British hostility targeted the Pasha’s imperial expansion, not his industrialization

Evidence

This chapter has also argued that Britain’s opposition to Mehmed Ali’s policies was not informed by any perceived threat that his “industrialization” schemes posed to British trade, but that it was his imperialist expansion that was the target and cause of British hostility. By expanding far beyond the borders of his province, Mehmed Ali attracted the attention and hostility of Great Britain, who saw in his policies a grave danger to her imperial interests in Asia. It was this perceived danger rather than any threat to losing potential markets in the eastern Mediterranean that attracted British hostility to the Pasha’s expansionary policy. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1589

Categorization

• XREF: Causal claim about imperial threat perception parallels the discussion of pre-state institutional defection and long-distance trade in Milgrom’s work on reputation and institutions.