Egypt's Revolution and the British Withdrawal

Egypt had been formally independent since 1922, but Britain kept troops in the Suez Canal Zone under a 1936 treaty and heavily influenced its politics, so many Egyptians saw independence as incomplete. Anger grew after defeat in the 1948 war and over the corruption of King Farouk's court. In January 1952 British forces killed dozens of Egyptian police at Ismailia, and the next day riots burned much of central Cairo. On 23 July 1952 a group of army officers, the Free Officers, seized power; Farouk abdicated and sailed into exile.

Egypt became a republic in 1953, and Gamal Abdel Nasser emerged as its dominant leader by 1954. The new regime introduced land reform and negotiated an agreement under which the last British troops left the Canal Zone in June 1956. For Nasser, removing the British garrison completed national independence, and it made him a hero to Arab nationalists, though his government also banned rival parties and ruled without free elections.