¹ Sellar, W. A. and Yeatman, R. J., 1066 and All That (London, 1930), 105.Google Scholar

² Robinson, Ronald and Gallagher, John with Alice Denny, Africa and the Victorians : The Official Mind of Imperialism (London, 2nd ed., 1981) 476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³ I have tried to make the extent of my indebtedness clear in the references which follow, but I should also like to express at this point my particular gratitude to Muriel Chamberlain, Bent Hansen, Bruce Johns, and Alexander Scholch for responding so helpfully to my various enquiries.

⁴ It will be evident that my references are intended to be representative, not comprehensive.

⁵ Dicey, E., ‘Our route to India’, Nineteenth Century, 1 (1877), 665–86Google Scholar; Idem, ‘The future of Egypt’, Ibid. 11 (1877), 3–14; W. E. Gladstone, ‘Aggression on Egypt and freedom in the East’, Ibid.,II (1877), 149–66.

⁶ Chamberlain, M. E., ‘British public opinion and the invasion of Egypt’, Trivium, xvi (1981), 21.Google Scholar

⁷ Broadly, A. M., How We Defended Arabi and His Friends (London, 1884), iii.Google Scholar

⁸ Woolf, Leonard, Empire and Commerce in Africa (London, 1920), 115.Google Scholar

⁹ The best introduction to Blunt and his circle is Chamberlain, ‘British public opinion’. See also John V. Crangle,‘The British peace movement and the Anglo-Egyptian war of 1882’, Quarterly Review of Historical Studies, xv (1975/6), 139–50.

¹⁰ Broadly, , How We Defended Arabi, 98–9.Google Scholar

¹¹ Ibid.99.

¹² Blunt, W. S., A Secret History ofthe British Occupation of Egypt (London, 1907), 211, 214, 241, 294–5.Google Scholar

¹³ Ibid. 159–60, 214–15.

¹⁴ Ibid. 214.

¹⁵ Ibid. 310.

¹⁶ Ibid. 199.

¹⁷ Chamberlain, ‘British public opinion’, 23.

¹⁸ Woolf, , Empire and Commerce, 24, 37.Google Scholar

¹⁹ The official view was adopted by most British imperial historians from the 1920s and was passed on, in turn, to generalists. See, for example, Ensor, R. C. K., England, 1870–1914 (Oxford, 1936), 77–86.Google Scholar

²⁰ Dicey, Edward, England and Egypt (London, 1881), 20, 26–8, 68–73.Google Scholar

²¹ Baring's role is dealt with by Mowat, R. C., ‘From liberalism to imperialism: Egypt, 1875–87’Google Scholar, Historical Journal, xvi (1973), 110–23.Google Scholar

²² Milner, Alfred, England in Egypt (London, 5th ed., 1894),15.Google Scholar See also Deighton, H. S., ‘The impact of Egypt on Britain: a study of public opinion’, in Holt, P. M., ed., Political and Social Change in Modern Egypt (London, 1968), 247.Google Scholar

²³ Milner, , England in Egypt, 16.Google Scholar

²⁴ Ibid. 385.

²⁵ Ibid. 416.

²⁶ Ibid. 436.

²⁷ Ibid. 386–7, 391–440.

²⁸ SirColvin, Auckland, The Making of Modern Egypt (London, 1906), 1.Google Scholar

²⁹ Ibid. 51–2.

³⁰ Ibid. 13–15,414–15.

³¹ Deighton, ‘Impact of Egypt’, 247; Chamberlain, ‘British public opinion’, 22.

³² SirLucas, Charles, The Partition and Colonization ofAfrica (Oxford, 1922), 121, 105.Google Scholar

³³ Williamson, J. A., A Short History of British Expansion (London, 1922), 599–600.Google Scholar

³⁴ A notable exception is Langer's, William L.European Alliances and Alignments, 1871–1890 (New York,1931)Google Scholar, which remains a remarkably fresh and perceptive study. But Langer was an American and he stood outside the increasingly defensive circle of British imperial historians.

