Egypt

**Egypt**, or officially the Sultanate of Egypt is a powerful constitutional monarchy, ruled by Fuad I, and is situated in North Africa. The country has been through immense growth and industrial development since the Cairo War, and is seen as a force to be reckoned with by many of its neighbors. Tensions along the Libyan-Egyptian border have grown, as Egypt continually makes no effort to hide their distain for colonialism in North Africa and persistently calls for a pan-Arab union with their neighbors, to the dismay of Italy.

## Prelude To The Modern Situation

In 1905, the Kingdom of Arabia swiftly conquered the remaining tribes and states in Central Arabia , including the city Riyadh. Just a mere 14 days after the region has been quickly annexed into the Kingdom, the British Empire sent a personal ultimatum to Hussein bin Ali. In the ultimatum, it gave him a 2 week notice for the Arab forces to evacuate part of the Najran and Eastern Province recently taken over by Hashemite forces, or face a naval embargo and a forceful pull-out of British assets from the country. Hussein was worried over what this could mean if he did not give the order to evacuate from the area. Fearing a possible war or a forced pull-out of British assets in the country, 8 days later he ordered his men to evacuate the claimed regions, letting it become annexed into the British Empire who were still expanding in the peninsula.

However, Hussein and his government would only find out years later, specifically in 1910 that any threats made by the ultimatum were bluffs. The British empire had begun to rely more and more on the Arabs for their natural resources 8n their country, and the British were not willing to risk a war or even an embargo, but knew the Hashemites relied more on the British than the British relied on the Arabs. As the Kingdom had been based on pan-Arabism, this was a humiliation that was felt years after, even before it was seen that the ultimatum was a bluff for the British to expand without getting their hands dirty.

Hussein wanted revenge as did the rest of the country. Instead of going on an anti-British crusade however, he instead opted for internal damage, by secretly promoting anti-British nationalism in their colonies, specially those on the southern Arab peninsula and in Egypt, the prize possession of their empire. By promoting nationalism, the British could see their grip weaken on their colonies, hopefully to the point of a full scale rebellion taking place. From 1910 and onward, Hussein involved himself in many secret projects in British Arabia and Egypt.

Many projects included pan-Arab books promoting nationalism, anti-British pamphlets and propaganda. Many books and papers were published in Arabia then secretly taken into the British colonies. Overall, this project became a widespread success. In Egypt specifically, once the papers reached into the colony, there was no way of maintaining them. Illegal presses would continually re-print anything that was sent through the border. Due to this influx of pan-Arab and anti-British literature, art etc. many nationalistic Egyptians started to gain a platform within their country and pressured the British to give Egypt independence. And as the empire used more violence to crack down on separatist actions, many Egyptians began to believe in the cause of a free and independent Egypt.

As the 1910s continued, unrest spread throughout Egypt and British Arabia. Strikes, protests, walk outs etc. all began to be common place after 1913. Such as the 1915 “Masri Incident” where an Egyptian nationalist bombed the Egyptian Museum, causing the entire building to collapse as he heard some British generals were visiting the museum as the time, but no British official or general had been found in the rubble.

## The 1917 Revolution

In late May of 1917, for example as the Great War had been ongoing for 1 year, Egyptian nationalists, who were a part of the increasing popular “National Liberation Party” staged a violent protest in Port Said, calling for a revolution and an end to the British occupiers. Not wanting to deal with unrest in their colonies yet again just after the end of the Great War, the British forces stationed in the city were given the orders to use no mercy and to arrest anyone participating. As hundreds of people were arrested within a couple of days, a riot spread into Cairo within 1 week of the original protests in Port Said. As the rioters became more violent, several British soldiers were given the order to fire on the crowd if they try to “overstep”. 1 hour later the first shot was fired on an unnamed 12 years old Egyptian child. He was never identified, nor was it known why he was in the middle of the riots, but needles to say upon seeing the child shot by colonial troops, the mob turned fully violent. They began to find any soldier they could find and brutally assault them, usually resulting in their deaths.

