From 1805 to 1882, Muhammad Ali Pasha and his family reigned as governors, and later Khedives, of Egypt. Ali’s reign would be the beginning of a transformation in Egypt, marking its entrance into the modern world with drastic economic and military reforms. Less than a century ago, Egypt was considered to be on its way to a modern, successful, independent state. But with the ascension of Saïd Pasha to the throne, a new age of modernisation began.
Saïd reintroduced many of his father’s reforms and invited foreigners to the state, culminating in the magnum opus of the age: the Suez Canal. His early years saw great successes both for his personal prestige and for Egypt itself. There was a growing sentiment across the Ottoman elite in Egypt of the need for a new identity to separate the Egyptians from their Turkish overlords.
Isma'il, a grandson of Muhammad Ali, became wali. In 1867, the Ottoman sultan acknowledged Isma'il's use of the title Khedive. The Khedivate of Egypt was an autonomous tributary state of the Ottoman Empire established and ruled by the Muhammad Ali Dynasty.
Isma'il, second of the three sons of Ibrahim Pasha, was born on January 12, 1830, in Cairo at Al Musafir Khana Palace. His mother was Circassian Hoshiyar Qadin, third wife of his father. Ibrahim Pasha was keen on raising him well. He studied the principles of sciences and languages like Arabic, Turkish, and Persian. His father sent him to Vienna for treatment, then he traveled to Paris to join the fifth Egyptian mission. After Ibrahim Pasha passed away, he went to stay in Astana. The Ottoman Sultan appointed him member of the Ruling Council of the Ottoman Empire. He did not go back to Egypt until Abbas Pasha I was murdered. He was the deputy of Sa’id Pasha when the latter was in the Sudan, Syria, Hijaz and Astana. Sa’id Pasha appointed him the Egyptian Army Commander and also assigned him the suppression of the sedition of some Sudanese tribes in 1861. He successfully completed the mission. On January 18, 1863, he became the ruler of Egypt.
Like all Egyptian and Sudanese rulers since his grandfather Muhammad Ali Pasha, he claimed the higher title of Khedive, which the Sublime Porte had consistently refused to sanction. Finally, in 1867, Isma'il succeeded in persuading the Ottoman Sultan Abdülaziz to grant a firman finally recognizing him as Khedive in exchange for an increase in the tribute, because of the Khedive's help in the Cretan Revolt between 1866 and 1869.
Read also: History of the Khedive Tiara
Book For War Enthusiasts. The Sinking Of The SS khedive Ismail.
Domestic Policies and Reforms
Isma'il launched vast schemes of internal reform on the scale of his grandfather, remodeling the customs system and the post office, stimulating commercial progress, creating a sugar industry, building the cotton industry, building palaces, entertaining lavishly, and maintaining an opera and a theatre. He changed the advisory council to become the Council of Representatives and let the people choose their representatives. He changed the bureaus (divans) to become ministries. He established the first cabinet that shares him the responsibility of ruling the country. He also cancelled the consular courts and replaced them with the hybrid tribunals.
During his era, the digging of the Suez Canal was done. He built luxurious palaces such as Abdeen Palace, Ras El-Tin Palace and Qubba Palace. He also established the Opera House and Qasr El-Nil Bridge.
He devoted attention to agriculture. He also built 15 beacons for stimulating trade.
He devoted great attention to education. He increased the budget of the ministry of education and assigned Ali Mubarak to set a basic law for education. He also established Dar Al-Ulum for preparing graduates to become teachers and Egyptian National Library.
In his era, several newspapers have emerged such as Al-Ahram and El-Watan and Rawdat Al-Madares Magazine. He also established Egyptian Geographic Society and Dar Al-Athar.
Read also: Egyptian Adventure
One of his most significant achievements was to establish an assembly of delegates in November 1866. Though this was supposed to be a purely advisory body, its members eventually came to have an important influence on governmental affairs. Village headmen dominated the assembly and came to exert increasing political and economic influence over the countryside and the central government.
Education reform increased the education budget more than tenfold. Traditional primary and secondary schools were expanded and specialized technical and vocational schools were created. Students were once again sent to Europe to study on educational missions, encouraging the formation of a Western-trained elite.
Map of Egypt under Ismail Pasha
Economic Modernization
Isma'il spent heavily-some went to bribes to Constantinople to facilitate his reform projects. Much of the money went for the construction of the Suez Canal. About £46 million went to construct 8,000 miles (13,000 km) of irrigation canals to help modernize agriculture. He built over 900 miles (1,400 km) of railroads, 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of telegraph lines, 400 bridges, harbor works in Alexandria, and 4,500 schools.
