Egyptian Revolution and Nasser

On July 23, 1952, a group of army officers calling themselves the Free Officers seize power in Cairo in a nearly bloodless coup. Three days later King Farouk abdicates and leaves Egypt. General Muhammad Naguib is made head of the government, and in 1953 Egypt becomes a republic. Gamal Abdel Nasser, the real leader of the group, pushes Naguib aside in 1954 and becomes president in 1956.¹²³

Egypt was formally independent from 1922, but British troops still occupied the Suez Canal zone and the monarchy was seen as corrupt and subservient to Britain. Egypt's army was shamed by its defeat in the 1948 war with the new State of Israel, a defeat that many officers blamed on bad weapons and bad leadership. Anger exploded in January 1952 when riots burned much of central Cairo, and the officers moved six months later.²

Nasser carried out land reform, limiting holdings to 200 feddans, and built a one-party state. He negotiated British withdrawal in 1954, nationalized the Suez Canal in July 1956, and survived the invasion that followed because the United States and Soviet Union pressed Britain, France and Israel to withdraw. He became the hero of Arab nationalism, merged Egypt with Syria in the short-lived United Arab Republic in 1958 and backed revolutions across the region. The 1967 Six-Day War, in which Israel destroyed Egypt's air force and took Sinai, shattered his project. Nasser died in 1970, and the officers' republic outlasted him.¹²