The Kingdom of Egypt (Arabic: المملكة المصرية, romanised: Al-Mamlaka Al-Miṣreyya, lit. ’The Egyptian Kingdom’) was the legal form of the 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 and 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 control of foreign relations, communications, the military, and Sudan. Officially, Sudan was governed as a condominium of the two states; in reality, true power in Sudan lay with the United Kingdom. Between 1936 and 1952, the United Kingdom maintained its military presence and 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 line with the change in status from sultanate to Kingdom, 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, Egyptian authority in Sudan was largely nominal due to the United Kingdom’s 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 Wafd Party, a broadly based nationalist political organisation vehemently opposed to British influence in Egypt, and with the British themselves, who were determined to maintain their control over the Suez Canal. Other political forces emerging in this period included the Communist Party (1925) and the Muslim Brotherhood (1928), which eventually became potent political and religious forces.
Rising nationalist sentiment in Egypt and Sudan and British concern following Fascist Italy’s recent invasion of Abyssinia led to the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, which required the United Kingdom to withdraw all troops from Egypt proper (excluding Sudan), except in the Suez Canal Zone (agreed to be evacuated by 1949). Still, it permitted the return 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 the Second World 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. King Fuad died in 1936, and the throne passed to his 16-year-old son, Farouk. 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 the United Kingdom agreed that it should be granted independence in 1956.
History of the Kingdom of Egypt
Sultanate and Kingdom
During the Ottoman period, the country was administrated as the Egypt Eyalet, 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. The British promptly deposed him in favour of his uncle Hussein Kamel, creating the Sultanate of Egypt. Hussein Kamel was declared Sultan of Egypt and became a British protectorate. Ottoman sovereignty over Egypt, which had been hardly more than a legal fiction since 1805, was officially terminated.
The aftermath of World War I
A group known as the Wafd (meaning “Delegation”) attended the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 to demand Egypt’s independence. Included in the group was political leader Saad Zaghlul, who would later become Prime Minister. When the group was arrested and deported to the island of Malta, demonstrations started to occur in Egypt.
From March to April 1919, mass demonstrations turned into uprisings. These are known in Egypt as the First Revolution. In November 1919, the Milner Commission was sent to Egypt by the British to attempt to resolve the situation. In 1920, Lord Milner submitted his report to Lord Curzon, the British Foreign Secretary, recommending that an alliance treaty replace the protectorate.
As a result, Curzon agreed to receive an Egyptian mission headed by Zaghlul and Adli Pasha to discuss the proposals. The mission arrived in London in June 1920, and the agreement was concluded in August 1920. In February 1921, the British Parliament approved the deal, and Egypt was asked to send another mission to London with full powers to conclude a definitive treaty. Adli Pasha led this mission, which arrived in June 1921. However, the Dominion delegates at the 1921 Imperial Conference stressed the importance of maintaining control over the Suez Canal Zone. Curzon could not persuade Cabinet colleagues to agree to any terms Adli Pasha was prepared to accept. The mission returned to Egypt in disgust.
In December 1921, the British authorities in Cairo imposed martial law and once again deported Zaghlul. Demonstrations again led to violence. In deference to the growing nationalism and at the suggestion of the High Commissioner, Lord Allenby, the UK recognised Egyptian independence in 1922, abolishing the protectorate and converting the Sultanate of Egypt into the Kingdom of Egypt. Sarwat Pasha became prime minister. However, British influence continued dominating Egypt’s political life and fostered fiscal, administrative, and governmental reforms. Britain retained control of the Canal Zone, Sudan and Egypt’s external protection, the police, army, railways and communications, the protection of foreign interests, minorities and Sudan pending a final agreement.
Representing the Wafd Party, Zaghlul was elected Prime Minister in 1924. He demanded that Britain recognise the Egyptian sovereignty in Sudan and the unity of the Nile Valley. On 19 November 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.
Recognition
Britain’s continual efforts to divest Egypt of all control in Sudan were particularly concerning to Egypt. With nationalist sentiment rising, Britain formally recognised Egyptian independence in 1922, and Hussein Kamel’s successor, Sultan Fuad I, substituted the title of King for Sultan. However, the British influence in Egyptian affairs persisted. This was intolerable to both the King and the nationalist movement, and the Egyptian Government stressed that Fuad and his son, King Farouk I, were “King of Egypt and Sudan”.
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 significant base of operations against Germany and Italy and finally defeated them. London’s highest priority was control of the Eastern Mediterranean, especially keeping the Suez Canal open for merchant ships and 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 diplomatic relations with Germany. It did not declare War on Germany, but the Prime Minister associated Egypt with the British war effort. It broke diplomatic relations with Italy in 1940 but never declared War, even when the Italian army invaded Egypt. King Farouk practically took a neutral position, accorded with elite opinion among the Egyptians. The Egyptian military did no fighting. It was apathetic about the War, with the leading officers looking on the British as occupiers and sometimes holding private sympathies toward the Axis. In June 1940, the King dismissed Prime Minister Aly Maher, who got on poorly with the British. A new coalition government was briefly formed with the Independent Hassan Pasha Sabri as Prime Minister, followed by Hussein Sirri Pasha.
Following a ministerial crisis in February 1942, the ambassador Sir Miles Lampson pressed Farouk to have 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, and Nahhas formed a government shortly after that. 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 civilians and, more importantly, the Egyptian military.
Post-war period
Most British troops were withdrawn to the Suez Canal area in 1947 (although the British army maintained a military base), but nationalist and anti-British sentiment grew after the War. Anti-monarchy emotions further increased following the disastrous performance of the Kingdom in the First Arab-Israeli War. In 1951, Egypt withdrew from the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 and ordered all remaining British troops to leave the Suez Canal. 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.
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 there. In response, the British Government mobilised 60,000 troops in 10 days, in what was described as the biggest airlift since World War Two.’
The British refused to leave their base around the Suez Canal, so the Egyptian Government cut off the water. It 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 attacked 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. He gave the police officers an hour to surrender their arms on 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 then, 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 of the Kingdom of Egypt
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 1952. On 26 July, Farouk abdicated in favour of his seven-month-old son, Ahmed Fuad, who began King Fuad II. At 6 pm 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 the 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.
Widespread expectations for immediate 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 Egypt’s first President, while Nasser was appointed Deputy Prime Minister.
Demographics
Ethnic Egyptians made up the majority of the population in Egypt. However, in Egypt, thousands of Greeks, Jews, Italians, Maltese, Armenians and Syro-Lebanese were present. These communities were known as the Mutamassirun (Egyptianized). Although these communities were foreigners, they took a significant part in Egyptian society and were considered homogenous groups by Egyptian nationalists. Most of the Mutammassirun community members left Egypt in the 1950s. After the Suez Crisis of 1956, populations with British or French nationality were expelled and only allowed to take one suitcase with them and a 20-pound note.
