Anglo - Egyptian Relations 1800-1956

471 Pages·2023·53.203 MB·English

by  John Marlowe

Routledge Revivals
Anglo - Egyptian Relations 1800-1956
First Published in 1965 Anglo - Egyptian Relations 1800-1956 provides a
comprehensive overview of the political history of Egypt from 1800-1956.
John Marlowe discusses important themes like the first British occupation;
Great Britain and Mohamed Ali; second British Occupation; the 1936 treaty;
the second German war; Egypt and the Arab League; post-war nationalism;
revolution and the road to Suez. This book is a must read for students and
scholars of Egyptian history, African history, and history in general.

Anglo - Egyptian Relations
1800-1956
John Marlowe
Firstpublishedin1954
SecondEditionbyFrankCass&CoLtd,in1965
Thiseditionfirstpublishedin2022byRoutledge
4ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,Oxon,OX144RN
andbyRoutledge
605ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017
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©1965,JohnMarlowe
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedorutilisedin
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ALibraryofCongressrecordexistsunderLCCN:66091017
ISBN:978-1-032-38844-1(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-003-34707-1(ebk)
ISBN:978-1-032-38845-8(pbk)
BookDOI10.4324/9781003347071
ANGLO-EGYPTIAN RELATIONS
1800-1956
by
John Marlowe
SECOND EDITION
FRANK CASS AND COMPANY, LTD.
1965
TO
RICHARD USBORNE
FOR MANY ACTS OF FRIENDSHIP
First Published 1954
SECOND EDITION
©Copyright 1965, John Marlowe
This edition published by Frank Cass & Co., Ltd.
10 Woburn Walk, London, W. C. 1
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I THE FIRST BRITISH OCCUPATION 7
II GREAT BRITAIN AND MOHAMED ALI 3O
III THE SUEZ CANAL 6l
IV INTERNATIONAL CONTROL 85
V THE SECOND BRITISH OCCUPATION 1 12
VI THE SUDAN 138
VII CROMER l6o
VIII GORST AND KITCHENER 196
IX THE PROTECTORATE 212
X AN ASSESSMENT OF THE BRITISH OCCUPATION 251
XI THE CONSTITUTION 260
XII THE PALACE 289
XIII THE 1936 TREATY 300
XIV THE SECOND GERMAN WAR 310
XV EGYPT AND THE ARAB LEAGUE 321
XVI POST-WAR NATIONALISM 333
XVII THE MORNING AFTER 350
XVIII THE STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE OF EGYPT 365
XIX 1922-5O----A RETROSPECT 371
XX REVOLUTION 381
POSTSCRIPT 405
BIBLIOGRAPHY 433
APPENDICES 437
INDEX 453
PREFACE
TO SECOND EDITION
This book was written in 1953 and first published in the
Spring of 1954. I have often regretted that, lacking the gift
of prophecy, I did not delay writing it for another three
or four years, when I should have been able to bring the
story to a well-rounded end with the Suez expedition of
October-November 1956. This new edition of my book,
coming at a time when the passions aroused by the Suez
expedition have, to some extent, died down, gives me the
opportunity to add a postscript bringing the story of
Anglo-Egyptian relations down from 1953 to the climax
of November 1956. Apart from the postscript, the book
appears exactly as it was originally written. I have resisted
the temptation, on the one hand to use the benefit of hind-
sight to re-write any of the original text, or on the other
hand to carry the postscript beyond 1956. The Suez ex-
pedition provides a natural end, not of course to Anglo-
Egyptian relations as such, but to that long process of
more or less intimate Anglo-Egyptian involvement which
started with Nelson’s victory at the Battle of the Nile.
John Ma r l ow e
Dedham,
Buckinghamshire
January, 1964
CHAPTER ONE
THE FIRST BRITISH OCCUPATION
BY the end of the eighteenth century the three hundred
, years of oppressive and inefficient government from
' which Egypt had suffered since the Ottoman conquest
had reduced that country to the lowest depths of economic
and cultural decay. The once prosperous overland transit
trade between Europe and the East had almost vanished. The
irrigation canals had become silted up and the drainage had
been neglected, with the result that large areas of land, once
cultivated, were reverting to desert and swamp. The evils of
governmental rapacity were unredeemed by any compen-
sating advantages of security or stability. The incursions of
Bedouin from the desert were a constant menace both in the
towns and in the cultivated areas. The once great city of
Alexandria had sunk to a small town of some 15,000 in-
habitants. The whole population of Egypt numbered a little
over 2,000,000. The native Egyptians, both Moslems and
Copts,1 had no responsible share in the government of the
country, and cowered in utter subjection beneath the
rapacity and violence of the Mameluke2 beys, who, under
the usually nominal suzerainty of the Turkish sultan, were
the real masters of the country.
To trace the origin of the Mamelukes it is necessary to go
back to the end of the twelfth and the beginning of the
thirteenth centuries, when Salah-ed-Din al Ayyubi and his
descendants ruled in Egypt. Finding the docile and peace-
loving peasantry of Egypt unsuitable as soldiers either for
guarding their persons or for prosecuting their wars, the
Ayyubi rulers recruited their armies from slaves, most of
whom were of Turcoman origin. With the decline of the
7