The Egyptian Revolution of 1952 (Arabic: ثورة 23 يوليو 1952), also known as the 1952 Coup d’etat (Arabic: انقلاب 1952) and 23 July Revolution, was a period of profound political, economic, and societal change in Egypt that began on 23 July 1952 with the toppling of King Farouk in a coup d’etat by the Free Officers Movement, a group of army officers led by Mohamed Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser. The Revolution ushered in a wave of revolutionary politics in the Arab World. It contributed to the escalation of decolonisation 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 plan, which came to be expressed chiefly through Arab nationalism and international non-alignment.
The Revolution was faced with immediate threats from Western imperial powers, notably the United Kingdom, which had occupied Egypt since 1882, and France, both of whom were wary of rising nationalist sentiment in territories controlled throughout Africa and the Arab World. The constant state of war with the State of Israel also posed a severe challenge, as the Free Officers increased Egypt’s already strong support of the Palestinians. These two issues converged in the fifth year of the Revolution when Egypt was invaded by the United Kingdom, France, and the State of 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 Revolution in other Arab countries.
Wholesale agrarian reform and massive industrialisation programmes were initiated in the first decade and a half of the Revolution, leading to an unprecedented period of infrastructure building and urbanisation. 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 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 Revolution were scaled back or reversed.
The early successes of the Revolution encouraged numerous other nationalist movements in different countries, such as Algeria, where there were anti-imperialist and anti-colonial rebellions against European empires. It also inspired the toppling of the MENA region’s existing pro-Western monarchies and governments.
The Revolution is commemorated each year on 23 July.
Background of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952
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, notably the United Kingdom. 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 few 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 Mashreq. After Muhammad Ali’s death, Egypt’s fortunes oscillated as his successors, Abbas I and Sa’id, halted his reforms and squandered the economic and military might he had developed.
This decline was reversed under Isma’il the Magnificent, who undertook massive modernisation programmes and campaigns of military expansion in Sudan and East Africa. Isma’il significantly accelerated the enfranchisement of the Egyptian peasantry and middle class, which the wealthy elites of Egyptian society had politically and economically marginalised. Isma’il also established Egypt’s first parliament. Coupled with his powerful espousal of Egyptian statehood, this contributed to the growth of Egyptian nationalism, particularly within the army.
Yet, 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. This company 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, notably as it, in effect, granted the purchaser, the United Kingdom, a basis for interfering in Egyptian affairs. Shortly after that, the United Kingdom and 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 Orabi Revolt of 1881, led by nationalist army officers and soldiers under Ahmed Orabi. Orabi came from a peasant family, and his rise through the ranks of the military despite his humble background had been made possible by the reforms of Isma’il, 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 to support Tewfik.
British occupation
Though legally a self-governing vassal state of the Ottoman Empire, Egypt had been virtually independent since 1805, with its hereditary monarchy, military, legal system, currency, and empire (chiefly in Sudan). The brief Anglo-Egyptian War that resulted from the United Kingdom’s support of the Khedive did not alter the Khedivate of Egypt’s de jure status. However, it left the United Kingdom in de facto control over the country, a state of affairs known as the veiled protectorate. In the following years, the United Kingdom would cement its political and military position in Egypt and subsequently in Egypt’s domains in Sudan. The British high representative in Cairo exercised 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, Khedive, the nationalist Abbas II, to transform Sudan from an integral part of Egypt into a condominium where sovereignty would be shared between Egypt and the United Kingdom. Once established, the condominium witnessed ever-decreasing Egyptian control and would be governed in practice by the United Kingdom through the Governor-General in Khartoum for most of its existence. For the remainder of his reign, this would be one flashpoint between the nationalist Khedive Abbas II and the United Kingdom, with Abbas seeking to arrest and reverse the increasing British control in Egypt and Sudan.
The Sultanate of Egypt was as much controlled by the United Kingdom as the Khedivate of Egypt had been. Following the Ottoman Empire’s entry into 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 Kamal. 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 Kamal 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.
Rising nationalist anger at British control led to the Egyptian Revolution of 1919, prompting the United Kingdom to recognise Egyptian independence in 1922 as the Kingdom of Egypt. Egyptian nationalists, favouring the Sudanese union with Egypt, demanded that Sudan be included within the bounds of the kingdom, with the term “Kingdom of Egypt and Sudan” entering the nationalist vernacular. However, in terms of the legal instrument by which the United Kingdom recognised Egyptian independence, the British government expressly reserved the issue of the governance of Sudan as a question to be resolved in the future.
