University:
Tyler Junior College
Course:
HIST 1301 | History
Academic year:

2024
Views:

221

Pages:

1
Author:

Dave D.

EXPANSION IN THE INDUSTRIAL AGE HIST 1301 | History Egypt Egypt experienced a similar deindustrialization trend, however there were other factors at play than British influence. With the help of Egyptian political and religious figures, Muhammad Ali, an Albanian army commander working for the Ottoman Empire, took over Egypt in 1805, unseating the viceroy who had been representing Ottoman monarch Selim III. Egypt gained its effective, if unofficial, independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1811 when Muhammad Ali overthrew the Mamluks, a dynasty of former slave soldiers who had defended Egypt on behalf of the Ottomans. In order to bolster his power, he took on the title of khedive of Egypt, which placed him one step behind the sultan in power and above a viceroy. Muhammad Ali was intended to modernise Egypt as its new ruler. When the peasants were not cultivating food crops in the winter, he pushed them to plant cotton, which he then exported to Britain. He built irrigation systems to increase cotton production, established a weapons foundry, modernised Egypt's army, and bought ships for a modern navy using the money he made. In addition to establishing a women's medical college and a military college, he overhauled Egypt's educational system. Using imported European technology and staff, he constructed paper mills, sugar refineries, and textile factories. Egyptian landowners thrived during Muhammad Ali's leadership. On the other hand, peasants disliked being drafted into the army and the system of forced labour used in many construction projects. To avoid them, a lot of people either fled or purposefully injured themselves. Muhammad Ali extended his sphere of influence by using his army. He took control of the majority of Sudan, the western portion of the Arabian Peninsula, Crete, and Syria. The Ottoman sultan requested help from the European nations, alarmed by his military victory. Muhammad Ali was compelled to surrender all of his claimed land, with the exception of Egypt and Sudan, at the Convention of London in 1840 due to the British and Austrian blockade of the Nile. He was also forced to decrease his army and disband his fleet. He obtained the authority to impose his family's hereditary rule in Egypt in return. Muhammad Ali's attempts to industrialise were likewise thwarted by the European powers. The Ottoman Empire agreed to remove monopolies and lower import fees on French and British-manufactured products, making them more affordable than those created in Egypt, in the 1838 Treaty of Balta Liman with Britain. Egypt's manufacturers were also unable to create enough items quickly enough to meet Egyptian demand because there was not enough coal to run the steam engines. Egypt's agricultural sector flourished, with accessible markets for its cotton and sugar, but the country's manufacturing sector struggled. Egypt was forced to become an export-oriented economy as a result of the government's promotion of cash crop growth for sale to Europe in order to raise taxes for the country's military and foreign imports.