History of the Republic of Egypt
On 22–26 July 1952, the Free Officers, a group of disaffected officers in the Egyptian army founded by Gamal Abdel Nasser, and headed by General Muhammad Naguib, initiated the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 with the overthrowing King Farouk, whom the military blamed for Egypt's poor performance in the 1948 war with Israel and lack of progress in fighting poverty, disease, and illiteracy in Egypt. In the following two years, the Free Officers consolidated power, and, following a brief experiment with civilian rule, abrogated the 1953 constitution, and declared Egypt a republic on 18 June 1953, Muhammad Naguib as Egypt's first President.
Arab Federation
During the post-colonial years in the Arab world many forces argued for the creation of a single Arab state. Popular under the name of Arab nationalism, it became increasingly popular among young intellectuals throughout the Middle East and in Iraq during the 1950s. Many different versions of Arab nationalism arose, which developed into an Arab Cold War. The movements were led by many different leaders, the most famous being that espoused by Gamal Abdel Nasser, the president of Egypt. His vision of a pan-Arab state was one that was free of foreign and specifically European interference, with land reform, socialist sympathies and dissolution of the ruling monarchies. For royalist and pro-European Iraq and Jordan, Nasser's vision was incompatible with their existence. Led by Prime Minister Nuri al-Said under King Faisal II, Iraq and Jordan were Hashemite monarchies since their establishment in 1922 at the bequest of the British. The basis of rule in Iraq was diametrically opposite to the type of legitimate rule espoused by Nasser, who had overthrown Egypt's own monarchy in 1952, when the Free Officers Movement forced King Farouk into exile.