Egypt was a significant Allied base for the North African campaign during the Second World War. Egypt remained officially neutral during the closing weeks of the war. However, its territory became a battlefield between the Allies and Axis Powers. In 1942, Egypt’s young King Farouk refused to submit to British demands, followed by the Abdeen Palace Incident, in which the British military surrounded Farouk’s palace and ordered him to appoint a Prime Minister selected by the United Kingdom or face immediate bombardment. 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. Farouk’s surrender to British demands permanently dented the monarchy’s credibility and convinced many Egyptian nationalists that only the removal of the Muhammad Ali dynasty could end the United Kingdom’s occupation of Egypt and Sudan.
Post-War period
After the war, British policy remained focused on control of the Suez Canal, which was vital for imperial trade. The continued presence of British forces on Egyptian and Sudanese soil enflamed nationalist and anti-monarchical sentiment. This was exacerbated by the loss of 78% of Palestine in the Palestine War of 1948–1949. Nationalists, particularly in the army, blamed King Farouk for the defeat. These factors led to widespread accusations of corruption against the King and his court. Moreover, notwithstanding Farouk’s nationalist credentials, as demonstrated by his earlier defiance of British policies, his maladministration of the country’s affairs and alleged corruption enabled the continuing British occupation.
At this stage, nationalists in the army began to coalesce in opposition to the monarchy and the United Kingdom. The Free Officers Movement was formed by a group of reform-minded officers, which the Soviet Union backed. The United States centred around a young officer named Gamal Abdel Nasser. The Free Officers recruited the nationally famous war hero General Mohamed Naguib to be their leader to show their seriousness and attract more army followers.
In the warning that Naguib conveyed to King Farouk on 26 July upon the King’s abdication, he provided a summary of the reasons for their revolt against the King:
Given what the country has suffered in the recent past, the complete vacuity prevailing in all corners as a result of your evil behavior, you’re toying with the constitution, and your disdain for the people’s wants, no one rests assured of life, livelihood, and honour. Egypt’s reputation among the world’s peoples has been debased as a result of your excesses in these areas to the extent that traitors and bribe-takers find protection beneath your shadow in addition to security, excessive wealth, and many extravagances at the expense of the hungry and impoverished people. You manifested this during and after the Palestine War in the corrupt arms scandals and your open interference in the courts to try to falsify the facts of the case, thus shaking faith in justice. Therefore, the army, representing the power of the people, has empowered me to demand that Your Majesty abdicate the throne to His Highness Crown Prince Ahmed Fuad, provided that this is accomplished at the fixed time of 12 o’clock noon today (Saturday, 26 July 1952, the 4th of Zul Qa’ada, 1371) and that you depart the country before 6 p.m. of the same day. The army places upon Your Majesty the burden of everything that may result from your failure to abdicate according to the people’s wishes.
The leadership of the Kingdom of Egypt was seen as corrupt, with its elites viewed as either too incompetent and fearful to resist the United Kingdom or actively pro-British. Government policies completed the image of the Egyptian state as a puppet in the hands of the British government. This general sense of grievance against the upper echelons of Egyptian society extended to the great national institutions, such as the palace, the police, the parliament, and the main political parties. Moreover, the lavish lifestyle of these same elites seemed provocative to the Free Officers Movement, most of whom were from austere backgrounds.
In addition to allegations of anti-British sentiment, a CIA document dated 23 July 1952 stated that the army’s dissatisfaction over the high command’s corruption began in 1948 after discovering an arms scandal during the Palestine conflict. It’s important to note that the document does not explicitly list the reasoning for an arms scandal, yet that becomes a most logical theory. The loss of the 1948 war in Palestine led to the Free Officers’ blame for the King and their promotion of that feeling among the Egyptian people. Tensions between the military and the monarchy resulted in the removal and arrest of Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces Haidar Pasha, Chief of Staff Harid Pasha and other high-ranking officers. However, the scandal subsided over time, and the King eventually reappointed Haidar and Harid to their old positions.
Prelude
During the winter of 1951–1952, nationalist police officers began protecting and promoting fedayeen (the Egyptian resistance) attacks on British authorities in Cairo, Alexandria, and the Suez Canal (Suez). After repelling a particularly devastating attack on British shipping and facilities near Ismailia, which resulted in the death of several British soldiers, British troops tracked the fedayeen into the city. On 25 January 1952, British troops discovered the fedayeen had retreated into the local police barracks. When the police refused to surrender the fedayeen, the British officer attempted to negotiate the surrender of the police and the fedayeen. When their negotiator was killed in the conversation by the fedayeen, the British force attacked the Egyptian police barracks in Ismailia. Fifty Egyptian police officers were killed, and one hundred were wounded. Egypt erupted in a fury.
Subsequently, Free Officer Movement cells initiated riots in Cairo, leading to arson. Without suppression from local fire brigades, these arson attacks further intensified rioting. American and Soviet newspapers promoted the incident on global wire outlets as the “Cairo Fires”. They suggested they were seen as further evidence of the monarchy’s beginning and end.