In a matter of weeks riots and violence spread to every major Egyptian city with no sign of progress slowing down. Seeing the situation and how it may unfold, the British government in September of 1917 folded, and ended Egypt’s status as a direct colony of the British crown. Riots in Egypt soon died down afterward, but celebrations were short lived. The presence of the British army was still in the country, and the British still held vast amounts of influence, as well as directly maintained the hold of the Suez Canal. Public opinion of the British empire slightly softened but after 1917 as the situation seemed to remain the same public opinion deeply soured. It seemed that the wanted revolution had died down, only for a new revolution to be born in the immediate aftermath of the 1917 protests.

Egyptian separatist parties exploded in popularity in this short amount of time as well. By 1919, everyone including the British were keenly aware of the new situation developing in Egypt, but felt as though the Egyptians were not capable of a full-scale revolution. All of this would change in May of 1919.

## The Egyptian Strike and The Cairo War

In the early morning of the 19th of May, in a surprising move, National Liberation Party of Egypt stormed the Mosque of Mohammad Ali, vowing to put an end to the current Egyptian government and install a fully independent regime. British forces, weary of being the cause of a new revolution once again, hoped to persuade the forces of the NLPE to leave the building to which they refused and shortly after the British general stationed in Cairo gave a warning, to leave the mosque within the hour or face the brunt of British troops. They chose to face the brunt of British troops and soon they stormed the building. The public quickly caught wind of the story, and it became a National news story, with many Egyptians awaiting to the fate of the people in the NLPE. The NLPE when storming the building had left most everything intact and didn’t desecrate the mosque, but chose to fight the British army in the mosque. And so when it came out that the British army ruined and destroyed the inside of the mosque, it was yet another last straw for the Egyptian people. Over 3 hours over 100 Egyptians gathered outside of the mosque with the British army still inside with any weapons they found, and let themselves loose on the British army. Demonstrations, strikes and riots reappeared in every major Egyptian city once again, a repeat to 1917. This time, the British were not willing to make any sacrifices to the Egyptians, and ignored their chants for independence. Receiving no word from the British government, the protestors, demonstrations and rioters grew more agitated and more angry.

Months later, the new Egyptian Revolution would begin, as thousands of Egyptians, aided by the NLPE helped force out any British or British aligned forces from Cairo, proclaiming a new Sultanate of Egypt. The then ruler of British Egypt, Abbas II of the Muhammad Ali dynasty was forced to flee to Alexandria to escape being captured and possibly tortured. Despite his efforts, the Egyptian people collectively turned against him, seeing him as a puppet for the British colonists. Seizing the opportunity, Abbas's relative, known as Fuad I denounced Abbas to garner public support for the people. Since the past 2 years Fuad had been openly supportive of the Egyptian cause, and shortly after the proclamation of the new Egypt, Fuad was placed on the throne as the first Sultan of Egypt. As the rebellion grew over the course of 1 month, the British Empire was continually sabotaged within British Egypt, making it very difficult to supply the army stationed there and send in reinforcements.

In October of the same year, to aid the pan-Arab revolution, the Kingdom of Arabia officially declared war on the United Kingdom, ushering in the Cairo War. After July, the whole of Egypt had been occupied, including the Suez Canal, which would later be partitioned between the Hashemite Kingdom and nationalist Egypt. However, the Egyptians and Arabs were fearful of British retaliation, especially from the immensely powerful Royal Navy. In a secret meeting in Naples, the Treaty of Naples was signed, granting Italy special rights with Arab over oil trading, and it gave Italy parts of Egyptian Libya that the Egyptian army currently occupied if they joined in the war. The Italian government in August declared war against the Empire as well, also hoping to annex Cyprus and Malta to counter British navy dominance in the Mediterranean. The Egyptian state had adopted very nationalistic anti-colonial policies, and as such claimed the land of Sudan. Egyptian forces however were not able to counter the growing reinforcements at the Egypt-Sudan border, and so there had been a stalemate for quite some time. In November Abyssinia joined in the anti-British crusade as Italy promised them the Berbera port if they participated in the war effort. Abyssinia entering the war forced the British to redirect some of their forces from the border, allowing the Egyptians to break through. The British could not counter this military incursion and many divisions were entrapped and forced to surrender. 4 days after the stalemate broke, Egyptian forces entered into Khartoum with little resistance, and soon the rest of Sudan fell.