³⁵ Cromer, Lord, Ancient and Modern Imperialism, 19–20, 25, 27–8, 33, 35.Google Scholar

³⁶ Ibid. 33, 118–19.

³⁷ Hobson, J. A., Democracy After the War(London, 1919), 87, 89–90.Google Scholar I am grateful to Peter Cain for this reference.

³⁸ See, for example, the scholarly treatment of the Tunisian question in ch. 3 of Empire and Commerce.

³⁹ Dicey, , England and Egypt, 251.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Cromer, Lord, Modern Egypt(London, 1908), 1.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Lucas, , Partition and Colonization, 133.Google Scholar

⁴² It will be evident from the preceding survey that the historiography of this subject merits much greater attention than it has received here. It would be particularly interesting to compare the literature in French with that in English, to explore the ideas and influence of American critics of British imperialism, and to trace in more detail the process by which the original ‘official view’ of Britain's action in Egypt was recycled, and appeared, much later, as an orthodoxy of modern scholarship.

⁴³ Robinson, and Gallagher, , Africa and the Victorians (1st ed., London, 1961).Google Scholar

⁴⁴ 2nd ed. (London, 1981). All references in the present article are to this edition which reprints the original text in an unchanged form and adds to it pp. ix–xxiii and 473–99.

⁴⁵ No attempt will be made here to discuss the huge literature on this subject. However, in reapproaching Africa and the Victorians, I have found two very different contributions particularly helpful: Quentin Skinner, ‘“Social meaning” and the explanation of social action’, in Gardiner, Patrick, ed., The Philosophy of History(Oxford, 1974), 106–26Google Scholar, and Dray's, William essay, ‘A controversy over causes: A. J. P.Taylor and the origins of the Second World War’, in his Perspectives on History (London, 1980), 69–96.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Robinson, and Gallagher, , Africa and the Victorians, xi, 20, 466.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Ibid. xii.

⁴⁸ Ibid., xii–xiv, xxii–xxiii, 499.

⁴⁹ Ibid. xxii.

⁵⁰ Ibid. 473.

⁵¹ Ibid. 465.

⁵² See also Professor Robinson's ‘Afterthoughts’ in ibid. 477–9.

⁵³ Ibid. 474.

⁵⁴ Ibid. 467.

⁵⁵ Ibid. 84.

⁵⁶ Ibid, no , 118.

⁵⁷ Ibid. 83.

⁵⁸ Ibid. 94.

⁵⁹ Ibid. 100.

⁶⁰ Ibid. 105–8.

⁶¹ Ibid. 103.

⁶² Ibid. 122–55.

⁶³ Ibid. 84.

⁶⁴ Ibid. 94.

⁶⁵ Ibid. 96–7.

⁶⁶ Ibid. 119.

⁶⁷ Ibid. 104.

⁶⁸ Ibid. 475, 83.

⁶⁹ Ibid. 86.

⁷⁰ Ibid. 113.

⁷¹ Ibid. 110.

⁷² Ibid. 111.

⁷³ Ibid. xi.

⁷⁴ Ibid, xi–xii.

⁷⁵ Farnie, D. A., East and West of Suez : The Suez Canal in History, 1854–1956 (Oxford, 1969), 292.Google Scholar Naval aspects of the bombardment are dealt with by White, Colin S., ‘The bombardment of Alexandria’, Mariner's Mirror, lxvi (1980), 31–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Robinson, Robert L., ‘Gunboat diplomacy, 1882: The United States Navy and the bombardment of Alexandria’, Warship International, xix (1982), 47–56.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Farnie, , East and West of Suez, 293–4, 334 455Google Scholar; Galbraith, John S. and Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid-Marsot,‘The British occupation of Egypt: another view’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, ix (1978), 471–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷⁷ Farnie, , East and West of Suez, 286–7Google Scholar; Schölch, Alexander ,‘The “Men on the Spot” and the English occupation of Egypt in 1882’, Historical Journal, xix (1976), 775–82.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ East and West of Suez, 294.

