History of Egypt under the British
Egypt under British rule 1882–1922
The history of Egypt under the British lasted from 1882, when it was occupied by British forces during the Anglo-Egyptian War, until 22 February 1922 when Unilateral Declaration was issued because, according to the official British archives, Egypt became an independent state after the issuance of the Declaration of February 28, 1922, thus ending exactly 40 years of British occupation of Egypt.
Despite containing four reservations, the Unilateral Declaration was an important step, as Egypt was the first Arab country to gain official recognition of its independence from European colonialism.
On 18 June 1956, the last British forces withdrew in accordance with the Anglo-Egyptian evacuation agreement of 1954. The first period of British rule (1882–1914) is often called the "veiled protectorate". During this time the Khedivate of Egypt remained an autonomous province of the Ottoman Empire, and the British occupation had no legal basis but constituted a de facto protectorate over the country. Egypt was thus not part of the British Empire. This state of affairs lasted until 1914 when the Ottoman Empire joined World War I on the side of the Central Powers and Britain declared a protectorate over Egypt. The ruling khedive, Abbas II, was deposed and his successor, Hussein Kamel, compelled to declare himself Sultan of Egypt independent of the Ottomans in December 1914.
The formal protectorate over Egypt outlasted the war for only a short period. It was brought to an end when the British government issued the Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence on 28 February 1922.
“History of Egypt under the British” enters the record as egypt under British rule 1882–1922. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what History, Egypt and British can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2474428. The Library of Congress control number is sh85041304. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1882, 1922, 1956 and 1954.
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