THE BRITISH OCCUPATION OF EGYPT, 1882

Type:

Book Chapter

Published:

2014

Publisher:

Routledge

FR'E HUNDRED years before the birth of Christ, Cambyses the Persian swept across Sinai and planted his standard in Memphis and Thebes.It was the entl (jf the Pharaonic Empire, and from the calamity Egypt did not wholly recover.One invader has suc- ceeded another and the tale is not yet complete.For twenty cen- turies and more, Egypt has been the victim of con(iuest and satrapy.The French occupation ( 1798-180 P) was a turning point in the historv of Egypt.It gave a fresh lease of life to Turkish sover- eignty, but it also ])roduce(l a man in Mohammed Ali, who laid the foundation of Egypt's present prosperity.lUit his government was too personal, too arbitrary to outlive his times : nor did it do so, as subsequent history testifies.Of Abbas, a grandson, and Said, a son, little need be said, but Ismail, another grandson, who as- cended the throne in 1863, requires longer mention.About his memory so many stories revoh'e that the true is not easy to separ- ate from the false, ^'et this much is certain : during his short reign of sixteen years he brought l\gypt to the brink of beggary.At his accession the public debt stood at £ E. 3,000,000 ; at his al)dication it amounted to £ \\.100,000,000, and for the major part of that formidable total there was little to show.The countr\' could well afford to support its ruler's whims in the beginning.AVar was rag- ing in the Fruited States and the spinners of luirope were paying fabulous sums for Egyptian cottcn.Then the golden harvest d…

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