Urabi movement
The Urabi movement ( Arabic الثورة العرابية ath-Thawra al-ʿUrābiyya , DMG aṯ-ṯaura al-ʿurābīya 'Urabi uprising') was a national popular movement of the Young Egyptians in the Ottoman viceroy of Egypt from 1879 to 1882. It got its name from the officer Ahmed Urabi (1839–1911), also called Arabi Pascha ,who was promoted to Minister of War of Egypt. In the course of the suppression of the uprising ( Anglo-Egyptian War ), Egypt was occupied by British troops .
root cause
Egypt was still officially part of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century , but had achieved relative independence under the Muhammad Ali dynasty . As a result of some administrative reforms, strong construction activity and a failed financial policy, the national debt rose sharply under Viceroy Ismail Pasha . Contributing to the construction costs of the Suez Canal led to the financial ruin of Egypt . Finally, under Ismail Pasha, the debts soared that in 1876 the state was no longer able to pay its creditors the interest. The national debt of £ 3 million when he took office as Viceroy had grown to £ 100 million. As early as 1875, Egypt was effectively bankrupt . The bondholders became restless. Among other things, Ismail had to sell his holdings in Suez Canal shares to Great Britain . On November 24, 1875, 176,602 shares changed hands for £ 3,976,582. In the following year, France and Great Britain set up a control commission for the shattered Egyptian finances. The Suez Canal was of enormous strategic importance for Great Britain. When it opened, the sea route to British India , the most important British colony, was shortened by approx. 7,000 km. France had been interested in Egypt since Napoleon's expedition in 1798. Developments under Ismail left Egypt deeply indebted to the major European powers. They used this to extort concessions from Ismail. In Alexandria , a mixed court was founded in 1875 , which replaced the previous consular jurisdiction of European powers in the country. It ruled on legal disputes between Egyptians and foreigners and between foreigners among themselves. The panel was made up of European and local judges. This mixed system was one of the most unpopular measures among the locals. In 1878, the British Charles Rivers Wilson (1831-1916) was appointed finance minister and the French Ernest de Blignières (1834-1900) was appointed minister of labor in the Egyptian government ( Nubar Pascha I cabinet ). In 1878 the state came completely under international financial supervision.
course
The riot
Ismail Pasha, who wanted to oppose further interference by the great powers, dissolved the mixed government on February 23, 1879. Britain and France insisted on the reinstatement of their ministers. When the khedive was not ready to do so in view of the disaffection that prevailed in large parts of the country, he was forced to abdicate by the Turkish sultan on June 26, 1879 at the instigation of European powers 'because of waste' . His son Tawfiq became Khedive of Egypt; he gave in to the pressure of the powers that be.
From 1880 onwards, Egypt used half of its state revenue to repay debt. For the country this meant: high tax burdens, insufficient pay for officials and dismissals of soldiers and officers. An opposition to the international control of financial and economic policy therefore developed around Colonel Ahmed Urabi Pascha, which developed from army officer circles and united several social opposition groups. Other groups included intellectuals and Muslim reformers, as well as large landowners, who demanded participation in power and rejected the influence of Europeans in the administration. The movement also turned against the autocratic rule of the Ismails.
In the fall of 1881 there was unrest in the country. As a result, Tawfiq had to fire his Prime Minister Riaz Pascha. Sharif Pasha became the new prime minister . Actual ruler but was in February 1882 Secretary of War appointed Ahmed Urabi . Under the motto Egypt, he called on the Egyptians to abolish European financial control. Britain initially acted hesitantly, despite its extensive financial ties with the country. It was only when Urabi had raised his own army, brought the whole country under his control and threatened the connection to India via the Suez Canal that the liberal British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone changed his policy.
The bombardment of Alexandria
In May 1882 the British and French sent a fleet to Alexandria . Under this pressure, the Khedive deposed Urabi, who had meanwhile been appointed pasha , on May 22, 1882 . This led to the apostasy of the large landowners and the Europeanized educated elite and their connection to the Khedives Tawfiq . On June 11, there were bloody excesses against foreigners in Alexandria, during which 50 Europeans, including the British consul, were killed. Troops of the Khedive were able to restore order. Still, Urabi was able to gain control. He had the city fortified against the sea and aimed guns at the Allied fleet. On July 10, the British Admiral Seymour announced that he would have the city bombarded if the guns were not removed. France then withdrew its ships so as not to be involved in this conflict. Urabi was encouraged to let Seymour's ultimatum pass. On the morning of July 11th, Seymore opened the bombing of the city with a volley from HMS Alexandra . The Egyptian coastal battery fired back, but the damage that its smaller caliber did to the British ships was far less. The bombardment lasted all day until the fire from the Egyptian guns stopped during the night. Fires broke out in the city and raged for over two days. On July 14th, British landing forces occupied the city.
