Anti-Imperialism Flashcards
Egypt anti imperialism
After the British occupation of Egypt in 1882, Egyptian nationalism became focused upon ending British colonial rule.[1] Egyptian nationalism reached its peak in popularity in 1919 when revolution against British rule took place in response to wartime deprivations imposed by the British upon Egypt during World War I.[1] Three years of protest and political turmoil followed until Britain unilaterally declared the independence of Egypt in 1922 that was a monarchy, though Britain reserved several areas for British supervision.[1] During the period of the Kingdom of Egypt, Egyptian nationalists remained determined to terminate the remaining British presence in Egypt.[1] Though Arab nationalism rose as a political force in the 1930s, there remained a strong regional attachment to Egypt by those who advocated cooperation with other Arab or Muslim neighbours.[3]
After the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 that overthrew the monarchy and established a republic, Gamal Abdel Nasser rose to power on themes that mixed Arab and Egyptian nationalism.[3] Nasser saw Egypt as the leader of the Arab states and saw Egypt’s role as promoting Arab solidarity against both the West and Israel.[3] Egypt was briefly united with Syria from 1958 until 1961 when Syria abandoned the union.[3] Nasser’s successors, Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak de-emphasized Arab nationalism and re-emphasized Egyptian nationalism based on Egypt’s distinctiveness within the Arab world.[3] Sadat and Mubarak also abandoned Nasser’s Arab nationalist conflict with Israel and the West.[3]
What was the catalyst for the anti imperiam movement?
After the Second Wold War, an anti-imperialist movement swept throughout the colonial countries. In Asia and Africa the masses rose up against their colonial rulers, taking advantage of the power vacuum that opened up by the shift in the balance of world relations determined by the outcome of the war. In the Middle East the post-war scenario was radically transformed by the demise of French and British imperialist rule (the dominant forces until then), the rise of the USA as the main capitalist world power and the growing influence of the USSR on the back of the Red Army’s victory against Nazi Germany. US meddling in the area aimed at taking over the spoils of the former colonial rulers played an important role in further destabilising the Middle East.
The scramble for Africa and colonialism started when and why
In the Arab world, imperialist partition into spheres of influence controlled by Britain and France was already in place after the First World War. Egypt and Sudan had already been de facto British protectorates since 1882 and annexed to the British Empire in 1914. Algeria was occupied by France in 1830 followed by Tunisia in 1881.
The British government offered Arab independence to gain the support of Arab guerrilla forces against what was left of the Ottoman Empire, but in the post-war treaty all references to Arab independence were forgotten. The Arab nation was artificially divided into a number of states, the boundaries of which were drawn arbitrarily in the sand. Formal independence was granted to Jordan, Iraq and Egypt where monarchies were established to reward some of Britain lackeys but these weak regimes were placed under strict imperialist patronage (including a direct military presence) and would have fallen without open British or French support. In Egypt the British-backed monarchy of King Farouk was soon exposed for all its weakness.
What continued to keep the colonialism in Africa and me
Apart from the economic interest in the exploitation of the increasingly important oil reserves that were being discovered in the region, for the imperialists, the Middle East and North Africa became after the Second World War a region of strategic importance in the struggle against the USSR and “communism”. Egypt was rightly regarded as the key to the whole area. Conservative politicians such as Winston Churchill spoke of Britain’s “rightful position” in the area around the Suez Canal as a way of ensuring their strategic presence in the region. The British capitalists stressed that the Suez Canal was a key supply artery for the Empire.
The start of the free officers movement
With the CP having failed to become a revolutionary party capable of leading the working class in the revolution, the discontent of the masses found an expression through sections of the armed forces. Many junior officers (among them the young Nasser and Anwar Sadat) were hoping for a British defeat in the war – not out of sympathy for Fascism, but in the hopes of being able to drive out the British and achieve genuine independence.
An increasingly big chasm was opening between the overwhelming majority of the army’s lower ranking officers (not to speak of the troops) and the monarchist loyalists in the high command. The British troops were seen more and more by the masses as an occupation force.
A further blow was dealt by the disastrous 1948 Arab-Israeli War, ignominiously lost because of the different agendas pursued by the Arab regimes, and lack of coordination and poor preparation of the military campaign. The Egyptian high command’s incompetence was exposed. The radicalisation of the lower ranking officers in the Egyptian army and troops led to the growth of the clandestine “Free Officers Movement”, launched in the aftermath of the war and led by a young officer, then 30 year-old Gamal Abdel Nasser.
Event to unify all classes?
A string of attacks on British forces culminated in an incident in Ismailia. In retaliation, the British Army attacked a local police barracks, killing fifty Egyptian police officers and wounding one hundred. Suddenly Egypt was in flames.
On January 26, one million workers and peasants took to the streets against the monarchy of King Farouk, starting a turbulent period of mass revolt that exposed the narrow base of support for the monarchy. This movement had an impact on the most consistent sections of the national-revolutionary movement and the army ranks. On the back of the mass unrest, on July 23, the “Free Officers” staged a largely bloodless coup under the formal command of a senior army general, Muhammad Naguib, and King Farouk was ousted.
Initial aim of free officers movement
The programme of the Free Officers was to liberate Egypt from the domination of imperialism. But events were soon to prove that this programme – the programme of the national-democratic revolution – could not be achieved without a break with capitalism.
