Egypt, British Protectorate of

No ruler of Egypt, except Gamal Abdul Nasser, has provoked such controversy in the West as Ismail.

At this time, the anti-Ismail view is held mainly by British administrators like Evelyn Baring (Lord Cromer) and Lord Alfred Milner, who depicts him as squeezing the peasants for money by oppressive taxation and the whip, and ''ruining Egypt" by his lavish spending and despotic ways.

Journalists and the American consuls in Egypt such as Edwin de Leon hold a more balanced view, arguing that Ismail has inherited an unfavorable Suez Canal agreement and a significant public and private debt from his uncle, Sa'id.

They note that although Ismail spends lavishly, much of the money he borrows from European bankers is used for building or repairing the country 's infrastructure.

They also point out that European bankers and financiers loan money to Egypt at usurious interest rates and, when it seems Egypt will be unable to repay the loans, urge their governments to intervene to protect their interests.

The other European powers, refusing to accept the dominant position of Russia in the Balkans, calls the Congress of Berlin in 1878.

At this conclave, the Europeans agreed to a much smaller autonomous Bulgarian state under nominal Ottoman suzerainty.

Serbia and Romania are recognized as fully independent states, and the Ottoman provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina are placed under Austrian administration.

Cyprus, although remaining technically part of the Ottoman Empire, becomes a British protectorate.

For all its wartime exertions, Russia receives only minor territorial concessions in Bessarabia and the Caucasus.

In the course of the nineteenth century, France seized Algeria and Tunisia, while Britain begins its occupation of Egypt in 1882.

In all these cases, the occupied territories formerly had belonged to the Ottoman Empire.

Governor Abou Baker had ordered the Egyptian garrison at Sagallo to retire to Zeila.

The cruiser Seignelay reaches Sagallo shortly after the Egyptians had departed.

French troops occupy the fort despite protests from the British Agent in Aden, Major Frederick Mercer Hunter, who dispatches troops to safeguard British and Egyptian interests in Zeila and prevent further extension of French influence in that direction.

On April 14, 1884, the Commander of the patrol sloop L'Inferent reports on the Egyptian occupation in the Gulf of Tadjoura.

The Commander of the patrol sloop Le Vaudreuil reports that the Egyptians are occupying the interior between Obock and Tadjoura.

Emperor Johannes IV of Ethiopia signs an accord with Great Britain to cease fighting the Egyptians and to allow the evacuation of Egyptian forces from Ethiopia and the Somalia littoral.

The Egyptian garrison is withdrawn from Tadjoura.

Léonce Lagarde deploysa patrol sloop to Tadjoura the following night.

Sir Garnet Wolsley and an army of twenty thousand invaded the Suez Canal Zone in August.

Wolsley is authorized to crush the Urabi forces and clear the country of rebels.

The decisive battle is fought at Tall al Kabir on September 13, 1882.

The Urabi forces are routed and the capital captured.

The nominal authority of the khedive is restored, and the British occupation of Egypt, which is to last for seventy-two years, has begun.

With the occupation of 1882, Egypt becomes a part of the British Empire but will never officially be a colony.

The khedival government provides the facade of autonomy, but behind it lies the real power in the country, specifically, the British agent and consul general, backed by British troops.

Urabi is captured, and he and his associates are put on trial.

An Egyptian court sentences Urabi to death, but through British intervention the sentence is commuted to banishment to Ceylon.

Britain's military intervention in 1882 and its extended, if attenuated, occupation of the country leaves a legacy of bitterness among the Egyptians that will not be expunged until 1956 when British troops will finally be removed from the country.

At the outset of the occupation of Egypt, the British government declares its intention to withdraw its troops as soon as possible.

This cannot be done, however, until the authority of the khedive is restored.

Eventually, the British realize that these two aims are incompatible because the military intervention, which Khedive Tawfiq had supported and which had prevented his overthrow, has undermined the authority of the ruler.

Without the British presence, the khedival government would probably collapse.

In addition, the British government realizes that the most effective way to protect its interests is from its position in Egypt.

This represents a change in the policy that had existed since the time of Muhammad Ali, when the British were committed to preserving the Ottoman Empire.

The change in British policy occurs for several reasons.

Sultan Abdul Hamid had refused Britain's request to intervene in Egypt against Urabi and to preserve the khedival government.

Also, Britain's influence in Istanbul is declining while that of Germany is rising.

Finally, Britain's unilateral invasion of Egypt gives Britain the opportunity to supplant French influence in the country.

Moreover, Britain is determined to preserve its control over the Suez Canal and to safeguard the vital route to India.

The Suez Canal, initially built by the French, had become a joint British-French project in 1875, as both saw it as vital to maintaining their influence and empires in Asia.

In 1882, ongoing civil disturbances in Egypt prompt  Britain to intervene, extending a hand to France.

The government allows Britain to take effective control of Egypt.

Egypt is, by June, in the hands of nationalists opposed to European domination of the country.

France and Great Britain had sent warships to Alexandria in April 1882, to bolster the Khedive amidst a turbulent climate, spreading fear of invasion throughout the country.

Tawfiq had moved to Alexandria for fear of his own safety as army officers led by his war minister, Ahmed Orabi, began to take control of the government.