A Detailed History of the 4th Kingdom (From 31 B.C. to WWI)

Hey I'm new to these forums, this is my first post actually, however I've been a longtime ponderer of alternate history. Of all nations and time periods, however, one civilization in particular has always kept me highly enthralled and curious. Ancient Egypt.

Like many alternate history scenarios, this started as a what-if. What if the Ancient Egyptian Civilization, Culture, Religion, and Language, had somehow managed survive, adapt, and thrive in the current modern world?

Comments welcome!

The Thought Process

Now before ever putting pen to paper on the subject I had come to the realization that I would need to take a serious look into Egyptian History. Most importantly, the many points in their late history when they were overtaken by foreign invaders. At first I considered starting with the rebellions against the Persians during the Egyptian "Late Period" or their OTL "last gasp". However upon some research I decided that those dynasties were doomed to failure for the following reasons:

1) The 28th, 29th, and 30th Dynasties were plagued by infighting and a lack of competence to sustain a successful cultural revival.

2) Even IF the late period Dynasties had stopped their squabbling and worked towards a stronger Egypt, they would have been crushed by Alexander's Conquest.

Which brings me to my preferred option, and the one I have latched on to; Ptolemaic Egypt. Now I will openly admit, Ptolemaic Egypt is not the pure Egyptian Culture as I had outlined in my Opening Statement, however, even though the late period is more culturally pure, it is too weak, especially when matched up against Alexander.

So, this brings me to the next stage of my proposed alternate timeline. What happens in Ptolemaic Egypt to allow the Egyptian Culture to survive into the modern world? Well lets look closely at the system of rule the Ptolemies had established. First off, while they did set up a Greek ruling class, they also made a point to adopt and meld with the local Egyptian Religion and culture. For the purpose of This Timeline, we can assume that Ptolemaic Rule went mostly as it had during OTL, with the exception that the Ptolemies had a slightly stronger army than historically with a larger number of machimoi infantry and cavalry units. As a result there were a large number of professional native Egyptian troops, trained to fight in a phalanx and by Cleopatra VII's time, highly nationalistic. By 50 BC the Greeks have been declining in influence in Egypt and revolts are frequent. However, the rich educational and cultural infrastructure is in place for the Egyptian nationalists to take when the time is right.

Our Point of Departure? The Battle of Actium!
 
Octavian, Cleopatra, Marc Antony, and the Battle at Actium

Octavian, Cleopatra, Marc Antony, and the Battle at Actium -
As a result of a slightly stronger military than OTL, Cleopatra is able to commit a larger fleet to the Battle than historically and also utilizes many of her own native Machimoi soldiers to assist Marc Antony's forces. While Antony's Generals still distrust her by a large margin, they are a bit more cooperative than they were historically. Overall, Marc Antony's forces are much better match against Octavian.

The battle starts nearly as it had OTL excepting that this time Antony's ships are not losing so noticably, and since Cleopatra has more ships than she had OTL, she is less disinclined to risk them in open battle. The sea battle is narrowly won by Marc Antony's forces and the land battle is able to procede at Nicopolis. Again here Antony wins, but just barely and only with help of Cleopatra's Machimoi, however they serve more as lambs of war than as a decisive force. It is here that Cleopatra fully understands the weaknesses of a phallanx against a Roman legion, surviving native Egyptian officers also learned from this battle.

The result of this battle is a solidified Egyptian/Marc.A Alliance and a continued war with Octavian and those supporting him. Octavian was far from humiliated in this defeat and in an effort take Marc Antony in a final decisive battle, he attacked the Ptolemaic captial of Alexandria, and while Cleopatra had not yet organized Ptolemaic forces in the legionary fashion, she did not really have to in the flat terrain of the Egyptian desert. Here Marc Antony's Forces supported by a large Egyptian Phallanx army met with Octavian's Invasion force outside of Alexandria, here Octavian had his decisive battle but not in his favor.

OTL this battle was an Egyptian Victory as well, but unlike OTL, Marc Antony did not commit suicide and the Ptolemaic Empire did not fall. With a decisive Ptolemaic victory, Octavian was forced to the peace table where he and Marc Antony reached a compromise, Marc Antony would effectively be exiled from Rome and made a defacto co-ruler of Egypt with Cleopatra and Octavian would be forced to return to Rome, disgraced (in the eyes of Senate, he however would not give up).
 
