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| 1921 |
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| Establishment of the Egyptian General Agricultural Syndicate, whose main purpose was to improve the bargaining position of the great Egyptian landholders in the international cotton market. Throughout the interwar period, cotton remained Egypt's biggest and most lucrative export, accounting for around 70 percent of total exports into the 1930s. Figures would reach about 80 percent for the 1950s, but never approached the peak of 90 percent for the earlier period of 1910–14. | 1 |
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| 1922–52 |
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| Ministerial instability and party politics. During this period, 32 different governments ruled Egypt. Nevertheless, the pool of cabinet members remained fairly stable throughout the reshuffling. Political life was dominated by a class of large landholders who formed most of the political leadership. | 2 |
| The Wafd was the most important party and enjoyed the greatest popularity as well as the only true grassroots organization in the country. Because of the widespread support for the party, the Wafdist leadership claimed not only a popular mandate to govern, but the exclusive right to speak for the Egyptian nation. As a result, the Wafd showed little inclination to compromise or join political alliances. The party had two leaders prior to 1952, Sa‘d Zaghlul (until his death in 1927) and Mustafa al-Nahhas. Other leading personalities who later broke away from the party were Isma‘il Sidqi (founded the People's Party in 1930), Ahmad Maher and Mahmud Fahmi al-Nuqrashi (the Sa‘dist Party in 1937), and Makram Ubayd (a Copt who formed the Independent Wafd in 1942). | 3 |
| The first major opposition party to the Wafd was the Liberal Constitutional Party (1922), led by Adli Yegen and drawing its intellectual inspiration from the thought of Ahmad Lutfi al-Sayyid and Muhammad Husayn Haykal. The Union Party, directed by Hasan Nashat and mainly representing wealthy landowners, soon followed (1925) and proved eager to cooperate with the palace. None of the Wafd's mainstream rivals ever attracted a large following. On the other hand, less conventional opposition, namely the Young Egypt Party (1936) and, above all, the Muslim Brotherhood (1928), successfully appealed to much larger and more enthusiastic constituencies. | 4 |
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| 1922 |
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| Creation of the Egyptian Communist Party. The Communists never acquired a significant following, even at the height of their activities in the late 1940s. | 5 |
| An archaeological team under Howard Carter discovered the tomb of King Tutankhamen near Luxor. | 6 |
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| Feb. 28 |
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| EGYPTIAN INDEPENDENCE unilaterally granted by Great Britain, which nevertheless retained control over Egyptian foreign affairs and defense, the Suez Canal, and the Sudan (which Egypt had ruled until the British occupation). The British also insisted on the maintenance of the Capitulations, the system of special laws and courts that applied to foreigners. Into the late 1930s, these four reservations proved a constant source of irritation to Anglo-Egyptian relations. Because the declaration was a unilateral act and because it did not really provide Egypt with full independence, the Egyptian leadership never really accepted it. Up to the revolution of 1952, Anglo-Egyptian relations became the dominant issue in Egyptian politics to the near exclusion of all the other problems facing the country. | 7 |
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