When did Egypt Gain Independence?

Egypt can be accurately described as an intercontinental nation. The country spans from Asia’s southwestern corner to the renowned northeastern horn of Africa, a land bridge is what facilitates the connection. Egypt is currently an independent country that is bordered by the Gaza Strip, Israel, Red Sea, Sudan and Libya. However, a popular question people cannot answer is when did Egypt gain independence? Egypt is among the first nations in the 10th millennium BC. In fact, it is popularly called the cradle of human civilization. This means that it has witnessed developments in writing, agriculture, urbanization, organized religion and central government. Ever since the early 20th century, foreign powers have governed Egypt i.e. Ottoman and British empires.

Ottoman empire

The Egyptian military caste was defeated by the Ottoman Turks who had ruled the nation for many centuries. In fact, they declared Egypt to be one of their many provinces. The country was ruled by the Ottoman Empire to the point where the British empire took control. The sultans were experiencing problems with regard to ruling Egypt due to the Mamluks’ influence there.

The civil society and economic institutions of Egypt were weakened by the defensive militarization. It was the plagues and weak economy that hurt Egypt and left it wide open to foreign attacks. It was an autonomous province until the French forces took over in the year 1798. However, the British defeated the French forces in 1805 and this enabled Mohamed Pasha to occupy the power vacuum.

Muhammad Pasha

He was an Albanian who commanded the Ottoman’s military. The dynasty of Muhammad Pasha ruled Egypt until the year 1952. Under his rule the country was an autonomous vassal state but only until the year 1914. When the Suez Canal was constructed, it made Egypt incur huge debts hence Ismail ended up selling Egypt’s portion of the Suez Canal to the U.K. in the year 1875.

There are several factors that negatively affected the economy of Egypt such as epidemic diseases, floods and wars. This forced them to rely on foreign debts. Tewfik and Ismail ruled Egypt as a quasi-independent nation but under the Ottoman to the year 1882 after which Britain took over.

e-visa Egypt

Independence of Egypt

Egypt was a province of the Ottoman until 5th November 1914 when it was declared a British protectorate. Hussein Kamel took over from the nephew Abbas II when khedive became sultan. The nationalist movement won many legislative seats after the first world war to make up the majority in the national assembly. This was with the help of Saad Zaghlul and Wafd party. This led to exiling of Malta. Therefore, the first Egyptian revolution happened hence their independence from the British empire in the year 1922, 22nd February.

Afterwards, a fresh government was formed. A new constitution was drafted in 1923 with Zaghlul as the very first prime minister. However, it became a republic in 1953, 18th June with Muhammad Naguib as its president.

Conclusion

Egypt has a rich and interesting history as seen from the above insightful information. The journey to independence was a long and hard one but it finally happened in 1922.