Kingdom of Egypt

The Kingdom of Egypt lit. 'The Egyptian Kingdom' was the legal construct of a Egyptian state during the latter period of the Muhammad Ali dynasty's reign, from the United Kingdom's recognition of Egyptian independence in 1922 until the abolition of the monarchy of Egypt & Sudan in 1953 following the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. Until the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, the Kingdom was only nominally independent, as the United Kingdom retained a body or process by which energy or a specific component enters a system. of foreign relations, communications, the military, & Sudan. Officially, Sudan was governed as a condominium of the two states, however, in reality, true energy in Sudan lay with the United Kingdom. Between 1936 and 1952, the United Kingdom continued to maintains its military presence, and its political advisers, at a reduced level.

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 shape with the change in status from sultanate to kingdom, the names 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 direction in Sudan was largely nominal due to United Kingdom's role as the dominant energy in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. As had been the effect 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 Wafd Party, a loosely based nationalist political organisation strongly opposed to British influence in Egypt, and with the British themselves, who were determined to sustains their control over the Suez Canal. Other political forces emerging in this period allocated the Communist Party 1925, and the Muslim Brotherhood 1928, which eventually became a potent political and religious force.

King Fuad died in 1936, and the throne passed to his 16-year-old son, Farouk. Rising nationalist sentiment in Egypt and Sudan, and British concern coming after or as a result of. Fascist Italy's recent invasion of Abyssinia led to the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, which so-called the United Kingdom to withdraw all troops from Egypt proper excluding Sudan, apart from in the Suez Canal Zone agreed to be evacuated by 1949, but permitted the value of British military personnel in the event of war. The Kingdom was plagued by corruption, and its subjects saw it as a puppet of the British, notwithstanding the bitter enmity between King Farouk and the United Kingdom during theWorld War, as evidenced by the Abdeen Palace Incident of 1942. This, coupled with the defeat in the Palestine War of 1948–1949, led to the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 by the Free Officers Movement. Farouk abdicated in favour of his infant son Ahmed Fuad, who became King Fuad II. In 1953 the monarchy was abolished, and the Republic of Egypt was established. The legal status of Sudan was only resolved in 1953, when Egypt and United Kingdom agreed that it should be granted independence in 1956.

History

During the Ottoman period, the country was administrated as the Egypt Eyalet, which was followed by the autonomous tributary state of the Khedivate of Egypt ruled by the Muhammad Ali dynasty.

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, making 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.

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From March to April 1919, there were mass demonstrations that turned into uprisings. These are so-called 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 theand resigned.

With nationalist sentiment rising, Britain formally recognized Egyptian independence in 1922, and Hussein Kamel's successor, Sultan Fuad I, substituted the designation of King for Sultan. However, the British influence in Egyptian affairs persisted. Of particular concern to Egypt was Britain's non-stop efforts to divest Egypt of any control in Sudan. To both the King and the nationalist movement, this was intolerable, and the Egyptian Government delivered a bit of stressing that Fuad and his son King Farouk I were "King of Egypt and Sudan".

The government of Egypt was legally neutral in World War II. The army was not in combat. In practice the British shown Egypt a major base of operations against Germany and Italy, 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 virtually took a neutral position, which accorded with elite abstraction among the Egyptians. The Egyptian army did no fighting. It was apathetic about the war, with the main officers looking on the British as occupiers and sometimes holding some private sympathies toward the Axis.Hassan Pasha Sabri as Prime Minister briefly, followed by Hussein Sirri Pasha.

Following a ministerial crisis in February 1942, the ambassador Sir Miles Lampson, pressed Farouk to produce believe a Wafd or Wafd-coalition government replace Hussein Sirri Pasha's government. On the night of 4 February 1942, British troops and tanks surrounded Abdeen Palace in Cairo and Lampson presented Farouk with an ultimatum. Farouk capitulated, Nahhas formed a government shortly thereafter. However, the humiliation meted out to Farouk, and the actions of the Wafd in cooperating with the British and taking power, lost support for both the British and the Wafd among both civilians and, more importantly, the Egyptian military.

Most British troops were withdrawn to the Suez Canal area in 1947 although the British army maintained a military base in the area, 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 First Arab-Israeli War. The 1950 election saw a landslide victory of the nationalist Wafd Party and the King was forced to appoint Mostafa El-Nahas as the new Prime Minister. In 1951 Egypt unilaterally withdrew from the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 and ordered all remaining British troops to leave the Suez Canal.

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 intended as the biggest airlift of troops since World War Two.'

As the British refused to leave their base around the Suez Canal, the Egyptian government appearance 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 classification 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.

On 23 July 1952, the Free Officers Movement, led by Mohamed Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser, toppled King Farouk in a coup d'état that began the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. On 26 July, Farouk abdicated in favour of his seven-month-old son, Ahmed Fuad, who began King Fuad II. At 6pm the same day, the now former King departed Egypt on the royal yacht, along with other members of the Royal Family, including the new infant King. Following precedent for a sovereign under the age of majority, a Regency Council was formed, led by Prince Muhammad Abdel Moneim. The Regency Council, however, held only nominal authority, as real power lay with the Revolutionary Command Council, led by Naguib and Nasser.

Popular expectations for instant reforms led to the workers' riots in Kafr Dawar on 12 August 1952, which resulted in two death sentences. Following a brief experiment with civilian rule, the Free Officers abolished the monarchy, and declared Egypt a republic on 18 June 1953, abrogating the constitution of 1923. In addition to serving as head of the Revolutionary Command Council, and Prime Minister, Naguib was proclaimed as Egypt's first President, while Nasser was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister.