1. 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.

2. -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)

3. -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.

4. 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.

5. -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 1936. -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.

6. -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 who went into politics as a politician who went into the army.

7. THE FREE OFFICERS’ MOVEMENT -Nasser quickly rose within the army and had been promoted to captain by 1942, when he became involved in what would become the Free Officers’ Movement.

8. -The FOM arose out of frustration with the failure of the King and the government of Egypt to stand up to the British. -Although its members who were army officers, wanted the King to be more assertive, they were also careful to remain royal (the population was mostly pro-monarchist). -The Muslim Brotherhood was also vocal in their opposition to the British, although they supported the King, too. -The ideology of the FOM was fairly moderate or “naïve”: 1. The liquidation of colonialism and the Egyptian traitors who supported it 2.The end of domination of power by wealth 3. The liquidation of feudalism 4. The establishment of social equality 5. The building up of a powerful army 6. The establishment of free elections and a healthy democratic atmosphere

9. POST-WAR EGYPT SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS -Egypt had suffered badly in the economic depression during the 30s and most of its population lived at just above the poverty level. -In an attempt to escape the poverty of the countryside, peasants would go to the cities, where they lived in sprawling slums. -Living conditions were poor and lack of housing led to overcrowding. -Workers’ rights were almost non-existent and trade unions were either controlled by the state or banned. -The gap between the rich and the poor was enormous. -WWII brought some prosperity to Egypt but when it was over, the economy faltered, unemployment increased and there was increasing discontent with the government.

10. POLITICAL CONDITIONS -Demands for complete independence were voiced again. -The prime minister called for a re-negotiation of the Treaty of 1936 with the total withdrawal of the British troops. -There was also a call for unification with Sudan. -The British did not respond enthusiastically to these proposals. -Popular demonstrations broke out and in 1946, at the Abbas Bridge in Cairo, 170 casualties resulted from a clash with police.

11. POST-WAR PALESTINE -The 1948 Palestine war refers to the war that occurred in the former British Mandate for Palestine between the United Nations vote on the partition plan on November 30, 1947, and the official end of the first Arab-Israeli war on July 20, 1949. -Historians divide the war into two phases: -The 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine (sometimes called an "intercommunal war") in which the Jewish and Arab communities of Palestine, supported by the Arab Liberation Army, clashed, while the region was still fully under British rule. -The 1948 Arab–Israeli War after May 15, 1948, marking the end of the British Mandate and the birth of Israel, in which Transjordan, Egypt, Syria and Iraq intervened and sent expeditionary forces that fought the Israeli army.

12. -In Israel, the war is known as War of Independence or War of Liberation, because it saw the birth of the State of Israel. 1948 ARAB-ISRAELI WAR -It was fought between the State of Israel and a military coalition of Arab states and Palestinian Arab forces. -This war was the second stage of the 1948 Palestine war. -Following World War II, on 14 May 1948, the British Mandate of Palestine came to an end. The surrounding Arab nations were also emerging from mandatory rule. -Transjordan, under Abdullah I, gained independence from Britain in 1946 and was called Jordan in 1949, but it remained under heavy British influence. -Egypt, while nominally independent, signed the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 that included provisions by which Britain would maintain a garrison of troops on the Suez Canal.

13. -From 1945 on, Egypt attempted to renegotiate the terms of this treaty. -Lebanon became an independent state in 1943, but French troops would not withdraw until 1946, the same year that Syria won its independence from France. -In 1945, at British prompting, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Transjordan, and Yemen formed the Arab League to coordinate policy between the Arab states. -For Nasser, this first state of war was a formative experience. -The King, it seemed, cared little for the lives of the soldiers, who were ill-equipped and badly led by high-ranking officers. -In 1949, Egypt retreated from a humiliating war. -According to Nasser, the outcome of the war had been decided not on the field of battle but in the corridors of Washington, London and Paris.

14. THE COUP OF 1952 -The British troops continued in Egypt which led to the abrogation of the treaty by the Prime Minister in 1951. -Britain proposed to replace the treaty with a Middle East Defense Organization (MEDO) (Egypt would be a founding member). -Egypt rejected because it saw the intention of the occupation of the canal not by one power but by four (USA, Britain, France and Turkey). -A policy of non-cooperation with the British followed which led to the Black Saturday. -British tanks attacked headquarters of auxiliary police suspected of supporting guerilla fighters. -3 British soldiers, 41 auxiliary policemen were killed, 71 wounded. -Public outrage caused 17 Europeans, 50 Egyptians were killed and 700 buildings were attacked or looted.

15. WHY WAS THE COUP SUCCESSFUL? -Black Saturday showed that there was general discontent among the Egyptian, the King and the government were not confident about using the army to suppress popular demonstration. -The Muslim Brotherhood and the Wafdists agreed not to oppose the coup. -Britain and USA did not oppose the coup and agreed to the removal of King Farouk. -The FOM had the support of General Mohammad Naguib who was well-known and had the support of the population. -The king, seen as corrupt and decadent, did not have the support of the people. -The population welcomed a government they hoped would finally removed the British occupation, improve social and economic conditions and restore national pride.