Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T20:58:13.608Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The British Occupation of Egypt: Another View

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

John S. Galbraith  and
Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid-Marsot
John S. Galbraith
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid-Marsot
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Historians, among others, expose the lies and deceptions of politicians, dead and alive. But historians themselves often are deceived by the limitations of their own approaches to history. While they themselves may act emotionally or sometimes irrationally in their personal lives, they are too often committed to seek rational explanations for the behavior of statesmen. Grossly understimates in many instancees is the power of retionalization as a factor in the ‘decisionmaking process.’ Often great decisions have been made on the basis of inadequate or false information, with consequences that the decision-makers could not foresee. Sometimes decisions are the result of muddleheadedness. Sometimes a governmental decision seems to be the product of a succession of miscalculations. But it is the natural impulse of those in positions of authority to justify their decisions by some explanations that relate to their zeal for the ‘national interest.’ In so doing they do not necessarily deliberately lie; often they deceive themselves as well as others. Reasons developed after the fact provide a cerebral gloss for unintellingent decisions leading to unintended actions. The background for the occupation of Egypt in 1882 provides an illustration.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , November 1978 , pp. 471 - 488
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Alexander, Schölch, ‘The “Men on the Spot” and the English Occupation of Egypt in 1882’, Historical Journal 19, 3 (1976), 773–785.Google Scholar

2 Gladstone, to Granville, , 16 07 1882,Google Scholar Granville Papers, PRO 30/29/126, quoted in Agatha, Ramm, The Political Correspondence of Mr. Gladstone and Lord Granville, 1876–1886 (2 vols.; Oxford, 1962), 1, 372.Google Scholar

3 Gladstone, W. E., ‘Aggression in Egypt and Freedom in the East”, Nineteenth Century, 2 (08, 1877), 149–166.Google Scholar

4 Telegram, Granville, to Malet, , 12 05 1882, PRO 30/29/284, Public Record Office.Google Scholar

5 Schölch, , ‘The “Men on the Spot”’, p. 782.Google Scholar

6 Telegram, Malet, to Granville, , 12 05 1882, PRO 30/29/284, Public Record Office.Google Scholar

7 George, Royle to the Admiralty, 27 07 1882, ADM 116/35, Public Record Office.Google Scholar

8 Dilke's Diary, 4 July 1882, Dilke Papers, Additional MSS 43880, British Library.

9 See account of incident in Abd, al-Rahman al Rafli, al-Thawra al-Urabiyya (Cairo, 1937), pp. 119 ff.;Google Scholar also al-Sayyid, A. Lutfi, Egypt and Cromer (London, 1967), pp. 5 ff.Google Scholar

10 Memo by Colvin, , 21 12 1881;Google Scholar enclosure in Malet, to Granville, , 26 12 1881, CAB 37/7, Public Record Office.Google Scholar

11 Malet, to Granville, , Private, 24 10 1881; same to same, Private, 12 Dec. 1881, both in PRO 30/29/159, Public Record Office.Google Scholar

12 Stephen, Gwynn and Gertrude, M. Tuckwell, The Life of the Right Honorable Sir Charles W. Dilke (2 vols.; London, 1917), I, 452.Google Scholar

13 Edward, Malet, Egypt, 1879–1883 (London, 1909), p. 68.Google Scholar

14 Bernard, Holland, The Life of Spencer Compton, Eighth Duke of Devonshire (2 vols.; London, 1911), I, 362.Google Scholar

