Consul-Generals Baring, Gorst, Kitchener and the Denshawai Incident Flashcards
1
Q
What were the key features of the Consul-general Evelyn Baring’s rule in Egypt (Lord Cromer) (FINANCIAL)
A
- acted as an ‘adviser’ to the Khedive between 1883-1907
- main task was to regularise Egyptian’s financial affairs.
- to stabilise account books -> made cutbacks to Egypt’s military and bureaucracy.
- revitalised economy by improving communications and investing in irrigation schemes.
-> within 10 years, cotton and sugar exports had trebled.
2
Q
What projects was Evelyn Baring involved in
A
- improved conditions for Egyptian labourers and introduced better sanitation and health services in towns.
- Aswan Dam was built under direction of Sir John Aird -> took 6 years to build and cost £2 million, purpose was to hold back the waters of the Nile.
- opened in 1902 and enabled 0.5 million acres of former desert to be irrigated with water from its reservoir -> enabled year round circulation.
- irrigation works nearly doubled the crop area but it also added to the workload for workers and spread waterborne plagues.
3
Q
What military changes did Evelyn Baring make
A
- 6000 British troops were places to ensure interests were not put at risk by either military or popular disturbances.
- army placed under control of Kitchener.
4
Q
What changes in education did Evelyn Baring
A
- wary of investing in education as he had seen it result in raised expectations in India, which led to growth in nationalist protest.
- Egyptians rarely offered more than a few years of elementary schooling,
- 1909 -> a new university was founded to teach modern subjects and train men for professions.
5
Q
What role did Sir Eldon Gorst play (1907-11)
A
- Succeeded Evelyn Baring
- Brought more Egyptians into gov positions in an attempt to weaken the Egyptian nationalist party.
- tried to impose tighter censorship of the press in 1909 and used penal measures.
-> passed the ‘regulation Law’ to imprison a criminal without trial.
-> attempt to quell growing nationalism in Egypt without success.
6
Q
What role did Viscount Herbert Kitchener (1911-1914)
A
- also attempts to curb nationalist sentiment like Gorst.
- British dominance increases in this period.
- 1913: new legislative Assembly replaces Advisory Council of Laws and General Assembly.
-> consisted of 66 elected members and 17 appointed nominees.
-> represented rich land-owners rather than ordinary Egyptian people. - Britain declared a protectorate over Egypt in Nov 1914.
-> ruling Khedive was deposed and his successor, Hussein Kamel, was compelled to declare himself as an independent Sultan of Egypt under British protection.
7
Q
What was the Denshawai incident
A
- June 1906 -> group of British officers anger residents of Denshawai by pigeon-shooting for sport.
-> pigeons were bred by the villagers for food, asked officers to stop. - Fight broke out when an officer’s gun went off and wounded the wife of a Muslim prayer leader.
-> soldiers were set upon and one officer fled and died in the intense heat. - soldiers who discovered the body, killed a villager who had stopped to help him, falsely took him as an assassin.
8
Q
What was the impact of the Denshawai impact
A
- British authorities subsequently set up a special tribunal to try 52 other villagers for their supposed role in the officer’s death.
- horror in the nationalist press.
- 26 villagers were given hard labour and ordered to be flogged.
- An Egyptian policeman who had testified on behalf of the villagers was given 2 years of imprisonment and 50 lashes.
-> provoked further backlash to British rule in Egypt.
9
Q
When was Egypt officially declared a protectorate and what were the causes of this event
A
- build up to WW1, placed the Ottoman Empire on the side of Central Powers (Germany, and Austria-Hungary).
-> Britain declared a protectorate over Egypt in November 1914. - ruling Khedive (ally of the Ottoman Sultan) was deposed and his successor, Hussein Kamel, was compelled to declare himself as an independent Sultan of Egypt, under British protection.
