Pan Arabism’s popularity began to grow after many Arab countries gained independence in the 1940s and 1950s. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser (1956-1970) was a big supporter of Pan Arab nationalism. Nasser believed that the Arab world in both Northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula should be unified, since many of these countries shared a common culture, religion, and language, During his presidency, Nasser helped establish the United Arab Republic with Syria. The republic lasted three years. Its collapse was largely due to Nasser’s efforts to rapidly change the Syrian and Egyptian economies; also, many Syrians disliked that Nasser wanted to centralize government power and operations in Egypt.