With the rest of the war front, now centered in British Uganda and Kenya in Africa stabilizing and becoming a stalemate, the Egyptians didn't really participate in the remainder of the war effort. They had no interest in pushing south, and the British practically left that border underdefended due to other fronts needing more men. Until 1920, the rest of Egyptian society went on as usual, as the new government began to rebalance the country. A new motto and flag was adopted, and a new constitution quickly went under development. By the end of the Cairo War in 1920, the Egyptian delegates in Valletta were able to receive exactly what they wanted: a free, independent Egypt free from the clutches of the United Kingdom, as well as recognition of their claims and annexation in Sudan. The only problem that came out of the war, was the partition of the Suez Canal which severely hindered Egyptian-Hashemite relations as the Egyptians obviously wanted the canal to themselves only.

## A New Way Forward, 1920-1935

The new constitution had been drafted and ratified by April of 1921, and so began a new period for Egyptian history. Fuad I originally had plans to negotiate an alliance with the Hashemites, but after seeing their sheer stubbornness at wanting part of the Suez Canal, Egyptian-Hashemite relations were rocky for the rest of the 1920s. Although Italy and Egypt momentarily teamed up against the United Kingdom, now that the war had been over, Egyptian-Italian relations would be heavily damaged by the constant intervention by Egypt. Italy quickly caught on that Egypt was aiding various Libyan separatist groups, and for that Italy revoked its ambassadors to the country and indefinitely suspended relations with them as well. Not that Egypt had cared very much, as they knew all too well of European empires looking for any land to take over. For the time, Egypt was secured.

From the Treaty of Valletta, British assets were forcibly forked over to the Egyptian government. British businesses were forced to close, British business men and any wealthy people from the island nation had to give over any and all assets, leaving thousands of people without jobs or money to support themselves. The British people of the country were forced to start all over without any aid from their government, and to this day remain very bitter over the outcome of the regime's government. English, French and other European languages were highly discouraged as most school curriculum in the country banned the teaching of any language from Europe.

One problem, was the Coptic community in the country. As nationalistic sentiment was the norm in Egypt, many saw the English, and by extension Christianity as something evil, used to assimilate the Egyptian people as subjects. After the Cairo War, the Coptic community faced heavy backlash, despite most of the community members openly denouncing the United Kingdom. Attacks became frequent on the community, but a particularly violent clash, which involved a 15 year old Copt boy dead by nationalistic, pan-Islamic Egyptians had disgusted Fuad, who 2 days later announced his support for the Coptic community, condemning any anti-Coptic sentiment, and furthermore announced his plans to give the church more autonomy within the country.

The Great Crash had severely impacted the young state, especially as it was booming, despite economic decay much of the world was facing. Many workers were laid off and many more saw their situation vastly deteriorate. Unrest grew throughout the country as strikes and protests across Alexandria and Cairo called for change from the government. After seeing government responses in Germany and Argentina, Fuad was very cautious to not worsen the situation. Instead, he was willing to make change in the society to quell the protests and disgruntled workers. He began to empower unions to an extend while also granting many rights to workers, reducing the work week, and officially, implemented a minimum wage within the country. His reforms were quite effective, and, after the expansion of the state in 1928, Egypt would recover from the Great Crash by 1934.

In 1928, the fragile Hashemite Kingdom of Arabia fell into civil war, with the ultra-nationalist Ikwan Junta, to the socialist democratic Medina Rebel Army, the Hashemite Kingdom had fallen into revolution quite quickly, and its cities quickly became warzones. Importantly, wanting to avoid any conflict, the Governance of the Levant ceded from the Kingdom. Ironically, it was this decision that would lead to war within the country. Due to the Hashemite protection gone from the Levant, it gave Egypt an opportunity to retake the Suez Canal and the Sinai. On March 11th, 1929, Egyptian forces quickly punched into Levantine territory. Without even proper militias formed, the Governance was unable to protect itself, and Egypt remained unopposed as it retook the Suez and Sinai. After 3 days the operation was a success, and Egypt was fully unified. With the entire Suez Canal in the Egyptian grasp, excessive income and profit from trading and controlling the canal also increased their recovery rate from the Great Crash and many companies were able to make a recovery from then on.