Chronology • 4551831 Ibrahim, son of Mehmet Ali, invades Syria
1833 Hunkar-Iskelesi treaty lets Russian warships pass through Straits
in return for guarantee of Ottoman territorial integrity
1838 Anglo-Ottoman Commercial Convention lowers Ottoman
import tariffs
1839 Ibrahim again defeats Ottomans, whose fleet deserts to
Alexandria; Abdulmejid issues Noble Rescript of the Rose
Chamber, promising administrative and fiscal reforms; British
occupy Aden
1840 European powers confirm Mehmet Ali's autonomy in Egypt
1841 European powers sign Straits navigation convention1848-1896 Reign of Nasiruddin Shah in Persia
1851-1857 Cairo-Alexandria-Suez railway built
1853-1856 Russian occupation of Romania sparks Crimean War, in
which France and Britain help the Ottomans defeat Russia
1854 Egyptian viceroy Said grants concession to French entrepreneur
to build Suez Canal
1856 Paris treaty restores Bessarabia to Ottomans and demilitarizes
Black Sea; Ottoman Imperial Rescript grants equality to
Muslims, Christians, and Jews
1863-1879 Reign of Khedive Isma'il in Egypt
1865 Ottoman public debt administration established
1866 Syrian Protestant College (American University of Beirut)
founded; first Egyptian representative assembly; rebellion
in Crete
1869 Suez Canal opened
1873 Shah offers (but later revokes) Reuter concession to British
company for railway and mining enterprises in Persia
1875 Isma'il sells Egypt's Suez Canal shares to Britain; rebellion in
Bosnia and Herzegovina sparks Balkan crisis; Serbia and
Montenegro declare war on the Ottoman Empire
1876 New Ottomans seize power; Bulgarian revolt crushed; Ottoman
constitution issued; Egyptian debt commission established,
followed by Dual Control1876-1909 Reign of Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II
1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War, in which Russians take Romania, Bulgaria,
Thrace, and parts of eastern Anatolia