Today marks 69 years since the eruption of 1952 Revolution, The Egyptian army moved to protect the country, the 23 July Revolution, which turned the country from a hereditary monarchy into a republic, sending waves of change across the Middle East and Africa.
After the 1948 war and the loss of Palestine, the Free Officers Movement appeared in the Egyptian army led by Major General Mohammed Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt’s Free Officers Movement, accused the King, who had been the leader of the Armed Forces, of corruption, through providing defective weapons and munitions to the army.
On 23 July 1952, a group of ambitious Egyptian army officers led by a young Gamal Abdel-Nasser and veteran General Mohamed Naguib forced King Farouk I to abdicate the throne to his son, infant Crown Prince Ahmed II.
Naguib was appointed as the first Egyptian president and also headed the Cabinet, while Abdel Nasser took the post of the interior minister and then the head of the government. In November, 1954, the Revolutionary Command Council relieved Naguib from all posts. Abdel Nasser then became president in 1956.
The young officers and their movement turned Egyptian society upside down with their political and economic changes. Despite its many ups and downs, the 23 July Revolution has survived as the mother of the modern Egyptian republic.
Gains and challenges
After the Revolution, many historic procedures were taken in the political, economic and diplomatic realms, including land reform procedures, through taking agriculture lands from the rich landowners, who controlled most of the lands, and handing them to poor peasants.
One of the gains of the revolution too, included signing a treaty with Britain in 1954 to withdraw its forces from the Suez Canal. In 1956, Nasser announced nationalizing the British-French Suez Canal company, which had operated the canal, as a response to US and Britain’s rejection to fund the establishment of the Aswan High Dam in Upper Egypt, due to Egypt’s recognition of China at the time.
President Jamal Abdoulayeh succeeded in forming a political union between Egypt and Syria In 1958, was formed under the name of the “United Arab Republic” with a unified Parliament. However, the union was demolished following a coup d’etat in 1961.
Late in 1956, Egypt was invaded by the “tripartite aggression” of Israel, UK and France, to regain control on the Suez Canal and overthrow Nasser following his nationalization announcement and due to Egypt’s support to the Algerian revolt against the French occupation. The reasons of the war, known also as the “Suez Crisis,” also included Egypt’s import of weapons from the Soviet Union to fight Israel, after the US refused to sell weapons to Egypt.
The tripartite aggression failed to last for many firm reasons. After the aggression, the Soviet Union threatened to intervene to support Egyptians and attack London and Paris with nuclear weapons. Also, the US called on the forces of the three occupiers to withdraw, as a result of the Soviet Union’s threats. The United Nations also played a role as it threatened to impose sanctions on the three nations.
Abdel Nasser's most difficult challenge was when a war between Israel in 1967 against Egypt, Jordan and Syria together, ended in six days after Israel occupied Egypt’s Sinai, Palestine’s Gaza Strip and West Bank and Syria’s Golan and destroyed most of the Arab military equipment there. All these parts are still occupied until now except Sinai.
Because of the «triple aggression», Abdel Nasser decided to resign but reversed his decision after massive protests urged him to remain in power.
Before the 1973 victory against Israel and liberation of Sinai, Nasser died, while Egypt's economy at the time was stronger than that of South Korea, Al-Ahram reported, with a surplus of hard currency that exceeded $250 million, according to the World