ABSTRACT
Egypt’s geographical position as a bridge between Europe and Asia was bound to make it coveted by the Great Powers. Indeed, when Ferdinand de Lesseps completed his great Suez Canal project, the remark was made that he had marked the site of a future battlefield. As the dominant naval power in the Mediterranean since 1798, Britain was bound to covet control of Egypt, especially once a critical sea gateway to the Indian Ocean opened up in 1869. In turn, fascist Italy’s ambitions to supersede Britain and France as the Mediterranean hegemenon could not be complete until and unless Egypt, the former centrepiece of the Roman Empire in the Inland Sea, was acquired. In Britain’s determination to retain its grip over imperial communications and in Mussolini’s ambitions to carve out a new Roman Empire were sown the seeds for the first Anglo-Italian conflict.
