Egypt
Egypt enjoys a long and glorious history since ancient time. Till 1840 Egypt was part of Roman Empire and it was captured by the Arabs in this year. It was ruled by a Sultan under the nominal suzerainty of Ottoman Empire.
Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798 but failed to establish his control. By the Treaty of 1802 Egypt was handed over to Ottoman Caliph and it continued to be ruled by Egyptian sultan.
The colonial domination of Egypt was associated with the construction of Suez Canal. This canal was constituted co-jointly by Britain, France and Sultan of Egypt during 1854-69.In 1863 Ismail Pasha became the Sultan of Egypt. He was highly extravagant ruler and took huge amount of loans from Britain and France to meet his expenditures. When these loans were demanded back the sultan failed to repay and he had to sell his shares in Suez Canal to Britain and France. With this Suez Canal got under the control of these two European powers.
The problem of debt enabled Britain to establish domination over Egypt and gradually they became the real power holders of the country. During the first half of 20th century the nationalist emerged in strong form in Egypt and under the pressure, Britain was forced to sign the Treaty of London with Egypt in 1936.By this treaty Egypt was accepted as the sovereign and independent state and France and Britain accepted to withdraw their forces from the country.
The beginning of Second World War in 1939 resulted in complete British domination over Egypt once again and this again revived the strong nationalist movement. The Egyptians demanded the withdrawal of foreign forces from their land but this demand was not met.
In 1954 Col Nasser organized a revolution and captured power. He asked Britain, France to withdraw their forces from Egyptian soil and when these demands were not fulfilled he carried out the nationalization of Suez Canal. This act of aggression of Col Nasser made the colonial powers to invade Egypt along with Israel. This resulted in First Arab War in 1956.In this war Egypt was defeated but USSR declared support for Egypt and UN General Assembly passed a resolution by big majority and asked Britain and France to withdraw their forces. In this way in 1956 Egypt became the independent nation.
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