Throughout this exploratory essay, I will attempt to predict where Egypt will stand in 5 years by looking back on the French and Russian Revolutions. The Egyptian Revolution was a protest of lack of human rights and censorship, which was controlled by a corrupt government, Hosni Mubarak. The French Revolution was based on the middle class overthrowing the monarchy government in order to promote the enlightenment ideas. The Russian Revolution was based on workers getting better rights, which resulted in the overthrowing of Czar Nicholas II. By focusing on specific events like the execution of Louis XVI, the taxation in France, Tsar Nicholas II, and the Bolsheviks from the past revolutions, the future of Egypt will become clearer.
In this paragraph I am going to compare the overthrowing of Hosni Mubarak of Egypt to the overthrowing of Louis XVI of France. Hosni Mubarak as well as Louis XVI were disliked by their people from the unfairness and poor living conditions they gave them. Hosni Mubarak made it so the elections were rigged, Egyptian citizens had no sort of democracy, and the police were brutal. Louis XVI did nothing about the escalating bread prices which caused most of the 3rd Estate to go hungry, he was too weak to force the nobles to start paying more taxes, which caused the 3rd Estate to pay 98% of them, and in his monarchy government he didn’t follow the enlightenment ideas: liberty, citizenship, and inalienable rights. Ghada Shabandar, an Egyptian protester spoke out about how, "Egyptians are sick and tired of being corrupted, and when you live on 300 pounds a month [about $51], you have one of two options, you either become a beggar or a thief"(Reign). Hosni Mubarak later stepped down from the mass amount of people protesting him as being their leader. On the other hand, King Louis XVI refused to step down which caused his people to overthrow him. He attempted to escape France with his wife but was captured and on “On January 21, 1793 King Louis was executed with a Convention majority of 361 to 360”(French). Maximilien Robespierre then came to power in France as a dictator and killed anyone who didn’t slightly agree with his beliefs or seemed suspicious to him. This could help me predict where Egypt will be in 5 years because there are many similarities between how Hosni Mubarak and Louis XVI were ousted from office. Could someone similar to Maximilien Robespierre take leadership in Egypt and kill thousands of innocent people?
In this paragraph I am going to compare the unfair treatment given to the people during the Egyptian Revolution to the unfair taxation on the 3rd estate in the French Revolution. During the Egyptian Revolution, the Egyptian citizens were mistreated by there being police brutality, high unemployment, food price inflation, very low minimum wages, electoral fraud, and Egypt’s emergency law. In France, the main unfairness that caused an outrage was that the 3rd Estate, the poorest Estate was paying 98% of society’s taxes. Not only was this unfair, but it was also cruel considering the peasants in the 3rd Estate couldn’t afford to pay off the inflating taxes or else they would starve to death from having little to no money. The emergency law that Egypt had was Hosni Mubarak finding a loop hole to extend the police powers, resulting in police brutality, suspending constitutional rights, and legalizing censorship. And in order to extend his term as president, Mubarak used a method of electoral fraud. The 3rd Estate to pay more taxes than anybody else because Louis XVI was too weak in making the nobles pay more taxes considering the nobles had gained power immensely over the previous 200 years. One Egyptian protester named Maikel Nabil who was speaking on the Egyptian military’s behalf, said, “They have the material to send me back to jail. But I will continue to speak out. I’m still shouting very loudly.” In Egypt and France, the people got horrible, unfair conditions, which caused the revolution. And in both cases, the people overthrew their government to get rid of these terrible living conditions even though many people in Egypt say that lots of the terrible living conditions are still occurring.
In this paragraph, I will compare Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president during the Egyptian Revolution to Tsar Nicholas, the Tsar of Russia during the Russian Revolution. Hosni Mubarak and Tsar Nicholas were both tyrants who believed that their people were far beneath them and that they deserved nothing more than an unjust life. Mubarak was a man who caused his people to have horrible living conditions like, the lack of freedom of speech, food price inflation, low minimum low wages, and high unemployment which is at a staggering 12.2% of Egypt’s population. Not only did this cause the Egyptian citizens to live in agony, but it also caused the country’s economy to worsen. “Egyptians want jobs, education and a say in governance… and will be angrier still if economic conditions deteriorate further”(Egypt’s). On the other hand Tsar Nicholas II had a Tsarist autocracy, which is when all power and wealth is controlled by the tsar. Tsar Nicholas II over abused this power, which caused Russia to go from one of the foremost great powers of the world to an economic and military collapse. In both cases, Tsar Nicholas II and Hosni Mubarak not only mistreated their people, but they brought their country into a ditch.
In this paragraph, I am going to compare the Egyptian protesters to the Russian Bolsheviks. Both the Egyptian protestors and Bolsheviks were groups of people who were fighting for new rights. The Egyptian protestors were fighting for better living conditions, which meant they either had to get Mubarak to tweak some of his laws or overthrow Mubarak. The Bolsheviks were fighting for rights specifically focusing on equality. The Egyptian protesters were partially successful in getting what they wanted by using Facebook pages to call for mass demonstrations. This resulted in “Cairo’s Tahrir Square with tens of thousands of protesters in the biggest rally in months”(Egypt). Although 846 protesters were killed through out the Egyptian Revolution, it didn’t prevent them from keep on fighting for their rights. Therefore, the on going protests eventually caused Hosni Mubarak to resign from office. However, the Bolsheviks also achieved what they were aiming for, by going from the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party lead by Vladimir Lenin to establishing the communist party of the U.S.S.R., meaning that everything was equal. Will the Egyptian protesters form a group through out the next 5 years, leading them into the control of the government like the Bolsheviks did?
After investigating and comparing different events from all three revolutions, I am now able to make a solid prediction on where Egypt will be in 5 years. I believe that in 5 years, Egypt will have a respectable, moral leader who will be elected as a representative by the people through Egypt’s new democratic government and will listen to the people, while bouncing Egypt back from the crisis that Mubarak drove them into. The Egyptian citizens have fought hard in what they believe in for years and deserve a break from the horrible living conditions. I think that a new leader voted by the people of Egypt will give them that. However, who really knows where Egypt will be in 5 years, they could have a new leader similar to Hosni Mubarak or Maximilien Robespierre or the people could take their protests to the next level. The future is full of possibilities.
"The Execution of Tsar Nicholas II, 1918."www.eyewitnesstohistory.com. lbisCommunications, inc, 2005. Web. 11 Apr. 2012<http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/nicholas.htm>.
Koeller, David W. "Bolshevik Revolution: 1917." www.thenagain.info. Stanford University Press, 1999. Web. 11 Apr. 2012. <http://www.thenagain.info/webchron/easteurope/octrev.html>.