⁷⁹ Ibid. 289, 290; Schölch, ‘The “Men on the Spot”’, 784; Galbraith and al- Sayyid-Marsot, ‘The British occupation’, 483–5.

⁸⁰ Farnie, , East and West of Suez, 299Google Scholar; Schölch, Alexander, Egypt for the Egyptians: The Socio-political Crisis in Egypt, 1878–1882 (London, 1981), 300.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Farnie, , East and West of Suez, 291–2Google Scholar; Schölch, ‘The “Men on the Spot”’, 774, 784; Schölch, Egypt, 224; Galbraith and al-Sayyid-Marsot, ‘The British occupation’, 472–3, 488.

⁸² Quoted in Galbraith and al-Sayyid-Marsot, ‘The British occupation’, 473.

⁸³ Schölch, Egypt; Hunter, F. Robert, Egypt under the Khedives, 1805–1879: From Household Government to Modern Bureaucracy (Pittsburgh, 1984)Google Scholar. Schölch's study was first published in German as Ägyptern den Ägypten! Die politische und gesellschaftliche Krise den Jahren 1878–1881 in Ägypten (Zurich and Freiburg, 1972); in the English version the text is unchanged but the footnotes are severely cut.

⁸⁴ Schölch, , Egypt, 65–9Google Scholar; Hunter, , Egypt under the Khedives, 208–15.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Schölch, , Egypt, 136–53, 177Google Scholar; Hunter, , Egypt under the Khedives, 215–16.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Schölch, , Egypt, 143–7Google Scholar; Hunter, , Egypt under the Khedives, 228Google Scholar.

⁸⁷ Schölch, , Egypt, 190–2, 224Google Scholar; Hunter, , Egypt under the Khedives, 229.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ Schölch, , Egypt, 163–4, 169, 176, 186–8.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ Schölch, , Egypt, 233–4, 250–52.Google Scholar The definitive account is now Chamberlain, M. E., ‘The Alexandria massacre of 11 June 1882 and the British occupation of Egypt, Middle Eastern Studies, xiii (1977), 14–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁹⁰ Schölch, , Egypt, 202–4Google Scholar, 211, 219–20, 224, 233–4: and Hunter, , yEgypt under the Khedives, 189, 195–8Google Scholar (revealing Nubar's influence on Dicey.)

⁹¹ Schölch, , Egypt, 202–3, 219Google Scholar; also 204, 211, 220, 233–4.

⁹² See especially, J. W. Parsons, ‘France and the Egyptian question, 1875–1894’ (Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge University, 1976), and Atkins, Richard A., ‘The Origins of the Anglo-French Condominium in Egypt, 1875–1876’, The Historian, xxxvi (1974), 264–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁹³ The relevant segment of the large literature on Franco-Egyptian relations in the nineteenth century is surveyed by Parsons, ‘France’, ch. 1.

⁹⁴ Parsons, ‘France’, 27–9, 32–3.

⁹⁵ Bouvier's, Jean pioneering article, ‘Les intérêts financiers et la question d'Égypte (1875–1876)’, Revue Historique, ccxxiv (1960), 75–104Google Scholar, now has to be read in the light of Parsons, ‘Egypt’, 20–29, 35–58, 73–5, 347–8.

⁹⁶ Parsons, ‘Egypt’, 20.

⁹⁷ These intricate negotiations are dealt with by Parsons, ‘Egypt’, ch. 1.