In the 1860s, Civil War in the United States led to a cotton boom in Egypt as prices increased by 300%, peaking in 1864. The influx of capital brought more merchants to Egypt, including the newly founded Anglo-Egyptian Bank. His new institutions were situated on the boundary between new and old city, including the construction of the grand Cairo Opera House in 1869 and the Egyptian National Library in 1870.
Read also: Learn Arabic in Egypt: Guide
Isma'il's khedivate is closely connected to the building of the Suez Canal. He agreed to, and oversaw, the Egyptian portion of its construction. On his accession, at the behest of Yacoub Cattaui his minister of Finance and close advisor, he refused to ratify the concessions to the Canal company made by Sa'id, and the question was referred in 1864 to the arbitration of Napoleon III, who awarded £3,800,000 to the company as compensation for the losses they would incur by the changes which Isma'il insisted upon in the original grant.
The canal was France’s grand plan to end Britain’s domination of the Cape trade and to open the floodgates to trade from the Orient. The initial driver was Ferdinand de Lesseps, a friend of Said Pasha on account of their shared love of pasta, who convinced Saïd to grant his company the rights to the construction of the canal and control of it for the following 99 years. On the 17th of November 1869, the Suez Canal was officially opened, heralding a new age of global trade. The pride of Egypt was complete, but the façade of the modern state had begun to crack. The completion of the canal proved of little benefit to Egyptians bar those who held shares in the company. The canal company now had a strong grip over Egypt and despite having parted the desert and achieved the impossible, much of the profits now lay with France and Britain.
Opening of the Suez Canal in 1869
Military Expansion and Foreign Relations
Isma'il tried to reduce slave trading and with the advice and financial backing of Yacoub Cattaui extended Egypt's rule in Africa. Isma'il dreamt of expanding his realm across the entire Nile including its diverse sources, and over the whole African coast of the Red Sea. In 1865 the Ottoman Sublime Porte ceded the African portion of the Habesh Eyalet (with Massawa and Suakin at the Red Sea as the main cities of that province) to Isma'il.
This, together with rumours about rich raw material and fertile soil, led Isma'il to expansive policies directed against Ethiopia under the Emperor Yohannes IV. In October 1875 Isma'il's army tried to occupy the adjacent highlands of Hamasien, which were then tributary to the Ethiopian Emperor, and suffered defeat at the Battle of Gundet. In March 1876 Isma'il's army tried again and suffered a second dramatic defeat by Yohannes's army at Gura.
These developments - especially the costly war with Ethiopia - left Egypt in deep debt to the European powers, and they used this position to wring concessions out of Isma'il. One of the most unpopular among Egyptians and Sudanese was the new system of mixed courts, by which Europeans were tried by judges from their own states, rather than by Egyptian and Sudanese courts.
Financial Crisis and Abdication
But at length the inevitable financial crisis came. A national debt of over £100 million sterling (as opposed to three millions when he acceded to the throne) had been incurred by the Khedive, whose fundamental idea of liquidating his borrowings was to borrow at increased interest. The bond-holders became restive, chief among them the House of Cattaui. Judgments were given against the Khedive in the international tribunals.
In 1876 the treasury, laden with ~£68 million in debt, declared itself bankrupt. In December 1875, Stephen Cave and John Stokes were sent out by the British government to inquire into the finances of Egypt, and in April 1876 their report was published, advising that in view of the waste and extravagance it was necessary for foreign Powers to interfere in order to restore credit. As the historian Eugene Rogan has observed, "the irony of the situation was that Egypt had embarked on its development schemes to secure independence from Ottoman and European domination.
Hoping the revolt could relieve him of European control, Isma'il did little to oppose Urabi and gave into his demands to dissolve the government. Britain and France took the matter seriously, and insisted in May 1879 on the reinstatement of the British and French ministers. With the country largely in the hands of Urabi, Isma'il could not agree, and had little interest in doing so. As a result, the British, and French governments pressured the Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II to depose Isma'il Pasha, and this was done on 26 June 1879. The Khedive inevitably announced his abdication in 1879.
Isma'il Pasha left Egypt and initially went into exile to Resina, today Ercolano near Naples, until 1885 when he was eventually permitted by Sultan Abdülhamid II to retire to his palace in Emirgan on the Bosporus in Constantinople.
Tewfik’s rule as an independent Khedive lasted for three years, until the Franco-British occupation of the state and the beginning of the Veiled Khedivate with Sir Evelyn Baring, later Earl of Cromer, ruling as de-facto Governor-General.
Popular articles:
tags: #Egypt
