On 23 July 1952, a revolution began in Egypt with the toppling of King Farouk in a coup d'état by the Free Officers Movement, a group of army officers led by Mohamed Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser. It ushered in a wave of revolutionary politics in Egypt and the Arab world, contributing to the escalation of decolonization and the development of Third World solidarity during the Cold War.
Though initially focused on grievances against King Farouk, the movement had more wide-ranging political ambitions. In the first three years of the Revolution, the Free Officers moved to abolish the constitutional monarchy and aristocracy of Egypt and Sudan, establish a republic, end the British influence in the country, and secure the independence of Sudan (previously governed as a condominium of Egypt and the United Kingdom). The revolutionary government adopted a staunchly nationalist, anti-imperialist agenda, which came to be expressed chiefly through Arab nationalism, and the international non-alignment.
The coup was faced with immediate threats from Western imperial powers, particularly the United Kingdom, which had occupied Egypt from 1882 until 1922, and France, both of whom were wary of rising nationalist sentiment in territories under their control throughout Africa and the Arab world. The ongoing state of war with Israel also posed a serious challenge, as the Free Officers increased Egypt's already strong support of the Palestinians. These two issues converged in the fourth year of the coup when Egypt was invaded by the United Kingdom, France, and Israel in the Suez Crisis of 1956 (known in Egypt as the Tripartite Aggression). Despite enormous military losses, the war was seen as a political victory for Egypt, especially as it left the Suez Canal in uncontested Egyptian control for the first time since 1875, erasing what was seen as a mark of national humiliation. This strengthened the appeal of the coup in other Arab countries.
Wholesale agrarian reform, and large-scale industrialization programs were initiated in the first decade and half of the revolution, leading to an unprecedented period of infrastructure building, and urbanization. By the 1960s, Arab socialism had become a dominant theme, transforming Egypt into a centrally planned economy. Official fear of a Western-sponsored counter-revolution, domestic religious extremism, potential communist infiltration, and the conflict with the State of Israel were all cited as reasons compelling severe and longstanding restrictions on political opposition, and the prohibition of a multi-party system. These restrictions on political activity would remain in place until the presidency of Anwar Sadat from 1970 onwards, during which many of the policies of the coup were scaled back or reversed.
The early successes of the coup encouraged numerous other nationalist movements in other countries, such as Algeria, where there were anti-imperialist and anti-colonial rebellions against European empires. It also inspired the toppling of existing pro-Western monarchies and governments in the Middle East and North Africa. The coup is commemorated each year on 23 July.
On 23 July 1952, a coup began in Egypt with the toppling of King Farouk in a coup d'état by the Free Officers Movement, a group of army officers led by Mohamed Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser. It ushered in a wave of revolutionary politics in the Arab world, contributing to the escalation of decolonization and the development of Third World solidarity during the Cold War.
Though initially focused on grievances against King Farouk, the movement had more wide-ranging political ambitions. In the first three years of the Revolution, the Free Officers moved to abolish the constitutional monarchy and aristocracy of Egypt and Sudan, establish a republic, end the British occupation of the country, and secure the independence of Sudan (previously governed as a condominium of Egypt and the United Kingdom). The revolutionary government adopted a staunchly nationalist, anti-imperialist agenda, which came to be expressed chiefly through Arab nationalism, and the international non-alignment.
The coup was faced with immediate threats from Western imperial powers, particularly the United Kingdom, which had occupied Egypt since 1882, and France, both of whom were wary of rising nationalist sentiment in territories under their control throughout Africa and the Arab world. The ongoing state of war with Israel also posed a serious challenge, as the Free Officers increased Egypt's already strong support of the Palestinians. These two issues converged in the fourth year of the coup when Egypt was invaded by the United Kingdom, France, and Israel in the Suez Crisis of 1956 (known in Egypt as the Tripartite Aggression). Despite enormous military losses, the war was seen as a political victory for Egypt, especially as it left the Suez Canal in uncontested Egyptian control for the first time since 1875, erasing what was seen as a mark of national humiliation. This strengthened the appeal of the coup in other Arab countries.
Wholesale agrarian reform, and large-scale industrialization programs were initiated in the first decade and half of the revolution, leading to an unprecedented period of infrastructure building, and urbanization. By the 1960s, Arab socialism had become a dominant theme, transforming Egypt into a centrally planned economy. Official fear of a Western-sponsored counter-revolution, domestic religious extremism, potential communist infiltration, and the conflict with the State of Israel were all cited as reasons compelling severe and longstanding restrictions on political opposition, and the prohibition of a multi-party system. These restrictions on political activity would remain in place until the presidency of Anwar Sadat from 1970 onwards, during which many of the policies of the coup were scaled back or reversed.
