(Relatively Modern) Egyptian History
• 1800s: Independent State (under the
Ottoman Empire)
– Pasha (Khedive) Muhammad Ali
• 1850s: deLesseps & French build Suez
Canal
– Forced Labor
– Opened 1869
• 1875: British buy controlling stake in
canal from Ismail ($4 mill pounds)
• 1882: British Occupation
– 1888: Canal zone = neutral, under British
protection
• 1914 (to end of WWI): Protectorate of
the British
(Relatively Modern) Egyptian History
• 1919: Revolution
– Against British Occupation
– Wafd Party
• Nationalist, liberal, independence party 20s &
30s
• 1922  UK recognizes independence
– Why?
• 1923: Egyptian Constitution
– Developed by the Wafd
• 1936-1952: King Farouk I
– Tool of the British
• 1952: Egyptian Revolution / Military Coup
– Nasser
The Constituent Assembly of 1923 was
composed of only 30 members
The opening session
of the 1924
parliament, headed by
the King
Article 3 of the 1923
constitution declared
all Egyptians equal
with the same
political and civil
rights. It also stressed
that there should be
no discrimination on
the basis of race,
language or religion
parliament
convening in 1913
Khedive Ismail's letter
to Sherif Pasha, the
prime minister, on the
Shura Council
regulations
source: Magles Al-Shaab Al-Masry (The
Egyptian People's Assembly), Bibliotheca
Alexandrina, 2008
The Young Nasser
• Arab-Israeli War of 1948
– Skilled tactician & strategist
• Promotion to instructor at Royal
Military Academy
• 1949: Founded “Free Officers”
movement
– 1952  military coup
“Free Officers” Movement
Goal: Establish a democratic government by force
Create a MODERN, Orderly, Viable state
New regime led by Free Officers
organizational skills, military discipline
and authority
Members of new government represented
the ordinary people and not just the
privileged people
claimed to represent people  no other
parties were needed
Nasser originated from rural poor,
symbolized the new Egypt, spoke their
language and understood their plight
“The Egyptian masses were to weak to start
a revolutionary action to improve their lot,
so we your brothers started it for you, but
you are the revolution” (Nasser Speech)
Officers became instant bureaucrats and cabinet ministers
Egypt  1952
• King Farouk’s government was replaced
with the Revolutionary Command
Council (RCC)
– King sent into exile
• 1923 Constitution = withdrawn
• RCC obtained the right to rule
• Under new regime Nasser became
Vice President and Naghib was
President
– 1954  Nasser seizes power
• Naghib accused of being a tool of the
communists & Muslim Brotherhood
• under house arrest (18 yrs – released by Sadat
in ‘72)
Nasser:
“The embodiment of what the
Arab world wanted to be:
assertive, independent and
engaged in the construction of
a new society freed from the
imperial past and oriented
towards a bright Arab future”
(William Cleveland)
6 principles that grew out of the
"Egyptian people's revolutionary will":
• 1. destruction of
imperialism and its
stooges among Egyptian
traitors
• 4. establishment of social
justice
• 5. building of a powerful
national army
• 2. ending of feudalism
• 3. ending monopoly and
the domination of capital
over the Government
• 6. establishment of a
sound democratic system
Goal: Modernize Egypt
• Topics to address:
–
–
–
–
Poverty
Ignorance
“National oblivion”
Neglect of Egypt’s
infrastructure
– No sense of national
identity or pride in Egypt
• 1956: New Constitution
– 1 Party State
• Arab Socialist Union
representing people of
Egypt
– Disillusionment with liberal
government
• Elections did not take
place…
• Redistribute Wealth
– What does that mean?
IBM in Egypt
Installation at the Egyptian-American Joint
Committee for Education, December 1955
IBM won its first contract in Egypt in 1953,
and opened its first office in 1954
IBM's Cairo office
Graduates of the IBM EAM school in August 1956
Islamic Modernization
• It’s definitely Modernization
• It’s definitely Socialism
• If this were anywhere other than post-colonial Egypt, would we be
calling it Westernization?
Domestic Policies
• Political:
– Government structure, laws
– Single party state
• what happens to other
groups?
