Lesson 26: The Achievements of the 23 July Revolution - Political, Economic, Social, Arab, African and International

01Political achievements

• Cancellation of the constitution of 1923 (December 1952).
• Dissolution of all political parties and confiscation of all their funds for the benefit of the people (January 1953).
• Abolition of the monarchy and proclamation of the Republic (June 1953), and the appointment of Major-General Muhammad Naguib as the first president of the Arab Republic of Egypt.
• Signing of the evacuation agreement for Egyptian soil (October 1954): it laid down that British forces would leave Egypt within twenty months of signing, and the last British contingent left Egyptian soil in June 1956.
• Nationalisation of the Universal Suez Canal Company on 26 July 1956, when President Gamal Abdel Nasser announced the republican decree transferring all the company's funds, rights and obligations to the Egyptian state.
• The British left after an occupation of about seventy-four years. On 18 June 1956 Gamal Abdel Nasser raised the Egyptian flag over the naval building in Port Said, and Egypt came to have two national days on 18 June: Republic Day (1953) and Evacuation Day (1956).

02Economic achievements

Agriculture

• Raising up agriculture and reclaiming desert land in Tahrir Province and the New Valley.
• Building the High Dam, completed in 1970, which saved Egypt from the danger of high floods that used to drown large areas of land and from drought when rainfall at the Nile sources was low.

Industry

• The revolution directed its efforts to expanding industrial production and created projects that increased the national product, the most important being:
• Generating electricity from the Aswan reservoir.
• Expanding oil extraction and building refineries.
• The iron and steel factory at Helwan and the fertiliser factory at Aswan.
• War (military) factories supplying the Egyptian and Arab armed forces with weapons, ammunition and equipment.
• Supporting industrial education and opening vocational training centres.
• Establishing new industries and expanding existing ones.

Trade

• Egypt's foreign trade was directed to all the countries of the world; the revolution Egyptianised banks, insurance companies and import–export agencies and opened foreign markets for Egyptian products.
• After Egyptianisation, Egyptian elements among economists and financiers took over the management of the banks, institutions and companies.

03Social achievements

Ending feudalism

• Ending feudalism was the third principle of the revolution, and to that end it issued the First Agricultural Reform Law on 9 September 1952.
• The law stated that no person may own more than 200 feddans of agricultural land, and that he may additionally dispose of an area not exceeding 100 feddans to his children.
• It provided that the confiscated land be distributed to small peasants, so that each holds a small property of not less than two feddans and not more than five.
• Several laws followed, ending with the limit of individual agricultural ownership set at fifty feddans.

Social justice

• Social justice was the fourth principle, and in its way:
• Generalising free education at every stage, including university.
• Issuing social insurance and pensions laws for employees and workers.
• Fixing working hours at seven hours a day.
• Involving workers in the boards of companies and factories and allocating them a share of company profits.
• Paying attention to women and granting them the right to stand for election and to vote.

04The Arab role

• From its very outbreak the revolution took upon itself the duty of helping Arab peoples free themselves from colonialism.
• It helped Sudan, the countries of the Maghrib (North-West Africa), the emirates of the Arabian Gulf and South Yemen to gain independence.
• It stood by the revolutions of Iraq and of Yemen, and strongly supported — and still supports — the Palestinian people in recovering its legitimate rights.
• Through this, the spirit of Arab nationalism spread among those peoples.

05The African role

The foundations of African policy

• Africa received special attention from the leader of the 23 July revolution: he saw that Africa is a strategic depth for Egypt, and that freeing Africa from European colonialism completes the liberation of Egypt.

The political field

• Egypt supported the liberation movements in Africa with weapons, money and diplomatic backing, helping the states of East Africa — Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania — and of West and Southern Africa — Nigeria, Ghana, the Congo.
• Its fruit appeared in the independence of seventeen African states during 1960.
• Egypt stood beside the people of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), whose fate was controlled by a racist European minority, and cut its political relations with Britain.
• It condemned racial segregation in South Africa and granted political asylum to those fleeing it, and on 23 December 1963 declared an economic boycott of South Africa.
• Egypt raised the slogan "Africa for the Africans" at the first conference of the African continent, held in April 1958 in Accra, the capital of Ghana.
• At Addis Ababa in May 1963 agreement was reached on creating the Organisation of African Unity; Egypt held its chairmanship in 1964, and held it again in 2019.

