Volta
Conflict9 September 1881 – 13 September 1882

Urabi Revolt and the British Occupation of Egypt

Also called: ʻUrabi Revolution, Anglo-Egyptian War

The officer Ahmed Urabi rose against foreign interference and the khedive under the slogan "Egypt for the Egyptians" but was crushed by British troops. Egypt became a British protectorate in all but name.

Urabi presenting the people’s demands to Khedive Tawfiq at Abdeen Square — painting in the Egyptian Military Museum
Urabi presenting the people’s demands to Khedive Tawfiq at Abdeen Square — painting in the Egyptian Military Museum

Ahmed yousri elmamlouk · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

Buried in debt by the Suez Canal and its modernizing projects, Egypt had been under Anglo-French financial control since 1876. With Europeans steering the government and Egyptian officers facing discrimination, on 9 September 1881 Ahmed Urabi led troops to Abdeen Palace in Cairo and demanded from Khedive Tawfiq a new cabinet, a constitution and a parliament. The next year he became minister of war.

Britain, determined to protect the canal and its bondholders, bombarded Alexandria on 11 July 1882, landed troops and defeated Urabi at Tel el-Kebir on 13 September. Urabi was exiled to Ceylon, and Egypt, still formally part of the Ottoman Empire, became a British protectorate in all but name (formally in 1914). The revolt is seen as the beginning of the Egyptian national movement.

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States at the time
Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty
Great Britain · occupying force
Egypt under British rule · established

People

  • Ahmed Urabi1841 – 1911

    leader · Egyptian officer who led the Urabi revolt (1881–1882) against foreign control and the khedive under the slogan "Egypt for the Egyptians"

Before and after

Earlier
1869 Opening of the Suez Canal
Later
1919 Egyptian Revolution of 1919 and Independence

Themes that include this event

  • Imperialism and the Partition of the World1839 – 1914

    From the Tanzimat to Sarajevo — seventy-five years in which the powers carved up West Asia, India, Southeast Asia, Africa and the Pacific, and the peoples there answered with reform and resistance