Kingdom of Egypt
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Kingdom of Egypt | |||||||||
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1922–1953 | |||||||||
Anthem: "Eslami ya Misr" (1923–1936) Royal anthem: "Salam Affandina" (1936–1953) | |||||||||
parliamentary constitutional monarchy | |||||||||
King | |||||||||
• 1922–1936 | Fuad I | ||||||||
• 1936–1952 | Farouk I | ||||||||
• 1952–1953 | Fuad II a | ||||||||
Percy Loraine | |||||||||
• 1933–1936 | Miles Lampson | ||||||||
Abdel Khaliq Sarwat Pasha | |||||||||
• 1952–1953 (last) | Mohamed Naguibb | ||||||||
Legislature | Palestine War | ||||||||
• Independence from the United Kingdom | 28 February 1922 | ||||||||
• Sultan Fuad I becomes King Fuad I | 15 March 1922 | ||||||||
19 April 1923 | |||||||||
27 August 1936 | |||||||||
24 October 1945 | |||||||||
1948–49 (May–March) | |||||||||
23 July 1952 | |||||||||
• Abdication of King Farouk, and ascension of King Fuad II | 26 July 1952 | ||||||||
18 June 1953 | |||||||||
Area | |||||||||
• Total | 3,700,000 km2 (1,400,000 sq mi) | ||||||||
1937[2] | 994,000 km2 (384,000 sq mi) | ||||||||
Population | |||||||||
• 1927[2] | 14,218,000 | ||||||||
• 1937[2] | 15,933,000 | ||||||||
19,090,447 | |||||||||
Currency | Egyptian pound | ||||||||
ISO 3166 code | EG | ||||||||
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Today part of | Egypt Sudan South Sudan Libya (land ceded) | ||||||||
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History of Egypt |
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Egypt portal |
The Kingdom of Egypt (
The legal status of Egypt had been highly convoluted, due to its de facto breakaway from the Ottoman Empire in 1805, its occupation by Britain in 1882, and the re-establishment of the Sultanate of Egypt (destroyed by the Ottomans in 1517) as a British protectorate in 1914. In line with the change in status from sultanate to kingdom, the title of the reigning Sultan, Fuad I, was changed from Sultan of Egypt to King of Egypt. Throughout the Kingdom's existence, Sudan was formally united with Egypt. However, actual Egyptian authority in Sudan was largely nominal due to United Kingdom's role as the dominant power in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. As had been the case during the Khedivate of Egypt, and the Sultanate of Egypt, the Egyptian monarch was styled as the sovereign of "Egypt and Sudan".
During the reign of King Fuad, the monarchy struggled with the
King Fuad died in 1936, and the throne passed to his 16-year-old son,
History
Sultanate and Kingdom
During the Ottoman period, the country was administered as the
In 1914, Khedive Abbas II sided with the Ottoman Empire and the Central Powers in the First World War, and was promptly deposed by the British in favour of his uncle Hussein Kamel, creating the Sultanate of Egypt. Ottoman sovereignty over Egypt, which had been hardly more than a legal fiction since 1805, now was officially terminated. Hussein Kamel was declared Sultan of Egypt, and the country became a British protectorate.
Aftermath of World War I
A group known as the
From March to April 1919, there were mass demonstrations that turned into uprisings. These are known in Egypt as the
As a result, Curzon agreed to receive an Egyptian mission headed by Zaghlul and
In December 1921, the British authorities in
Representing the Wafd Party, Zaghlul was elected Prime Minister in 1924. He demanded that Britain recognize the Egyptian sovereignty in Sudan and the unity of the Nile Valley. On November 19, 1924, the British Governor-General of Sudan, Sir Lee Stack, was assassinated in Cairo and pro-Egyptian riots broke out in Sudan. The British demanded that Egypt pay an apology fee and withdraw troops from Sudan. Zaghlul agreed to the first but not the second and resigned.[4]
Recognition
With nationalist sentiment rising, Britain
World War II
The government of Egypt was legally neutral in World War II. The army was not in combat. In practice the British made Egypt a major base of operations against Italy and Germany, and finally defeated them both. London's highest priority was control of the Eastern Mediterranean, especially keeping the Suez Canal open for merchant ships and for military connections with India and Australia.
