The Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence on 28 February 1922 was the formal legal instrument by which the United Kingdom recognised Egypt as an independent sovereign state.
The Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence on 28 February 1922 was the formal legal instrument by which the United Kingdom recognised Egypt as an independent sovereign state.
The Egyptian revolution of 1919 (Arabic: ثورة 1919, Thawra 1919) was a nation-wide revolution in the Sultanate of Egypt against British occupation that lasted from November 1918 to July 1919. Occurring right after the end of World War I, the revolution served as the culmination of successive decades of opposition by Egyptian nationalists to the occupation, and was directly sparked by the British-ordered exile of Wafd Party leader Saad Zaghloul and several other party members.
The revolution was successfully countered by British forces. However, Britain's High Commissioner for Egypt nevertheless felt negotiations were needed to quell the crisis. Ultimately, the United Kingdom would grant subsequent recognition of Egyptian independence in 1922 as the Kingdom of Egypt, and the implementation of a new Egyptian constitution in 1923. The British government, however, retained significant levels of influence in Egypt and refused to recognize full Egyptian sovereignty over Sudan or to withdraw British forces from the Suez Canal. These factors that would continue to sour Egypt–United Kingdom relations in the decades leading up to the Egyptian revolution of 1952.
The history of Egypt under the British lasted from 1882, when it was occupied by British forces during the Anglo-Egyptian War, until 18 June 1956, when the last British forces withdrew in accordance with the Anglo-Egyptian evacuation agreement of 1954. The first period of British rule (1882–1914) is often called the "veiled protectorate". During this time the Khedivate of Egypt remained an autonomous province of the Ottoman Empire, and the British occupation had no legal basis but constituted a de facto protectorate over the country. Egypt was thus not part of the British Empire. This state of affairs lasted until 1914 when the Ottoman Empire joined World War I on the side of the Central Powers and Britain declared a protectorate over Egypt. The ruling khedive, Abbas II, was deposed and his successor, Hussein Kamel, compelled to declare himself Sultan of Egypt independent of the Ottomans in December 1914.
The formal protectorate over Egypt outlasted the war for only a short period. It was brought to an end when the British government issued the Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence on 28 February 1922. Shortly afterwards, Sultan Fuad I declared himself King of Egypt, but the British occupation continued, in accordance with several reserve clauses in the declaration of independence. The situation was normalised in the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936, which granted Britain the right to station troops in Egypt for the defence of the Suez Canal, its link with India. Britain also continued to control the training of the Egyptian Army. During World War II (1939–1945), Egypt came under attack from Italian Libya on account of the British presence there, although Egypt itself remained neutral until late in the war.
The Sultanate of Egypt (Arabic: السلطنة المصرية, romanized: Al-Salṭana Al-Miṣrīyya) was a British protectorate in Egypt which existed from 1914, after the outbreak of World War I, to 1922, when it ceased to exist as a result of the Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence.
Fuad I (Arabic: فؤاد الأول Fu’ād al-Awwal; 26 March 1868 – 28 April 1936) was the Sultan and later King of Egypt and the Sudan. The ninth ruler of Egypt and Sudan from the Muhammad Ali dynasty, he became Sultan in 1917, succeeding his elder brother Hussein Kamel. He replaced the title of Sultan with King when the United Kingdom unilaterally declared Egyptian independence in 1922.
The Kingdom of Egypt (Arabic: المملكة المصرية, romanized: Al-Mamlaka Al-Miṣriyya, 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 the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Officially, the Sudan was governed as a condominium of the two states; however, in reality, true power in the 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, the Sudan was formally united with Egypt. However, actual Egyptian authority in the Sudan was largely nominal due to the United Kingdom's role as the dominant power in the 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".
Saad Zaghloul Pasha (Arabic: سعد زغلول / ALA-LC: Saʻd Zaghlūl; also Sa'd Zaghloul Pasha ibn Ibrahim) (July 1857 – 23 August 1927) was an Egyptian revolutionary and statesman. He was the leader of Egypt's nationalist Wafd Party, and served as the first Honorary President of Al zamalek SC and was also the leader of the famous The British School of Egypt.
He led a civil disobedience campaign with the goal of achieving independence for Egypt (and Sudan) from British rule. He played a key role in the Egyptian Revolution of 1919, as well as played a role in prompting the British Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence in 1922. He served as Prime Minister of Egypt from 26 January 1924 to 24 November 1924.
King of Egypt (Egyptian Arabic: ملك مصر, romanized: Malik Miṣr), officially referred to as, King of Egypt, Sovereign of Nubia, Sudan, Kordofan, and Darfur, was the title used by the Head of State in Egypt between 1922 and 1953. When the United Kingdom issued the Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence on 28 February 1922, thereby ending its protectorate over Egypt (1914–1922), Egypt's Sultan Fuad I issued a decree on 15 March 1922 whereby he adopted the title of King of Egypt.
It has been reported that the title change was due not only to Egypt's newly independent status, but also to Fuad I's desire to be accorded the same title as the newly installed rulers of the newly created kingdoms of Hejaz, Syria and Iraq. The second monarch to be styled King of Egypt was Fuad I's son Farouk I, whose title was changed to King of Egypt and the Sudan in October 1951 following the Wafdist government's unilateral abrogation of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936. The monarchy was abolished on 18 June 1953 following the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 and the establishment of a republic. The third king, the infant Fuad II of Egypt (Farouk having abdicated following the revolution), went into exile in Italy. The position was replaced by the President of Egypt on June 18, 1953.