Meshir Revolution

Meshir Revolution
Field guns on the road to Mina in the suburb of St. Mikhail
Date 13-14 February 1944 (1 day) Location Djedet Result Beheiran Socialist Union victory Overthrow and murder of Matheos III and his family Fall of the Empire of Beheira Declaration of the Republic of Djedet
Belligerents
Empire of Beheira Supported by: Template:Country data Estmere	Beheiran Socialist Union Supported by: Chervolesia Swetania
Commanders and leaders
Matheos III † Emperor of Beheira Boutros Ghabras † Bishoy Bestawros	Tawadros Abdelmesseh Mina Bamoun Shenouda Remanoute Girgis Makarios Ismail Remkhristos Habib Banoub Safi Abdelmalek

The Meshir Revolution, also known as the February Revolution or February Coup, was carried out by a group of army officers affiliated with the Beheiran Socialist Union against the Beheiran monarchy on 13-14 February 1944. The revolution resulted in the overthrow of the monarchy and the declaration of the Orthodox Council Republic of Djedet with Tawadros Abdelmesseh as president. Emperor Matheos III and Prince Boutros Ghabras were killed during the uprising.

On May 14 1944 a new constitution led to the declaration of a socialist council republic. As president Abdelmesseh launched a socioeconomic program that included land redistribution, agrarian reform, road and railway construction, and a nationwide literacy campaign. The success of the revolution inspired nationalist movements in Bahian countries with active anti-colonial rebellions against Euclean empires.

Background

Beheiran Nationalism

Bishop Sarjoun of Dotawo (center), Mikhail Bestawros (far left), and other founders of the Orthodox League in 1898.

The Meshir Revolution has its roots in the 19th century. In 1879, the Beheiran government defaulted on its foreign debt and declared bankruptcy. Despite this, Gaullica refused to forgive the country's debt and invaded in 1880, seizing half of Beheira's territory and forcing Emperor Tawadros V to declare the country a Gaullican protectorate. The Gaullican invasion galvanized nationalist sentiment. Before, the idea of a "Beheiran nation" was confined to intellectual circles, as national labels such as "Beheiran" and "Makai" did not correspond to any meaningful identity for most. Instead, people primarily defined themselves as belonging to their tribe, town, region, or religious community. It was only after the Gaullican invasion that Beheira saw significant nationalist agitation among the lower and middle classes.

Coming to terms with Catholic rule, Orthodox reformers and secular nationalists drafted their own responses to Gaullican imperialism. Led by Bishop Sarjoun of Dotawo and Mikhail Bestawros, the reformists laid the foundation for the anastasis, a movement that aimed to adapt Southern Orthodoxy to the modern world, calling for a new interpretation of the Bible capable of addressing the challenges of the 19th century. In 1886, Bestawros founded the Orthodox League, a political party that hoped to constrain the power of the emperor through a constitution based on Sotirian principles and present a united front of Bahian Sotirians led by Beheira against Gaullican imperialism.

Bestawros himself was a student of Theodoros Remkone, a cleric at the University of St. Maryam who was in a delegation sent by Emperor Tawadros IV in 1840 to study western science and forms of government in Gaullica. In Overview of Gaullica he observed that Beheira had fallen behind the west in science and technology and that Enlightenment-era ideas had given western states their technological superiority. Following developments in liberal thought and the revolutions of the early 19th century, he became an active proponent of constitutionalism, arguing that a constitution that limited the power of the emperor, promoted the rights of common citizens, and allowed them to attain any office regardless of rank would motivate Beheirans to learn and study the sciences to climb the social ladder. This upward mobility, he believed, would promote innovation and reverse Beheira's technological inferiority. Remkone published Overview of Gaullica when he returned to Beheira in 1848. At the time, Beheira was an autocratic state and Remkone's praise for representative government and constraints on the emperor's power were seen as foreign and subversive by Beheiran elites. Despite this, Remkone's ideas resonated with Bestawros and formed the basis for the politics of the Orthodox League and other constitutionalist parties.

Meanwhile, the spread of the printing press and the telegraph led to a literary revival known as the nahda. Intellectuals from Mina to Souan were actively writing books on Beheiran history and culture and commentaries on classical works of Beheiran literature. The nahda was a moment of cultural definition and rediscovery and laid the foundation for Beheiran nationalism. In 1892, Abassad Beshada and Harun Remtanthanos founded the Nahda Party. Beshada and Remtanthanos agreed with the constitutionalism of the Orthodox League but rejected its pan-Sotirian ambitions. In al-Sawt, the party newspaper, Beshada argued that Beheira was a direct descendant of Ancient Djedet and that the Beheirans and Makai were a nation united by a common history, culture, and religion. al-Sawt and other newspapers provided the nascent nationalist movement with broad support among students and intellectuals. By the beginning of the 20th century, Nahda, followed by the Orthodox League, was the largest political party in the country.

Revolution of 1920

Main article: Beheiran Revolution of 1920

On 4 June 1920 Gaullican officer François Hamon killed two Beheirans during a fight in Bashans, a suburb of Mina. The colonial administration refused to hand Hamon to local authorities and convened a military trial during which a Gaullican judge acquitted Hamon after ruling that he had acted in self-defense.

On 25 August 1912, a Gaullican soldier killed two Beheirans during a fight at a bar in Bashans, a suburb of Mina. At the trial, followed by the public through the newspapers, a Gaullican judge acquitted the soldier, ruling that he had acted in self-defense. The results outraged the public and the political leadership of Nahda tried to capitalize on the situation. Leaflets condemning the ruling and demanding independence were printed and distributed.

Leaflets condemning the ruling and demanding independence were printed and distributed, and community leaders were mobilized to collect signatures for petitions calling on the Gaullican government to reverse the ruling. On 1 September Bishop Ismail Abdelmalek delivered a sermon in the Cathedral of St. Makarios in Dotawo that denounced the ruling and called on Beheirans to resist the Gaullican occupation.