| Second Anglo-Egyptian War | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
United KingdomEgyptian and Sudanese forces under Khedive Tawfiq |
Egyptian and Sudanese forces under Ahmed Orabi | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Maj. Gen. Garnet Wolseley Admiral Beauchamp Seymour |
Ahmed Orabi | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 40,560 regulars | unconfirmed number of regulars | ||||||||
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The Anglo-Egyptian War occurred in 1882 between Egyptian and Sudanese forces under Ahmed Orabi, and the United Kingdom.
Contents |
In 1881, an Egyptian army officer, Colonel Ahmed Orabi, initiated a coup against Tewfik Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt and Sudan, because of grievances over disparities in pay between Egyptian and European employees, as well as other concerns. In January 1882 the British and French governments sent the "Joint Note" to the Egyptian government, declaring their recognition of the Khedive's authority. On May 20, 1882, British and French warships arrived off the coast of Alexandria. On June 11, 1882, a riot occurred in Alexandria that killed 50 Europeans, though Colonel Orabi ordered his forces to put down the riot. On July 11, 1882, British warships began their bombardment of Alexandria.
The reasons why the British government sent a fleet of ships to the coast of Alexandria is a point of historical debate, as there is no information available that is capable of identifying a definitive cause for the invasion.
In their 1961 essay Africa and the Victorians, Ronald Robinson and John Gallagher argue that the British invasion was ordered in order to quell the perceived anarchy of the Orabi Revolt, as well to protect British control over the Suez Canal in order to maintain its shipping route to the Indian Ocean.[1]
A.G. Hopkins rejects Robinson and Gallagher's argument, citing original documents and second-hand sources to claim that there was no perceived danger to the Suez Canal from the Orabi movement,[2] and that Orabi' and his forces were not chaotic "anarchists", but rather maintained law and order.[3] He alternatively argues that British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone's cabinet was motivated by protecting the interests of British bondholders with investments in Egypt as well as pursuit of domestic political popularity. Hopkins cites the British investments in Egypt that grew massively leading into the 1880s, partially as a result of the Khedive's debt from construction of the Suez Canal, as well as the close links that existed between the British government and the economic sector.[4] He writes Britain's economic interests occurred simultaneously to a desire within the ruling Liberal Party for a militant foreign policy in order to gain political domestic political popularity to compete with the Conservative Party.[5] Hopkins cites a letter from Sir Edward Malet, the British consul general in Egypt at the time, to a member of the Gladstone Cabinet offering his congratulations on the invasion, "You have fought the battle of all Christendom and history will acknowledge it. May I also venture to say that it has given the liberal party a new lease of popularity and power."[6]
John Galbraith and Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid-Marsot make a similar argument to Hopkins, though their argument focuses on how individuals within the British government bureaucracy used their positions to make the invasion appear as a more favorable option to Gladstone's cabinet. First, they describe a plot by Edward Malet in which he portrayed the Egyptian government as unstable to his superiors in the British cabinet in order to provoke a British military intervention, which Galbraith and al-Sayyid-Marsot write contributed to the decision to invade.[7] They portray him as having been naive, that he believed that he could convince the British government to militarily intimidate the Egyptian government, though he never imagined a full-out invasion or occupation.[8] They also describe the actions of Admiral Beauchamp Seymour, commander of the British fleet that bombarded Alexandria, who personally hastened the start of the bombardment by exaggerating the danger posed by Orabi's forces in Alexandria to his ships in his telegrams back to the British government.[9]
The British fleet bombarded Alexandria from July 11-13, followed by British marines occupying it. The bombardment was very one sided, the British did not lose a single boat. Much of the city was destroyed by fires that broke out as a result of the bombardment. Orabi had his men start these fires to ruin the city that the British were taking over.[10] The British then installed the Khedive Tawfiq, who declared Orabi a rebel and took away his political rights.
Orabi then counteracted by obtaining a fatwa, which was authorized by Al Azhar shaykhs which stated that Tawfiq was a traitor who brought on the occupation of Egypt by a foreign nation and stated that he betrayed his religion. Orabi also ordered conscription and he declared war on the United Kingdom.
The British army tried to reach Cairo through Alexandria but was stopped for five weeks at Kafr-el-Dawwar. In August, a British army of over 40,000, commanded by Garnet Wolseley, invaded the Suez Canal Zone. He was authorized to destroy Orabi's forces and clear the country of all other rebels.
1st Division (Lt Gen GHS Willis)
1st (Guards) Infantry Brigade (Maj Gen HRH The Duke of Connaught)
2nd Infantry Brigade (Maj Gen Gerald Graham)
Divisional Troops
2nd Division (Lt Gen Sir Edward Hamley)
3rd (Highland) Infantry Brigade (Maj Gen Sir Edward Alison)
4th Infantry Brigade (Maj Gen Sir Evelyn Wood VC)
Divisional Troops
Indian Contingent (Maj Gen Sir Herbert Macpherson VC)
Cavalry Division (Maj Gen Drury Curzon Drury Lowe)
1st (Heavy) Cavalry Brigade (Brig Gen Sir Baker Creed Russell)
2nd (Bengal) Cavalry Brigade (Brig Gen HC Wilson)
Division Troops
Army Troops
Army Train
Orabi redeployed to defend Cairo against Wolseley. His main force dug in at Tel el-Kebir, north of the railway and the Sweetwater Canal, both of which linked Cairo to Ismailia on the canal. The defences were hastily prepared as there was little time to arrange them. Orabi's forces possessed 60 pieces of artillery and breech loading rifles. Wolseley made several personal reconnaissances, and determined that the Egyptians did not man outposts in front of their main defences at night, which made it possible for an attacking force to approach the defences under cover of darkness. Wolseley sent his force to approach the position by night and attacked frontally at dawn, which they did successfully, officially losing only 57 troops while killing approximately two thousand Egyptians. The Orabi forces were routed, and British cavalry pursued them and captured Cairo, which was undefended. Khedive power was then restored as the authority of Egypt.
Prime Minister Gladstone initially sought to put Orabi on trial and execute him, portraying him as "...a self-seeking tyrant whose oppression of the Egyptian people still left him enough time, in his capacity as a latter-day Saladin, to massacre Christians."[11] After glancing through his captured diaries and various other evidence, there was little with which to "demonize" Orabi in a public trial.[12] His charges were down-graded, after which he admitted to rebellion and was sent into exile.[13]
British troops then occupied Egypt until the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1922 and Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, giving gradual control back to the government of Egypt.
Hopkins argues that the British continued its occupation of Egypt after 1882 in order to guarantee British investments, "Britain had important interests to defend in Egypt and she was prepared to withdraw only if conditions guaranteeing the security of those interests were met - and they never were."[14] Consistent with this view, investment in Egypt increased during the British occupation, interest rates fell, and bond prices rose.[15]