# data[].attributes.body
British occupation in Egypt/Sudan began with the bombardment of Alexandria on the coast of Egypt.

# data[].attributes.body
- The Egyptian colony was called the veiled protectorate
- Three of the main motives for Britain's invasion were:
Financial Interests of Britain (& therefore public interest)

British import of cotton almost completely halted because of the American Civil War, so they began investing a lot into the Egyptian cotton industry

After Britain’s purchase of Suez Canal shares in 1875, protecting their investments became more important

The construction of the Suez Canal (officially opened in 1869) also allowed for easier access to the British colony in India and helped their trades routes to Bombay, instead of having to go around the Cape of Good Hope

Egypt's economic instability

The Egyptian dynasty had borrowed & used too much money on their country’s development leaving them with a large amount of debt

This led to Khedive Ismail quickly selling his shares in the Suez Canal to UK Prime Minister Disraeli

Public Pressure

It was in Britain’s interest to colonize Egypt to protect the investments the Brits had made in the cotton industry as well as the Canal

After Egypt’s return to economic difficulties and the country’s rejection of Britain & France’s conjoined stewardship offer; a revolt arose, killing British soldiers in Alexandria

Increasing public pressure & sparking Britain’s invasion

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Get to know about Suez Canal history, history, who built it, what are its important, what it connects and the new Suez Canal.

Firstly, what do we mean by a Canal? A canal is a long, man-made passage of water generally used for irrigation or boat and ship access to bigger water bodies. Often Canal is related to a word 'channel', and all its definition is around a tunnel shaped spaces that carry liquid from one place to another.

Suez Canal History

The Suez Canal is an artificial waterway which is in level with sea, situated in Egypt. This connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. It took 10 years to construct and was opened on 17 November 1869.

Back in the year 1854, France told the Pasha of Egypt about building a channel that will benefit ships all over the world. So, does the birth of idea behind building the same and in the year 1854 La Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez organization was formed to construct the
channel. In the year 1956, the channel was nationalized by the Egyptian government.

Suez Canal Importance

It allows ships to travel between Europe and South Asia without crossing around Africa and thereby reducing the sea voyage distance between Europe and India by about 7,000 kilometers. The northern terminal of Suez Canal is named Port Said and the southern terminal as Port Tewfik. Ismailia terminal is on canal's west bank. This canal is owned and maintained by the Suez Canal Authority of Egypt.

Read about Panama Canal As Well. In 2014, 17,148 transits were there with an annual tonnage of about 963,000,000 metric tons. In the canal two-way traffic is not permitted. So often, ships would stop at the passing places to allow the passage of ships moving in the other direction. Transit time on an average was then 40 hours, but by year 1939 it was reduced to mere 13 hours.

In the year 1947, a system of convoys was adopted, which was consisting of one north leap and two south leaps per day. Transit time through the canal went up to 15 hours in 1967 despite convoying, reflecting high growth in tanker traffic at that time. With some extension of the canal, range of transit time since was 11 to 16 hours since 1975.

Suez Canal Video

Below is the Suez Canal video showing how the ship transit in this channel and how it looks like in this documentary.

Suez Canal in World Map

Below is the given map of the Suez Canal as how it looks like on the map. It is desert area and thorough which this canal passed, thus reducing the time and distance to great extent.

Suez Canal Facts

When built, it was 164 km long and 8 m deep. After several improvement and enlargements, it is now 193.30 km long and 24 m deep and 205 meters wide. The canal is single-lane channel but have two passing places, one is the "Ballah By-Pass" and the other at Great Bitter Lake. Also since There are no stops throughout the canal, thus sea water flows freely through it.

The capacity layout for this canal can be abridged as; the Suez Canal is able to access more traffic and larger ships than the PanamaCanal. Ships use to offload some part of their cargo onto a boat owned by the canal to reduce their draft, they travel along with the vessels, and then reloading of vessel was done on reaching the other end of the channel.

In 1870, operation in its first year was such that 486 transits took place that is about less than 2 per day. Approximately 21,250 transits in 1966, that means an average of 58 per day. Increase in terms of tonnage was some 444,000 metric tons in 1870 to about 278,400,000 metric tons. By the mid-1980s the number of transits occurring daily had fallen to an average of 50 with 355,600,000 metric tons net tonnage annually.

Suez Canal Connects

The opening of the canal has created the first ever salt-water passage between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The currents between the Mediterranean Sea and the middle of the canal at the Bitter Lakes flows north in winter and south in summer despite the fact that the Red Sea is about 1.2 m higher than the Mediterranean sea level.

As the salinity of the lakes gradually became equal with that of the Red Sea the barrier to migrate was impassive, and flora and fauna from the Red Sea had begun to inhabit the eastern Mediterranean. As you know that the Red Sea is much saltier and more poor in nutrient than the Atlantic, so the species of Red Sea have advantages over the Atlantic species as they are in the less salty and nutrient-rich eastern Mediterranean. Suez Canal created an impact on environment. It is not only useful for human but also for the aquatic lives on Earth.

Suez Canal Expansion Plan

In the year 2014, it was decided to increase the width and the depth of the channel so that more and bigger ships can pass through and hence, to increase the traffic through the channel.

