السياسة البريطانية تجاه الدولة العثمانية 1798 – 1914 - دراسة تاريخية
Abstract
Britain adopted a policy of preserving the integrity of the Ottoman Empire since the beginning of the sixteenth century, to ensure its economic interests in it, and to stand up to the early Russian aspirations to reach warm waters in the "Arabian Gulf" and the Mediterranean Sea. France in 1536 AD. Britain confronted Napoleon's campaign against Egypt and its occupation of it in 1798, and considered that a threat to its vital interests in the Arab region and India, as it participated in the fighting alongside the Ottoman Empire to force France to withdraw from Egypt in 1811 after signing the Arish Treaty with it in the year 1800 AD.
Britain stood by Muhammad Ali Pasha in the internal conflicts that Egypt witnessed in the aftermath of the French withdrawal from it, and his endeavor to establish a semi-independent rule from the Ottoman Empire,
but it opposed his ambitions to establish a modern, strong, modern state in Egypt, and confronted his expansions in the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula, and his negotiations With France for a year regarding allowing him to control the state of western Tripoli, Tunisia and Morocco, in return for not opposing his occupation of Algeria in 1830, which forced him to sign the Treaty of London in 1840, which included his withdrawal from the Levant and contentment with hereditary rule for him and not building it after him on Egypt after its leadership of the "international coalition" "consisting of" Britain, France, Sardinia, and the Ottoman Empire, and Britain supported the Ottoman Empire against Tsarist Russia in the Crimean War (1853-1856) and force it into the Treaty of Paris in 1856 AD.
Britain increased its interference in the internal affairs of Egypt after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 AD, due to its great importance to world trade, and the failure of the financial and economic policy of Khedive Ismail 1863-1879 and his borrowing huge sums of money to cover his personal expenses and the celebration ceremonies of the opening of the Suez Canal, from British and French foreign banks, and his inability to Fulfilling the payment of those debts Starting from the year 1876, the British and French governments demanded to supervise the Egyptian economy under the pretext of helping to revive the Egyptian economy to pay off its debts. They even participated in the Egyptian government after the courtship of Khedive Ismail Pasha and the coming as Tawfiq Pasha (1879-1892). .
These foreign interventions ended with the revolution of Ahmed Orabi against the British presence in Egypt and the formation of a national Egyptian government led by Mahmoud Saji al-Baroud and the appointment of Ahmed Orabi as Minister of War in it. The British port of Alexandria on July 11, 1882, and its forces marched to occupy Cairo on September 12, 1882.
Britain employed the calls for Ottoman reform on the European model and what caused clear divisions within society, especially from the opponents of the religious scholars who “disbelieved” the Ottoman Sultan Mahmoud II (1808-1839), and the accompanying repercussions on the center of the
religious caliphate and from the political point of view of the most important pillars Basic to building the state as an "Islamic state". And the reformers demand equality between Muslims and non-Muslims and the need for them to occupy sensitive positions in the state. From an economic point of view, it entails depriving the Ottoman Empire of its most important economic resources, represented by the imposition of “tribute” and some important taxes on non-Muslims. Thus came the First World War 1914-1918. The formation of the opportunity to compete was British by removing the Ottoman Empire from existence after it concluded colonial agreements with France1916 to share it after the war.
