What you can see on today's picture is a bend in the famous Nile river, 100 km north of the Aswan dam. Some of you may remember from history lessons in high school that the seasonally flooding of the Nile was the key to the glory of the Egyptian farao's. Also after the golden years of the antic Egyptian empire, did this natural phenomenon control make the economy of Egypt one of the leaders in the Middle East.
However, the years of tumult after WOII did change a lot in the region. Egypt was seen as a key player in the Middle East, both by the USA as by USSR. When Egypt turned their back on the West and made a weapon agreement with the Sovjets, the Americans did not react with force. Instead they gave then president Nasser a rough 70 million dollar to construct the enormous Aswan Dam. Some political debacles later (something with China, you know, Cold War struggles) the USA withdrew their aid. Again, the USSR saw their chance and in 1958 they offered more than one billion dollars in financial support for the construction of the dam.
The dam was an essential arrow head for the politics of Nasser, who wanted to show that Middle Eastern presidents and kings weren't just puppets of the USA and USSR. He proved that a country such as Egypt could thrive on the conflict between the world's super powers. But why would he prove this by building a dam? For ages did the natural flooding of the Nile, fed by the rain season in the highlands of Eastern Africa, control the agricultural economy of Egypt. The construction of a dam would mean that this flooding could be controlled, offering a secure an reliable water source for the Egyptian farmers. Another way of looking at it is of course, the person controlling the dam, controls the Egyptian people. Anyway, the constant and regulated supply of water made it possible to built an extensive irrigation pattern. If you have a closer look on the image, a big part of the straight lines are no roads but channels, distributing the water of the fields creating this green snake, wandering through the dessert. Such an expanding and complex system requires a centralized organization. The one controlling this system, controls the farming economy and as a consequence, the people.
Shortly, it is very interesting example of how the interaction between macro-politics and the environment can offer a powerful instrument for local policy-makers. Once you understand this, it is not hard to imagine how organizations such as the Muslim brotherhood can win the heart of local communities over traditional parties. In the end, local farmers won't support an Islamistic political party's ideology* but they would support a water distribution, beneficial for them. If a populistic party, such as the Muslim brotherhood campaigns with a more appealing irrigation plan than the established political system, it is easy to see to whom the votes will go.
Maybe, I've got a little off track. Anyway, it's quite an astonishing image, no?
@ Google Earth/ Copernicus & Landsat
sources:
class: Middle Eastern History Since 1918 at KU Leuven, teached by Prof. Nawas, 2014
Ochsenwald W., Nettlelon S., 2011, The Middle East: a history 7th edition. Fischer, McGraw Hill.
wikipedia always offers a good overview :)