5.1.1 Egypt: Crisis and Revolution - Part 1

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From the course by Tel Aviv University

The Emergence of the Modern Middle East - Part II

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Tel Aviv University

The Emergence of the Modern Middle East - Part II

248 ratings

This course will discuss the developments in the Middle East from the early 20th century to the present. It will discuss the rise and retreat of Arab nationalism, the problems of internal cohesion of the Arab states, issues of religion and state, and the evolution of Islamist politics. It will also focus on the evolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict and its impact on the region and will conclude with an in depth analysis of the “Arab Spring” by placing these contemporary revolutionary events in their historical context. Please note that this course builds upon a previous course - The Emergence of the Modern Middle East - Part I Learn about the history of the Middle East for a deeper understanding of current regional developments!

From the lesson

WEEK 1

Independence and revolutionary politics in the Arab world

V. Arab Independence and Revolution1:48

5.1.1 Egypt: Crisis and Revolution - Part 18:25

5.1.2 Egypt: Crisis and Revolution - Part 26:21

5.2.1 Iraq from the Overthrow of the Hashemites to Saddam Hussein - Part 18:18

5.2.2 Iraq from the Overthrow of the Hashemites to Saddam Hussein - Part 27:29

5.3.1 Syria's Prolonged Instability - Part 18:29

5.3.2 Syria's Prolonged Instability - Part 28:15

5.4.1 Lebanon's Civil Wars - Part 17:28

5.4.2 Lebanon's Civil Wars - Part 29:55

5.5. The Surprising Stability of the Arab Monarchies3:37

5.5.1.1 The Surprising Stability of the Arab Monarchies: Jordan - Part 19:06

5.5.1.2 The Surprising Stability of the Arab Monarchies: Jordan - Part 27:57

5.5.2 The Surprising Stability of the Arab Monarchies: Saudi Arabia8:13

5.6 The Arab Cold War2:16

Meet the Instructors

Professor Asher Susser
Senior Research Fellow
Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies

So let's begin with Egypt,

crisis and revolution in Egypt.

In 1936 Egypt and

Great Britain, after long years of failed negotiations, signed a treaty of alliance.

Egypt was now formally an independent state,

though with a special association with Britain which allowed for the British to

maintain a military presence in the canal zone for twenty years.

And, in the event of a war,

Egypt's facilities would be available to the British.

Now that relations with the British were on the back burner,

Egypt could turn inwards and to begin to look at Egypt's domestic politics.

In 1938, two very important books were published in Egypt.

One, by Mirrit Butrus Ghali, Siyasat al-Ghad,

which means The Politics of Tomorrow.

The other, by Hasfiz Afifi, Ala Hamish al-slyasa,

On the Margins of Politics Both of these books dealt

with Egypt's socioeconomic difficulties.

And they included a pessimistic forecast on population growth, and

the dire consequences in the event of insufficient economic development.

Egypt's population, in 1900, was 10 million.

In 1937, it had reached 16 million.

And 20 million were forecast for 1957.

But in fact, Egypt reached that number already in 1949.

And presently the population of Egypt is 85 million and

growing by about one million people a year.

Egypt suffered from a growing gap between resources and population.

These experts in the 1930s called for

essential and rapid economic development to keep up with population growth.

But in practice, nothing much was really done about it.

And the Egyptian economy remained stagnant and

hardly kept up with the growth rate of population.

Faltering modernization led in the 1930s to an era Islamic revival.

And if we recall from our earlier discussions on Egypt,

in the 1920s there had been an attack on tradition.

But in the 1930s, there was a noticeable retreat even by some of

the very same intellectuals who had waged the attack on tradition themselves.

The Muslim brotherhood's great appeal, calling for the modernization of Egypt in

accordance with the sharia became a very dominant facet of Egyptian politics.

It is interesting to note

that the Muslim Brotherhood was not opposed to modernization.

What the Muslim Brotherhood was calling for was a modernization that would be in

accordance with Islamic tradition, not to abandon the one for the other.

The Brotherhood's appeal was very popular and it effectively

organized in a country-wide network of branches and paramilitary groups.

It developed its own economic ventures and networks of social services.

And the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has a membership in the 1940s of hundreds

of thousands and a following of millions.

There was no grass roots mass movement like the Muslim Brethren

anywhere in the region.

As of the 1920s Egypt had had a problem of political violence which was quite common.

Political parties tended to have paramilitary organizations.

The Muslim Brotherhood had a paramilitary organization and

other political parties tended to have one as well.

After 1945 political violence became endemic in Egypt as the Muslim Brotherhood

took a leading role in political assassinations of its Egyptian rivals and

actions against the British presence in Egypt.

In December 1948, no doubt influenced by the war in Palestine,

after a spat of violence against foreign, Jewish and

government targets the Prime Minister of Egypt,

Mahumud al-Nuqrashi ordered the dissolution of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Nuqrashi was assassinated later in December by the Brotherhood, followed

by the assassination of the Brotherhood leader, Hasan al-Banna in February 1949,

no doubt inspired, or ordered by the government.

The continuing chaos into the early 1950s

with Egyptian governments finding it increasingly difficult to assert control

became part and parcel of the Egyptian political reality.

When in 1952 the government called in the Army to restore order,

the stage was set for the coup d'état of the 23rd of July 1952 which

brought the army to power in Egypt.

This was the beginning of a new revolutionary era not only in Egypt, but

in the region as a whole.

This was the end of the monarchy in Egypt and King Faruq,

who had succeeded King Fuad in 1936 abdicated a few days after the coup.

And the monarchy was finally abolished a year later and Egypt became a republic.

In 1954, the new regime signed the final agreement with Britain on withdrawal.

And the British were out of Egypt by 1955,

making Egypt at long last a truly independent country.

Who were these officers who engineered the coup of 1952?

They were members of what was to become the new ruling class and

this was a dramatic change in the power structure in Egypt.

A new ruling elite composed mostly of a new generation of officers who came

from lower, middle class origins and often from rural backgrounds

as opposed to their predecessors who were usually the sons of wealthy notables.

They were graduates of the military academy of the late 1930s and

unhappy with the general state of affairs in Egypt.

Aggravated by the performance of the army in the war with Israel in 1948 some of

these officer's formed what was called the Free Officer's Movement in 1949.

And it was from then on, with that they were readying themselves to take over.

The leading figure of the Free Officer's,

was a young leftenant colonel by the name of Gamal Abd al-Nasser.

In his early thirties at the time he was the son of a postal clerk,

just like others of a modest background.

They immediately set about removing the land-owning elite

which had ruled since the 19th century.

The constitution of Egypt was abolished in December 1952 and the political

bases of the ruling elite such as the political parties were all dissolved and

banned in January 1953.

The source of their economic power was taken away from them

by the agrarian reform.

The agrarian reform that redistributed land in Egypt and

therefore denied the land owning elite of much of it's wealth.

Before the agrarian reform 70 percent of the arable land in

Egypt was in control of only one percent of the population.

So the redistribution of land on a much fairer basis was the most devastating tool

for the elimination of the political power of the old land owning elite.

By early 1954, Abd al-Nasser was in complete control and

the only competition left, was from the Muslim brotherhood.

As of late 1954,

a systematic crackdown on the Muslim brotherhood forced them underground, and

for very many years they were unable to play a serious role in Egyptian politics

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