• Economic:
– Policies, prices, wages, Arab
socialism/Nasserism
• Social:
–
–
–
–
Rights
Education, arts
Women, children
Minorities
Centralize power within the presidency
• Aka Authoritarianism
• Democracy leaves the door open for
bourgeois capitalist take over
• Not a theocracy
• Islam as state religion, not as state
government
• And Non-Aligned with Cold War Power Players
• So not democratic or communist
Repress the Opposition
(SPS)
• Communist Party and the
Muslim Brotherhood
were severely repressed
• 1954: Attempted
assassination of Nasser
– More than 4,000 MB
activists arrested
– 6 MB leaders executed
Muslim Brotherhood Goal:
State founded on Sharia law
Islam dictates P-E-S direction of a state
• 1966: 1,000 Brothers are
arrested
– 365 tried and the top
leaders executed, including
Sayyid Qutb
• Some argue that “When
Nasser sent Qutb to the
gallows in 1966, it
sparked the birth of the
jihadist movement”
– (CNN Opinion)
Arab Nationalism
Arab world = nation
Common: Language (Arabic), religion
(Islam), history, territory, enemies…
Pan-Arabism
Unification 7 solidarity in the Arab world
“Supranational communalism”
Alliances
Remove dependencies on the west
(origins  revolts against imperialism)
Economic co-operation
Peak under Egyptian leadership
Attempts at an Arab Union
*Six-Day war  defeat
Key Figures:
--Nasser, Egypt
--Gaddafi, Libya
--Ba’ath Party (Iraq)
Arab Socialism
Pan-Arabism + Socialism
Only a socialist system of property and development would overcome the social and
economic legacy of imperialism and colonialism
Public control over the means of production = State-run centralized planned economy
..but not necessarily nationalization of everything…
Retain private property (But, private property may be subject to public control)
End privileges of large landowners  build popular support amongst poor
Series of welfare measures  Sense of Communalism
Agrarian Reform Act - farmers better life, fairer distribution of land
Labor Laws, raise in minimum wage, reduction in working hours
Full emancipation of women?
Nasserism
• Arab nationalist
political ideology
• + Arab Socialism
• 1950s & 1960s
• Focus on ending
Western influence
• NAM
Domestic Policy  Society
Arab Socialism  Nasserism
• Social services provided
• Education reform
– Compulsory primary education
• Food and Shelter
– Food and clothing subsides
– Rent control & low cost housing
• Health care
– Increased funding of the health care system and the Ministry of Public Health
• Improve working conditions
– Minimum Wage
– Ban child employment under age 12
Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, to Al--Jazeera in 2006:
• Someone talked to me about his pessimism
regarding the future of Arab nationalism. I
told him I was optimistic, because the ideas
of Nasser are still alive. Nasser was one of
the greatest people of Arab history, to say
the least, a Nasserist, ever since I was a
young soldier.
