Egyptian Nationalism ••• 193party had been divided among Egyptian officers resenting privileged
Turks and Circassians in the army, civilians seeking parliamentary rule,
and reformers like Afghani and Abduh who wanted an Islamic revival.
Lord Cromer and the British Occupation
The British government that sent troops to Egypt in 1882 expected a brief
military occupation. As soon as order was restored, Britain's troops were
supposed to leave, and Egypt was to resume being an autonomous Ottoman
province. But the longer the British stayed, the more disorder they found to
clean up and the less they wanted to leave Egypt. The financial situation in
particular needed drastic economic and administrative reforms. The British
agent and consul general in Cairo from 1883 to 1907, Lord Cromer, was a
talented financial administrator. With a small (but growing) staff of British
advisers to Egypt's various ministries, Cromer managed to expand the Nile
irrigation system to raise agricultural output, increase state revenues, lower
taxes, and reduce the public debt burden. His officials were competent, de¬
voted to the Egyptians' welfare, and honest. Cromer's epitaph in Westmin¬
ster Abbey would cite him as the "regenerator of Egypt."
He may have been so, but Cromer is not well remembered in Egypt to¬
day. Many Egyptians living in his era felt that their own advancement in
government posts or the professions was blocked by the numerous foreign¬
ers holding high posts in Cairo. Besides, they objected to Cromer's policy of
limiting the growth of higher education. Some resented the fact that the
Egyptian army, despite its British officers, lost the Sudan in 1885 to a rebel¬
lion led by the self-styled Mahdi (Rightly Guided One). After British and
Egyptian troops regained the Sudan in 1898, it was placed under a condo¬
minium, with Britain effectively in control. Opposition to the continuing
British occupation of Egypt came from a few British anti-imperialists; the
French, who (despite their large economic stake in Egypt) had failed to in¬
tervene in 1882; and the Ottoman Turks, who resented losing another
province of their empire. As long as there was no significant internal oppo¬
sition, though, these groups could do little to thwart British rule.
The Revival of Egyptian Nationalism
Major resistance began when Abbas, Khedive Tawfiq's seventeen-year-old
son, succeeded him in 1892. High-spirited and proudly guarding what he
felt were his khedivial prerogatives, Abbas fought with Cromer over the
right to appoint and dismiss his ministers and over control of the Egyptian