Egypt's First Contacts

As usual, countries do not stay within their own cultures. We have seen in especially more prominent countries, that different people travel and migrate to new countries. In the United States, one can find a huge amount of variety of cultures. Today, it is very unlikely that a country is one hundred percent all the same as far as culture and beliefs. This is just the same case for Egypt. Egypt today is not just made up of Egyptians. Egyptians were obviously the first ones living in Egypt, but over time, different cultures moved here for various regions. This migrating to Egypt affected the country of Egypt as well as affected the different countries that came to Egypt. Christians and Arabs moved to Egypt most likely for their resources. As mentioned in earlier posts, Egypt contained resources like papyrus, flax, and gold.
[1]
Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, the French sent out various types of scientists in order to learn more about the country. France was hoping to expand their territory and use all of the resources that could be found in Egypt. Based on the exploration of Egypt, the French believed they could highly improve the country by making Egypt one of their colonies. In 1789, the infamous Napoleon Bonaparte from France invaded Egypt in hopes to acquire more land for the French. Eventually, this led to a few battles between the Egyptians and French. By the 1800s, the French still had yet to take over or strengthen trade with Egypt. In the same century, a plague struck Upper Egypt. It killed many Egyptians and has been confirmed that it was in fact brought to Egypt from the French. Not only did the French cause death through disease, but Egyptians had also died in the battle with the French. The French also damaged the environment as well when they invaded and attacked. [2]

[1] https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8HKSzy9bs7u7Fg9XmwYUjVngQGthEL7Gx9g836EvxPMNIO-8HBnRIZpZ-SEnrBbmKLde10Ljxq_rWIu3HfBkcDHXCs2AD7TgZOGzTfv5BogJiSaAcXmxjWlJzVV1IzwcaS4RDo-1qTpc/s1600/Ancient+Egyptian+Life.jpg
[2] ABUL-MAGD, ZEINAB. "A Crisis of Images: The French, Jihad, and the Plague in Upper Egypt, 1798—1801." Journal of World History 23, no. 2 (2012): 315-43. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23320151.