Urabi Pasha was Prime Minister from July to September 1882.
British intervention
The British brought in troops from Gibraltar and Malta and General Sir Archibald Alison took command. On August 6, an expedition was undertaken along the Mahmoudieh Canal and a skirmish ensued.
On August 15, 1882, the British Commander in Chief General Wolseley reached Egypt. British troops were deployed by August 19 to ensure control of the Suez Canal and to continue influencing Egypt's financial policy. Wolseley asked General Hamley to work out a plan of attack on Abukir . Since Urabi expected an attack on Abukir, Wolseley dropped Hamley's division there and sailed on with the rest of the army to Ismailia . On August 28, there was a fight between 2,000 men under General Gerald Graham and 10,000 Egyptians at Mahsama . On September 10, Wolseley and his army began marching west through the desert towards Cairo. Halfway there, he met Urabi's army. On September 13th the decisive battle of Tel-el-Kebir took place . Urabi's army was defeated and he himself was taken prisoner. Urabi Pasha was sentenced to death by the Egyptian government, but exiled to Ceylon at the urging of the British . On September 14th, the first British troops entered Cairo.
The unsatisfactory compromise solution, that although British troops held the Nile valley, outwardly still officially ruled the Khedive as the representative of the Turkish sultan , resulted from consideration for the other European powers. This emerges from a report by Count Herbert von Bismarck to his father, Prince Bismarck , about a conversation with the British Foreign Minister, Lord Granville .
Herbert von Bismarck wrote from London:
“I put in here that I had believed that the English government intended to give its diplomatic representative in Egypt a position similar to that which the French Prime Minister occupies in Tunis, so that it would be protected from political intrigue. 'No,' answered Lord Granville, 'we do not want to go that far; [...] We want to request that free navigation on the Suez Canal be given an international guarantee by the powers for all seafaring nations for time of war and peace, and at the same time we want to propose that Egypt as a neutral state by the European powers à la guise de Belgique (ie in the way of Belgium) would be recognized. We believe this will disarm the envy and jealousy of other nations and will also relieve us of the burden of keeping troops in Egypt. '"
consequences
Egypt remained occupied even after the Urabi movement was suppressed. The British rule in Egypt lasted until 1922. The last British troops left Egypt even until after the Second World War . However, Gladstone avoided open British colonial rule and installed with Consul General Evelyn Baring - later Lord Cromer - an adviser who directed the Khedives.
In the battle of Tel-el-Kebir the Egyptian army was crushed. It was finally disbanded on December 20, 1882 and later rebuilt under the command of a British Commander in Chief, the Sirdar .
The turmoil in Egypt in the course of the Urabi movement and the occupation of Egypt by Great Britain favored the spread of the idea of Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad in the Egyptian-occupied Sudan . The resulting Mahdi uprising is considered to be the first successful uprising by an African country against a colonial power . The Mahdi Empire existed until 1898 ; The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan existed from 1899 to 1956 .
Until the Urabi movement and the Mahdi uprising, Eritrea and Somaliland belonged to Egypt.
“In the 1880s, an organization of military officers working for the renewal of Islam came into being under the leadership of a young, dynamic colonel named Urabi Pasha. This group ... spoke on behalf of the people and wanted a constitution and a change of government, not in the form of secular reform but as a restoration of the Islamic state: an early form of Islamism . So Urabi was not a secular officer like Ataturk . He wanted an Islamic renewal. Urabi did not have the same military success with his army (approx. 10,000 men) as Ataturk. "
literature
- Alexander Schölch : Egypt for the Egyptians! The political and social crisis of 1878–1882 in Egypt . Atlantis Verlag, Zurich / Freiburg 1972, ISBN 3-7611-0395-6 (dissertation)
- Juan RI Cole: Colonialism and Revolution in the Middle East. Social and Cultural Origins of Egypt's Urabi Movement . Cairo 1999, ISBN 977-424-518-0
- Lothar Rathmann : New aspects of the ʿĀrābī uprising from 1879 to 1882 in Egypt. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1968 (= meeting reports of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin, class for philosophy, history, political, legal and economic sciences. 1968, no. 10).
- Mary Rowlatt: Founders of Modern Egypt . Asia Publishing House, New York 1962.
- Colonel JF Maurice: The Campaign of 1882 in Egypt . JB Hayward & Son, London 1887 ( online )
- From the place of exile of the Egyptian rebels . In: The Gazebo . Issue 11, 1883, pp. 172-175, 177 ( full text [ Wikisource ]).
Individual evidence
- ^ Maurice: The Campaign of 1882 in Egypt . P. 10
- ↑ Kingston: Blow the Bugle . P. 302
- ↑ The Mahdi uprising in eyewitness accounts . dtv, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-423-02710-X . P. 54
- ↑ Mozaffari (PDF) in: Totalitarismus und Demokratie , H. 11, 2014, pp. 15–28