252 • 15 EGYPT'S STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCEBritain. By rights, Egypt was an autonomous province of the Ottoman
Empire from 1841 to 1914. In reality, as a land under military occupation
from 1882 on, Egypt was a British colony in all but name. Important deci¬
sions about Egypt's administration were being made in London, not Istan¬
bul, or (if locally) in the British Agency on the banks of the Nile, not in the
khédive 's palace, somewhat farther east in central Cairo. The ministers
were puppets in the hands of their British advisers. Both the occupier and
the occupied knew that theirs was a power relationship, with Britain dom¬
inant and Egypt either passive or protesting, although all sides observed
the diplomatic niceties up to World War I.
When the Ottoman Empire went to war against the Allies in November
1914, Britain had to bite the bullet. As it needed to hold Egypt to ensure the
British Empire's survival (at a time when hundreds of troop ships were
carrying Australians, New Zealanders, and Indians through the Suez Canal
to European war theaters), Egypt's Turkish tie had become an anomaly.
Britain cut it decisively in December. No longer an Ottoman province, Egypt
became a British protectorate. The change was no more legal than Ger¬
many's occupation of Belgium that August. It was certainly not approved by
the Ottoman government, nor ratified by the Egyptian ministers, nor ac¬
cepted by the newly formed Legislative Assembly, which was adjourned in¬
definitely. Khedive Abbas, already barred from returning from Istanbul to
Egypt by Britain's ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, was now accused of
having taken the Turks' side in the war. Even though he had fled to neutral
Switzerland to escape from the Turks, the British deposed him anyway. They
replaced Abbas with a pliable uncle, Husayn Kamil (r. 1914-1917), who was
given the title of "sultan" to underscore the break with the Ottoman Empire.
Prime Minister Husayn Rushdi stayed in office, hoping that Egypt would be¬
come independent after the war. Britain's representative became the high
commissioner for Egypt and the Sudan, and his office came to be called the
Residency. The Egyptians accepted these changes passively, and many hoped
that the Turks and Germans would win the war.Anglo-Egyptian Relations: An Overview
As you know, they lost. The period from 1914 to 1956 has been called
"Britain's moment in the Middle East." It seems a long time span, although
it really was shorter than, say, Mongol rule in Persia. As long as the British
dominated the area, the main drama was their relationship, rarely an easy
one, with Egypt. "Egypt and England are bound together in a Catholic mar¬
riage," said a Wafdist minister in the 1940s, meaning that they might quarrel