As per the experts, the new Suez canal will give Egypt a increase of tariff money from 5 billion dollars are to 15 billion dollars a year. The Suez expansion plan is now complete and is opened for the commercial usage from 6th August 2015.

This was all from the article on Suez Canal.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Suez Canal History, Facts, Importance, Map and New Suez Canal | marinersgalaxy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Get to know about Suez Canal history, history, who built it, what are its important, what it connects and the new Suez Canal. Firstly, what do we mean by a Canal? A canal is a long, man-made passage of water generally used for irrigation or boat and ship access to bigger water bodies.

# data[].attributes.body
What was life like in the colony for people who lived there?

British privilege/egyptian inequality

After the attack in Alexandria (1882) in response to the revolt, the British occupation influenced the country economically and socially

The British colonial administration often used the english language

Egyptian locals were relegated to lower paying jobs & discriminated against

Religious influence

British forces also influenced Egyptian religion, when Christian missionaries began to establish schools

Urbanization

Egypt’s infrastructure was modernized by the British colonization in alignment with their own goals

Contributions to the building of the Suez Canal, & the accompanying cities: Port Said & Ismailia

# data[].attributes.body
Disapproval because of: religion, inequality, imperialist superiority (erosion of egyptian culture)

The locals were disapproving of foreign influence in the country, mainly erosion and/or disruption of their culture, religion, society, and politics. Even with Britain’s claim of aiming to protect Egypt

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Egypt held particular interest for Victorians as a strategic gateway to the Orient. The first Arabic-speaking country to experience overlapping colonial encroachments by European powers, Egypt became an autonomous state within the Ottoman Empire under the rule of Muhammad Ali Pasha (1805-1848) and his male successors. From 1852, Britain kept an increased presence in northern Egypt to maintain the overland trade route to India and to oversee the construction of the Cairo-Alexandria railway, the first British railway built on foreign soil. Shortly thereafter, French investors financed the construction of the Suez Canal to connect the Mediterranean and Red Seas. Isma'il Pasha sold Egypt's shares of the Suez Canal Company to Britain in 1875 in the wake of a financial crisis. Dissatisfaction with European and Ottoman rule led to a nationalist revolt in 1879. The British military occupied Egypt in 1882 to protect financial interests in the country, culminating in a violent war. Britain won, restored the Khedival authority in Cairo, and established a 'veiled protectorate' over Ottoman-Egypt until the First World War. The British occupation saw an increase in archaeological fieldwork, tourism, and irrigation projects to boost Egypt's cotton production and exportation. Egypt declared independence in 1922, although Britain did not withdraw all its troops until after the 1956 Suez Crisis.

This political cartoon features John Bull as a British soldier physically protecting Egypt, who is depicted as the sexualised female object of Orientalist fantasy, passively leaning into Bull's arms. The Turkish Sultan pleads with Britain 'to consider whether the time has not now arrived for her return to the arms of her loving uncle.' Victorians regularly played with gendered tropes to portray Britain as a masculine and heroic saviour, Egypt as feminine and frail, and the Ottoman Empire as weak and in decline. The scene unfolding in front of the Sphinx reflects the appropriation of Egypt's ancient past during the British occupation of the country.

The Anglo-Egyptian War lasted from May to August 1882. The Illustrated London News provided sketches every week to keep British audiences updated. This image followed the final conflict at Tell el Kebir which killed 2,000 Egyptians and resulted in the surrender of Colonel Ahmed 'Urabi's army. As in iconographic propaganda by the pharaohs showing defeat of their foreign enemies, British forces were represented as victorious on the battlefield to justify their interference.

British imperial interests ensured that Egypt received a great deal of anthropological attention. The colonial agenda determined Egyptian inferiority according to universal hierarchies of race. Orientalists used the 'comparative method' to study the ancient and modern inhabitants of the country, treating Egyptian peasants as passive objects of observation and classification, much like artefacts. This image is from a special series published at the height of the Anglo-Egyptian war entitled 'Egypt as it is,' which often objectified locals by placing them next to ancient ruins. It shows Egyptian Bedouin, who often escorted tourists up the pyramids, 'anxiously looking out, beyond Cairo, for the approach of the British Army.'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Egypt held particular interest for Victorians as a strategic gateway to the Orient. The first Arabic-speaking country to experience overlapping colonial encroachments by European powers, Egypt became an autonomous state within the Ottoman Empire under the rule of Muhammad Ali Pasha (1805-1848) and his male successors.

# data[].attributes.body
Infrastructural development

Suez canal, cities, transportation (roads & railways)

Economic development

Foreign trade thx to Suez Canal, administrative aid

Governmental benefits

While seen as drawbacks by some locals, it does provide an international perspective into governments, as well as potential economic and political benefits

# data[].attributes.body
Social & Political unrest

Many locals saw european colonialism as offensive through the establishment of their religious and cultural beliefs, presence, & influence

European colonialism also often created social inequalities in favor of foreigners, which strengthened political and societal unrest of the locals

Exploitation

Colonialism, despite hiding behind public intentions of improvement & protection, often invade/influence other countries for self-ish reasons and exploit locals for economic gain

Foreign reliance

European colonialism has been seen to be successful in part because of local economic and political desparity which provides imperialist countries with a plausible reason to colonize the country

This creates a loss of autonomy for the country and can lead to a loss of national identity/culture as well as contribute to political tension and resistance