15 Malet, , Egypt, p. 229.Google Scholar

16 Telegram, Malet, to Granville, , 9 01. 1882, PRO 30/29/283, Public Record Office.Google Scholar

17 Malet, to Granville, , 13 01. 1882,Google Scholaribid..

18 Malet, to Granville, , Private, 11 01 1882, PRO 30/29/160, Public Record Office.Google Scholar

19 Malet, , Egypt, pp. 198–199.Google Scholar

20 Dilke's, Diary, 18 01 1882, Dilke Papers, Additional MSS, 43880, British Library.Google Scholar

21 Malet, , Egypt, pp. 59–60.Google Scholar

22 Malet, to Granville, , Private, 23 01 1882, PRO 30/29/160, Public Record Office.Google Scholar

23 Malet, to Granville, , Private, 13 02 1882,Google Scholaribid.

24 Malet, to Granville, , Private, 20 02 1882,Google Scholaribid.

25 Malet, to Granville, , Private, 20 02 1882,Google Scholar same to same, 27 Feb. 1882, Private, both in ibid.

26 Malet, to Granville, , Private, 28 03 1882,Google Scholaribid.

27 Malet, to Granville, , 14 04 1882,Google Scholaribid.

28 Malet, to Granville, , Private, 2 05 1882,Google Scholaribid.

29 Ibid.; telegram, Malet, to Granville, , 10 05 1882, PRO 30/29/284, Public Record Office.Google Scholar

30 Telegram, Malet, to Granville, , 14 05 1882,Google Scholar in Malet, , Egypt, p. 235.Google Scholar

31 Malet, to Granville, , Private, 16 05 1882, PRO 30/29/160, Public Record Office.Google Scholar

32 Ibid.

33 Schölch, , ‘The “Men on the Spot”’, p. 783.Google Scholar

34 Malet, to Granville, , Private, 18 09 1882, in PRO 30/29/160, Public Record Office.Google Scholar

35 Tregonning, K. G., Under Chartered Company Rule (Singapore, 1958), pp. 27–28.Google Scholar

36 al-Sayyid, , Egypt and Cromer, p. 14.Google Scholar

37 Gladstone, to Granville, , 6 04 1882,Google Scholar in Ramm, , Political Correspondence, 1, 355.Google Scholar

38 Ibid., I, 327.

39 Hamilton's, Dairy, 20 01 1882, Hamilton Papers, Add. MSS, 48631, British Library.Google Scholar

40 Gladstone, to Granville, , 6 04 1882,Google Scholar in Ramm, , Political Correspondence, 1, 355.Google Scholar

41 Dilke's, Diary, 1 06 1882, Dilke Papers, Additional MSS 43924, British Library.Google Scholar

42 Cromer, to Morley, , 11 04 1901, FO 633/8, Public Record Office.Google Scholar

43 Ibid. Cromer was equally unimpressed with Gladstone's knowledge of Indian affairs. The only Indian subject that elicited Gladstone's enthusiasm in all their discussions, Cromer said, was the question of how Cook's tourists could be encouraged to travel in the country.

44 Dilke's Diary, 19 May 1882, Dilke Papers, Additional MSS, 43924, British Library.

45 Dilke's Diary, 7 July 1882, Dilke Papers, Additional MSS, 43925, British Library.

46 Dilke's Diary, 14 Feb. 1884, ibid.

47 Granville, to Lyons, , 10 01. 1882, in Confidential (5540), II, PRO 30/29/283, Public Record Office.Google Scholar

48 Rashid, Rida, Tarikh al-Ustadh al-Imam al-Shaikh Muhammed Abduh (Cairo, 1931), I, 213.Google Scholar

49 Ardern, G. Hulme-Beaman, Twenty Years in the Near East (London, 1898), P. 43.Google Scholar

50 Dilke, to Ripon, , 16 06 1882, Ripon Papers, 16 June 1882, Additional MSS, 43528, British Library.Google Scholar

51 Dilke's Diary, 24 Jan. 1882; 26 Jan. 1882; 1 Feb. 1882; in Dilke Papers, Additional MSS, 43924, British Library. Gladstone's notes of these meetings provide little information of what was said. See Gladstone Papers, Additional MSS, 44643, British Library.

