The events of 1882 mark a watershed in the modern history of Egypt. By defeating the Egyptian army and occupying the country, Britain brought a forceful conclusion to almost a century of Great Power rivalry and of increasing Egyptian independence. While Egypt remained a province of the Ottoman empire, and the dynasty founded by Muhammad ’Ali continued on the throne, the country now moved to an even further orbit of Ottoman influence, and its direction fell to a small number of Europeans backed by a British garrison. Whether the mistaken result of haste in the face of diplomatic protest, or the inevitable consequence of geo-political realities, Britain’s promises soon to evacuate Egypt went unfulfilled, and there began a long new chapter in Egypt’s foreign domination and Britain’s global empire.

Early in the occupation it became clear that the problems that had precipitated intervention would not quickly be solved, however benign or uncertain were British intentions. The financial crisis that had led Isma’il inexorably into the web of European bondholders had worsened; the weakness of the Egyptian regime, exploited by ’Urabi and fully revealed at Tall al-Kabir, was only worsened by the obvious subordination of the new khedive, Muhammad Tawfiq, to the British; the insecurity of imperial communications that political and financial collapse had threatened was deepened, not corrected, by British intervention; rebellion in the Sudan threatened Egypt’s entire African empire and even the security of her southern borders. To restore Egypt’s finances would take years of painful and painstaking economizing; to restore authority to the Egyptian government while maintaining British strategic objectives would require a constant balancing act.