Much water has traveled the Nile under Cairo's bridges since Egyptians overthrew President Hosni Mubarak on February 11, 2011, but it appears that more has transpired on the mainland since that fateful day. After 18 protest-packed days and over 800 deaths, the Egyptian military council, then headed by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, seized power. Thirty years after Mubarak first rose to power on the heels of President Anwar Sadat's assassination, he arrived at his end, but his detractors' elation would not last for long.
Activists from the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group who joined the revolutionary protest movement had reason to celebrate: For the first time since 1954, their group was allowed to organize politically and publicly, and the supreme constitutional court sanctioned their capacity to nominate candidates for parliament and the presidency. Meanwhile, Egypt under grew politically frustrated under military rule, and the country's socio-economic malaise deepened. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators congested Egypt's squares nationwide in protest, this time demanding Tantawi's head. After the ruling military council quit in November 2011, three rounds of parliamentary elections went underway. Islamist groups, including the Brotherhood, dominated the vote.
Presidential elections were scheduled for summer 2012. In a runoff, Mohammed Morsi narrowly surpassed former air force commander and Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq to become the president of the Middle East's most populous nation.
A mixed Muslim Brotherhood, military government began to try and get the country back on track, but Egyptians returned to the streets to demand that the military government be dismantled. In August 2012, Morsi put an end to the military council's rule, which had already simmered down as relations with Iran warmed. He removed Tantawi from power, and appointed Col. Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in his stead.
Shortly thereafter, Morsi made another political miscalculation. After the supreme constitutional court ordered that parliament be dissolved, Morsi dismissed the prosecutor general and seized judicial powers from the Egyptian justice system.
Alongside the country's economic downward spiral, such moves galvanized millions of Egyptians, bringing the masses back to the streets to protest -- this time Morsi became the target. The demonstrations began to swell, quickly, culminating in Morsi's removal on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood on June 30.
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