The Khedivate of Egypt (17 May 1805/8 June 1867-19 December 1914) was a constitutional monarchy and autonomous state of the Ottoman Empire. Led by the dynasty of Muhammad Ali, the Khedivate of Egypt expanded to control present-day Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, southern Turkey, and northwestern Saudi Arabia.
History[]
The Khedivate of Egypt in 1836
The Khedivate of Egypt was founded on 17 May 1805 when Muhammad Ali, a general of the Ottoman Empire, declared himself the ruler of Egypt Eyalet (present-day Egypt), assuming the title of Khedive. He seized power in a three-way civil war between the Ottoman Empire, the Mamelukes, and his army sent to restore order, and Egypt was ruled by his Albanian dynasty. In 1820 the Khedivate of Egypt conquered eastern Libya from the Shagia Arabs and other tribes, and in July 1820 5,000 Turks and Arabs were sent to conquer Sudan. Under Defterdar Mahommed Bey, 5,000 more Egyptian troops headed south, conquering Kordofan and founding the city of Khartoum, now the capital of Sudan. In 1821 he was appointed as Governor of Crete by Sultan Mahmud II of Turkey, who offered to give him Syria and Morea if he would assist him in destroying the insurgency in Greece during the Greek War of Independence in 1824. He sent 60 ships and 17,000 troops to assist in the war, capturing Missolonghi and Athens. However, the 20 October 1827 Battle of Navarino destroyed the Egyptian navy, and in August 1828 Admiral Edward Codrington forced Egypt out of the war by threatening to destroy Alexandria.
After the war ended, Mahmud II refused to deliver on his promise of giving Egypt control of Syria and Morea, so from 1831 to 1833, 100,000 Egyptian troops under Muhammad Ali and Ibrahim Pasha invaded Syria, facing 145,000 Ottoman troops under Reshid Mehmed Pasa Kutahi. After the 1832 Battle of Konya, the Egyptians smashed the Ottomans, and they were given control of all of the Ottoman Empire's Levantine territories and their province of Ankara. They now controlled the holy city of Jerusalem in addition to the whole countries of Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria, with Egyptian Kaf in northwestern Saudi Arabia and Egyptian Ankara in southern Turkey.
On 19 November 1837, having subdued Tripolitania Vilayet's rebellion, the Ottoman Turks were confident that they could reconquer all of the territories lost at the Convention of Kutahya. They began the Ottoman Liberation of Egyptian Ankara, although they added the rest of the lost territories to their war goals. They occupied up to Lebanon and Jordan without resistance, but Egyptian armies engaged them in southern Syria, Lebanon, and southern Jordan. The Ottoman armies mobilized, fielding over 110,000 troops, with troops drawn from as far as Greece to the west and Iraq to the east engaging the Egyptian armies. The Ottomans lost tens of thousands of men to attrition, warfare, and supply restrictions, but they were able to defeat the Egyptian armies repeatedly. On 23 November 1842, after a costly war, the Khedivate of Egypt bit the bullet and decided to cede all of their lands past the Sinai Peninsula to Turkey.
Culture[]
Population of Egypt in 1842
Before the 1842 peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire that gave up control of the Levant to them, Egypt had a population of 2,340,000. They were 44.6% Misri, 16.5% Mashriqi, 8% Bedouin, 7% Sudanese, 6.4% African Minor, 6.1% Turkish, 2.2% were Dinka, 1.7% Tigray, 1.3% Armenians, 1.2% Nuba, 1.2% Greeks, 1.1% Beja, and 2.8% other, including Sephardim, Kurdish, and other African tribes. 82.3% of the citizens were Sunni Muslim, 8.9% Animist, 3.8% Orthodox Christian, and 3.7% Coptic Christians.
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