The economic, media and cultural field

• Economically: creating strong economic blocs to face poverty and exploit resources; founding the Egyptian Technical Fund for cooperation with African states and giving them full support by sending experts and technicians and insisting on building dams to generate electricity.
• Media-wise: opening offices for the African liberation movements in Cairo to explain the peoples' cases to world opinion, and broadcasting radio to African countries in their own languages.
• Culturally: cultural agreements with many states of the continent providing for the exchange of teachers, curricula and publications; al-Azhar played a leading Islamic and cultural role, with many African students studying in its sections and university and many Azharite preachers, imams and missionaries sent to African countries.

06The international role

• Fighting colonialism in every form and shape and helping the peoples of Asia and Africa to free themselves from it.
• Refusing to join foreign military alliances which some Western states tried to build and to draw Egypt and the Arab countries into.
• Britain and the United States tried to attach Egypt to the Baghdad Pact, signed in Baghdad in February 1955 between Iraq and Turkey; Britain joined in April 1955, then Pakistan and Iran — but Nasser strongly resisted every attempt.
• Adopting the policy of positive neutrality and non-alignment with either the Eastern or the Western bloc, seen in Egypt's role at the Bandung conference (April 1955), attended by 29 states representing more than half the world's population.

07Plots against Egypt and Nasser's death

• As a result of the revolution's policies — its support for the revolutions of Arab countries, its rejection of Western alliances, its stand against colonialist policies and against Western support for the Jews — Egypt was exposed to many plots, embodied in the Tripartite Aggression of 1956 and the aggression of 1967.
• In September 1970 Egypt and the Arab nation lost a national hero who spent his life struggling for his country and his nation: the late leader Gamal Abdel Nasser.
• After him one of the members of the command council of the 23 July revolution, Muhammad Anwar Sadat, carried the burden of the Egyptian struggle, and did the following:
  • Issuing the permanent constitution of 1971.
  • Unifying the home front.
  • Preparing the army for war.
  • Unifying the Arab rank, which led him to issue the decision to start the October 1973 war.

08Exam traps and key takeaways

• Order of the political achievements: constitution cancelled December 1952 → parties dissolved January 1953 → Republic June 1953 → evacuation agreement October 1954 → last British soldier June 1956 → Canal nationalised 26 July 1956.
• The evacuation agreement set twenty months; "the British left immediately after signing" is a wrong option. Occupation lasted about 74 years.
• 18 June carries two days: Republic Day (1953) and Evacuation Day (1956) — when Nasser raised the flag over the naval building in Port Said.
• Nationalisation transferred assets, rights and obligations to the state — not merely the shares.
• Land reform: law of 9 September 1952; ceiling 200 feddans + 100 for children; distribution 2 to 5 feddans per small peasant; later laws ended at 50 feddans.
• Ending feudalism = third principle; social justice = fourth — matching a principle to the wrong measure is the commonest trap here.
• Social justice measures include the seven-hour day (not eight), free university education, and women's right to stand and vote.
• High Dam completed 1970 — after Nasser's death in September 1970; both dates are close, so check which one the question asks.
• Africa: 17 states independent in 1960; slogan "Africa for the Africans" at Accra, April 1958; OAU founded Addis Ababa May 1963; Egypt chaired 1964 and again 2019.
• Boycott of South Africa declared 23 December 1963; political relations were cut with Britain over the Rhodesias.
• International: Baghdad Pact February 1955 (Iraq–Turkey), Britain joined April 1955; Bandung April 1955, 29 states — not the Non-Aligned movement's later founding summit.
• After Nasser, Sadat: 1971 constitution · home front · army prepared · Arab rank unified → October 1973. The plots that preceded were 1956 and 1967.