ABSTRACT
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 suddenly transformed international commerce, with Europe now linked to Indian Ocean and East Asian trade routes. Britain strongly preferred to maintain at least the façade of Ottoman control. Thus, it managed Egypt as a “Veiled Protectorate” in which its officials would wield real power in government and administration, but only behind the scenes in consultation with Egyptians remaining formally in charge. The result of British supervision of Egyptian affairs over several decades beginning in 1882 was the selective expansion and updating of Egypt’s transportation, communication, and public health systems, but without any focus on aspects of development that would have permitted Egypt to attain greater economic independence. Cromer’s system was designed to obscure how much Britain had actual control over Egyptian affairs. Tawfiq sanctioned this situation as the surest guarantee of his continuance on the throne. The European Enlightenment of the eighteenth century led to a European Jewish movement of enlightenment known in Hebrew as the “Haskalah”.
