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The Dynasty of Mohammed Ali Pasha
(1802-1892) :
The French occupation destabilized Egypt; their defeat and withdrawal
left the country vulnerable to an internal political struggle which
was won by Mohammed Ali, an Albanian lieutenant in the Ottoman army
who, with Mamluke help, drove the British (temporarily)
out of Egypt. The Ottomans elevate him to khedive or viceroy of Egypt.
In order to consolidate his power, the new khedive realized that he
had to eradicate Mamluki power which he did decisively and
spectacularly. After six years as ruler, he invited
470 Mamluke soldiers to a banquet
at the Citadel. It was a trap; all were massacred and the Mamluke
threat was ended.
Although Mohammed Ali was nominally a representative of the Ottoman
Sultan he was for all intents and purposes an absolute ruler. He was
dedicated to the modern development of Egypt, building factories,
railways and canals, bringing in European architects and technicians
to create a modern state.
Mohammed Ali was also an ambitious expansionist whose armies extended
his power over Syria, Sudan, Greece and the Arabian Peninsula until by
1839 he controlled a large portion of the
Ottoman Empire. Throughout his reign, however, Mohammed Ali always
kept up the pretence of being a loyal representative of the Caliph.
When it became clear that his power was exceeding acceptable limits,
the British intervened, forcing him to relinquish some control to the
Ottoman sultan. Mohammed Ali died in 1848
leaving his grandson Abbas to succeed him. Abbas opened Egypt to free
trade, closing schools and factories and effectively halting the moves
towards industrial development and economic self-sufficiency Mohammed
Ali had set in motion.
Said Pasha, the son and successor of Abbas, reversed his father's
policies and actively set about developing the country's
infrastructure and initiated the building of the Suez Canal which was
completed in 1869 by his successor the
Khedive Ismail. Under his rule, industrial and civil infrastructure
was further developed. More factories were built. A telegraph and
postal system was established. Canals and bridges were constructed and
the cotton industry which had been introduced during the reign of
Mohammed Ali, began to flourish as a result of the American Civil war
which prevented southern cotton production for the duration of the
war.
However, all this expansion had a price. Ismail's modernization put
Egypt heavily into debt and the end of the Civil War and resumption of
American cotton production caused a major recession in Egypt's cotton
industry. As a result of this economic crisis, Khedive Ismail was
forced to abdicate in 1879 and the
British began to assume greater control over the country.
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