. Colonialism was still horrible.
dang 5y ago
We've banned this account for using HN primarily for ideological battle. That's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for—therefore we ban accounts that do it, regardless of which ideology they're battling for or against. Please don't create accounts to do this on HN. It will eventually get your main account banned as well. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

COGlory 5y ago

Didnt egypt take on loads of debt, invade Ethiopa, get absolutely defeated, and then have their government collapse, which was the event that allowed the British to take over? I'm no fan of colonialism, but does Egypt really count when they were basically already a modern western power?