The Glorious Revolt

The Glorious Revolt

After their victory against Octavian, Marc Antony and Cleopatra began work to re-establish nominal control over Egypt and the other territories won from the war. However, the Machimoi class of Egyptian Soldiers were also plotting their largest revolt yet, one that they hoped would finally rid Egypt of foreign rule and reestablish the proper Pharaonic lines. And so, in little more than a year after the Battle at Alexandria, the now largely Machimoi Army revolted against the Greek nobility and Roman exiles. The remaining Agema and Pezoi troops loyal to Cleopatra and Marc Antonies Legonaries were grossly outnumbered by the Revolters and were soundly defeated in a beautifully crafted coup. Cleopatra was denounced as Pharaoh and publicly executed along with Marc Antony. The whole of Egypt proper was brought under native control and many Greek and Roman officers were given the choice of intergration into the new Egyptian state or perminant exile.

It did not take long for the news of the overthrow to reach Rome. Octavian, still having some influence and power within the republic, reorganized an army to reconquer territory lost in the war with Marc Antony. Some even hoped he would be able to crush the fledgling Egyptian state while it was still unorganized.

However, the Egyptians were fully aware of their situation and quickly began work to reorganize themselves and prepare for a war against the Roman Legions.
 
The TL's good so far but I hope you don't have a World War I in this TTL because the butterflies will by that date completely changed everything.
 
Eh not too much, Egypt stays pretty isolationist and doesn't interfer in Europe. Instead they focus on self strengthening and trading with the eastern powers.
 
Eh not too much, Egypt stays pretty isolationist and doesn't interfer in Europe. Instead they focus on self strengthening and trading with the eastern powers.

Welcome to AH Quanto. A good TL thus far. however... 2000 years of isolation and non-interference/contact w/Europe? You've just set into motion a cascade of dominos (butterflies) that will make world history unrecognizable to us (OTL) by AD 400.
 
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Independence War[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]For the Egyptian Machimoi class, the coming war with Rome would define their new culture and society straight into the twentieth century. Faced with a superior force both in training, and technology, the Egyptian forces focused home defense of only the immediate coast near the Nile Delta, the Nile, and the Sinai (whenever possible). For the Machimoi Army, this was a task they knew would be all the more difficult without the support of Marc Antony's legions. [/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]During this war, the true leaders of a new Egypt began to rise above the rabble. The most notable was the General Kerasher, who had experienced the Battle of Actium himself and knew the strenghts and limitations of the Phalanx when put against the Legion. The Machimoi refused to engage the Romans at many instances, knowing full well that in the uneven terrain north of the Sahara their units would not fare well against the Romans. It was not until the Second Battle of Alexandria that Egyptian forces would confront Roman forces. The Romans sent 40,000 troops against 24,000 Egyptian Infantry and 10,000 Cavalry. [/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The battle was long and bloody, more so than any of the battles fought during the previous war. Over 9,000 Egyptians lost their lives while the Romans lost 7,000. Despite this however, Octavian did not achieve complete victory and had to fall back and regroup. Kerasher's forces were badly mauled and would survive another battle of that nature. In a move to win the war for Egypt (and by Egyptian standards, survival was victory enough); Kerasher offered special negotiations with Octavian, claiming to have items of value to Rome. [/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]At the peace table, Kerasher revealed to Octavian that the Egyptain Goverment still had several Ptolemaic family members and Roman traitors under house arrest, including Caesarion, son of Cleopatra. He offered Octavian, Caesarion's life, in exchange for Egypt's continued Independence and Sovereignty. Octavian liked the idea, but was not entirely convinced, after all, he had lost the last war to Antony, and was not about to return to Rome empty handed again. After a second meeting, Kerasher, with the consent of the rest of the Egyptain ruling body, offered the territory that Antony had gifted to Cleopatra as an additional trophy for Octavian to bring back to Rome. (Octavian had technically already taken the land from the Egyptians, but it had not been mentioned in the first day's meeting. It is also notable to point out that many in the Machomoi officer class did not believe that those territories could be brought to heel anyways.)[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Octavian agreed to Kerasher's Treaty and returned to Rome victorious. In Egypt, Kerasher was seen as both wise and foolish. His decision to hand over the Antonian Territories to the Romans was not looked upon kindly by some who had hoped to profit from Antonies victories. However Kerasher, and his allies, knew that it would be impossible for this fresh insurrectionist government to reign in those distant lands. (They were difficult enough to govern even when the Pharaohs were at the height of their power.)[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Kerasher was not a fool however, Rome was officially off of Egypt's back and would not bother the land of the Nile for some time to come. And for this many in Egypt were thankful. He would use this popularity to his advantage as he began to raise a new army to defeat his chief political rival, Nigmed, who had also fought at Actium and at the First Battle of Alexandria.[/FONT]
 
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