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During British occupation and later control, Egypt developed into a regional commercial and trading destination. Entrepreneurs including Greeks, Jews, and Armenians began to flow into Egypt. The number of foreigners in the country rose from 10,000 in the 1840s to around 90,000 in the 1880s, and more than 1.5 million by the 1930s. [8]
The reasons why the British government sent a fleet of ships to the coast of Alexandria is a point of historical debate. In their 1961 essay Africa and the Victorians, Ronald Robinson and John Gallagher argue that the British invasion was ordered to quell the perceived anarchy of the ‘Urabi Revolt, as well as to protect British control over the Suez Canal in order to maintain its shipping ...
With Egypt quiet again and under his control, Bonaparte used this time of rest to visit Suez and see with his own eyes the possibility of a canal (known as the Canal of the Pharaohs) said to have been cut in antiquity between the Red Sea and the Nile by order of the pharaohs. Before setting out on the expedition, he gave Cairo back its self ...
The British author David Pryce-Jones recalled that as a young officer, after the ultimatum was submitted to Egypt, he had to explain to his troops why war with Egypt was necessary without believing a word that he was saying. [162] Only one British soldier, however, refused to fight. [156]
In September 1840, the European powers eventually moved from diplomatic means to military action. When French support for Muhammad Ali failed to materialize, British and Austrian naval forces in the eastern Mediterranean moved against Syria and Alexandria. [5] Alexandria was the port where the defecting Ottoman fleet had withdrawn.
However, under his grandson, Abbas I (1848-1854) foreign policy was turned on its head, as Abbas turned to France's British rivals in order to fight the Ottomans. [ 1 ] By the 1870s and the rule of Isma'il Pasha , Egypt had fallen under corruption, mismanagement, increased European influence, and debt.
By June Egypt was in the hands of nationalists opposed to European domination of the country. A British naval Bombardment of Alexandria had little effect on the opposition which led to the Anglo-Egyptian War. The British succeeded in defeating the Egyptian Army at Tell El Kebir in September 1882 and took control of the country putting Tewfik ...
Seen by the United Kingdom as a vital connection to its maritime empire, particularly in India, British control of the Canal was the foundation for British control over Egypt as a whole. Four years later in 1879, the United Kingdom along with the other Great Powers deposed and exiled Isma'il, replacing him with his pliant son Tewfik.