Sustaining the 130,000-man army required unprecedented state power and bureaucracy

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

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 934
• XREF: connects to: Sustaining a 130,000-man army required state power unprecedented in Egyptian history; A bureaucracy was essential for maintaining power in the Ottoman Empire. — Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects, 1104

Broader Connections

• A bureaucracy was essential for maintaining power in the Ottoman Empire. #corroborates (0.55) — Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects, 1104