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British Occupation (1882-1952) :
Ismail's son Tewfiq Pasha reformed the Egyptian economy and
relinquished financial control to the British who began to run the
government of the country. Egyptian nationalists, horrified at
Tewfiq's submission to the British, forced him to appoint their leader
Ahmed Orabi as Minister of War, but the European reaction was swift
and violent. Alexandria was shelled and Ismailiyya occupied.
Orabi's army was defeated at Tel El Kabir and the British
reinstalled Tewfiq as a puppet. Orabi was driven into exile and
Mustafa Kamil became the leader of the nationalist movement.
British influence over Egypt continued to increase. The country became
an economic colony, totally dependent upon the import of British
manufactured goods and the export of its raw cotton.
The outbreak of the World War I brought Egypt formally into the
British Empire as a Protectorate when the Ottoman Sultan declared his
support for the Germans against the allies. During the war Fouad, the
sixth son of Khedive Ismail, had become Khedive of Egypt but his
authority was to be constantly challenged by Egyptian nationalists who
fed on the popular resentment of foreign domination.
Sa'ad Zaghloul was the leader of the nationalist movement during and
after the first war and in 1918 he formally presented the British High
Commissioner with a demand for complete autonomy which was rejected
out of hand. Zaghloul's eventual arrest and deportation to Malta
resulted in widespread anti-British riots, forcing the British
to back down.
In 1922 the British ended the
protectorate and recognized Egypt's independence, while maintaining
control over the essential government institutions and the Suez Canal.
Fouad was proclaimed King of Egypt in March of the same year.
The years that followed were characterized by a triangular power
struggle between the British, the King and the nationalist Wafd party
which had the support of the population.
Farouk, the son of King Fouad, ascended the Egyptian throne in
1935. In the beginning, the reign of King
Farouk was greeted with enthusiasm by both the Wafd party and by the
rapidly growing Muslim Brotherhood. Farouk was, amazingly, the first
Egyptian ruler of the descendants of Mohammed Ali Pasha to speak
fluent Arabic. Turkish had been the court language of all his
predecessors. Moreover.
Farouk seemed to have nationalist sympathies. The young ruler was,
unfortunately, too weak to defy the British. Within a year he had
signed the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty which gave British forces the right
to remain in the Suez Canal Zone while ostensibly ending the British
occupation of Egypt.
With the outbreak of World War II, the Wafd Party threw its support
behind the allies on the understanding that Egypt would gain full
independence once the war was over. But hatred towards the British
rule was so intense by this time that clandestine support for the
Germans existed in nationalist factions like the Muslim Brotherhood.
Egypt became a major strategic asset and base of operations during
World War II. Cairo and Alexandria were filled with soldiers, spies,
political exiles and government leaders. The decisive battle in the
North African campaign was the Battle of El-Alamain
in the desert outside Alexandria. General Montgomery's Eighth Army
drove back Rommel's Afrika Korps and the allies swept across North
Africa to victory.
With the allied victory and the end of the war, the Wafd party called
for the immediate evacuation of British troops from Egypt. The British
were slow to respond and Egyptian resentment exploded in anti-British
riots and strikes instigated by the highly organized Muslim
Brotherhood under the leadership of Hassan Al-Banna
which had grown in power and influence during the war years.
It had always been the Muslim Brotherhood position that the war
between the allies and the axis had nothing to do with Egypt or
Muslims. The leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood refrained from open
opposition to Egyptian support for the allies during the war years but
lashed out at the British presence after the war. Under joint pressure
from the Brotherhood and the Wafd, British troops were evacuated from
Alexandria and the Canal Zone in 1947.
The following year the Arab world suffered a shattering blow when a
joint Arab invasion of the newly declared state of Israel was
ignominiously defeated by the smaller Israeli army. Ashamed and
appalled by the decadence and gross incompetence of their leaders, a
group of idealistic young Egyptian officers were to emerge as leaders
of a revolution which would alter the course of modern Arab history.
When parliamentary elections were held in 1952
the Wafd Party won the majority of seats and Nahas Pasha as prime
minister repealed the 1936 treaty which
gave Britain the right to control the Suez Canal. King Farouk
dismissed the Prime Minister, igniting anti-British riots which were
put down by the army.
This event compelled a secret group of army officers, which became
known as the Free Officers, to stage a coup d'etat and seize control
of the government. King Farouk was forced to abdicate and General
Naguib -- as the most senior officer, the nominal leader of the group
-- became prime minister and commander of the armed forces.
In reality a nine-man Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) led by
Colonel Gamal Abd Al-Nasser ruled Egypt and ruled decisively. The
monarchy was abolished, all political parties (including the Wafd
Party) were banned and the Constitution was nullified.
In 1953 the Egyptian Arab Republic was
declared. The rule of the Revolutionary Command Council seemed benign
and heroic at the beginning; their coup had been bloodless and their
reforms popular. But the RCC became increasingly radical and when the
older Najeeb tried to exert some control over the younger officers, he
was placed under house arrest and removed from power in
1954. Abd Al-Nasser became acting head of
state and in 1956 officially assumed
presidency of the republic.
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