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Kingdom of Egypt | |||||||||
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1922–1953 | |||||||||
Anthem: "Eslami ya Misr" (1923–1936) Royal anthem: "Salam Affandina" (1936–1953) | |||||||||
Status | Independent Kingdom | ||||||||
Capital and largest city | Cairo | ||||||||
Common languages | Arabic (official)[1] | ||||||||
Religion | Sunni Islam | ||||||||
Demonym(s) | Egyptian | ||||||||
Government | Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy | ||||||||
King | |||||||||
• 1922–1936 | Fuad I | ||||||||
• 1936–1952 | Farouk I | ||||||||
• 1952–1953 | Fuad II a | ||||||||
British High Commissioner | |||||||||
• 1922–1925 | Edmund Allenby | ||||||||
• 1925–1929 | George Lloyd | ||||||||
• 1929–1933 | Percy Loraine | ||||||||
• 1933–1936 | Miles Lampson | ||||||||
Prime Minister | |||||||||
• 1922 (first) | Abdel Khaliq Sarwat Pasha | ||||||||
• 1952–1953 (last) | Mohamed Naguibb | ||||||||
Legislature | Parliament | ||||||||
Senate | |||||||||
Chamber of Deputies | |||||||||
Historical era | Interwar period / World War II / Cold War / Palestine War | ||||||||
• Independence from the United Kingdom | 28 February 1922 | ||||||||
• Sultan Fuad I becomes King Fuad I | 15 March 1922 | ||||||||
19 April 1923 | |||||||||
27 August 1936 | |||||||||
24 October 1945 | |||||||||
1948–49 (May–March) | |||||||||
23 July 1952 | |||||||||
• Abdication of King Farouk, and ascension of King Fuad II | 26 July 1952 | ||||||||
18 June 1953 | |||||||||
Area | |||||||||
• Total | 3,700,000 km2 (1,400,000 sq mi) | ||||||||
1937[2] | 994,000 km2 (384,000 sq mi) | ||||||||
Population | |||||||||
• 1927[2] | 14,218,000 | ||||||||
• 1937[2] | 15,933,000 | ||||||||
19,090,447 | |||||||||
Currency | Egyptian pound | ||||||||
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Today part of | Egypt Sudan South Sudan Libya (land ceded) | ||||||||
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History of Egypt |
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Egypt portal |
The Kingdom of Egypt (Arabic: المملكة المصرية, romanized: Al-Mamlaka Al-Miṣreyya, lit. 'The Egyptian Kingdom') was the legal form of the Egyptian state during the latter period of the Muhammad Ali dynasty's reign, from the United Kingdom's recognition of Egyptian independence in 1922 until the abolition of the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan in 1953 following the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. Until the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936, the Kingdom was only nominally independent, as the United Kingdom retained control of foreign relations, communications, the military, and Sudan. Officially, Sudan was governed as a condominium of the two states, however, in reality, true power in Sudan lay with the United Kingdom. Between 1936 and 1952, the United Kingdom continued to maintain its military presence, and its political advisers, at a reduced level.
The legal status of Egypt had been highly convoluted, due to its de facto breakaway from the Ottoman Empire in 1805, its occupation by Britain in 1882, and the re-establishment of the Sultanate of Egypt (destroyed by the Ottomans in 1517) as a British protectorate in 1914. In line with the change in status from sultanate to kingdom, the title of the reigning Sultan, Fuad I, was changed from Sultan of Egypt to King of Egypt. Throughout the Kingdom's existence, Sudan was formally united with Egypt. However, actual Egyptian authority in Sudan was largely nominal due to United Kingdom's role as the dominant power in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. As had been the case during the Khedivate of Egypt, and the Sultanate of Egypt, the Egyptian monarch was styled as the sovereign of "Egypt and Sudan".
During the reign of King Fuad, the monarchy struggled with the Wafd Party, a broadly based nationalist political organisation strongly opposed to British influence in Egypt, and with the British themselves, who were determined to maintain their control over the Suez Canal. Other political forces emerging in this period included the Communist Party (1925), and the Muslim Brotherhood (1928), which eventually became a potent political and religious force.
King Fuad died in 1936, and the throne passed to his 16-year-old son, Farouk. Rising nationalist sentiment in Egypt and Sudan, and British concern following Fascist Italy's recent invasion of Abyssinia led to the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936, which required the United Kingdom to withdraw all troops from Egypt proper (excluding Sudan), except in the Suez Canal Zone (agreed to be evacuated by 1949), but permitted the return of British military personnel in the event of war. The Kingdom was plagued by corruption, and its subjects saw it as a puppet of the British, notwithstanding the bitter enmity between King Farouk and the United Kingdom during the Second World War, as evidenced by the Abdeen Palace incident of 1942. This, coupled with the defeat in the Palestine War of 1948–1949, led to the 1952 Egyptian Revolution by the Free Officers Movement. Farouk abdicated in favour of his infant son Ahmed Fuad, who became King Fuad II. In 1953 the monarchy was abolished, and the Republic of Egypt was established. The legal status of Sudan was only resolved in 1953, when Egypt and United Kingdom agreed that it should be granted independence in 1956.