IB History Egypt: Nasser Key Definitions

The joint invasion of Egypt by Britain, France, and Israel in October-November 1956 following Nasser's nationalisation of the Suez Canal, ending in a political victory for Egypt under international and US-Soviet pressure.

Mass protests by workers and students in Helwan and Cairo in February 1968, triggered by lenient sentences given to military officers blamed for Egypt's defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War.

The single legal political party established by Nasser in 1962, intended to represent workers, peasants, and other social groups within a one-party socialist structure.

A major hydroelectric and irrigation dam on the Nile, funded primarily by the Soviet Union after the US and Britain withdrew financing, completed in 1970 as a flagship project of Nasser's modernisation programme.

A system of government where power is concentrated in a single leader or small group, with limited political freedoms, restricted media, and little accountability to the population. In Egypt, authoritarian rule persisted from the 1952 Free Officers' coup through Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak, and was restored under el-Sisi after 2013.

Egypt's largest religious minority, adherents of the Coptic Orthodox Church, whose historical roots in Egypt predate the Islamic conquest.

A title used in early-to-mid twentieth-century Egypt for educated, salaried professionals such as civil servants, teachers, lawyers, and army officers. The effendi class sat between the old landowning aristocracy and the rural and urban poor, and provided much of the leadership for nationalist and reform movements, including many of the Free Officers.

A unit of land area used in Egypt, equal to about 0.42 hectares (roughly the size of a football pitch). Land ownership was measured in feddans, and the concentration of feddans in a small number of large landowning families was a major source of rural inequality before 1952.

A secret group of Egyptian military officers, led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, who carried out the 1952 coup that overthrew King Farouk and ended the Egyptian monarchy.

The Nazi secret police (Geheime Staatspolizei), responsible for investigating and suppressing political opposition. It operated outside the legal system and used surveillance, informants, torture, and arbitrary detention.

A form of irregular warfare in which small groups use ambushes, sabotage, raids, and hit-and-run tactics against a larger, conventional military force. The term comes from the Spanish word for 'little war.'

The first state-sponsored political organisation created by Nasser's regime in 1953 to mobilise popular support and replace Egypt's banned political parties.

A package of political reforms announced by Nasser in March 1968 in response to popular unrest, promising greater freedoms and accountability, though only partially implemented.

An Islamist political organization founded in Egypt in 1928. Initially supportive of the Free Officers, it was banned by Nasser in 1954 after an assassination attempt, and its members were imprisoned or exiled.

A 1962 document outlining Nasser's vision for Egypt's political, social, and economic development. It established Arab socialism as the guiding ideology and mandated a 50% worker/farmer quota in the National Assembly.

A costly military intervention by Egypt from 1962 to 1967 in support of republican forces in Yemen's civil war, which drained Egyptian resources and weakened military readiness before the 1967 war.

A political ideology advocating the unification of Arab peoples and nations into a single state or close political union, based on shared language, culture, and history. Nasser was its most prominent champion in the 1950s and 1960s.

Systematic or repeated harm, harassment, or discrimination directed at people because of their identity, beliefs, or perceived affiliations, often involving the state or powerful armed actors.

Egypt's state radio station, launched in 1953 and used by Nasser to broadcast pan-Arab nationalist propaganda across the Arab world.

A brief but decisive war in June 1967 in which Israel defeated the combined forces of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, resulting in Egypt's loss of the Sinai Peninsula and a major blow to Nasser's prestige.

A sweeping set of nationalisation laws issued by Nasser in July 1961, placing most large-scale industry, banking, and commerce under state control.

The Anglo-French company that owned and operated the Suez Canal from its opening in 1869 under a 99-year concession. Most of its profits went to British and French shareholders rather than to Egypt, despite the canal running through Egyptian territory, and it became a symbol of foreign economic control until Nasser nationalised it in 1956.

The 1956 international crisis triggered by Nasser's nationalization of the Suez Canal. Britain, France, and Israel invaded Egypt but were forced to withdraw under US and Soviet pressure, turning Nasser into an Arab hero.

A large-scale land reclamation and resettlement project launched by Nasser in Egypt's western desert to create new agricultural land for landless peasants, which fell far short of its ambitious targets.