Egypt and North Africa 1890-1914 Flashcards
1
Q
Egypt under the British empire
A
- Egypt was never class as a colony, it was referred to as a “veiled protectorate”
- British rule was only meant to be temporary
- Egypt officially belonged to the ottoman empire
- In reality, Egypt was firmly under British administrative control
2
Q
Obstacles to British control in Egypt
A
- Before December 1914, Egypt was a veiled protectorate with the British running Egyptian affairs and British advisers keeping watch over every aspect of government
- Despite this strong British presence, Egypt was not regarded as a British colony
- Egypt still belonged to turkey, strictly speaking, with the Sultan as the Khedive’s overlord
- There were further hindrances to British freedom of action
- The capitulations, all foreigners in Egypt came under regulations known as the Capitulations which were privileges once granted by the Sultan to protect Europeans from Muslim laws against Christians. For example, a foreigner could claim the right to be tried in his own country’s law courts. Any new Egyptian law affecting Europeans had to be approved by the governments of all countries represented in Egypt, which slowed down law making
- The Caisse de la Dette (which included Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Russia, Italy and Britain) which controlled Egypt’s finances. About half the country’s revenue went to paying European bond holders. The members of the Caisse could prevent the British Consul-General from spending Egypt’s money on matters they disapproved of such as Cromer’s plan to use Egyptian money to finance the re-conquest of the Sudan (thwarted by Russia and France)
- The mixed courts. These had been set up to deal with cases involving both Egyptians and Europeans and were presided over by European and Egyptian judges who were not always supportive of the British
3
Q
Evelyn Baring’s role in Egypt
A
- Evelyn Baring, the British Consul-general, acted as adviser to Khedive between 1883 and 1907
- Baring’s main task was to try to regularise Egyptian financial affairs
- Khedive Ismail had accrued £70 million debt so, to balance Egyptian account books, Baring made cutbacks to Egypt’s military and bureaucracy
- At the same time, he revitalised the economy by improving communications and investing in irrigation systems (carried out by British engineers, some of whom worked on similar schemes in India)
- He also improved conditions for Egyptian labourers and introduced better sanitation and health services in towns
- Within 10 years, exports of cotton and sugar had trebled, and the population had risen from 7 to 10 million
- Egypt therefore enjoyed a new-found prosperity
- Baring also reformed the Egyptian army by placing 6000 British troops in it to ensure that British interests were not jeopardised by either military or popular disturbances
- This army was placed under the command of Kitchener
- Britain simply could not risk a threat to its Egypt-based investments, or to the Suez canal as the preferred passage to India
- Other changes were made to law courts, police, and education
- However, Baring was very wary of extending educational opportunities to the Egyptians, since he had seen the effects of raised expectations in India, where they had led to a growth of nationalist protest
- Egyptians were therefore, rarely offered more than a few years of elementary school education and it was not until 1909 that a new university was founded to teach modern subjects and train men for professions
4
Q
The Aswan Dam
A
- Under the direction of Sir John Aird, a wall, 18 metres high and a quarter of a mile long was built to hold back the waters of the Nile
- This Aswan Dam took 6 years to build and cost £2 million
- It opened in 1902 and enabled half a million acres of former desert to be irrigated with water from its reservoir therefore enabling year-round cultivation
5
Q
The Denshawai incident
A
- In June 1906, a group of British officers agitated the residents of Denshawai by hunting the pigeons that served as a local source of livelihood
- A scuffle broke out, during which an officer’s gun was fired, wounding a female villager, and provoking further attack upon the British soldiers
- An officer who managed to escape the scene fled back toward the British camp on foot in the intense heat
- He later collapsed outside the camp and died, likely of heatstroke
- A villager who came upon him there tried to assist him, but, when other soldiers from the camp discovered the villager alongside the body of the dead officer, they assumed he had killed him
- The villager in turn was killed by the soldiers
6
Q
How did the British respond to the Denshawai incident?
A
- In response to the Denshawai incident, the British authorities set up a special tribunal to try the villagers for the death of the British officer
- The prosecution accused the villagers of premeditated murder, while the defence, among whom was the notable Egyptian lawyer and political figure Ahmad Lufti al-Sayyid, claimed that the villagers’ actions had been a spontaneous response to the circumstances of the moment
- A swift and summary trial found the villagers guilty
- They were subsequently given exemplary punishments, ranging from lashes to execution, that were to be carried out publicly in Denshawai
7
Q
What impact did this have on British control in Egypt?
