Lesson 15: The Foreign Policy of Muhammad Ali and His Wars

01Egypt's foreign policy

• Egypt's foreign policy and its relations with the various powers are defined by its location and vital space at each stage.
• Before Muhammad Ali one could not speak of an Egyptian foreign policy: Egypt was a dependent province of the sultan in war and peace.
• The real attempts at independence from the Ottoman State began in his reign:
  • they began when his forces went to Arabia to quench the Wahhabi call at the sultan's request;
  • and took clearer shape when he clashed with the sultan in the Levant.
• There began the realisation that an Arab bond joined the lands of the Nile valley, the Levant and Arabia — against the Ottoman bond.
• Muhammad Ali's expansions in the Sudan, Arabia and the Mediterranean basin were a backing (hinterland) for the central government he built.

02The two kinds of Muhammad Ali's wars

03The wars in Arabia (1811–1819)

• They were fought to help destroy the followers of the call of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab of the House of Saud, who threatened the Ottoman State's influence there.
• They ended with Muhammad Ali overthrowing the First Saudi State.

Their most important results

• Consolidation of Muhammad Ali's position in Egypt and the raising of his status from a subordinate to an independent ruler.
• A military and political Egyptian presence in Arabia: the sultan assigned Muhammad Ali the sheikhdom of the Sacred Mosque of Mecca, and his son Ibrahim the waliya of Jeddah.
• Egypt's scope widened to include the Hejaz, Nejd, Asir, part of Yemen and part of the Arabian Gulf.
• The Egyptian presence in the peninsula played an effective role in forming the Arab bond to face the Ottoman bond.
• Britain watched his expansion with caution, because of the danger it posed to its imperial line of communications.

04The war of Greece (the war of the Morea) (1821–1828)

• It broke out to meet the Greeks' demand for independence from the Ottoman State.
• Greece and eastern Europe had been part of the Ottoman Empire since the late fifteenth century.
• Muhammad Ali sent Egyptian forces to Greece in 1824.
• The Egyptian army performed its task well, and the final results of the war told in favour of Muhammad Ali and the building of his own strength.

Its results

• The annexation of the island of Crete to the waliya of Egypt.
• The army acquired field experience.
• Egypt's standing rose internationally: negotiations were held directly with Egypt to reach an agreement ending the war (1828).
• Growth of the idea of separating from the Ottoman State and securing Egypt's independence.

05The annexation of the Sudan (1820–1822)

Muhammad Ali's aims

• Pursuing the Mamluks who fled the Citadel Massacre to Dongola.
• Discovering the gold and diamond mines, gold being a standard of goods and exchange.
• Developing trade and recruiting Sudanese soldiers.
• Realising the idea of Egypt's vital space and its natural expansion to the south.

His measures in the Sudan

• Unifying the parts of the Sudan for the first time under the name "the Sudan".
• Appointing a governor-general with the rank of command-in-chief (hukhmdar) combining military and civil authority, coordinating with the Diwan of the Interior in Egypt.
• Dividing the Sudan into mdiriyahs and sections on the model of Egypt's administrative division.
• Building new towns such as Khartoum, which became the capital of the Sudan in 1830, and Kassala on the Blue Nile.
• Muhammad Ali visited the Sudan in 1838 and gave educational grants to six Sudanese to study agricultural science in Egypt.
• He brought the sons of Sudanese leaders to study in Egypt, and Sudanese took part with Egyptians in the missions to Europe.
• He introduced Egyptian crops into the Sudan — wheat, vegetables and fruit trees.
• These efforts helped the discovery of the sources of the Nile and of central Africa through the expansions of Isma'il's reign.

06The annexation of the Levant and Anatolia (1831–1840)

Muhammad Ali's motives

• He had thought of annexing the Levant early, asking the sultan to cede it for money, then asking again during the Arabian wars — the sultan refused.
• He asked for it as compensation for his losses in the war of Greece and as a reward after Crete.
• The idea became more pressing after the Sudan and his presence in Arabia: annexing the Levant would strengthen the Arab front against the Ottoman State and secure Egypt's north-eastern borders.

The declared cause

• The official cause was the return of Egyptian peasants who had fled to the Levant to escape taxes and military service.
• The wali of Acre refused, arguing they were Ottoman subjects free to settle anywhere.
• Muhammad Ali decided to expand into the Levant in October 1831.

The course of the war

• The Egyptian forces won success after success: they took Acre (May 1832), then Damascus (June 1832) and Homs (July 1832).
• They crossed the northern frontier of Syria into Anatolia, based at Adana, and continued advancing along the road to Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman State.

Muhammad Ali's measures in the Levant

• Subduing the feudal princes and disarming them.
• Consolidating security and imposing order.
• Establishing the authority of the central government of Egypt.
• Reviving trade and agriculture and imposing the conscription system.

07Exam traps and key takeaways

• The classification is by who ordered it: Arabia and Greece = the sultan's orders; the Sudan and the Levant/Anatolia = his own will.
• No Egyptian foreign policy existed before Muhammad Ali — the province followed the sultan in war and peace.
• Arabia ended the First Saudi State (not the second) and gave him the sheikhdom of the Sacred Mosque of Mecca, Ibrahim getting Jeddah.
• Greece: troops sent 1824, agreement 1828, result Crete; the key constitutional effect is direct international negotiation with Egypt.
• The Sudan's purposes include gold and diamond mines and the flight of Mamluks to Dongola; Khartoum became capital in 1830; his visit was 1838.
• The declared cause of the Levant war (fugitive peasants) is not the real motive — a classic distinction question.
• Order of capture: Acre → Damascus → Homs → Adana → road to Istanbul.
• British caution in Arabia was about the line of communications, which foreshadows the 1840 intervention.