Historians attribute Mehmed Ali’s expansion to a long-nursed ambition for independent sovereignty

Evidence

Most historians, therefore, highlight the different causes behind the various campaigns that the Pasha was engaged in. Nevertheless, they are in agreement in arguing that he had always desired to extend his dominions out of Egypt and that he was seizing the various opportunities that he was offered to achieve this goal. The clearest in expressing this idea is Dodwell who argued that “[f]rom the day when the idea of seizing the government of Egypt first occurred to him as a practical measure he had probably always nursed the thought of ruling, not on behalf of another but as an independent sovereign.” In a similar fashion Driault says that the Pasha undertook this huge military expansion because he “had the dream and the desire to be grand.” — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 196

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Historians presume Mehmed Ali always sought to expand beyond Egypt — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 196; Historians portray Mehmed Ali’s reforms as a master-planned modernization with independence aims; Egyptian historians narrate Mehmed Ali’s career as a teleological quest for independence (+6 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Historians presume Mehmed Ali always sought to expand beyond Egypt — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 196; Historians portray Mehmed Ali’s reforms as a master-planned modernization with independence aims; Egyptian historians narrate Mehmed Ali’s career as a teleological quest for independence (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Historians presume Mehmed Ali always sought to expand beyond Egypt #corroborates (0.95) — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 196
• Egyptian historians narrate Mehmed Ali’s career as a teleological quest for independence #corroborates (0.92)
• Nationalist historiography needs Mehmed Ali as outsider to conjure the Egyptian nation into being #complicates (0.78) — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1670