⁹⁸ Ramm's, Agatha article, ‘Great Britain and France in Egypt, 1876–1882’, in Prosser Gifford, and Louis, William Roger, eds., France and Britain in Africa (New Haven, 1971), 73–119Google Scholar, needs some modification to take account of Parsons, ‘Egypt’, and Parsons needs to be considered in conjunction with Atkins, ‘Origins’, and idem.‘The Conservatives and Egypt, 1875–1880’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 11 (1974), 190–205.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ Parsons, ‘Egypt’, 90, 108, 125–7. The role of the French bondholders has also to be reviewed as a result of the important research of B. R. Johns, ‘Business, investment, and imperialism. The relationship between economic interests and the growth of British intervention in Egypt, 1838–82’ (Ph.D. thesis, Exeter University, 1982), 233–47.

¹⁰⁰ Parsons, ‘Egypt’, 142, 147; Johns, ‘Business’, 231, 250–4, 258, 263–4, 271.

¹⁰¹ Hyam's suggestion that Robinson and Gallagher underestimated the importance of events in Tunisia is supported by Parsons. See Hyam, Ronald, ‘The partition of Africa: a critique of Robinson and Gallagher’, in Hyam, Ronald and Martin, Ged, Reappraisals in British Imperial History (London, 1975), 145–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Parsons, ‘Egypt’, 189, 191.

¹⁰² Parsons, ‘Egypt’, 176.

¹⁰³ Ibid. 180–1, 184, 196; Schölch, ‘The “Men on the Spot’”, 775, 782; Galbraith and al-Sayyid-Marsot, ‘The British occupation’, 486–8.

¹⁰⁴ Parsons, ‘Egypt’, 189, 191–2, 350–4.

¹⁰⁵ Ibid. 201, 208.

¹⁰⁶ Deighton, ‘Impact of Egypt’, 231–44.

¹⁰⁷ Owen, E. R. J., Cotton and the Egyptian Economy, 1820–1914(Oxford, 1969)Google Scholar, and The Middle East in the World Economy, 1800–1914 (London, 1981)Google Scholar. See also Johns, ‘Business’, ch. 1.

¹⁰⁸ Owen, , Middle East, 127, 103–3, 139, 151Google Scholar; Johns, ‘Business’, 91–2, 100, 107, 110–111, 128, 211, 215, 247, 252–4, 271, 281–2, 351.

¹⁰⁹ Platt, D. C. M., Finance, Trade, and Politics: British Foreign Policy, 1815–1914(Oxford, 1968), 154–80Google Scholar.

¹¹⁰ Cassis, Y., ‘Bankers in English society in the late nineteenth century’, Economic History Review, 2nd ser. xxxviii (1985), 210–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹¹¹ This feat is accomplished while still maintaining a sense of balance between these interests and others. See Johns, ‘Business’, especially 57, 75, 79–80, 85, 114–17, 166–70, 258, 271, 320–2, 326–9, 336, 343.

¹¹² Ibid. 138, 140–2, 183–4; Atkins, , ‘The Conservatives’, 193Google Scholar; Hunter, , Egypt under the Khedives, 182–3Google Scholar; Parsons, ‘Egypt’, 24–5, 35–6, 40, 52, 58–9, 63, 83–4, 100, 370.

¹¹³ Atkins, ‘Origins’, 270.

¹¹⁴ Parsons, ‘Egypt’, ch. 2; Johns, ‘Business’, chs 3–4.

¹¹⁵ Parsons, ‘Egypt’, 33–4; Johns, ‘Business’, 146–52.

¹¹⁶ Atkins, ‘Origins’, 277–8, 280–1; idem, ‘The Conservatives’, 195; Parsons, ‘Egypt’, 58–9, 63, 65, 71–5, 83, 100; Johns, ‘Business’, 129, 165–70, 183–4, 200–02.

¹¹⁷ Atkins, ‘The Conservatives’, 195–6; Johns, ‘Business’, 136.

¹¹⁸ Atkins, ‘The Conservatives’, 197–200; Swartz, Marvin, The Politics of British Foreign Policy in the Era of Disraeli and Gladstone(London, 1985), 129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹¹⁹ 25 Aug. 1878; Quoted in Johns, ‘Business’, 213.

