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.
History of Syria
The history of Syria covers events which occurred on the territory of the present Syrian Arab Republic and events which occurred in Syria (region). The present Syrian Arab Republic spans territory which was first unified in the 10th century BCE under the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the capital of which was the city of Ashur, from which the name "Syria" most likely derives. This territory was then conquered by various rulers, and settled in by different peoples. Syria is considered to have emerged as an independent country for the first time on 24 October 1945, upon the signing of the United Nations Charter by the Syrian government, effectively ending France’s mandate by the League of Nations to "render administrative advice and assistance to the population" of Syria, which came in effect on April 1946. On 21 February 1958, however, Syria merged with Egypt to create the United Arab Republic after plebiscitary ratification of the merger by both countries’ nations, but seceded from it in 1961, thereby recovering its full independence. Since 1963, the Syrian Arab Republic has been ruled by the Ba’ath Party, run by the Assad family exclusively since 1970. Currently Syria is fractured between rival forces on the course of the Syrian Civil War.