A
- The imbalance and severity of the trial proceedings and the punishments that followed were met with reproach (disapproval) in Great Britain and sparked a widespread emotional outpouring among Egyptians
- This was captured in numerous newspaper articles, essays and poems
- The events of Denshawai also provided a nexus around which Egyptian lawyer and journalist Mustafa Kamil and other nationalists were able to rally against British occupation
- In the wake of the events at Denshawai, the British consul-general of Egypt, Lord Cromer, retired, although the British occupation itself would continue for nearly 50 more years
8
Q
How the British viewed the incident
A
- Almost as an attack by the indigenous people against the British
- It could be used to prove a point to the people of Denshawai which is why everything was done publicly
9
Q
The growing nationalist movements in Egypt between the 1880s and early 1890s
A
- The Egyptian upper classes were able to benefit from the British occupation, but by the late 1890s, there was a growing middle class nationalist movement, fuelled by newspapers, which attacked the British for failing to deal with the corruption of the Khedive’s government and for doing little to help Egypt’s poor
- The nationalists complained that the British failed to promote the Egyptian cloth-making industry, which would have provided jobs for the unemployed, because they were only interested in the production of raw cotton to keep the spinners of Lancashire employed
- The nationalists also complained of the lack of opportunities for educated Egyptians who, after years of British rule, seemed even less likely to be permitted to run their own governments than they had been before
- A national party first formed in 1881 but was revived in 1893 as an underground movement wanting to end British rule
- It attracted lawyers, professionals, educated people and European establishments
- Cromer largely ignored these demands, although he did appoint a nationalist, Saad Zaghluls Pasha as minister for education
- The 1906 Denshawai incident added to the nationalist discontent and provoked further backlash against British rule
- Eldon Gorst (consul-general after Baring) brought more Egyptians into responsible government positions in an attempt to weaken the national party and also tried to impose a tighter censorship of the press in 1909 and used measures to attempt to quell the growing nationalism
- The German government provided funds to fuel anti-British nationalism/sentiment
10
Q
Consul-Generals in Egypt up to 1914
A
Sir Evelyn Baring (1883-1907)
- Oversaw a gradual increase in British control
- Main task was to regularise financial affairs
- Improved communications, irrigation schemes and health and sanitation services
Sir Eldon Gorst (1907-11)
- Brought more Egyptians into responsible government positions in an attempt to weaken the Egyptian national party
- Tried to impose a tighter censorship of the press in 1909
- Use various penal measures to attempt to quell the growing nationalism within Egypt, but to little avail
Viscount Herbert Kitchener
- Also tried to curb Nationalist sentiment and uncover those groups who were stirring trouble
- Under his consulship from 1911, British dominance increased rather than diminished
- In 1913, a new Legislative Assembly replaced the Advisory Council of Laws and General Assembly, consisting of 66 elected member and 17 appointed nominees. This represented rich landowners rather than the ordinary people of Egypt
- Declared an official protectorate over Egypt in November 1914
- Since control of the Suez Canal was crucial for the British rule, the ruling Khedive was deposed and his successor, Hussein Kamel, was compelled to declare himself as an independent Sultan of Egypt, under British protection
11
Q
Key events in the Sudan between 1890 and 1902
A
- Determined to keep Britain’s rivals out, Salisbury signed a treaty with the Germans in 1890 whereby they agreed to take Tanganyika while the British took Kenya and Uganda
- The French were persuaded to concentrate on West Africa, although they were not entirely appeased
- Italian expansion on the Red Sea Coast at Massawa was regarded as beneficial by the British, since it diverted the Khalifa’s attention from the Egyptian borders but when Italian forces were defeated by Ethiopian resistance at Adowa in 1896, this diversionary help was lost
- Nevertheless, this gave Salisbury the excuse he needed for a British campaign in the Sudan which was also welcomed in Britain as an opportunity to avenge the death of General Gordon whilst also being presented as a campaign to uphold European civilisation against African barbarianism
- Making heavy use of modern weaponry such as Maxim guns, modern rifles, and field artillery, fighting against an army equipped with much older weapons, Kitchener’s army won a decisive victory at the battle of Omdurman in 1898
- Salisbury ordered Kitchener to go to Fashoda on the headwaters of the Nile, where a French expedition under Major Marchand had arrived
- Kitchener and Marchand, in 1898, both press their nation’s claims to the area, but the meeting was not particularly fiery
- However, the British press reacted strongly to the Fashoda incident suggesting they were on the brink of war
- The French chose to back down and by an agreement of 1899, the French promised to stay out of the Nile valley in return for territory further west
- 1899 also brought an agreement between Britain and Egypt whereby Anglo-Egyptian Sudan was established
- This would be administered in an agreement known as a condominium, meaning that the Sudan would be run by the British, with Egyptian support
- The British appointed Lord Kitchener as the first Governor General and he was followed by General Reginald Wingate from 1902
- Kitchener set up “Gordon College” to train young Sudanese to run their own country and, despite Egyptian expectations, Britain frustrated ambitions for the unification of the two countries
12
Q
Effects on Sudan up to 1914
A
- Many Sudanese welcomed the downfall of the Mahdist regime but saw the British as just another oppressor
- Continued to be Mahdist uprisings in Sudan in 1900, 1903, 1904 and 1908, swift and brutal reprisals in return by the British
- Despite this, there was significant economic development over the period. For example, Port Sudan opened in 1906 as the main outlet to the sea and railways were also improved
- In 1911, the Gezira scheme was introduced which produced high quality cotton. However, this was mainly used in the British textile industry
- There was also irrigation improvements
13
Q
How the situation in Sudan was viewed by the British press and public
A
- The British could modernise the Sudanese people in their country
- British control could help Sudan to advance
14
Q
Reasons for British involvement in the Sudan
A
- By taking control of Egypt, the British assumed responsibility for Sudan
- The British were worried that if they did not take control of Sudan, then the French might take with it the headwaters of the Nile
- There was worry about the risk to the Suez Canal
- There was the death of General Gordon to avenge
- The British would not sit back while other races were getting out of hand
- Some businessmen believed that their money was at risk
- Public opinion of jingoism which was also shared by the press
- Kitchener also presented it as a normal mission
15
Q
Somaliland
A
- Britain reinforced its Somaliland protectorate (established in 1888) with both administrative and military personnel in 1898 as a means of limiting both French and Italian ambitions in that area
- Although the region had few resources, its location was important since it commanded Britain’s crucial access to the Indian Ocean and its colonies in the East