The next day, 26 January 1952 (“Black Saturday”), what many Egyptians call “the second revolution” broke out (the first being the Egyptian Revolution of 1919). King Farouk dismissed Mustafa el-Nahhas’s government and declared martial law on the same day.
In the months that followed, three politicians were instructed to form governments, each proving short-lived: Ali Maher (27 January – 1 March), Ahmed Naguib El-Hilali (2 March – 29 June, and 22–23 July) and Hussein Sirri (2–20 July). These “salvation ministries”, as they were called, failed to halt the country’s downward spiral. Corruption remained ubiquitous despite attempts by successive prime ministers to put their political houses in order.
Stirrings of discontent were felt in the army, and in January 1952, opposition officers supported by the Free Officers gained control of the governing board of the Officer’s Club. On 16 July, the King annulled these elections, appointing his supporters to regain army control.
A coup d’état had initially been planned for 5 August. Still, the coup leaders advanced their plans to the night of 22 July, after General Naguib—one of the Free Officers and General Pasha’s temporary replacement as Commander and Chief of the Armed Forces— informed that group on 19 July that the Egyptian Royal Army high command had a list of their names.
Military coup
While the Free Officers planned to overthrow the monarchy on 2–3 August, they decided to make their move earlier after their official leader, Muhammad Naguib, gained knowledge, leaked from the Egyptian cabinet on 19 July, that King Farouk acquired a list of the dissenting officers and was set to arrest them. The officers thus decided to launch a preemptive strike, and after finalising their plans in a meeting at Khaled Mohieddin’s home, they began their coup on the night of 22 July. Mohieddin stayed in his house, and Anwar Sadat went to the cinema.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Free Officers, Gamal Abdel Nasser, contacted the Muslim Brotherhood and the Communist Democratic Movement for National Liberation to assure their support. On the morning of 23 July, he and Abdel Hakim Amer left Mohieddin’s home in civilian clothes. They drove around Cairo in Nasser’s automobile to collect men from arresting key royalist commanders before they reached their barracks and gained control over their soldiers. At 6:00 am, the Free Officers Air Force units began circling Cairo’s skies. As they approached the el-Qoba Bridge, an artillery unit led by Youssef Seddik met with them before he led his battalion to take control of the Military General Headquarters to arrest the royalist army chief of staff, Hussein Sirri Amer and all the other commanders who were present in the building.
Declaration of Revolution
At 7:30 am, a broadcasting station issued the first communiqué of the coup d’état to the Egyptian people in the name of Gen. Naguib. It attempted to justify the coup, also known as the “Blessed Movement”. The person reading the message was the Free Officer and future president of Egypt, Anwar Sadat. Less than a hundred officers conducted the coup – almost all drawn from junior ranks — and prompted scenes of celebration in the streets by cheering mobs.
Egypt has passed through a critical period in its recent history characterized by bribery, mischief, and the absence of governmental stability. All of these were factors that had a significant influence on the army. Those who accepted bribes and were thus influenced caused our defeat in the Palestine War in 1948. As for the period following the war, the mischief-making elements have assisted one another, and traitors have been commanding the army. They appointed a commander who was either ignorant or corrupt. Therefore, Egypt has reached the point of having no army to defend it. Accordingly, we have undertaken to clean ourselves up and appointed to command us men from within the army whom we trust in their ability, character, and patriotism. All of Egypt will undoubtedly meet this news with enthusiasm and will welcome it. As for those whose arrest we saw fit from among men formerly associated with the army, we will not deal harshly with them but release them at the appropriate time. I assure the Egyptian people that the entire military today has become capable of operating in the national interest and under the rule of the constitution, apart from any claims of its own. I take this opportunity to request that the people never permit any traitors to take refuge in deeds of destruction or violence because these are not in the interest of Egypt. Should anyone behave in such ways, he will be dealt with forcefully in a manner such as has not been seen before, and his deeds will meet the reward for treason immediately. The army will take charge with the assistance of the police. I assure our foreign brothers that their interests, personal safety [lit. “their souls”], and property are safe and that the army considers itself responsible for them. May God grant us success [lit. “God is the guardian of success”].
With his British support network now neutralised, King Farouk sought the intervention of the United States, which was unresponsive. By the 25th, the army had occupied Alexandria, where the King was in residence at the Montaza Palace. Terrified, Farouk abandoned Montaza and fled to Ras Al-Teen Palace on the waterfront. Naguib ordered the captain of Farouk’s yacht, al-Mahrusa, not to sail without orders from the army.
