[12][13] The Revolution was faced with immediate threats from Western imperial powers, particularly the United Kingdom, which had occupied Egypt since 1882, and France, both of whom were wary of rising nationalist sentiment in territories under their control throughout Africa, and the Arab World.

Despite enormous military losses, the war was seen as a political victory for Egypt, especially as it left the Suez Canal in uncontested Egyptian control for the first time since 1875, erasing what was seen as a mark of national humiliation.

[15][16] Wholesale agrarian reform, and huge industrialisation programmes were initiated in the first decade and half of the Revolution,[17] leading to an unprecedented period of infrastructure building, and urbanisation.

Official fear of a Western-sponsored counter-revolution, domestic religious extremism, potential communist infiltration, and the conflict with the State of Israel were all cited as reasons compelling severe and longstanding restrictions on political opposition, and the prohibition of a multi-party system.

[19] These restrictions on political activity would remain in place until the presidency of Anwar Sadat from 1970 onwards, during which many of the policies of the Revolution were scaled back or reversed.

[21] The history of Egypt during the 19th and early 20th centuries was defined by the vastly different reigns of successive members of the Muhammad Ali dynasty and the gradually increasing intrusion into Egyptian affairs of the Great Powers, particularly the United Kingdom.

From 1805, Egypt underwent a period of rapid modernisation under Muhammad Ali Pasha, who declared himself Khedive in defiance of his nominal suzerain, the Ottoman Sultan.

[27][28] It was during this time that Italians, Greeks, French, Armenians, Jews, and other groups immigrated to Egypt, establishing a small but wealthy and politically powerful cosmopolitan community.

The prospect of revolutionary instability in Egypt, and the inferred danger to the Suez Canal, prompted the United Kingdom to intervene militarily in support of Tewfik.

In 1888, at the Convention of Constantinople, the United Kingdom won the right to protect the Suez Canal with military force, giving Britain a permanent base from which to dominate Egyptian politics.

[34] It was during this time that the five major points of contentions among nationalists were crystallized: Following the Ottoman Empire's entry in to the First World War as a member of the Central Powers in 1914, the United Kingdom deposed Abbas II in favour of his pro-British uncle, Hussein Kamel.

[37] Universal male suffrage allowed Egyptians to vote in parliamentary elections, however the king had the power to dismiss cabinets, dissolve parliament and appoint prime ministers.

[40] While the Wafd enjoyed genuine popularity among the masses, the degrading economic conditions of Egypt beginning the 1930s combined with the failure of the 1923 regime to adequately address these issues sparked the rise of socialist and labor movements.

[44] Though nationalist army officers, including Mohamed Naguib, appealed to Farouk to resist, the deployment of British tanks and artillery outside the Royal palace forced the King to concede.

Reformers in the party were not strong enough of pass the legislation needed to avoid a total revolution; stubbornness and corruption made the Wafd incapable of delivering to the Egyptian people.

[68] The government was rapidly losing control over the situation, as students on the Islamist right and socialist left ignited an inferno of non-violent strikes and violent battles.

[78] Members took a vow of secrecy with one hand on the Koran and the other on a revolver, and published anonymous leaflets and articles criticizing the higher command and the government as a whole for corruption.

[81] The founder of the CIA, Miles Copeland Jr., claimed to have established contacts with the officers at this time, though the historian Said Aburish argues that America did not know about the coup until two days beforehand but did not move to stop it after verifying it was not communist.

[89] A three-man regency was created to oversee palace affairs consisting of Prince Muhammad Abdel Moneim, Wafdist Bahey El Din Barakat Pasha and Colonel Rashad Mehanna.

The earliest reforms were populist but symbolic of a new era: the elimination of the government's summer recess to Alexandria, ending the subsidization of private automobiles for cabinet ministers, and the abolition of the honorific titles bey and pasha.

A 2024 study found that in the aftermath of the coup, officials that were senior and had connections with the deposed monarch were more likely to be purged, while experienced bureaucrats and those with university education were more likely to be retained as part of the government.

At first the Egyptian legal scholar Abd El-Razzak El-Sanhuri was considered to fill in Maher's shoes, but American concerns over Sanhuri's signature in the Stockholm appeal of 1951 led to Naguib's appointment as prime minister.

[99] By September, the Revolutionary Tribunal was formed, composed solely of three officers as judges, Abdel Baghdadi, Anwar Sadat and Hasan Ibrahim.

The trial of former prime minister and Sa'adist leader Ibrahim Abdel Hady over corruption and the murder of Hasan al-Banna lasted only a week before the court sentenced him to death, later commuted to life imprisonment three day later.

Additionally, contrary to orders issued by the council, members of the Liberation Rally accumulated much of the seized non-Muslim property and distributed it amongst their closed networks.

Angered at being left out of the political and economic spoils and seeing a continuation of secularism and modernity within the Free Officers Movement such as had existed under the King, the Muslim Brotherhood organized its street elements.

From June 1953 into the following year, Egypt was wracked by street riots, clashes, arson, and civil tumult as the regime and the Muslim Brotherhood battled for popular support.

In the city of Kafr al Dawar, local workers went on strike for higher wages, paid leave, an independent elected union, and the dismissal of two members of the managerial staff.

Nasser subsequently cemented power, first becoming chairman of the RCC, and finally prime minister, with Naguib's constitutional position remaining vague until 14 November, when he was dismissed from office and placed under house arrest.

Despite continued calls from the RCC, in debates in the United Nations, and pressure from both the U.S. and USSR,[citation needed] the British refused to transfer control of the Canal to the new regime.