Africa · Independence and the modern states
Republic of Egypt
Republic · 1953–1957
The Republic of Egypt was proclaimed on 18 June 1953, formally abolishing the Muhammad Ali monarchy after the Free Officers Movement — led by Muhammad Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser — had seized power in the coup of 23 July 1952 and forced King Farouk's abdication.
- Type
- Republic
- Existed
- 1953–1957
- Shown on the map
- 1953–1957
- Peak area
- 995k km²
- Region
- Africa
Overview
The Republic of Egypt was proclaimed on 18 June 1953, formally abolishing the Muhammad Ali monarchy after the Free Officers Movement — led by Muhammad Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser — had seized power in the coup of 23 July 1952 and forced King Farouk's abdication. Egypt, a civilisation-state of the Nile with five millennia of pharaonic, Greco-Roman, Islamic, and Ottoman history, had been a de jure independent kingdom since 1922 but remained under heavy British influence, especially around the Suez Canal; the corruption, defeat in the 1948 Palestine war, and the anti-British riots of January 1952 destroyed the monarchy's legitimacy.
Decline and legacy
The new republic was a military-dominated state: political parties were banned, land reform broke up large estates, and a mass programme of education and industrialisation began. Naguib served as first president but was outmanoeuvred and placed under house arrest in 1954 by Nasser, who became the unchallenged leader and formal president in 1956. The defining events of the period were the 1954 agreement ending the Anglo-Egyptian condominium over Sudan (which became independent on 1 January 1956), the final British evacuation of the Suez Canal Zone in June 1956, and Nasser's nationalisation of the Suez Canal Company on 26 July 1956, which triggered the Suez Crisis: Israel, Britain, and France invaded in October 1956 but were forced to withdraw by American and Soviet pressure, leaving Nasser the hero of the Arab world. Domestically the period saw the consolidation of a populist, secular, pan-Arab authoritarian state; Islam is the official religion and Arabic the official language of an overwhelmingly Muslim society with a significant Coptic Christian minority. In February 1958 Egypt merged with Syria into the United Arab Republic, formally ending the "Republic of Egypt" label, though Syria seceded in 1961 and Egypt retained the UAR name until 1971. Egypt subsequently fought Israel in 1967 and 1973, made peace at Camp David under Sadat, endured Mubarak's long rule, the 2011 revolution, and since 2014 has been governed by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as Africa's second-largest economy and a major regional power.
Common questions
- What was the Republic of Egypt?
- The Republic of Egypt was proclaimed on 18 June 1953, formally abolishing the Muhammad Ali monarchy after the Free Officers Movement — led by Muhammad Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser — had seized power in the coup of 23 July 1952 and forced King Farouk's abdication.
- When did the Republic of Egypt exist?
- The Republic of Egypt existed 1953–1957. On this map it is drawn 1953–1957.
- How large was the Republic of Egypt?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Republic of Egypt covered about 995,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
- How did the Republic of Egypt end?
- The new republic was a military-dominated state: political parties were banned, land reform broke up large estates, and a mass programme of education and industrialisation began. Naguib served as first president but was outmanoeuvred and placed under house arrest in 1954 by Nasser, who became the unchallenged leader and formal president in 1956.
Sources
Every source below was consulted while writing this entry.
- Wikipedia — Egypt en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt
This entry was written from the sources above and last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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