History of Egypt Under The Muhammad Ali Dynasty - Egypt Occupied By The British

Egypt Occupied By The British

Further information: British occupation of Egypt

The British government decided to employ armed force, and invited France to cooperate. The French government declined, and a similar invitation to Italy met with a similar refusal. Britain therefore, acting alone, landed troops at Ismailia under Sir Garnet Wolseley, and suppressed the revolt by the battle of Tel-el-Kebir on September 13, 1882. While it had been claimed this was meant to be only a temporary intervention, British troops would remain in Egypt until 1956. The landing in Ismailia happened due to the British failure to perform the original plan to destroy defences in Alexandria, then march to Cairo.

With no fleet to protect the city, British battleships easily bombarded the city, forcing many civilians to migrate. Uraby, the Egyptian army commander, was not allowed to have troopers exceeding 800 men strong. Defeated in Alexandria, he decided to fight the British on ground he gathered the rest of the army at Kafr-el-shiekh and constructed strong base defences that the British failed to defeat after continuous battles all ended with British troopers retreating to the main base at Alexandria. The British then shipped soldiers to Ismailia and met Uraby at El-tal el-kebier which was weakly prepared comparing with the defence lines at Kafr-el-shiekh to withstand heavy artillery, so the fort was taken and Uraby was exiled to India.

The khedive, who had taken refuge in Alexandria, returned to Cairo, and a ministry was formed under Sherif Pasha, with Riaz Pasha as one of its leading members. On assuming office, the first thing it had to do was to bring to trial the chiefs of the rebellion. Urabi pleaded guilty, was sentenced to death, the sentence being commuted by the khedive to banishment; and Riaz resigned in disgust. This solution of the difficulty was brought about by Lord Dufferin, then British ambassador at Istanbul, who had been sent to Egypt as high commissioner to adjust affairs and report on the situation.

One of his first acts, after preventing the application of capital punishment to the ringleaders of the revolt, was to veto the project of protecting the khedive and his government by means of a Praetorian guard recruited from Asia Minor, Epirus, Austria and Switzerland, and to insist on the principle that Egypt must be governed in a truly liberal spirit. Passing in review all the departments of the administration, he laid down the general lines on which the country was to be restored to order and prosperity, and endowed, if possible, with the elements of self-government for future use.