The government of Egypt, and the Egyptian population, played a minor role in the Second World War. When the war began in September 1939, Egypt declared martial law and broke off diplomatic relations with Germany. It did not declare war on Germany, but the Prime Minister associated Egypt with the British war effort. It broke off diplomatic relations with Italy in 1940, but never declared war, even when the Italian army invaded Egypt. King Farouk practically took a neutral position, which accorded with elite opinion among the Egyptians. The Egyptian army did no fighting. It was apathetic about the war, with the leading officers looking on the British as occupiers and sometimes holding some private sympathies toward the Axis.[6] In June 1940, the King dismissed Prime Minister Aly Maher, who got on poorly with the British. A new coalition government was formed with the Independent Hassan Pasha Sabri as Prime Minister briefly, followed by Hussein Sirri Pasha.[7]
Following a ministerial crisis in February 1942, the ambassador Sir
Post-war period
Most British troops were withdrawn to the Suez Canal area in 1947 (the British army maintained a military base there), but nationalist and anti-British sentiment continued to grow after the War. Anti-monarchy sentiments further increased following the disastrous performance of the Kingdom in the
Suez Emergency
According to the BBC, 'In October 1951 a tense stand-off between the British and Egyptian governments broke down over the number of UK troops stationed in the country. In response, the British government mobilised 60,000 troops in 10 days, in what was described as the biggest airlift of troops since World War Two.'[9]
As the British refused to leave their base around the Suez Canal, the Egyptian government cut off the water and refused to allow food into the Suez Canal base, announced a boycott of British goods, forbade Egyptian workers from entering the base and sponsored guerrilla attacks. The situation turned the area around the Suez Canal into a low level war zone. On 24 January 1952, Egyptian guerrillas staged an attack on the British forces around the Suez Canal, during which the Egyptian Auxiliary Police were observed helping the guerrillas. In response, on 25 January, General George Erskine sent British tanks and infantry to surround the auxiliary police station in Ismailia and gave the policemen an hour to surrender their arms in the grounds. The police were arming the guerrillas. The police commander called the Interior Minister, Fouad Serageddin, Nahas's right-hand man, who was smoking cigars in his bath at the time, to ask if he should surrender or fight. Serageddin ordered the police to fight "to the last man and the last bullet". The resulting battle saw the police station levelled and 43 Egyptian policemen killed together with 3 British soldiers. The Ismailia incident outraged Egypt. The next day, 26 January 1952, was "Black Saturday", as the anti-British riot was known. It saw much of downtown Cairo which the Khedive Ismail the Magnificent had rebuilt in the style of Paris, burned down. Farouk blamed the Wafd for the Black Saturday riot, and dismissed Nahas as prime minister the next day and replaced by Aly Maher Pasha.
Dissolution
On 23 July 1952, the
Popular expectations for immediate reforms led to the workers' riots in
Demographics
Ethnic Egyptians made up the majority of the population in Egypt. However, thousands of Greeks, Jews, Italians, Maltese, Armenians and Syro-Lebanese were present in Egypt. These communities were known as the Mutamassirun (Egyptianized). Despite the fact these communities were foreigners, they took part in Egyptian society and were considered to be homogenous groups by Egyptian nationalists. The Mutammassirun community had most of its members leaving Egypt in the 1950s. After the Suez Crisis of 1956, more than 1,000 of 18,000 people who carried British or French nationality were expelled and were only allowed to take one suitcase with them and a small sum of cash.[10]
See also
References
- 1923 Constitution.
- ^ OCLC 39915162. Retrieved 2010-07-09.
- PMID 20603928.
- ^ a b c Michael T. Thornhill, "Informal Empire, Independent Egypt and the Accession of King Farouk." Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 38#2 (2010): 279-302.
- ^ Steve Morewood, The British Defence of Egypt, 1935–40: Conflict and Crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean (2008).
- ^ S. K. Rothwell, "Military Ally or Liability? The Egyptian Army 1936–1942." Army Quarterly & Defence Review 128#2 (1998): 180-7.
- ^ John Marlowe, A History of Modern Egypt and Anglo-Egyptian Relations, 1800–1953 (1954) pp. 313–15.
- ^ Marlowe, A History of Modern Egypt and Anglo-Egyptian Relations, 1800–1953 (1954) pp. 315–19.
- ^ Parkes, Pamela (2016-10-23). "The Suez Emergency: The forgotten war of the conscript soldier". BBC News. Retrieved 2021-08-09.
- ISBN 9780871962034.
Egyptian Interior Min. Zakaria Mohieddin said Dec. 9 that, of some 18,000 British and French citizens in Egypt, 1,452 had been ordered expelled from the country.
Further reading
- Daly, M.W. The Cambridge History Of Egypt Volume 2 Modern Egypt, from 1517 to the end of the twentieth century (1998) online
- Botman, Selma. "The liberal age, 1923–1952." in M.W. Daly, ed. The Cambridge History of Egypt, Vol. 2: Modern Egypt, from 1517 to the End of the Twentieth Century (2008), pp 285–308.
- Goldschmidt Jr., Arthur. Biographical Dictionary of Modern Egypt (1999).
- Karakoç, Ulaş. "Industrial growth in interwar Egypt: first estimate, new insights" European Review of Economic History (2018) 22#1 53–72, online
- Marlowe, John. A History of Modern Egypt and Anglo-Egyptian Relations, 1800-1953 (1954).
- Morewood, Steve. The British Defence of Egypt, 1935-40: Conflict and Crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean (2008).
- Rothwell, S. K. "Military Ally or Liability? The Egyptian Army 1936–1942." Army Quarterly & Defence Review 128#2 (1998): 180–7.
- Royal Institute of International Affairs. Great Britain and Egypt, 1914-1951 (2nd ed. 1952) online
- Thornhill, Michael T. "Informal Empire, Independent Egypt and the Accession of King Farouk." Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 38#2 (2010): 279–302.
- Tignore, Robert L. Egypt: A Short History (2011)
- Vatikiotis, Panayiotis J. The history of modern Egypt: from Muhammad Alì to Mubarak (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991). online