BRITISH AND FRENCH ACTIVITIES IN EGYPT

1. BRITISH AND FRENCH ACTIVITIES IN EGYPT British and French traders were trading with the Sudan Use of the Red Sea as a shorter route to India

2. French and British merchants • Looking for Ivory in the Sudan • Building of the Suez in 1869 by French engineer. Linking Mediterranean to the Red sea, a shorter route to India. • Suez canal was financed by British, French and Egyptian finances • Britain also constructs many railways connecting important ports –tools of exploitation • The trading facilities also benefited Arabs in the area

3. British worried • Britain becomes afraid that Arabs might endanger shipping in the Suez. • During this time, Egyptian ruler Khedive Ismail took 2 dangerous policies-expansion to Sudan to get slaves for his army & modernization of Egypt. • These were expensive ventures and also due to financial mismanagement Egypt became bankrupt

4. Egypt bankrupt • Borrowed heavily to survive. • Britain and France intervened and took charge of • Egyptian finances and Britain took Egyptian shares in the Suez Canal • Egyptians not happy that their country is mortgaged Hence a revolt • to rid Egypt of foreigners led by Arabi Pasha. • Britain and France due to heavy financial commitment in • the Suez could not let anarchy in Egypt since the route • would be risky hence Britain invaded and occupied Egypt and • crushed Arabis forces thinking their invasion was temporary the were dam wrong

5. Egypt taken for economic reasons • With majority shares in the Suez, Britain slowly started to push the French out so as to control the Suez, a great trade route to East. • Britain cannot leave Egypt which is now a major trading center and Suez very strategic

6. The French • France does not want to leave they too had put • money into the Suez, secondly they believed • Egypt was part of their heritage from Napoleon • Bonaparte who invaded Egypt in 1798. • So 18180s Britain and France struggling to • control the Nile and Suez. • So Britain signed a treaty with Germany in 1893 to stop • Germans expansion from Cameroon. • Britain determined to lock all powers out of Egypt and protect the waters of the Nile

7. France and Britain clash • France was not happy, she was swindled out of Egypt. • Hence France starts westward expansion • deliberately seeking possibilities of reaching the • Nile, Dam it , divert the waters and frustrate Britain in Egypt since the Nile is the lifeline of Egypt . • In Britain the trading merchants in London and the newspapers saw Egypt as part of their larger Global possessions

8. France and the Egyptian Question • In France the Egyptian Question was revisited by new leaders who adopted a combative foreign Policy towards Britain. • Men ready to assert the prestige of France • Hence intensified difficulties for Britain. • Saw British occupation as an affront to their national pride ,so the Nile became their project

9. Britain's reaction • London issued a warning that the French should not make a “mistake", But France began to advance their forces. • British public were incited by the newspapers and the country developed an aggressive mood and all supported the Egyptian occupation. • The British believed Africa could be another India.

10. Britain decided to stay and defend the Nile water wherever it may be so Sudan& Uganda have to be taken as well. Britain's Prime minister lord Salisbury gave a go head to contain France, Therefore General H.H. Kitchener and his Anglo-Egyptian army got ready. The French were advancing their troops led by Captain J.P.Marchand. Britain's actions

11. the clash • For 2 months the great powers, Britain under • Kitchener and France under Marchand stood at • the brink of war ready to strike at each other mobilizing • at Fashoda. just to own and control the Nile. • However due to other European intervention they called • off the war and signed the Anglo- French agreement of • 1899 where France was excluded from the Nile basin • and Britain enjoyed the monopoly • . • The Fashoda crisis was a British old policy of imperial defense