158 ISLAM AT WAR
Egyptian government to build a canal between the Red Sea and the Med-
iterranean. This astonishing project, which employed more than two mil-
lion Egyptian laborers from 1859 to its completion in September 1869,
changed world shipping patterns. Once again as in ancient days, Egypt
stood across the world’s greatest trade route. Cairo again became a fab-
ulous commercial center and one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the
world. Egypt would become rich, or she should have. Sadly, the Egyptians,
at first a considerable partner in de Lesseps’s venture, were so far gone in
corruption, that they had to sell their shares of the canal to England. Funds
collected from shipping and tariffs went not to Tewfik Pasha’s govern-
ment, but to private pockets. Loans to foreign banks defaulted; the treasury
was bankrupt, and the army unpaid. With a great portion of total world
commerce passing through the Suez Canal, several nations viewed the
situation with alarm, each fearing that the others would seize upon the
bank defaults as an excuse to annex the country and thus gain a strangle-
hold on world trade.
Great Britain acted first. She had the most to lose, as her extensive
commercial interests and communication with her Indian and Pacific col-
onies were very much at stake. Equally, Britain had by far the world’s
largest navy and could intervene without much fear from other European
powers.
A nationalist leader named Arabi Pasha started a revolt against the
Khedive, whom he justly accused of selling the country to the foreigners.
With the vague aim of suppressing Arabi, the British acted. On July 11,
1882, the British Mediterranean Fleet moved into Alexandria harbor and
opened fire on the city and its defenses. These ships, under the command
of Admiral F. B. P. Seymour, were the most modern battleships of the day.
One of them, the new HMSInflexible,protected by an iron armor belt
twenty-four inches thick, fired a broadside of nearly three tons of metal.
In total, the British ships mounted forty-four heavy guns capable of firing
more than eleven tons of projectiles at a single discharge. They faced what
they considered anemic coastal batteries. The Egyptian armament con-
sisted of hundreds of guns, but only four were mounted, working heavy
pieces, and the rest a variety of light pieces as well as numerous ancient
muzzle-loaders. The British ships opened fire at 5:00A.M. and continued
the attack until 5:30P.M. After a massive twelve-hour bombardment, the
British moved out of range while the Egyptians still gamely manned their
old artillery. The naval attack had not only failed to silence the defending
guns, it had done nothing to halt the uprising.
Such a half measure did not serve British interests, and the fleet landed
marines, quickly reinforced by regular army regiments to control the city.