
The French invasion of Algeria
’Abd al-Qadir and Algerian resistance
The French occupation

The French occupation of Egypt
Egypt under Muhammad Ali, 1805-49
The growth of European power and influence in Egypt to 1882
Egypt in Sudan to the Mahdist jihad
The Mahdist state of Sudan

The ‘era of the princes’
The reign of Tewodros II
The reunification and expansion of Ethiopia to 1896

Coastal north Africa under nominal Ottoman rule

Deys (rulers, Turkish officers) had little influence over rural
Berbers
The French invasion of Algeria

Supplier of grain to France since 18 th
century

1898, Algerian dey supplied grain for Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt

Later French governments refused to pay debt for this grain


1827: breakdown in French-Algerian diplomatic relations

1830 French invasion: supposedly to end Algerian corsair raids in Mediterranean

Reality: to raise nationalistic support for unpopular government in France

Potential: French settlement and market for French manufactures
’Abd al-Qadir and Algerian resistance

One of the longest wars of resistance against 19 th century colonialism

Rural clans and Muslim brotherhoods notorious for their rivalry

But, in common: Arabic language, Muslim religion, cultural values

Outside coastal towns: French invasion threatened all three of these

Turks at least had religion in common

Resistance to French: holy war – jihad

Resistance organised by
’Abd al-Qadir

Organised rural areas into administrative districts: creating an alternative rural state

Al-Qadir – ‘Commander of the Faithful’ – toured districts, coordinated military operations, administered Islamic justice

French army of occupation (100 000), lost tens of thousands

Scorched earth tactics

1847: al-Qadir captured and exiled

Resistance in mountains not finally crushed until 1879

Resentment continued
The French occupation

White settlers ( colons ) from France, Spain and
Mediterranean islands

Arab-Berber farmers cleared from land: settlers took over olive plantations, vineyards, wheat farms

After military handouts of free land, white settlers bought land cheap from impoverished Algerian peasants

By 1871 colons = 130 000; by 1900 = 1 million (13% of population)

By 1900 most of cultivable land in hands of colons , most absentees, in towns

Land worked by dispossessed peasantry, poorly paid and over-taxed

Strict controls over Muslim movement

Islamic law overridden by French law
 French colonial government ‘arrogant’ and ‘alien’

The French occupation of Egypt

1798: Mamluk beys , Ibrahim (Cairo and Delta) and Murad
(Upper Egypt)

18 th century Anglo-French rivalry with French losing out to Britain in India and North America; + France in process of loosing valuable Caribbean colony (Haiti)

French trading interests in Egypt (cotton, grain) in competition with Britain

Egypt: potential sugar colony to replace Haiti

Napoleon, young general, ambitious to be another
‘Alexander’, and create an ‘Empire of the Orient’
(equivalent of Britain’s North America, recently independent)
 200 ‘savants’ (French intellectuals – to spread French culture)
 July 1798, ‘Battle of the Pyramids’ – heavy defeat of
Mamluk cavalry

Murad Bey to Upper Egypt, guerrilla attacks

Ibrahim Bey to Syria

British destruction of French fleet off Alexandria

Failure of French invasion of Ottoman Syria

Napoleon back to France (where he seized power in Paris)

1801, French army driven out of Egypt: Ottoman army,
British naval support
Importance of French occupation:

(1) undermined Mamluk feudal power

(2) laid foundation of modern state, followed by successor
Muhammad Ali

(3) beginning of Anglo-French rivalry in Egypt [see below, p.288]
 (4) Napoleon’s ‘savants’ laid foundations of modern
Egyptology
Egypt under Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali, Albanian commander in Ottoman army of
1801

With Albanian troops, took command of Cairo

1805 Ottoman sultan recognised him as pasha (viceroy) of
Egypt

Aim: establish his own dynasty, make Egypt most powerful state in Ottoman empire


To prevent Mamluks re-establishing tax-farming, massacred hundreds of Mamluks (1811)

Reforms: to make Egypt powerful state under his control, rather than modernise for sake of Egyptians

Took control of Mamluk estates

New land survey: taxes now paid directly to state

Agricultural reform: to raise more taxation (irrigation canals built with forced labour of fellahin

New cash crops: Sudanese long-fibre cotton – major export to Europe

Salaried civil service, on European lines

1820s population: 2.5 million (90% fellahin )

Fellahin : taxed, forced labour, conscripted into army

Army: Albanians + Sudanese slaves + conscripted fellahin
(formerly: Mamluk cavalry and feudal levies)

Cavalry, artillery and infantry regiments

Invaded Sudan to gain slaves for army

Reasserted Ottoman power in Red Sea

Cleared Wahhabi Arab clans from Mecca and Medina

Cairo major centre for international pilgrims

1841: Ottoman sultan recognised pashalic as hereditary in
Muhammad Ali’s family
The growth of European power and influence in Egypt to 1882
 Europeans employed in Ali’s reforms

1838: he dropped restrictions on British and French merchants in Egypt

Britain using Egypt and Red Sea for route to India

1850s British investment in railway construction

1860s French engineers – construction of Suez canal
 1863 accession of Isma’il (M.A.’s grandson)

Title upgraded to khedive (Persian: ‘king’)

