Largely written by /u/ComradeMoose

“Egypt! from whose all dateless tombs arose Forgotten Pharaohs from their long repose, And shook within their pyramids to hear A new Cambyses thundering in their ear; While the dark shades of forty ages stood Like startled giants by Nile’s famous flood.” - Lord Byron

As sun and storm passed over the Union of Arab Republics, great contention fomented. Not least of all, Egypt rapidly grew into being the heart of this discontentment. The UAR’s grip on its constituents was tenuous, but that was a question for another crisis, at this time the lens focused on Egypt.

The Ba’athist leadership centred in Aleppo appeared less concerned with Egypt, granting only paltry overtures to the country and ignoring much of the views of the public and established leadership going back to the nominal political assimilation of the country into the UAR. These issues, too, were made worse by the sacking of Egyptian officers who often maintained the loyalty and popularity of their former subordinates and the Egyptian people.

The dictations from Aleppo over the larger and, to be honest, more economically stable Egypt were irritations to the broader public. This was a dangerous ordeal, to be sure, but it was not the most immediately pressing. The purges of the Egyptian military by Aleppo and placement of general loyalists in the officer corps was not popular among soldiers, especially those officers who kept their jobs throughout the endeavor. The UAR, still reeling from the effects of the Syrian Civil War, was being forced to make decisions on how to prioritize their resources, and their focus was clearly on the eastern half of the country. Most Egyptians, used to perceiving themselves as one of the most important Arab nations compared to the relatively backwards Mesopotamia, chafed at their new subordinate status. The land of Muhammad Ali and the Pharaohs, reduced to servitude by a bunch of Syrians!

Nasser’s administration remained fairly popular with the population criticizing his lack of response to the Baathist attempts at sidelining Egyptian rule and economic development over Egypt. These events would lead to a small but influential riot in the city of Alexandria in which a local Baathist office was defaced with calls for wider autonomy from the Baathist central authority in al-Sham. The attitudes of Egyptians seeing themselves as Egyptians first and Arabs second was of major note to the state.

A parallel reaction came from the military, notably el-Shafei and Kamal el-Din Hussein who orchestrated a revolt in El Minya and Baniswef. Their demands included Egyptian administration of the regional military independent from the Baath Party and the establishment of increased Egyptian autonomy. The move by the revolting military sent shockwaves through the population, galvanizing some to demand complete secession from the UAR whereas others simply wanted to have greater autonomy, but it was definitely something that demonstrated weaknesses in Nasser’s administration.

Nasser himself responded with his first major trip back to Egypt since his ascension to the UAR federal government. In a two-hour long speech given in Alexandria, he directly criticised the policies of the Ba’ath party for the first time. While the vague nature of the speech made it difficult to discern who exactly it was targeted at, phrases like “outside domination of Egypt’s policies” and “failure to respect Egypt’s long history and independent spirit” made it clear to all what his intentions were.

Over the next week, a number of pro-Ba’athist army commanders moved to try to suppress the revolt, but quickly found that few of their soldiers had any interest in shooting their own countrymen. Desertion and insubordination within the army increased rapidly as word of the revolt spread, but Nasser himself, and most of the civilian and military leadership, continued to support the continuation of the union. However, even loyalists like Nasser (back in the seat of power in Egypt) were open in their desire for the UAR to retreat from attempts at centralization. As the mutiny in the army continued to gain strength, Nasser and other prominent members of the Egyptian civil government and the former Free Officers Movement issued a manifesto calling for:

• Complete separation of the Egyptian legal system and civil administration from that of the rest of the UAR.

• Full autonomy for the Egyptian arm of the military in making personnel decisions, arms purchases, and formulating doctrine. Egypt and the rest of the UAR would continue to coordinate through a shared general staff and combined exercises.

• Reinstatement of all dismissed officers and officials.

• Funding for Egyptian fuel subsidies to come from the UAR federal budget.

• The right for Egypt to conduct economic agreements with other nations separately from the overall UAR.

To Ba’athist supporters and the government in Aleppo, Nasser’s move was a blatant powergrab, but to the average Egyptian, it looked like Nasser standing up for Egyptian interests like he always had. Nasser’s reputation in Egypt had suffered in the preceding years due to his long stay in Baghdad, but upon his return, the population had been swiftly reminded of their hero’s charisma and undeniable patriotism. The dream of Muhammad Ali was not yet dead, it seemed.