¹²⁰ Ibid. 215–17; Hunter, , Egypt under the Khedives, 188–9.Google Scholar

¹²¹ Atkins, ‘The Conservatives’, 200.

¹²² Swartz, , Politics, 130.Google Scholar

¹²³ Ibid. 130. And Rothschild's loan finally passed its issue price: Johns, ‘Business’, 231.

¹²⁴ Johns, ‘Business’, 250, 258–82.

¹²⁵ Galbraith and al-Sayyid-Marsot, ‘The British occupation’, 479. On the broader context see Swartz, , Politics, chs 5–6.Google Scholar

¹²⁶ Galbraith and al-Sayyid-Marsot, ‘The British Occupation’, 479.

¹²⁷ Ibid. 479–81; Swartz, , Politics, 131–2.Google Scholar

¹²⁸ This point has been established in an important contribution by M. E. Chamberlain, ‘Sir Charles Dilke and the British Intervention in Egypt, 1882: decision making in an nineteenth-century cabinet’, British Journal of International Studies, ii (1976), 231–45.Google Scholar

¹²⁹ Johns, ‘Business’, 301–2.

¹³⁰ Chamberlain, ‘Sir Charles Dilke’, 233; Johns, ‘Business’, 308.

¹³¹ Johns, ‘Business’, 308.

¹³² Chamberlain, ‘Sir Charles Dilke’, 234–5.

¹³³ Ibid. 235; Galbraith and al-Sayyid-Marsot, ‘The British occupation’, 480.

¹³⁴ Galbraith and al-Sayyid-Marsot, ‘The British occupation’, 482.

¹³⁵ Schölch, ‘The “Men on the Spot”’, 779, 781.

¹³⁶ Ibid. 781–2.

¹³⁷ Galbraith and al-Sayyid-Marsot, ‘The British occupation’, 477.

¹³⁹ Schölch, ‘The “Men on the Spot”’, 777.

¹³⁹ Ibid. 780.

¹⁴⁰ Galbraith and al-Sayyid-Marsot, ‘The British occupation’, 481–2.

¹⁴¹ Chamberlain, ‘Sir Charles Dilke’, 236–7.

¹⁴² Johns, ‘Business’, 343–4.

¹⁴³ Quoted in Galbraith and al-Sayyid-Marsot, ‘The British occupation’, 484.

¹⁴⁴ Ibid. , 485–6; Chamberlain, ‘The Alexandria massacre’, 32–3.

¹⁴⁵ Seymour, C. L., ‘The bombardment of Alexandria: a note’, English Historical Review,lxxxvii (1972), 790–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁴⁶ Chamberlain, ‘Sir Charles Dilke’, 237–8; Swartz, , Politics, 136–7.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁷ Chamberlain, ‘Sir Charles Dilke’, 238–43.

¹⁴⁸ Galbraith and al-Sayyid-Marsot, ‘The British occupation’, 478.

¹⁴⁹ Steele, David, ‘Britain and Egypt, 1882–1914: the containment of Islamic nationalism’, in Wilson, Keith M., ed, Imperialism and Nationalism in the Middle East (London, 1983), 149.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁰ Swartz, , Politics, 134–5, 138.Google Scholar

¹⁵¹ Galbraith, John S., ‘The trial of Arabi Pasha’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, vii (1979), 274–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁵² Swartz, , Politics, 140–2Google Scholar; Deighton, ‘Impact of Egypt’, 245–6.

¹⁵³ Quoted in Galbraith and al-Sayyid-Marsot, ‘The British occupation’, 478. On the dissenters see Crangle, ‘The British peace movement’.

¹⁵⁴ Robinson, and Gallagher, , Africa and the Victorians, 466–7.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁵ Ibid. 475.

¹⁵⁶ Ibid. 476.

