THE ANGLO-EGYPTIAN TREATY OF It was a treaty signed between the UK and the Kingdom of Egypt; it is officially known as The Treaty of Alliance Between His Majesty, in Respect of the United Kingdom, and His Majesty, the King of Egypt. - Under the terms of the treaty, the United Kingdom was required to withdraw all its troops from Egypt, except those necessary to protect the Suez Canal and its surroundings, numbering 10,000 troops plus 400 Royal Air Force pilots in the Suez Canal Zone until the Egyptians should be capable of protecting the area. - The UK would supply and train Egypt's army and assist in its defense in case of war. The treaty was to last for 20 years. - It permitted Great Britain to retain its naval base at Alexandria for a maximum of eight years. Further, a British ambassador to Egypt replaced the former high commissioner.

-It was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on 6 January, It allowed Egypt to become member of the LON. -Among the pretexts for the treaty was the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, which had started in The 1936 treaty did not resolve the question of Sudan, which, under the terms of the existing Anglo-Egyptian Condominium Agreement of 1899, stated that Sudan should be jointly governed by Egypt and Britain, real power remained in British hands, but it permitted Egyptian troops to be stationed in Sudan. -The treaty however, was not welcomed by Egyptian nationalists like the Arab Socialist Party, who wanted full independence from Britain. -It ignited a wave of demonstrations against the British and the Wafd Party, which had supported the treaty.

-After the treaty had been signed, the Egyptian government assumed full administrative control over its armed forces and began to admit into the military academy a wider group of Egyptians, which allowed individuals such as future prime minister and president of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser to join the officer corps. -King Farouk succeeded his uncle King Fuad after his death and shortly after the treaty had been signed.

EGYPT AND WWII A STATE OF LIMITED INDEPENDENCE - WWII began in 1938, and the European conflict spread to North Africa in 1940 when Italian forces attacked Egypt. -German reinforcements drove the British back to El Alamein before the siege was lifted in 1943.

-Many Egyptians supported the Germans in the hope that they would finally get rid of the British. -However, a political crisis in 1942, led to the British High Commissioner, sir Miles Lampson, to insist that King Farouk appoint the Wafdist, pro-British Nahas Pasha as Prime Minister. -The government protested that this act challenged the independence of Egypt. -British tanks surrounded the palace and the king was forced either to agree or abdicate. (Abdin Palace coup)

-This episode humiliated the king and gave the impression that the Wafdist were no more than puppets of the British. -Was Egypt a sovereign state or a British colony? -That was the question asked by a group of army officers, including Gamal Abdel Nasser. -In 1945 Egypt declared war on Germany and Japan, partially in order to gain a seat in the UN. -The declaration of war was widely disliked and resulted in the assassination of the Prime Minister Aly Maher by a young nationalist lawyer. -There was considerable frustration at being independent theoretically, but in practice still subject to a domineering Britain.

NASSER’S EARLY YEARS -Hewas born on 15 January 1918 in Bakos, Alexandria, Egypt. -He was the first son of Fahima and Abdel Nasser and was later followed by two brothers, Izz al-Arab and al-Leithi. -Due to his father's work, the family traveled frequently. In 1921, they moved to Asyut and later in 1923 to Khatatba, where Abdel Nasser Hussein ran a post office. -Gamal attended a primary school for the children of railway employees until he was sent in 1924 to live with his paternal uncle, Khalil Hussein, in Cairo, and attend the Nahhasin elementary school. -Gamal exchanged letters with his mother and visited her on holidays. He stopped receiving messages at the end of April 1926.

-When Gamal returned to Khatatba, he learned that his mother had died after giving birth to his third brother Shawki and his family had kept it from him. - According to most of his biographers, Nasser adored his mother and the injury of her death deepened when his father remarried before the year ended. -His ambition was to join the army, a career that had become possible for a young man from a humble background only after the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of His 1 st application was unsuccessful due to the lack of social connections still required of the well less-off or perhaps he had a police record from when he was arrested in 1936 for participating in an anti-British demonstration.

-Before he made another application, he approached the Secretary of State, Ibrahim Kheiry Pasha, who gave him his support. -Nasser was a man who devoured books on military strategies and the lives of warriors from Alexander The Great to Napoleon. -According to Robert Stephens Nasser was not so much a soldier ho went into politics as a politician who went into the army.