Muhammad Ali's rise to power in the context of "Muhammad Ali of Egypt"

⭐ In the context of Muhammad Ali of Egypt, his rise to power is considered to have been significantly aided by which preceding event?

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⭐ Core Definition: Muhammad Ali's rise to power

Muhammad Ali rose to power in Egypt following a long, three-way civil war between the Ottoman Empire, Mamluks who had ruled Egypt for centuries, and Albanian mercenaries in the service of the Ottomans. The conflict ended in victory for the Albanians (from Rumelia) led by Ali.

The struggle occurred following the French invasion of Egypt by Napoleon. After the French were defeated, a power vacuum was created in Egypt. The Mamluks had governed Egypt before the French invasion and still retained power in the region. However, Egypt was officially a part of the Ottoman Empire and many Ottoman troops who had been sent to evict the French were still present.

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👉 Muhammad Ali's rise to power in the context of Muhammad Ali of Egypt

Muhammad Ali (4 March 1769 – 2 August 1849) was the Ottoman Albanian viceroy and governor who became the de facto ruler of Egypt from 1805 to 1848, widely considered the founder of modern Egypt. At the height of his rule in 1840, he controlled Egypt, Sudan, Hejaz, the Levant, Crete and parts of Greece and transformed Cairo from a mere Ottoman provincial capital to the center of an expansive empire.

Born in a village in Albania, when he was young he moved with his family to Kavala in the Rumelia Eyalet, where his father, an Albanian tobacco and shipping merchant, served as an Ottoman commander of a small unit in the city. Ali was a military commander in an Albanian Ottoman force sent to recover Egypt from French occupation following Napoleon's withdrawal. He rose to power through a series of political maneuvers, and in 1805 he was named Wāli (governor) of Egypt and gained the rank of Pasha. As Wāli, Ali attempted to modernize Egypt by instituting dramatic reforms in the military, economic and cultural spheres. He also initiated a violent purge of the Mamluks, consolidating his rule and permanently ending the Mamluk hold over Egypt.

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Muhammad Ali's rise to power in the context of British Sudan

The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (Arabic: السودان الإنجليزي المصري as-Sūdān al-Inglīzī al-Maṣrī) was a condominium of the United Kingdom and Egypt between 1899 and 1956, corresponding to the territory of what is now both Sudans and parts of southeastern Libya. Legally, sovereignty and administration were shared between both Egypt and the United Kingdom, but in practice the structure of the condominium ensured effective British control over Sudan, with Egypt having limited local power and influence. In the meantime, Egypt itself fell under increasing British influence. Following the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, Egypt pushed for an end to the condominium, and the independence of Sudan. By agreement between Egypt and the United Kingdom in 1953, Sudan was granted independence as the Republic of the Sudan on 1 January 1956. In 2011, the south of Sudan itself became independent as the Republic of South Sudan.

Muhammad Ali took control of Egypt in 1805, and while he was nominally a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, Egypt under his rule acted as a virtually independent state. Seeking to supplant and ultimately replace the Ottoman Empire as the dominant regional power, Muhammad Ali declared himself Khedive, and expanded Egypt's borders both southwards into Sudan, and eastwards into the Levant and Arabia, the latter at the expense of the Ottoman Empire. Territory in Sudan was annexed by Egypt, and governed as an integral part of the country, with Sudanese granted Egyptian citizenship. Ultimately, the intervention of the Great Powers in support of the Ottoman Empire forced Egypt to return all Levantine and Arabian territory to the Ottomans upon Muhammad Ali's death. However, there was no such impediment to Egypt's southward expansion.

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