The eyes of the world were on Egypt Friday as 18 days of protests finally led to the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. The protests, which started Jan. 25, were the focus of the world for three weeks.

The Egyptian military now has control of the nation and agrees to proceed peacefully and with respect to their people. Some people see this resignation as the end of the Mubarak regime; however, the Egyptian people see it as the beginning of a new era of true democracy.

“This is the greatest day in our country’s history and my family is beyond happy about this glorious day,” said Cheri Kamel, an UNA Egyptian-American student. “This is only the beginning of something incredible for our country.”

In the largest overthrow of a government most modern people have seen, the Egyptian people did not resort to violence or war, but rather peace and protest. Despite isolated incidents of violence from pro-Mubarak supports and a few rogue protestors, the violence was kept to an almost unimaginable minimum in comparison to the number of people involved.

The military held to its claim that it would not turn its firepower on its own people, as such measures could have led to civil war or worse.

Last Thursday, Mubarak stunned the world when he announced to the world that he would not resign as president but instead stay in power until September and relinquish some powers to his vice president. Most of the world expected him to step aside, including the U.S. government and President Obama.

After the announcement, the protest seemed to turn slightly towards violence. However, this decision lasted less than 24 hours, and on Friday Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that President Mubarak was stepping aside and the military would take control of the nation. The future will tell the result of the protests and overthrow of the Egyptian government. Some think the worst is yet to come, but some believe the best is yet to come. The reality of the situation is the nation is without an elected leader, and there is no plan in place to hold immediate elections.

This has caused the mass media pundits to speculate everything from a radical takeover by the Muslim brotherhood, a small extremist group with members in Egypt, to a peaceful, truly democratic election by the people.

Many analysts suspect that the protests in Egypt will lead way to similar protests across the Middle East and possibly the world. Many people believe that the Iranian people will pull together in protest of their corrupt government. Unlike the Egyptian military, the Iranian government will not hesitate to use force against their own people.