From Modern Moderate to Authoritarian
Appealing to the west
• Educated, Modern,
Moderate
Scary as all get up
• Arab-Israeli Relations 
• 1956:
• Land distribution program
– Economic development
• Aswan Dam
– World Bank Loan
– Supports Jordan’s anti-British
moves
– Diplomatic recognition of
Communist China
• PRC since 1949
• No US recognition until ‘70s
• PM Anthony Eden’s
vendetta  Suez Crisis 1956
Aswan Dam = Cold War Hot Spot
• Egypt sought foreign aid
to build Aswan Dam
– Nile River
• U S & GB declined to help
• Egypt = political and
military ties to USSR
• USSR rushes aid to Egypt
• Wedge drawn between
Egypt and the West
Nasser Triumphant
• 1956 Suez Crisis
– Brits & French = disgraced
– US (Ike) have to step into Mid East
– USSR = crush Hungarian uprising as signal to the
world, emerge as viable alternative in Mid East
– Israel = Military might & US support
• Nasser = Champion of the Arab World
• Oil  can be used as a weapon of diplomacy
(foreshadowing)
Domestic Policies  The Economy
• Nationalization of Suez (1956)
• Late 1957:
– Nationalization of remaining
French & British assets in
Egypt
• Aswan Dam
– Hydroelectricity
– Water control
– 1964: 1st stage of construction
completed
– 1970: High Dam project
completed
• 1952 Agrarian Reform Law
– Minimum wage
– Rental rates & lease durations
– Cooperatives
• 5 yr plan
– Heavy industrialization
• Continued under Sadat
• Soviet Investment (Aswan
Dam)
– Cold War Tug of War
• US investment after 6 day war
– Eisenhower Doctrine
Non-Aligned Movement
• 1955: Bandung Conference
• 1961: NAM
– Founders: Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, & Yugoslavia
Goals:
National independence, sovereignty
Territorial integrity
Security of non-aligned countries in their
struggle against  imperialism, colonialism,
racism, foreign aggression, occupation,
domination
United Arab Republic
(Foreign meets Domestic policy)
• Founded in 1958
• Union between Egypt and Syria
President Gamal Abdul Nasser
with Baath Party founders
Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Bitar
in 1958 / Aflaq (left) and Bitar
were prime advocates of the
Syrian-Egyptian Union and
dissolved their party at will for
the sake of the United Arab
Republic (UAR)
Arab-Israeli Wars: A Brief History
• May 14, 1948: State of Israel
declares independence
• Israeli War of Independence/
"al-Nakba" (The Disaster)
(1948-1949)
– Invaded by 6 Arab nations:
Egypt, Syria, Transjordan (later
Jordan), Lebanon, Iraq and
Saudi Arabia
• 1949 Armistice Agreements
– New borders of Israel = 78% of
Mandatory Palestine
• 50% more than originally
anticipated
– Gaza Strip = occupied by Egypt
– West Bank = occupied by
Jordan
Six Day War
• June 5-10, 1967
– Between Israel and an
alliance of Egypt, Syria, and
Jordan
• Egyptian military
posturing
– Preemptive Israeli air strike
• Egypt closed Strait of
Tiran to all Israeli ships
and ships carrying
supplies for Israel (again)
– Legal grounds to go to war
under international law
Israeli Forces
• The Israeli army had a total
strength, including reservists,
of 264,000, though this
number could not be
sustained, as the reservists
were vital to civilian life.
• James Reston, writing in The
New York Times on May 23,
1967, noted
– "In discipline, training, morale,
equipment and general
competence his [Nasser's] army
and the other Arab forces,
without the direct assistance of
the Soviet Union, are no match
for the Israelis.... Even with
50,000 troops and the best of
his generals and air force in
Yemen, he has not been able to
work his way in that small and
primitive country, and even his
effort to help the Congo rebels
was a flop."
Six Day War  Israel Triumphant
• Arab armies = devastated
– Israel gained:
• Sinai Peninsula from Egypt
• West Bank from Jordan
• Golan Heights from Syria
• 1967: UN Resolution 242
– Passed by UNSC
– Called for:
• Return of the territory
seized by Israel
• Recognition of Israel by the
Arab states
• Reaffirmation of the
principle of free navigation
• Future peace and stability
in the region.
