Aim: Is Egypt a “typical” decolonizing state?

Muhammad Ali1803-1849

Muhammad Ali’s EgyptStrengths Weaknesses

• Agricultural breadbasket - wheat and cotton

• Egyptian autonomy from Ottomans

• Modernization efforts begin in education, agriculture, industry (textile mills - cotton is right there! )

• Peasants resist modernization

• Hard to be an Egyptian nationalist as an Albanian

• Lack of coal, iron• Europeans demand

free trade, Egyptians can’t compete with cheaper English goods

What does Muhammad Ali do right, wrong; what is beyond his control? Compare to Italy, Germany

• Tries to industrialize, and to protect his “infant” industry to do so

• Hard to be an Albanian “Egyptian nationalist”

• Hard to fight back with the Europeans breathing down your neck; too close to Europe - compare with Japan

Suez Canal: An Investment Gone Bad

Egyptian-French collaboration:

Egypt borrows the money to build the Canal from the French, then defaults

Suez Canal: An Investment Gone Bad

The British step in:

British buy up the French debt; send troops to Egypt to provide the Egyptian pasha with economic “advice” to pay back loan Lord Cromer: Ruler

of Egypt

Suez Canal: An Investment Gone Bad

The British step in:

British buy up the French debt; send troops to Egypt to provide the Egyptian pasha with economic “advice” to pay back loan

Egypt becomes a British “Protectorate”

Results:

Creation of a plantation cash crop: cotton;Peasants driven off land; British control Egypt with just 5000 troops

Period of “official” independence1922-1952

• British dominated kings

• Little economic development

• Still treated as a colonial economy: agriculture (cotton)

Gamal Abdul Nasser

• Seizes power in a military coup• Nationalizes the Suez Canal

(1956) and tilts toward socialist economic policies

• Fights war against Israel, Britain, France (1956)

• Attempts at pan-Arabism: United Arab Republic w/ Syria (1958-61); later discussions with Iraq about unity

Builds Aswan Dam across Nile with help from the Soviet Union (electrification)

Aswan Dam from space

Anwar Sadat (1970-1981)

• Begins rapprochement with the United States

• Signs peace treaty with Israel; first Arab nation to recognize Israel

• Egypt becomes second largest recipient of American aid

• Borrows money from west

Hosni Mubarak (1981-2011)

• Continues policies of Sadat– Authoritarian government– Alliance with, and aid from,

United States– State-controlled capitalist

economy– “Crony capitalism”– Small elite, large

impoverished peasant and working class

Hosni Mubarak (1981-2011)

• Foreign debt cut in half due to Egypt’s participation in first Iraq War (1991)

• Restructures economy following policies of the International Monetary Fund to pay off debt:– Reduced tariffs on foreign goods– Reduced tax rates on wealthy– Privatization of state-owned property– Foreign business-friendly environment– Eliminated food subsidies and other social welfare

programs

What does it mean to be “underdeveloped” in 2011?

Per Capita Income:• Singapore: $57,200• United States: $47,400• Italy: $30,700• Hungary: $19,000• Mexico: $13,800• Brazil: 10,900

• China: $7,400• Egypt: 6,200• India: $3,400• Nigeria: $2,400• North Korea: $1,800• Congo: $300

Egypt: a “typical” post-colonial nation?

• Advantages: Nile River, good agriculture, electrification, historic cultural and geographic center of Middle East, relatively high literacy rate, aid from Soviets, massive aid from US after peace treaty with Israel

• Disadvantages: Little industry in 1952, high birth rate, long history of despotic government

Egypt: a “typical” post-colonial nation?

• Authoritarian governments, favored by both superpowers and by foreign “business community”

• Lots of government favoritism • Experimented at times with both state and private

ownership• Gradual industrialization; some technological

development• Economy has grown slowly, and standard of living

remains low