Egypt From 1950 till 2011
The Coup of 1952
World War II (1939-1945) suspended further political
bargaining. The war years brought inflation, interparty
strife, and disillusion with the Wafd. Fundamentalist
religious organizations, such as the Muslim Brotherhood,
and Communist groups developed.In 1948 Egypt and several
other Arab states went to war in an unsuccessful attempt
to prevent the establishment of the state of Israel.
Blaming the government for its loss, the army turned
against King Faruk, Fuad's son, who showed no aptitude
for government and a blatant disregard for public
well-being and morality. In 1952 a group of army
officers carried out a successful coup d'etat that
ousted the king and in 1953 declared Egypt a republic.
Egypt as a republic :
The first president of the republic, General Muhammad
Naguib, was a figurehead. The real leader was Gamal
Abdel Nasser of the Revolutionary Command Council, the
officers who had plotted the revolution. In April 1954
Nasser became prime minister. In November of that year,
Naguib was removed from power, and Nasser assumed
complete executive authority. In July 1956 Nasser was
officially elected president.
At first Nasser followed a pro-Western policy and
successfully negotiated the evacuation of British forces
from Egypt in 1954. Soon he turned to a policy of
neutrality and solidarity with other African and Asian
nations and became an advocate of Arab unity.
The Suez Crisis
In efforts to acquire armaments, which the Western world
would not supply to Egypt, Nasser turned to the Eastern
bloc. In retaliation, the World Bank turned down Egypt's
request for a loan to finance the Aswan High Dam
project. Nasser therefore nationalized the Suez Canal
and sought to use its revenues to finance the dam.
Angered by that move, Britain and France, the main
stockholders in the canal, joined with Israel in
attacking Egypt in 1956. Pressure from the United States
and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)
forced the three countries to evacuate Egyptian
territory, and United Nations (UN) forces were placed as
a buffer between Egypt and Israel.
Pursuing his dream of Arab unity, Nasser in 1958
effected a union between Egypt and Syria under the name
of the United Arab Republic. Although it lasted only
three years before the Syrians rebelled and reaffirmed
their independence, Egypt retained the official name of
the republic for many years afterward.
Arab Socialism
Within Egypt the Nasser regime suppressed political
opposition and established a one-party system as a means
of reforming political life. A series of decrees limited
land ownership and undermined the authority of the
landowning elite. In 1961 foreign capital invested in
Egypt was nationalized, as were public utilities and
local industries, all of which became part of the public
sector. This new order, which Nasser called Arab
Socialism, aimed at greater social equality and economic
growth. In 1962 a national charter was drawn up, and the
official National Union Party was renamed the Arab
Socialist Union. Women, who had been emancipated
earlier, were elected to the union, as were workers. The
first woman cabinet minister was appointed.
Wars of the 1960s
In 1962 Egypt became embroiled in a civil war in Yemen,
backing a republican movement against monarchist forces.
This venture cost lives and money and left the country
weakened. In 1967 Nasser, continuing the Arab struggle
against Israel, closed the Strait of Tiran to Israeli
shipping and requested that the UN forces be withdrawn
from the border. The Israelis, believing that Nasser was
preparing for war, struck first, attacking and
destroying Egyptian airfields and positions in the
Sinai. Israeli forces advanced until they reached the
right bank of the Suez Canal. This Six-Day War left
Israel in possession of the whole Sinai Peninsula. The
UN Security Council called for Israeli withdrawal from
occupied territories. Israel Did decline and continued
to occupy the Sinai. When negotiations seemed to be
leading nowhere, Nasser turned to the USSR, which
rearmed Egypt in return for a naval base.Nasser died
suddenly in 1970. Problems of succession to the post of
president were settled when Vice President Anwar
El-Sadat, a long-time colleague of Nasser, was chosen to
succeed him.
The Sadat Regime
Sadat was elected by opposing political factions as a
compromise candidate, on the assumption that he could be
manipulated. The new president, however, outwitted his
would-be puppeteers and, with the support of the army,
put them under arrest. He freed political prisoners who
had been incarcerated by Nasser for opposing his
policies, and called for a regime of economic and
political liberalization, especially for the press,
which Nasser had strictly controlled.
The 6th of october war :
clashes between Egypt and Israel had continued after
1969, and this “war of attrition” had resulted in high
Egyptian casualties and burdensome military
expenditures. Sadat tried to find a way out of that
impress negotiation. successfully he secretly planned a
for a war to free the occupied sinai from Israel. He
first repaired his fences with the Arab states,
especially Saudi Arabia, which financed arms purchases
from the Soviet Union. Then, on October 6, 1973, on the
Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur and during the Muslim holy
month of Ramadan(10th of Ramadan), Egypt launched an air
and artillery counterattack across the Suez Canal.
Within hours, thousands of Egyptian soldiers had
successfully crossed into the Sinai. Protected by a
missile umbrella that destroyed Israeli aircrafts, they
overran and captured the string of Israeli
fortifications known as the Bar-Lev line. Israel was
caught unprepared. It was a total victory . By the
middle of the month, however, with immidate aid from the
united states ,it had regained the initiative and was
able to encircle Egyptian units on the outskirts of
Suez. The United Nations then imposed a cease-fire, and
an armistice line patrolled by UN forces was eventually
established between the Egyptian and the Israeli armies.
peace treaty with Isreal
After the war Sadat was ready for negotiations. In 1974
and 1975 Egypt and Israel concluded agreements—again
mediated by Kissinger—providing disengagement on the
Sinai front. In June 1975 Egypt reopened the Suez Canal,
permitting passage to ships carrying Israeli cargoes.
Israel withdrew beyond the strategic passes and from
some of the oil fields in the Sinai.Meanwhile, Egypt's
economic position was growing rapidly worse; by early
1976 the country's debt to the USSR was estimated at $4
billion. The following year, surprising all, Sadat asked
the Soviet military advisers to leave the country and
threw his lot in with the United States, declaring it
held the key to peace in the Middle East. Even more
surprising, on November 19, 1977, Sadat flew to Israel
and addressed the Knesset (parliament) . The historic
journey was followed by further negotiations under U.S.
auspices. At a tripartite conference with U.S. president
Jimmy Carter at Camp David, Maryland, in September 1978,
Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin agreed
on a framework for an Israeli-Egyptian settlement. A
peace treaty between the two nations, based on the Camp
David accords, was signed in Washington, D.C., on March
26, 1979.

