Universal conscription of Egyptian peasants was a reluctant last resort, not a plan.

Evidence

Looking at the army he created at the end of his reign, however, one thing stands out as significantly different from other Ottoman military reform attempts, namely, adopting something close to universal conscription whereby masses of peasants were drafted in the new army. Yet again, in this respect the Pasha was being more pragmatic than radical. By following the steps he took in coming to this decision it becomes clear that he did not originally contemplate conscripting the fellahin of Egypt when he was thinking of founding his new army; rather he was pushed to taking this bold step only after he had run out of other alternatives. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 429

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• QUESTION: What alternatives to conscription had Mehmed Ali exhausted — slave armies, Albanian mercenaries, volunteers — and when exactly did each fail?

Related

• Universal conscription of Egyptian peasants was adopted reluctantly after other options failed (similarity 0.96)
• Mass peasant conscription was adopted only after other options failed (similarity 0.92)
• Mehmed Ali had exhausted alternatives before conscripting Egyptian peasants wholesale (similarity 0.91)
• Egyptian peasants universally hated conscription into Mehmed Ali’s army (similarity 0.86)
• Conscription arose only after Albanian insubordination and failed Sudanese recruitment (similarity 0.85)
• Egyptian peasants strongly resisted conscription into Mehmed Ali’s army. (similarity 0.85)
• Albanian resistance and Sudanese failures forced conscription on Mehmed Ali (similarity 0.85)
• Conscription gave the Egyptian state power over peasants that Ottoman and Mamluk rulers lacked (similarity 0.84)
• Conscript soldiers resisted the Pasha’s project and undermined his army’s power (similarity 0.83)
• Egyptian peasants strongly resisted conscription into the modern army (similarity 0.83)
• Albanian resistance and Sudan failures forced Mehmed Ali to conscript Egyptians (similarity 0.83)
• Mehmed Ali’s first conscription was limited and temporary, not a mass levy (similarity 0.83)
• Mehmed Ali founded a conscription-based army in Egypt in 1820 (similarity 0.82)
• Egyptian conscripts served Mehmed Ali’s army entirely against their will (similarity 0.82)
• Egyptian peasants maimed themselves to escape conscription into Mehmed Ali’s army (similarity 0.82)