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EGYPT

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EGYPT

in 1798. He conquered the country, but the French were soon driven out by the British, and Egypt was given back to the Turks in 1801. In 1805 Mohammed Ali became pasha. He completely overthrew the Mameluke chiefs, formed a regular army and introduced the beginnings of European civilization. He annexed Nubia and part of the Sudan, and his son conquered Syria. He was succeeded by his grandson, who was superseded by Mohammed, Ali's youngest son, Said Pasha. Under Said the Suez Canal was cut by the French engineer, M. de Lesseps, and was opened in 1869. Said was succeeded by his nephew, Ismail, who, a few years later, took the hereditary title of khedive, and soon after bought from Turkey the right to make treaties and maintain an army, thus making himself practically an independent ruler. He began many improvements, such as the building of roads and bridges, the constructing of railroads and telegraphs; he reformed the postal service, improved the harbors, supported education and introduced better courts of law. Through Sir Samuel Baker and Charles Gordon, ("Chinese Gordon"), his governors of the great region known as the Sudan, he suppressed the slave-trade. In order to carry out all his reforms, however, he fell very heavily into debt. Various financiers were sent from England to try to arrange a system of managing the money-matters of the government, and finally England and France were given a controlling influence in the government The khedive's unwillingness to pay the debts due European bankers led the European governments to demand his abdication, and he was deposed by the sultan of Turkey in 1879, being succeeded by his eldest son, Tewfik. A law for the management of the public debt was passed in 1880. Next year Arabi Pasha became minister of war, and finally openly opposed the khedive and European interference, being strongly supported by the natives, who disliked the Europeans. British and French warships were sent to Alexandria in 1882, but the French ships sailed away and the attack was made by the British alone. Arabi withdrew from the city, but large numbers of European citizens were killed by the natives before a force could land to enforce order in the city. Meanwhile Sir Garnet (now Lord) Wolseley was sent out with more troops from England and completely defeated Arabi7s army at Tel-el-Kebir. Arabi was banished to Ceylon. Since then England has had a controlling influence in the government. In 1882 began the great rebellion in the Sudan. That region had been governed as a province of Egypt; but Mohammed Ahmed, calling himself the Mahdi (a kind of Mohammedan Messiah), put himself forward to free the Mohammedan faith from her ene-

mies. He captured El Obeid, and completely destroyed an army sent against him under the command of an English officer, Hicks Pasha (1883). His influence spread rapidly, and he gained other important victories. Meanwhile General Gordon was sent out from England to secure the withdrawal of the Egyptian garrisons from the Sudan, Egypt having agreed, by England's advice, to give up most of her possessions in the Sudan. Gordon kept his position at Khartum against the Mahdi, but found he could not get the garrisons away without reinforcements. Unfortunately, England delayed too long in sending the ree'nforc-ing expedition, which approached Khartum only to find that it had been taken and Gordon killed two days before (Jan. 26, 1885). The expedition withdrew, and left the Sudan to its native tribes and the Mahdi. Since then the Mahdi has died; but the affairs of the Sudan have, under British energies, taken on an entirely new and greatly improved aspect. This is in large measure due to the valor of General Sir H. H. (now Lord) Kitchener, who in 1892 was made Egyptian Sirdar, and in 1896 was commander-in-chief of an expeditionary force, composed chiefly of Egyptian and Sudanese troops under British officers, who undertook at the order of the English government to reconquer the Sudan. Since the fall of Khartum the English had held the rebellious dervishes at bay at Wady Haifa, as far as the Egyptian frontier then extended. In May, 1896, a brigade of Indian troops was brought from Bombay to Suakim and joined the Sirdar's expedition, which now advanced. By September, Dongola, after sharp fighting, was occupied. The next year, Abu-Hamed and Berber fell before the Anglo-Egyptian onslaught; while in 1898 a dervish-army of 16,000 men, after 'severe fighting, was worsted on the Atbara, and the khalifa's entire force of 50,000 men was later in the year totally defeated at Omdurman and the city occupied by Kitchener and his gallant force. The dervish slaughter was terrible; but it had its result in the successful re-conquest cf the Sudan.

Finances and Education. Since 1882 an English army of occupation has remained in Egypt. To meet its cost (the present strength is 6,063) the Egyptian government annually contributes $750,000. The Egyptian revenue, the chief sources of which are the land-tax, the tobacco-monopoly and the customs, amounted in 1911 to over $77,000,000, and the expenditures exceeded $75,000,000. The value of the imports for 1911 was £E27,227,u8, and of the exports ££28,598,991. The numbei of government vernacular schools (primary, technical and special) was 163 in 1911, with a teaching-staff of 900 and an attendance of 27,454 pupils, 6,000 of whom were females.