FIFTEEN
Egypt's Struggle
for Independence
For more than a century, Egypt has loomed large in any discussion of
Middle East politics, whether the country was acting or acted upon. One
reason for this has been the Suez Canal, so strategically and economically
important to any state that wanted to be a great power. Another is Egypt's
position in the vanguard of westernizing reform, going back to Napoleon
and Mehmet Ali. In modern times Egypt has usually been the leader of the
Arab countries, yet it underwent a long and complicated struggle for inde¬
pendence. For centuries, Egypt was valued by foreign powers, as an object
to be seized and held, as a symbol of imperial might, as a means of influ¬
encing the rest of the Arab world, or as a stepping-stone to Asia or the
Mediterranean Sea—but never as Egypt.
What about the Egyptians themselves? Rather than actors, they had long
been acted upon. With centuries of experience as a doormat for outside
invaders, oppressors, and explorers, many Egyptians, not surprisingly, dis¬
trusted the foreigners who lived or traveled within their country. After all,
no Egyptian ruled Egypt from the time of the pharaohs to the fall of King
Faruq in 1952. Even its aristocrats were mainly foreign—hence the popu¬
lar proverb: Fi bilad Misr khayruha lighayriha (In the land of Egypt what is
good belongs to others).
BRITAIN'S ROLE IN EGYPTMost political dramas have no permanent heroes or villains, but in Egypt's
independence struggle, the main antagonist for seventy-five years was
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