Egyptian military reform enabled a regional empire that collapsed under European pressure

Evidence

The creation of this force had both regional and domestic consequences. Regionally, it enabled Cairo to colonise an empire that stretched from Arabia and the Sudan in the south to Greece and Crete and later Palestine and Syria in the north. Local revolt and European intervention forced the empire’s dismantling, and military power was subsequently redeployed to set up and police the geographical boundaries that created Egypt as a politico-spatial entity. European commercial and political penetration further weakened the regime in Cairo and brought on its economic collapse, followed in 1882 by the British invasion and occupation. — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 23

Categorization

• XREF: The 1882 British occupation echoes the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ and ‘Sacrifice’ chapters’ interest in imperial power dynamics, and the chronology matters for the existing ADDENDUM library.