Syria’s invasion combined buffer-zone aims with Anglo-French diplomatic maneuvering

Evidence

Other reasons are cited for this most important of Mehmed Ali’s campaigns. Among them was his desire to create a buffer-area between the heartland of his dominions in the Nile valley and the center of Ottoman power in Anatolia, as well as his realization that the Ottoman Empire was decaying and his wish to fill the gap that would ensue from the decline of its dominion by engaging in a “delicate diplomatic balance between England and France by playing one against the other.” Pretexts abounded, the most important of which was a quarrel with ‘Abdallah Pasha of Acre whom Mehmed Ali had accused of giving refuge to some 6,000 Egyptian fellahin who, in an attempt to evade taxes, had fled across the borders to neighboring Syria. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 195

Categorization

• XREF: Egypt as decolonized proto-state inserting itself between decaying empires connects to the reader’s Ottoman and British actors thread.