DANIEL 11:1-20

The first 20 verses of Daniel 11 are more or less the same as Daniel's previous visions in chapters 7,8 and 9! Daniel was living during this vision under King Darius the Mede of the Medo-Persian Empire, and God showed him how many more Persian kings would come.

Next, he announces the rise of Alexander the Great again, and that he will be broken and succeeded by his 4 generals, dividing his empire into four kingdoms!

Then he tells us about the king of the Southern division, Ptolemeus, whose descendents ruled it after him for 300 years until Cleopatra.

Many believe therefore, that the "daughter of the south" in the next verse, refers to 17 year old Queen Cleopatra and her romantic "joining" with Rome, first in a relationship with Julius Cesar and then with Marcus Antonius, which ended in the suicide and dethronement of them both, whereupon Egypt became part of the Roman Empire.

IF that interpretation is correct--and it seems to fit so well that way--then that shows that the title of KING OF THE NORTH does not pertain only to the landarea of the original Northern kingdom that resulted from the split up from Alexander's Empire, but to any POWER that took over its role in the Balance of power around the Middle East. And at that time The Roman Empire was obviously the King of the North, and King of the South as well!, as it had eaten up all power in the area!
From here on, interpretation becomes more arbitrary. So for the rest of these verses anyone's guess could be as good or bad as ours, as to who exactly these specific "Kings of the North" and of the South and their respective dates, are! But from the 3rd vision of Daniel we do know, that out of the big horn Alexander the Great, grew four little horns, and finally out of one of these the litlle horn with the eyes and mouth will grow, the AC! Therefore the AC can only finally emerge out of the 21st century remains of one of the 4 divisions of Alexander's Empire! Some narrow that down to Greece, Turkey, Assyria or Egypt, but that remains to be seen! But seeing that the Antichrist is to become the King of the North, he may very well rise to power from the Northern Horn, the Kingdom of the North!
In this Daniel chapter 11, we're pretty sure that the AC is specifically finally mentioned in about the 21st verse

As far as Egypt—the "King of the South"—is concerned, according to secular history it fell in 1512 AD to the Turkish Ottoman Empire which was then the only "King of the North" left, having conquered Southern Europe almost as far as Vienna Austria and the Middle East as far as Saudi Arabia! So for almost 400 years there was no more specific "King of the South!"

KINGS OF THE NORTH: GREECE, ROME, BYZANTIUM, OTTOMAN EMPIRE… RUSSIA??
The "glorious land" mentioned above, is Israel! Toward the end of these verses the "Kingdom of the North" seems to be in charge of Israel, having "consumed" it and having defeated the Southern Kingdom Egypt! According to secular history, this could have only been the Ottoman Empire that reigned over Israel until 1918!
The Northern Kingdom, the most Northern of the four divisions of Alexander's Empire was first Greece. Then Greece was incorporated into the Roman Empire, so ROME became the Kingdom of the North! Then after the schism, Greece was part of the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire that filled the power vacuum there in the North, which was subsequently swallowed up by the Ottoman Empire in the early 13 hundreds until WW I.
So to say, as some do, that the Northern Kingdom just denotes Greece as we know it now, is spurious. The "king of the North" rather refers to any Northern empire that filled the power vacuum there. This could mean toward verse 20 the late Communist East Block, which grew especially since 1945 into the Orthodox Slavic countries, stretching all the way from Yugoslavia to Alaska!
Today, in 2000 AD and beyond, it might again be the Russian Empire under the AC, eventually absorbing the European Union or EEC even, the present day heir of the Western Roman empire! According to Revelation 17 and Daniel 8, after the imminent King of the North, the AC, has uprooted three of its 10 powers, Europe WILL eventually yield its power to him, and form together with Russia the nucleus of the coming One World Government, that will absorb the rest of the world!

BUT WHO IS "THE KING OF THE SOUTH" IN 2000 AD?
Which powerblock constitutes the "King of the South" from verse 21 and onwards, remains to be seen! It could likewise mean the powers that filled up the vacuum left by the retreat of the Ottomans in 1918. It was first the British who took over the whole Middle East, Palestine and Egypt. Then gradually Palestine was taken over by European Jewry, and Egypt became an independent nation, but today both of these are in cahoots with the USA!
Thus an interesting interpretation could be, that now the "King of the South" is the US power in the Middle East, via Zionist Israel! The US up until now rules the roost in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait, and is the police force in the Middle East, expecially since they defeated Iraq which had first clipped the power of Iran! Thus the US is now in effect the greatest power in the Middle East today, as it tries to safeguard its Israeli interests and the oil for its own survival! The new King of the South!
So Russia and the imminent AC—and eventually the rest of Europe—are in effect the "King of the North!" Therefore could we interpret that verse 21 might talk about Russian Leadership, just before the AC takes over? The Raiser of taxes might very well refer to someone like Boris Jeltsin or Putin (with their notoriously tough tax police?) or one of his successors? Well…time will surely tell us!