Kingdom of Egypt

Kingdom of Egypt
المملكة المصرية (Arabic)
Al-Mamlaka Al-Miṣreyya
1922–1953
Anthem: "Eslami ya Misr" (1923–1936)
Royal anthem: "Salam Affandina" (1936–1953)
Green: Kingdom of Egypt Lighter green: Condominium of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan Lightest green: Ceded from Sudan to Italian Libya in 1934.
Green: Kingdom of Egypt
Lighter green: Condominium of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
Lightest green: Ceded from Sudan to Italian Libya in 1934.
StatusIndependent Kingdom
Capital
and largest city
Cairo
Common languagesArabic (official)[1]
Religion
Sunni Islam
Demonym(s)Egyptian
GovernmentUnitary 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
LegislatureParliament
Senate
Chamber of Deputies
Historical eraInterwar period / World War II / Cold War / Palestine War
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
• 1947 census[3]
19,090,447
CurrencyEgyptian pound
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Sultanate of Egypt
Republic of Egypt
Today part ofEgypt
Sudan
South Sudan
Libya (land ceded)
  1. Under regency.
  2. Became first President of Egypt.

The Kingdom of Egypt (Arabic: المملكة المصرية, romanizedAl-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.

  1. ^ Article 149 of the 1923 Constitution.
  2. ^ a b c Bonné, Alfred (2003) [First published 1945]. The Economic Development of the Middle East: An Outline of Planned Reconstruction after the War. The International Library of Sociology. London: Routledge. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-415-17525-8. OCLC 39915162. Retrieved 2010-07-09.
  3. ^ Shousha, Aly Tewfik (1948). "Cholera Epidemic in Egypt (1947)". Bulletin of the World Health Organization. 1 (2): 371. ISSN 0042-9686. PMC 2553924. PMID 20603928.