52 Dilke's Diary, 1 Feb. 1882, Dilke Papers, Additional MSS, 43924, British Library.

53 Hartington, to Granville, , 27 05 1882, PRO 30/29/132, Public Record Office.Google Scholar

54 Same to same, 14 June 1882; 19 June 1882, both ibid.

55 Northbrook to Granville, , Private, 13 05 1882, PRO 30/29/138, Public Record Office.Google Scholar

56 Granville, to Lyons, , 14 05 1882, PRO 30/29/284, Public Record Office.Google Scholar

57 Telegram, Malet, to Granville, , 28 05 1882,Google Scholaribid.

58 Rafii, , al-Thawra al-Urabiyya, p. 291,Google Scholar also al-Waqai al-Misriyya. 31 05 1882.Google Scholar

59 Note by Dilke, , 15 06 1882, Dilke Papers, Additional MSS, 43880, British Library.Google Scholar

60 Dilke's Diary, 18 June 1882, Dilke Papers, Additional MSS, 43925, British Library.

61 Dilke, to Ripon, , 16 06 1882, Ripon Papers, Additional MSS, 43528, British Library.Google Scholar

62 Cartwright to the Foreign Office, 7 July 1882 in FO 78/3449, Public Record Office.

63 Lyons, to Granville, , 14 05 1882, PRO 30/29/160, Public Record Office.Google Scholar

64 See, for example, a Memo by Northbrook, , 13 05 1882, PRO 30/29/138, Public Record Office.Google Scholar

65 Northbrook's proposed answer to Lamington, , 8 06 1882,Google Scholaribid.

66 al-Sayyid, , Egypt and Cromer, p. 25.Google Scholar

67 Seymour, to Admiralty, , 1 07 1882, ADM 116/33, Public Record Office.Google Scholar

68 Admiralty, to Seymour, , 3 07 1882,Google Scholaribid.

69 Note by Northbrook, , 5 07 1882, PRO 30/29/138, Public Record Office.Google Scholar

70 Admiralty, to Seymour, , 8 07 1882, ADM 116/34, Public Record Office.Google Scholar

71 Agatha, Ramm, ‘Great Britain and France in Egypt, 1876–1882,’ in Prosser, Gifford and Louis, W. Roger, eds., France and Britain in Africa (New Haven, 1971), p. 110.Google Scholar

72 Edmond, Fitzmaurice, Life of the Second Earl Granville (London, 1905), Vol. II, 279.Google Scholar

73 Hamilton's, Diary, 7 07 1882, Additional MSS, 48632, British Library.Google Scholar

74 Gladstone, to Granville, , 9 07 1882,Google Scholar in Ramm, , Gladstone-Granville, 1, 388.Google Scholar

75 Gladstone, to Granville, , 9 07 1882,Google Scholaribid., p. 389.

76 Egyptian State Archives, Documents concerning the Urabi Revolution, Box 3, No. 128.

77 Draft dispatch, Granville, to Dufferin, , 10 1882, printed for Cabinet, 27 Oct. 1882, CAB 37/9, Public Record Office.Google Scholar

78 Telegram, Secret, Seymour, to Northbrook, , 19 07 1882, ADM 116/34, Public Record Office.Google Scholar

79 Telegram, Seymour, to Admiralty, , 13 07 1882,Google Scholaribid..

80 Hamilton's, Diary, 11 07 1882, Additional MSS, 48632, British Library.Google Scholar

81 Parliamentary Debates, 3d Ser, 272, 12 July 1882, vol. 173.

82 Dilke, to Ripon, , 13 07 1882, Ripon Papers, Additional MSS 43528, British Library.Google Scholar

83 Gladstone, to Childers, , 16 09 1882, Childers Papers, Royal Commonwealth Society.Google Scholar

84 Gladstone, to Childers, , 18 09 1882,Google Scholaribid..

85 Hartington, to Ripon, , 4 08 1882, Ripon Papers, Additional MSS, 43569, British Library.Google Scholar

86 al-Sayyid, , Egypt and Cromer, p. 32.Google Scholar

87 Hamilton's, Diary, 25 06 1882, Additional MSS, 48632, British Library.Google Scholar