Blog #6

The British Occupation of Egypt:

After reading this section of the Cleveland book, I found it very interesting that it was so hard to define Britain's Relationship with Egypt. The most important factor in British occupation of Egypt was, "In order to safeguard the Suez Canal, to restore Egypt's political and Financial Stability, and, in context of the imperial competition of the era, to prevent France from occupying it first." This quote was very startling to me. My reasoning for this reaction is because it paints the English as protectorates of Egypt, when in fact, it seems that the sole reason for their presence in the country is to make some profit off of the Suez Canal in order to prevent the French from doing the same. The British also claimed that they could not define their relationship with Egypt as a colony or a protectorate. However, they do state in the section that Evelyn Baring, and later Lord Cromer presided over the occupation with "absolute authority for its first quarter." These political figures were colonial administrators with many years of service in India. So if the absolute authority of a country is given to political figures who had been the "colonial administrators" of another country, how can you call Egypt something other than a colony of Britain itself at that point in time?