Muhammad Ali sought secession from the Ottoman Empire and an independent Egyptian empire

Evidence

Unlike his predecessors, however, Muhammad Alï sought more than the quasi autonomy that came from occupying neighboring countries and controlling their trade routes through Egypt. As Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot describes it, Muhammad Alï took Egypt steps toward seceding from the Ottoman Empire and becoming an independent empire on its own. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 178

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s comparative question: Egyptian expansionism was a step toward independence, a distinct logic from later high-colonial rule — a key shade of coloniality.