USA Civil War (1861-65): boom in Egyptian cotton exports

Heavy Egyptian state investments, especially in rail into
Sudan
 After cotton boom: Egypt’s indebtedness to European bankers

Suez Canal (1869): joint French/Egyptian finance (Egypt: three-quarters of £19 million costs
 1875 Britain bought Egyptian share of canal for just £4 million

Safeguarded British route to India

Britain now deeply committed to security of its investments in Egypt
 1876 Isma’il government bankrupt


1879 French and British force deposition of Isma’il in favour of their puppet (his son Tawfiq)
 French and British now took ‘Dual Control’ of Egypt’s finances [cf. 20 th
century IMF & World Bank]

1881: Egyptian nationalists , led by Colonel Ahmad Urabi
(‘Urabi Pasha’), fellah family

Pressure Tawfiq to appoint nationalists as ministers (War and Prime Minister)

Urabi, Minister for War: National Party – ‘Egypt for
Egyptians’

Franco-British blockade of Alexandria

50 Europeans killed in Alexandria

Urabi strengthened Alexandria defences

July 1882: French quelling resistance to their occupation of
Tunisia
 British invade Egypt, defeat Urabi’s army, battle Tel el-
Kebir, Urabi exiled

In theory Britain advised their appointed pasha

In practice Britain ruled Egypt as a colony

Opened Franco-British imperial rivalry of ‘Scramble for
Africa’ [Ch. 21]
Egypt in Sudan to the Mahdist jihad
 Muhammad Ali’s invasion of Sudan (1820-21) to crush
Mamluks at Dongola and obtain Sudanese slaves for army

4000 men, European guns and artillery

Occupied Dongola, scattered Mamluks, occupied Funj capital Sennar, founded Khartoum as admin. capital

Raided south and west for ivory and slaves

1840s: overcame Shilluk resistance, gaining access to elephant hunting lands of southern Sudan (upper Nile)

Khartoum-based Egyptian merchants employed private armies to raid for ivory and slaves

1860s and 70s Egyptian garrisons built in south

Darfur conquered in 1874

Resistance provoked, Egyptian debt increased, taxation of
Kordofan nomads resented

Sudanese holy men scandalised by corrupt practices of
Egyptian Muslims

Use of European Christians in Administration further alienated Egyptian presence in Sudan
 1881 Muhammad Ahmad declared to be the Mahdi (‘the
Guided One’), called for jihad
The Mahdist state of Sudan

Mahdist fervour won them victories over better equipped
Egyptian forces


1885, took Khartoum, killing Egyptians and British
Administrator Gordon
 Muhammad Ahmad died, succeeded by ’Abdallahi:

Set up strong administration, taxation in accordance with
Qur’an

War with neighbours, Egypt and Ethiopia

1898: Anglo-Egyptian invasion – battle of Omdurman: 11
000 Sudanese slaughtered by machine guns and artillery

Sudan – ‘Anglo-Egyptian Condominion’ – effectively, a
British colony

Darfur remained outside British control [until 1915]: one of the only African states to avoid the ‘Scramble for Africa’ of this period

Since 18 th century, emperor (at Gondar) ‘king of kings’: ruling over federation of provincial rulers, effectively independent, ‘era of princes’

Quote from British diplomat, 1868, on taxation and power of nobility [p.291]
The reign of Tewodros II

1850s, Lij Kassa (governor of Qwara), military experience clashing with Egyptians

Turned feudal levies into regular army, with guns and artillery

1855, Kassa invaded central provinces, declared himself emperor: Tewodros II

Revived effective central government:

Salaried, royal appointees to district governorships and judges

Regular military force into national army: salaried and trained with modern weapons

1855-61: numerous rebellions by nobility: loss of independent local power

Reform of Church, abolishing privileges and confiscating huge estates

Loss of Church support lost him imperial legitimacy:
Church influence turned people against Tewodos

1868: diplomatic conflict with British: Tewodros, felt slighted by British Government, held British diplomats –
British sent army (30 000) to rescue ‘hostages’

Battle of Magdala (13 April 1868) Tewodros abandoned by most of army, only mustered up to 4000 troops


Lost battle and committed suicide

Tewodros II: Reforms provoked hostility of Church and nobility, which lost him support in confrontation with
British; BUT centralising reforms laid foundations for longterm unity that his successors built on to save Ethiopian independence at end of century
The reunification and expansion of Ethiopia to 1896

Dej Kassa of Tigray had assisted British

Declared himself emperor: Johannes IV: crowned in Axum with elaborate religious ritual

Regained support of princes by returning power to regional nobility

Summoned large army to repel Egyptians

Italians: took ports of Assab (1882) and Massawa (1885)

Johannes defeated Italians at Dongali (1887)
 Opposition from Menelik (southern ‘kingdom’ of Shoa)

With modern weapons from French and Italians Menelik expanding in south while Johannes fighting Italians

1889: death of Johannes, Menelik became emperor, capital at Addis Ababa in Shoan heartland

Non-Christian southerners (Oromo, Sidama, Somali) absorbed into expanding empire

1887-90 Italians took control of coastal colony of ‘Eritrea’

Battle of Adwa : 1-2 March 1896: Menelik defeated Italian invasion of Ethiopian heartland –

The only African country to defeat an attempted European colonial conquest during ‘Scramble for Africa’
© Kevin Shillington, 2012