Nationalist historians attribute Egypt’s stalled modernization to European intervention alone

Evidence

Briefly put, this is how the history of Egypt during the first half of the nineteenth century is written about by most Egyptian nationalist historians. They see in Mehmed Ali’s “experiment” an interesting “chapter” in the long history of Egypt, a chapter that was supposed to witness the lifting of Egypt from the pre-modern, feudal rule under the Ottoman Empire to “catch up” with modern, capitalist Europe. In effect they argue that if it were not for European intervention Egypt would have continued her ambitious modernization efforts, efforts that were begun in earnest by Mehmed Ali from as early as the first decade of the nineteenth century and before any other country outside Europe. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 80