Facts at a Glance
| Flag: | Tricolor of red, white and black horizontal stripes, with a golden eagle on the white stripe. |
| Area: | Around one million square km. of these, only around 55 thousands square km (i.e. 5.5%) are populated. |
| Language: | Arabic is the official language. English is widely spoken in business circles. |
| Currency: | Egyptian Pound (L.E.) = 100 Piasters. |
| Climate: | desert; hot, dry summers with moderate winters. |
| People: | Berbers, Bedouins and Nubians. |
| Religion: | 90% Islam, 7% Christian. |
The Republican Era
| The first president of the republic, General Muhammad Naguib, was a figurehead. The real leader was Gamal Abdel Nasser of the Revolutionary Command Council, the officers who had plotted the revolution. In April 1954 Nasser became prime minister. In November of that year, Naguib was removed from power, and Nasser assumed complete executive authority. In July 1956 Nasser was officially elected president. |
Gamal Abdal Nasser
| Gamal Abdel Nasser led a nationalist movement in 1952 that ousted the Egyptian monarchy and transformed Egypt into a republic. Nasser became president of Egypt in 1954 and subsequently negotiated an end to Britain’s 72-year occupation of Egypt. |
| The Suez Crisis In efforts to acquire armaments, which the Western world would not supply to Egypt, Nasser turned to the Eastern bloc. In retaliation, the World Bank rejected Egypt’s request for a loan to finance the Aswân High Dam project. Nasser therefore nationalized the Suez Canal in July 1956 and sought to use its revenues to finance the dam, precipitating what would be called the Suez crisis. Angered by that move, Britain and France, the main stockholders in the canal, arranged a military operation with Israel. Israel had been planning an attack since 1951, when Egypt began blocking Israeli passage through the Strait of Tiran, denying Israel access to the Red Sea. Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula in October 1956, and British and French forces established control over the Suez Canal within days. Pressure from the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) forced the three countries to evacuate Egyptian territory, and United Nations (UN) forces were placed as a buffer between Egypt and Israel. |
| Pursuing his dream of Arab unity, Nasser in 1958 effected a union between Egypt and Syria under the name of the United Arab Republic. Although it lasted only three years before the Syrians rebelled and reaffirmed their independence, Egypt retained the official name of the republic for many years afterward. |
| Nasser died suddenly in 1970. Problems of succession to the post of president were settled when Vice President Anwar al-Sadat, a long-time colleague of Nasser, was chosen to succeed him. |