H4 A Short History of the Middle East
With the trial and exile of Arabi the first Egyptian nationalist
movement collapsed utterly.1 It had originally been the genuine
intention of the British government, with the concurrence of
Baring, to withdraw from Egypt as soon as the authority of the
Khedive had been restored. This is clearly demonstrated by tele-
grams exchanged between the Foreign Office and Baring as late as
January i884.2 As late as 1887 the government negotiated with
the Ottoman government for a withdrawal at the end of three
years, provided that at that time the security of Egypt was not
threatened either from within or without. This proposal was
however brought to nothing, mainly (ironically enough) by the
opposition of France to the conditions imposed. The principal
factor behind the continued British occupation was the rising in
1881 of the Sudanese Muslims, under the religious leadership of
the self-styled Mahdi Mohammed Ahmed of Dongola, against
grievous Egyptian oppression and misrule, and their destruction of
Egyptian armies under British command sent to repress them. It
was felt that Britain could not allow this fanatic horde to overrun
Egypt, as it might well have done in view of the collapse of
authority there, and threaten Britain's imperial communications.
The killing of General Gordon at Khartoum in 1885 let loose a
surge of patriotic sentiment in Britain and finally made it imposs-
ible for the government to withdraw from Egypt.
The collapse of the nationalist movement gave Cromer some
twenty years to re-organize the finances and promote the economic
development of Egypt with the passive co-operation of the Egypt-
ians, except for some opposition from the headstrong young
Abbas II, who succeeded as Khedive in 1892, and his advisers,
jealous of Cromer's power. The restoration of Egypt's solvency,
the extension of the crop-area by nearly one-fifth in the 'nineties
as a result of the completion of the Delta Barrage and the extension
of perennial irrigation, and the abolition of the age-old institution
of compulsory unpaid labour (the corvee), which thus gave the
1 The most recent Egyptian historian, a former Director-General of the
Ministry of Education, roundly condemns Arabi and his associates, but in
terms highly significant of the present-day Egyptian political outlook. They
were ca handful of adventurers who knew nothing about wary statesmanship, or
even decent government. . . , Had a death-sentence been pronounced against
them .,., their crime would not only have been treason and rebellion, but also
ignominious^ failure and incompetence in battle.* (M, Rifaat Bey, op. cit, 213;
italics not in the original.)
2 Lord Zetland, Lord Cromer, 88 rf.