¹⁵⁷ See also Owen, Roger, ‘Robinson and Gallagher and Middle Eastern nationalism’, in Wm. Louis, Roger, ed, Imperialism: the Robinson and Gallagher Controversy(London, 1976), 215.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁸ An attempt to steer this course has been made by Cain, P. J. and Hopkins, A. G., ‘Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Imperialism, 1688–1945’, Economic History Review, 2nd ser. xxxix (1986)Google Scholar, forthcoming.

¹⁵⁹ But the role of manufacturing interests in the events leading to occupation has yet to be fully researched.

¹⁶⁰ Edelstein, Michael, Overseas Investment in the Age of High Imperialism: The United Kingdom, 1850–1914 (London, 1982)Google Scholar; Landes, David, Bankers and Pashas: International Finance and Economic Imperialism in Egypt (London, 1958).Google Scholar

¹⁶¹ Mowat, ‘From liberalism to imperialism’.

¹⁶² What follows is a speculative statement which draws upon Roger Owen, ‘Egypt and Europe: from French expedition to British occupation’, in Owen, Roger and Sutcliffe, Bob, eds, Studies in the Theory of Imperialism(London, 1972), 195–209Google Scholar; Hunter, Egypt under the Khedives; Cuno, Kenneth M., ‘The origins of private ownership of land in Egypt: a reappraisal’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, xii (1980), 245–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gran, Peter, Islamic Roots of Capitalism : Egypt, 1760–1840 (Austin, 1979)Google Scholar, and the discussion of this book in International Journal of Middle East Studies, xiv (1982), 381–99.Google Scholar

¹⁶³ Adam, Juliette, L'Angleterre en Egypte(Paris, 1922), 73.Google Scholar

¹⁶⁴ Swartz, , Politics, 140.Google Scholar

¹⁶⁶ Mowat, ‘From liberalism to imperialism’.

¹⁶⁶ Al-Subaiy, Abdul Nasir, ‘Anglo-Egyptian relations under Lord Salisbury, 1885–1892’ (Ph.D. thesis, Michigan State University, 1980)Google Scholar; El-Magrahi, Milad A., ‘British policy toward Egypt, 1875–1885: British imperial expansion and Egyptian nationalist response’, (Ph.D. thesis, Washington University, 1982), ch. 5.Google Scholar See also Wilson, Keith M., ‘Constantinople or Cairo: Lord Salisbury and the partition of the Ottoman empire, 1886–1897’, in Wilson, Keith M., ed., Imperialism and Nationalism, 26–55.Google Scholar

¹⁶⁷ Hanson, Bent, ‘Interest rates and foreign capital in Egypt under British occupation’, Journal of Economic History, xliii (1983), 867–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁶⁸ Newbury, C. W. and Kanya-Forstner, A. S., ‘French policy and the origins of the scramble for West Africa’, Journal of African History, x (1969), 253–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁶⁹ Langer, , European Alliances, 274–5, 277–8Google Scholar; Parsons, ‘France’, 219, 225.

¹⁷⁰ Parsons, ‘France’, 242–3, 245–55, 257–8, 260.

¹⁷¹ Ibid. ch. 8.

¹⁷² One of the unstudied ironies of France's ‘defeat’ in Egypt in 1882 is that French informal influence expanded and prospered under British rule subsequently.

¹⁷³ Andrew, C. M. and Kanya-Forstner, A. S., ‘Gabriel Hanotaux, the colonial party, and the Fashoda strategy’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, iii (1974), 55–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁷⁴ One alternative approach to West Africa is considered in Hopkins, A. G., An Economic History of West Africa (London, 1973), ch. 4.Google Scholar

¹⁷⁵ Chamberlain, M. E., ‘Clement Hill's memoranda and the British interest in East Africa’, Eng. Hist. Rev. lxxxvii (1972), 533–47; and note 76 above.CrossRefGoogle Scholar