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For Egyptians young and old, the unprecedented events of the past 18 days are part of a historic awakening in a country at the heart of the Arab world.

On Friday, with the departure of President Hosni Mubarak as hundreds of thousands celebrated in Cairo's Tahrir Square, it was clear that Egyptians had ushered in a new era.

Some Egyptians have called it an end to the silence that has gripped their nation for decades.

While a defiant and stone-faced Mubarak said Thursday that he would stay on until presidential elections selected a new leader in September, a turning point had nevertheless occurred. A day later, he was gone.

Indeed, as he trumpeted his track-record as a war hero and blamed foreigners for the unrest in a scripted television speech, the crowd openly chanted against the 82-year-old ruler.

Only a month ago, such open defiance from Egyptians would have been difficult to imagine.

Demonstrator Ali Mikkawi told Â鶹ӰÊÓ from central Cairo Thursday that "the number of people has been growing by the day."

He added that the movement had been emboldened by 17 days of political activism, despite a staged crackdown by "pro-Mubarak supporters" last Wednesday that led to street battles for the heart of the city.

"When we stood our ground … we felt like we could do anything," Mikkawi said.

According to Firas Al-Atraqchi, an associate journalism professor at the American University in Cairo, the unrest in Egypt has "realigned" the relationship between dictatorships and the masses across the region.

"One thing has emerged in the past two weeks: The Arab masses are on the move and dictatorships have been given notice."

But it wasn't always like this in Egypt.

For three decades, their nation of 80 million has been in a virtual lockdown: suppressed by a regime that managed to play the role of U.S. ally on the international stage while treating its own citizens inhumanely.

In Mubarak's Egypt -- a nation ruled autocratically and kept in check by the tentacles of a much-feared security force -- it wasn't uncommon for voices of protest to disappear completely. Experts estimate that as many as a million people work for the secret police in Egypt, closely keeping tabs on dissent.

In fact, former CIA agent Robert Baer famously said in a 2004 interview: "If you want someone to disappear, never to see them again, you send them to Egypt."

Since the assassination of Anwar El Sadat in 1981, Egypt has been under an emergency law, meaning police have the power to arrest and detain people without charge. The law was initially brought in under the threat of Islamist forces bent on creating a theocratic state.

Reminders of the government's control could be seen on the streets of Cairo and other cities like Alexandria, where guards had been stationed in small police shacks on the street, armed with machine guns.

Strict control was also kept on the country's so-called political democracy. Over the years, Mubarak staged three, one-man presidential referendums where he won 90 per cent approval.

Six years ago, under international pressure, Mubarak allowed multi-candidate elections. But he still handily won the vote amid allegations of wide-scale intimidation and fraud.

In the 90s, Mubarak's regime crushed a brewing Islamic insurgency that mounted attacks on tourists in an attempt to cut off the country's main source of foreign income.

Under that cloud of fear and intimidation, there has also been crippling poverty and a stagnant economy; forcing the government to subsidize food and fuel prices.

In recent years, small cracks began to show in the regime's power. In 2008, as Egyptians confronted food shortages, riots broke out, forcing the government to use military ovens to feed the poor.

There have also been flashes of protest in the labour movement, as stubbornly-low wages have failed to keep up with inflation.

But on January 25, a tipping point had been reached: Inspired by anti-government protests in Tunisia, a handful of middle class Egyptian organizers put together demonstrations that quickly spread across classes.

While it was initially young, educated Cairenes who took to Tahrir Square demanding democratic reforms and the resignation of the country's despised security chief, the unrest quickly spread.

The fact that the protests have taken hold of Tahrir Square for the past 18 days is also significant.

While "Tahrir" can be translated as "Liberation" in English, it wasn't uncommon for the square to be shut down completely on a whim, if Mubarak's motorcade needed access to the central part of Cairo.

Thousands could be trapped in traffic during rush-hour, simply because Mubarak wanted to travel through empty streets.

For nearly three weeks, however, it's the people that have shut down the city.