Napoleon And Egypt

Napoleon And Egypt

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Although, for a time, Napoleon brought a certain order and discipline to Egypt's government, and laid the foundations for later archaeological expeditions, the French fleet was destroyed by the British in the Battle of Aboukir in 1798.

Napoleon sneaked off to pursue his career in France, and over the next three years the remnants of the French force returned home. Egypt seemed ready to slip into torpor and anarchy once again.
Among the Ottoman troops who had arrived to counter the French invasion was a young officer from Albanian lineage called Mohammed Ali. With cunning and ruthless force, he succeeded in seizing power and having the sultan appoint him Pasha of Egypt.

On 1 May 1811, he invited all his rivals (Mameluke notables) to a banquet in the Citadel in Cairo. As the 'guests' entered, the gates slammed shut and they were massacred by the new pasha's troops. Mameluke political power an important factor in Egypt since 1251 had reached its final bloody end. Fascinated by the modern methods he had observed in Napoleon's army, Mohammed Ali proceeded to reform his own and to build a fleet on Western lines, using European advisors.

Moves were made to modernize both commerce and agriculture, and recently irri gated lands were planted with cotton. The country started to generate great wealth, and al though the people remained desperately poor, the ruler accumulated a fabulous fortune. Between 1832 and 1841, Mohammed Ali twice waged war on his sovereign in Istanbul and almost succeeded in capturing the Ottoman capital.
Forced to recognize the virtually independent power of his onetime vassal, the sultan decreed that the office of Pasha of Egypt should be hereditary in the house of Mohammed Ali. The title of pasha was then upgraded to khedive, viceroy in the Ottoman hierarchy.

Later rulers of the House of Mohammed Ali, however, did not live up to their ancestor's energy and vision. In 1869, the Suez Canal (started by Khe dive Said Pasha in 1859) was opened to navigation during the rule of Khedive Ismail, who allowed his ambitious projects to be financed by unscrupulous bankers.

When he was unable to repay the mil lions borrowed at usurious rates of interest, the European powers forced him to appoint British and French 'advisors' in his government. The British soon succeeded in gaining political and military control. During World War I, Egypt's strategic location was vital to the British, with Cairo as the staging point for the Allied offensive to wrest Syria, Pales tine and Arabia from Ottoman control. Even before the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Egypt's British governors declared the puppet khedive's independence from Turkish sovereignty.

Al though Prince Fuad then styled himself King of Egypt on his accession in 1917, real power remained in foreign hands. Following the war, national ist sentiment crystallized in the Wafd Party, under Saad Zagh loul, In the 1924 elections for a Chamber of Deputies, the anti British Wafd won a large majority and remained the prime nationalist force for decades.

World War II spotlighted Egypt's strategic importance. In 1940, Italian forces pushed deep from Libya into Egypt, before being turned back by British Empire troops.In the following year, General Rommel's brilliant desert army re captured the ground and rolled swiftly into Egypt. They were halted in 1942 at El Alamein, under 100km (60 miles) from Alexandria.As a turning point for the Allies, this meant that by the end of the year, Egypt was again se curely in British hands.

About the Author:

Adrian Vultur writes for cheap airport car hire spain



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