Sustaining a 130,000-man army required state power unprecedented in Egyptian history

Evidence

Sustaining an army of around 130,000 men on a more or less constant war footing was no easy task, though. The problems encountered in keeping this army well fed, adequately clothed, and regularly paid were as significant as collecting the peasants from the villages and turning them into disciplined soldiers. This massive task demanded the build-up of state power to an extent unprecedented in Egyptian history and an encroachment by the state on people’s lives in a way previously unparalleled. It entailed levying higher rates of taxation to enable the government to pay the soldiers and officers more or less punctually, requisitioning foodstuffs and sending them to the troops on the front and in the camps hundreds of miles away from home, manufacturing uniforms for the troops and finding men and women who were capable of working in the various factories that were geared to military production. In addition, it meant securing horses, mules, cows and oxen that were for the most part the motive force of these factories. Attention had also to be given to such logistical considerations as policing the passage of more and more troops to the battle areas (which by the mid-1830s had covered wide areas of the far-flung Ottoman Empire), establishing a proper communication network that would guarantee the delivery of these various requisitions to the troops, as well as sustaining an efficient postal system, which an army of that size necessitated. Of more importance, the modern army necessitated the founding of a modern medical system that would be capable of treating the wounded in battle, preventing diseases from spreading among the soldiers in the highly crowded camps and barracks, and finally of treating the officers and soldiers from the diseases that they were constantly afflicted by. In short, the importance of Mehmed Ali’s army lies not only in its size or in the fact that it relied on what appears to have been universal conscription, but also in the economic–bureaucratic structure that supported and sustained it. Without an analysis of the working of this war machine no clear understanding of the performance of this army would be complete. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 934 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Only power of this order could organize the enormous building projects that these early pharaohs embarked on. Den’s elaborate tomb, with granite shipped from hundreds of miles away, and the later, even grander pyramids were possible only because of the extraordinary control which Egyptian pharaohs could exercise over the minds and the bodies of their subjects. — Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects, 212 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The army’s reliance on central supply and conscription created Egypt’s modern state; Sustaining the 130,000-man army required unprecedented state power and bureaucracy — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 934; Egyptian pharaohs organized monumental projects through extraordinary control over their subjects. — Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects, 212 (+1 more)

Related

• Sustaining the 130,000-man army required unprecedented state power and bureaucracy (similarity 0.93)
• Mehmed Ali’s 130,000-man army forced unprecedented state centralization in Egypt (similarity 0.92)
• Mehmed Ali’s conscript army drove the creation of the modern Egyptian state (similarity 0.85)
• Conscription-based army provisioning drove Egypt’s modern state formation (similarity 0.85)
• Mehmed Ali’s army secured dynastic rule over Egypt for a century (similarity 0.83)
• Egyptian pharaohs organized monumental projects through extraordinary control over their subjects. (similarity 0.82)
• Within roughly a decade Egypt replaced Mamluk-style warriors with a trained modern army (similarity 0.82)
• The army drove creation of Egypt’s factories, schools, and hospitals (similarity 0.81)
• The Egyptian army coerced conscripts for the Pasha’s dynastic wars (similarity 0.81)
• Ali founded his conscript army in 1820-1 to secure his rule against Istanbul (similarity 0.81)
• The army conscripted Egyptians by force to fight for Mehmed Ali’s dynasty (similarity 0.81)
• Military administration provided the model for Egypt’s civilian bureaucracy and surveillance state (similarity 0.81)
• Mehmed Ali’s army was an institution of coercive power that transformed Egyptian society (similarity 0.81)
• The army’s surveillance and control practices, not enlightenment ideas, founded modern Egypt (similarity 0.80)
• The army’s story centers on conscripted men, not the commanding Pasha (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Sustaining the 130,000-man army required unprecedented state power and bureaucracy #corroborates (0.95) — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 934
• Egyptian pharaohs organized monumental projects through extraordinary control over their subjects. #corroborates (0.70) — Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects, 212
• Conscription transformed the relation between Egyptian government and governed #expands (0.55)