The early successes of the coup encouraged numerous other nationalist movements in other countries, such as Algeria, where there were anti-imperialist and anti-colonial rebellions against European empires. It also inspired the toppling of existing pro-Western monarchies and governments in the Middle East and North Africa. The coup is commemorated each year on 23 July.
Background and causes
Muhammad Ali dynasty
The history of Egypt during the 19th and early 20th centuries was defined by the vastly different reigns of successive members of the Muhammad Ali dynasty and the gradually increasing intrusion into Egyptian affairs of the great powers, particularly the United Kingdom and France. From 1805, Egypt underwent a period of rapid modernisation under Muhammad Ali Pasha, who declared himself Khedive in defiance of his nominal suzerain, the Ottoman Sultan. Within a matter of decades, Muhammad Ali transformed Egypt from a neglected Ottoman province to a virtually independent state that temporarily rivalled the Ottoman Empire for dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Mashriq. Muhammad Ali conquered the Sudan, invaded East Africa, and led Egypt during both the First Egyptian–Ottoman War and the Second Egyptian–Ottoman War, triggering the Oriental Crisis. As a result of these wars, Egypt was expelled from the Levant, but allowed to keep its Sudanese territory. After Muhammad Ali's death, his successors Abbas I and Sa'id attempted to modernize Egypt, starting construction of the Suez Canal. Due to conscription, taxes were raised on nobles in exchange for more land and peasants (fellahin in Arabic). Peasants continued to lose access to their land as cotton became a major cash crop in Egypt.
Under Isma'il the Magnificent, Egypt went through massive modernization programmes and campaigns of military expansion in Sudan and East Africa. Isma'il greatly accelerated the enfranchisement of the Egyptian peasantry and middle class, who had been politically and economically marginalized by the wealthy elites of Egyptian society. It was during this time that an Egyptian intelligentsia was formed, a social class of educated Egyptians well-read in politics and culture known as the Effendi. Under the education minister Ali Pasha Mubarak, the public education system in Egypt grew the field of educated nationalist effendiyya. It was during this time that Italians, Greeks, French, Armenians, Jews, and other groups immigrated to Egypt, establishing a small but wealthy and politically powerful cosmopolitan community. Foreigners were not subject to Egyptian laws, but went through a separate court system known as the Mixed Courts. Isma'il also established Egypt's first parliament. This period of intellectualism in Egypt, and the Arab world as a whole, later became known as the Nahda. Coupled with Isma'il's powerful espousal of Egyptian statehood, this contributed to the growth of Egyptian nationalism, particularly within the army. However, the war with Ethiopia ended in disaster, further exasperating the Egyptian treasury. The Caisse de la Dette Publique (Public Debt Commission) was founded as a way for Egypt to pay its debts.
Isma'il's grand policies were ruinously expensive, and financial pressure eventually compelled him to sell Egypt's shares in the Universal Company of the Maritime Canal of Suez, the company that owned the 99-year lease to manage the Suez Canal. The sale of the Canal mere years after it had been constructed at the cost of some 80,000 Egyptian lives was seen as a national humiliation, particularly as it effectively granted the purchaser, the United Kingdom, a basis for interfering in Egyptian affairs. Shortly thereafter, the United Kingdom, along with the other Great Powers, deposed Isma'il in favour of his son, Tewfik Pasha.
Tewfik was seen as a puppet of the foreign powers who had deposed his father, a perception heightened by his repressive policies. Discontent with Tewfik's rule ignited the Urabi Revolt of 1881, led by nationalist soldiers under Ahmed Urabi. Urabi came from a peasant family, and his rise through the ranks of the military in spite of his humble background had been made possible by the reforms of Isma'il—reforms which he saw as being under attack by Tewfik. The prospect of revolutionary instability in Egypt, and the inferred danger to the Suez Canal, prompted the United Kingdom to intervene militarily in support of Tewfik.
British occupation under the 'Veiled Protectorate'
After the Anglo-Egyptian War, the United Kingdom was left in de facto control over the country, a state of affairs that became known as the veiled protectorate. In the years that followed, the United Kingdom would cement its political and military position in Egypt, and subsequently in Egypt's domains in Sudan, with the British high representative in Cairo exercising more power than the Khedive himself. In 1888, at the Convention of Constantinople, the United Kingdom won the right to protect the Suez Canal with military force, giving Britain a permanent base from which to dominate Egyptian politics.
In 1899, the United Kingdom forced Tewfik's successor as Khedive, the nationalist Abbas II, to transform Sudan from an integral part of Egypt into the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, a condominium in which sovereignty would be shared between Egypt and the United Kingdom. Once established, the condominium witnessed ever-decreasing Egyptian control, and would for most of its existence be governed in practice by the United Kingdom through the Governor-General in Khartoum. For the remainder of his reign, this would be one of the flashpoints between the nationalist Khedive Abbas II and the United Kingdom, with Abbas seeking to arrest and reverse the process of increasing British control in Egypt and Sudan.
