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 Betros Ghabras † Bishoy Bestawros	Tawadros Abdelmesseh Mina Bamoun Shenoute Remanoute Georgos Makarios Samuel 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 Betros 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

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 1892, 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 1822 to study western science and forms of government in Gaullica. In Overview of Gaullica he observes that Beheira had fallen behind the west in science and technology and that Enlightenment-era ideas had given colonial states like Gaullica 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 1830. At the time, Beheira was an autocratic state and Remkone's praise for representative government and constraints on the emperor's 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.