Debate broke out among the Free Officers concerning the fate of the deposed King. While some (including Gen. Naguib and Nasser) thought that the best course of action was to send him into exile, others argued that he should be put on trial or executed. Finally, the order came for Farouk to abdicate in favour of his son, Crown Prince Ahmed Fuad – who was acceded to the throne as King Fuad II – and a three-person Regency Council was appointed. The former King’s departure into exile came on 26 July 1952, and at 6 o’clock that evening, he set sail for Italy with protection from the Egyptian army. On 28 July 1953, Muhammad Naguib became the first President of Egypt, which marked the beginning of modern Egyptian governance.
Consolidation
The Revolution Command Council (RCC), comprised of the previous nine-member command committee of the Free Officers and five more members, was chaired by Naguib. Ali Maher was asked to create a civilian government. When the Free Officers started isolating elements sympathising with the Soviet Union, communist cadres led workers’ riots in Kafr Dawar on 12 August 1952, which resulted in two death sentences. Ali Maher, who still sympathised with the British, resigned on 7 September following differences with the officers, principally over proposed land reform. Naguib became prime minister, with Nasser as deputy prime minister. On 9 September, the Agrarian Reform Law was passed, immediately seizing any European-owned property, especially British-owned property in Egypt.[dubious – discuss] This was followed by signalling a significant land redistribution programme among peasant farmers, which gained most of the seized land. The regime placed a ceiling of 200 feddans on land ownership to stop the concentration of land ownership. On 9 December, the RCC, without due process, decreed that the 1923 Constitution of Egypt was abolished “in the name of the people.”
On 16 January 1953, the officers of the RCC dissolved and banned all political parties, declaring a three-year transitional period during which the RCC would rule. A provisional Constitutional Charter, written by the close circle of usurpers, was reported to give a veneer of legitimacy to the RCC. This new Constitution was proclaimed on 10 February, and the Liberation Rally — the first of three political organisations linked to the July regime — was launched soon afterwards to mobilise popular support. The Rally was headed by Nasser and included other Free Officers as secretaries-general. On 18 June, the RCC declared Egypt a republic, abolishing the monarchy (the infant son of Farouk had been reigning as King Fuad II) and appointing General Naguib, aged 52, as the first president and prime minister. Gamal Abdel Nasser, 35, was appointed deputy premier and minister of the interior. A “Revolutionary Tribunal” consisting of RCC members Abdel Latif Boghdadi, Sadat and Hassan Ibrahim was set up to try politicians of the ancien régime.
In opposition to the Constitution with its overt secularism was the Muslim Brotherhood. Angered at being left out of the political and economic spoils and seeing a continuation of secularism and modernity within the Free Officers Movement such as had existed under the King, the Muslim Brotherhood organised its street elements. Additionally, contrary to orders issued by the Council, members of the Liberation Rally accumulated much of the seized non-Muslim property and distributed it amongst their closed networks. From June 1953 into the following year, Egypt was wracked by street riots, clashes, arson, and civil tumult as the regime and the Muslim Brotherhood battled for popular support.
1954
In January, the Muslim Brotherhood was outlawed. It remained an illegal political organisation until the Revolution of 2011. The move came in the wake of clashes between members of the Kingtherhood and Liberation Rally student demonstrators on 12 January 1954. March witnessed clashes within the RCC, symbolised in the attempt, ultimately successful, to oust Naguib. The move faced opposition from within the army, and some members of the RCC, especially Khaled Mohieddin, favoured a return to the Constitutional government. On 26 October, an assassination attempt suspected by the Brotherhood was directed at Nasser during a rally in Alexandria. This led to the regime acting against the Brotherhood, executing Brotherhood leaders on 9 December. Nasser subsequently cemented power, first becoming chairman of the RCC and finally prime minister, with Naguib’s constitutional post-King’s remaining vague until 14 November, when he was dismissed from office and placed under house arrest.
Meanwhile, the RCC remained united in its opposition to the British and French, specifically regarding the Suez Canal. Despite continued calls from the RCC, debates in the United Nations, and pressure from the U.S. and USSR, the British refused to transfer control of the Canal to the new regime. The RCC began funding and coordinating ever more significant attacks on the British and French in the Suez Canal Zone and Damietta. This led to the government acting against the Brotherhood, executing Brotherhood leaders on 9 December. Nasser subsequently cemented power, first becoming chairman of the RCC and finally prime minister, with Naguib’s constitutional position remaining vague until 14 November, when he was dismissed from office and placed under house arrest.
1956
President Nasser announced a new Constitution on 16 January at a famous rally, setting up a presidential system of government in which the president has the power to appoint and dismiss ministers. An election law was passed on 3 March, granting women the right to vote for the first time in Egyptian history. Nasser was elected as the second president of the Republic on 23 June. In 1957, Nasser announced the formation of the National Union (Al-Ittihad Al-Qawmi), paving the way for July elections for the National Assembly, the first parliament since 1952.
Commemoration
The Revolution’s anniversary is commemorated on Revolution Day, an annual public holiday in Egypt, on 23 July.