1958: 5 Year Plan
February 1958: UAR Declared
(1958-1971)
March 1958: National Assembly
closed
Late 1957: Nationalization of
remaining European assets
Ex. US response to Suez Crisis,
affirmation of renewed in region and
acknowledgment of strategic location,
oil, and Cold War significance
January 1957: US Adopts
Eisenhower Doctrine
July 1956: Nationalization
1956: Nasser Coup
Directions: write the
significance/impacts for
each event
July 1957: National Assembly elections
October 1956-March 1957:
Suez Crisis
June 1956 Constitution
1950s: Free Officers Movement
Name: ________________
Key Events and Impacts in Modern Egyptian History  Nasser and the 1950s
1971: Collapse of the UAR
28 September 1970: Death of Nasser
January 1968: War of Attrition with Israel
(1967-1970)
May 1967: Six Day War
March 1965: Re-elected President (6 yr. term)
1964: President of Non-Aligned Movement, 2nd
NAM conference held in Cairo
(Oct. 1961: confiscated property from “reactionary
capitalists”)
1961: Arab Socialism
October: 1973: Yom Kippur War
October 1970: Anwar Sadat assumes Presidency
(assassinated by fundamentalist army officers in
1981)
July 1970: High Dam completed
November 1967: Accept of UN Resolution 242
1966: Executed Sayyed Qutb, leader of the
Muslim Brotherhood
1964: Aswan Dam – first stage of construction
completed
January 1964: Arab League summit in Cairo
Key Events and Impacts in Modern Egyptian History  From Nasser to Sadat
1950s Free Officers Movement & Coup  1956 Nasser Coup
June 1956
New Constitution
-Islam
-President (6 yrs)
-Universal suffrage
-National Assembly
Wary of more
democratic
measures
benefit of the
bourgeois
March 1958
National Assembly
closed
-UAR declared
July 1956
Suez Canal
Nationalized
October 1956 –
March 1957
Suez Crisis
July 1957
National Assembly
Elections
-Women voted
-Poor underrepresented
Rawya Attiya, in military garb, canvassing the support that
would make her Egypt's first female parliamentarian
(1957)
The man at the tap
Jankowski, James P. Nasser's Egypt, Arab Nationalism, and the United Arab Republic. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner,
2001. Print
Robert Stephens Nasser (1971)
Although afraid of creating a military dictatorship, Nasser and the Free Officers banned opposition parties,
student groups, and trade unions, in hopes of creating a mass movement of the people behind the
Liberation Rally – but Nasser was dismayed to find the masses did not follow the army’s charge, but hung
back as on-lookers.
Anthony Nutting from Nasser (1972)
But at the outset, Nasser’s aims and ambitions were strictly limited to the eviction of the British. Far from
being directed against the throne, his initial object was, so he subsequently told me, to try and put some
stuffing into the king and by creating a military opposition to British imperialism within the army, to strength
Farouk’s resistance to further encroachments on Egypt’s sovereignty. Neither Nasser nor his conspirators
had any love for the king or his palace clique.
Peter Mansfield, A History of the Middle East (1991)
The years 1956-1959 marked the high tide of Nasserism as he seemed to sweep all before him. His appeal
to the Arabs – especially the younger generation, who formed the majority – was overwhelming. They saw
him as a modern Saladin who would unite them in order to drive out the Zionists, the crusaders of the 20th
century. The danger for Nasser was that he was rising expectations which neither he nor Egypt could fulfill.
Said Aburish, Nasser: The Last Arab (2004)
There is no escaping the conclusion that Nasser represented an odd type of dictator. He manifested a need
to be loved. . . which most other dictators do not have. His dictatorship was a mixture of populism and a
need to be accepted as a man of principle.
Anne Alexander’s Nasser (2005)
By the 1952 coup, Nasser’s claim that parliament democracy would return seemed highly unlikely and
Nasser himself claimed “in a year and half we have been able to wipe out corruption. If the right to vote
were restored, the same landowners would be elected – the feudal interest. We don’t want the capitalists
and the wealthy back in power. If we open the government to them now, the revolution might just as well
be forgotten . . .” Despite widespread poverty and illiteracy, Egyptian agriculture was actually highly
capitalized, mechanized and well integrated into the world economy. But the Officers’ campaign struck a
social and emotional chord with millions.
Martin Meredith, The State of Africa (2006)
Yet whatever disasters befell Egypt, Nasser never lost his popularity with the masses. When after the 1967
defeat , he announced his resignation, popular protests propelled him back into office. His reputation as the
man who stripped the old ruling class of their power, nationalized their wealth, booted out foreigners,
restored to Egypt a sense of dignity and self-respect and led the country towards national regeneration – all
of this counted for far more than the setbacks.
Eric Hobsbawm in Revolutionaries (2007)
Although illegal in the use of force, the military takeover was a genuinely innovating military regime of the
type that appear where the necessity of social revolution is evident, where several of the objective
conditions of it are present, but also where the social bases or institutions of civilian life are too feeble to
carry it out. The armed forces, being in some cases, the only available force with the capacity to take and
carry out decisions, may have to take the place of civilian forces, even to the point of turning their officers
into administrators.