History
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In July 1952, a group of disaffected army officers (the "Free Officers") led by General Muhammad Naguib and Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew King Farouk, whom the military blamed for Egypt's poor performance in the 1948 war with Israel. The revolutionaries then formed the Egyptian Revolutionary Command Council, which constituted the real power in Egypt, with Naguib as chairman and Nasser as vice-chairman. After assuming power, the Free Officers were not interested in undertaking the day-to-day administration of the Egyptian government. Thus, the Free Officers passed power to Ali Mahir Pasha, a long-time political insider, whom they appointed as Prime Minister.
Popular expectations for immediate reforms led to the workers' riots in Kafr Dawar on August 1952, which resulted in two death sentences. The Revolutionary Council actually had strong ideological notions, and Mahir was forced to resign in 1952 because he refused to support agrarian reform laws proposed by the Council. Naguib assumed full leadership, but, from the beginning, Nasser was a powerful force in the Revolutionary Command Council. Naguib was appointed, first as Commander-in-Chief of the Army, in order to keep the armed forces firmly behind the junior officers' coup. In September, Naguib was appointed Prime Minister of Egypt and a member of the Royal Regent Council, with Nasser acting in the background as Minister of the Interior. Also in September, the Agrarian Reform Law was passed, signalling a major land redistribution program. In December 1952, the 1923 Constitution was abrogated "in the name of the people."
In January of 1953, the officers of the RCC dissolved and banned all political parties, declaring a three-year transitional period during which the RCC would rule. A provisional Constitutional Charter which legitimized the RCC was proclaimed on 10 February 1953. A Liberation Rally—the first of 3 political organisations linked to the July regime—was launched soon afterwards with the aim of mobilising popular support.
Read more about this topic: Egyptian Revolutionary Command Council
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