Egyptians nationalism was brewing under the harsh economic policies of the British. Nationalist activists such as Mostafa Kamil Pasha, Abdullah an-Nadeem and Yaqub Sanu fought for greater autonomy for Egypt. The phrase "Egypt for the Egyptians" was a popular rallying cry among nationalists in protest to the privileges of foreigners. It was during this time that the five major points of contentions among nationalists were crystallized:
The political status of Sudan – which was ruled as a de jure joint Anglo-Egyptian condominium but as a de facto British colony after the Mahdist rebellion
Ownership over the Suez Canal
The status of the Egyptian army – which was demobilized after the 1882 revolt – and the stationing of British troops in Egypt
The sovereignty of the Parliament of Egypt: its legal powers regarding foreigners and independence from British influence
The right for Egypt to establish foreign relations independent of Britain
Following the Ottoman Empire's entry in to the First World War as a member of the Central Powers in 1914, the United Kingdom deposed Abbas II in favour of his pro-British uncle, Hussein Kamel. The legal fiction of Ottoman sovereignty was terminated, and the Sultanate of Egypt, destroyed by the Ottoman Empire in 1517, was re-established with Hussein Kamel as Sultan. Despite the restoration of the nominal sultanate, British power in Egypt and Sudan was undiminished, as the United Kingdom declared Egypt to be a formal protectorate of the United Kingdom. Whilst Egypt was not annexed to the British Empire, with the British King never becoming sovereign of Egypt, Egypt's status as a protectorate precluded any actual independence for the sultanate. For all intents and purposes, the Sultanate of Egypt was as much controlled by the United Kingdom as the Khedivate of Egypt had been.
Kingdom of Egypt
After World War I, Egyptian nationalists tried to send a delegation (Arabic: Wafd) to the Paris Peace Conference to renegotiate for Egyptian independence. When Britain refused, nationalist anger at British control erupted into the Egyptian coup of 1919, prompting the United Kingdom to recognise Egyptian independence in 1922 as the Kingdom of Egypt. However, Britain still retained the rights over the Sudan, its empire in Egypt and foreigners:
The leading party after the coup was the Wafd Party, led by Sa'ad Zaghoul and his successor Mostafa al-Nahhas. The resulting 1923 Egyptian constitution created a proper – albeit flawed – constitutional monarchy. Universal male suffrage allowed Egyptians to vote in parliamentary elections, however the king had the power to dismiss cabinets, dissolve parliament and appoint prime ministers. Politics in Egypt were divided between the liberal Wafdists versus the conservative monarchical establishment. The Wafd had little to offer outside of defending the liberal framework and negotiating for greater autonomy; Wafdist elites were still wealthy land-owning capitalists who did not offer a radical program in the traditional economic structure of peasants and landlords. While the Wafd enjoyed genuine popularity among the masses, the degrading economic conditions of Egypt beginning the 1930s combined with the failure of the 1923 regime to adequately address these issues sparked the rise of socialist and labor movements.
The Wafd believed that through gradual negotiations, it would be able to secure complete Egyptian independence. Egypt was successful in abolishing the Mixed courts in 1937, repealing the Public Debt Commission in 1940, and negotiating the 1936 Anglo-Egyptian treaty. This treaty limited the extent of British troops in Egypt (except with regards to the Suez canal and the Sudan), and the creation of a proper Egyptian military.
The final decade: 1942–1952
During the Second World War, Egypt was a major Allied base for the North African campaign. Egypt remained officially neutral under the closing weeks of the war, however, its territory became a battlefield between the Allies and Axis Powers. In 1942, the refusal of Egypt's young King Farouk to appoint al-Nahhas prime minister led to the Abdeen Palace Incident, where the British military surrounded Farouk's palace, and ordered him at gunpoint to appoint al-Nahhas. Though nationalist army officers, including Mohamed Naguib, appealed to Farouk to resist, the deployment of British tanks and artillery outside the Royal palace forced the King to concede. This incident permanently damaged the prestige of both King Farouk's conservative clique and al-Nahhas' Wafd. The surrender to British convinced many Egyptian nationalists that only the removal of the entire 1923 system could bring an end to the United Kingdom's occupation of Egypt.
The historian Selma Botman describes the state of the late Wafd:
In contrast to the ideologically defined programs of the nonestablishment parties, the Wafd never developed a comprehensive plan to remedy the deep social and economic problems that troubled the country. As this became increasingly apparent, the population began to lose faith in the party, especially as conditions for consumers deteriorated during wartime. Thus, even when the party passed reformist legislation between 1942 and 1944 or 1950 and 1952, it could no longer convince the majority of the population that it held the country's best interests in mind. Instead, in these years of growing politicization of the people, many believed that the Wafd harbored the fear that the nationalist movement would become too radical and go beyond the existing framework of acceptable political and economic discourse.