End of empires

British control of Egypt is indirect. Absolute authority is wielded through the Consul General, theoretically a junior diplomat, whose superior is the British Ambassador in Constantinople. The latter decides on the detail of the country’s budget and British officials have unchallenged authority as advisors, although all nominal Ministers are Egyptian. Egypt becomes part of the European economic system. The Suez Canal, managed by an Anglo-French company, is a British imperial interest. Cairo becomes a feature of the western European, but mainly British, social season. Thomas Cook organises tours every winter for the middle classes to Upper Egypt and all the senior officers of the Egyptian army are British. Local discontent is crushed and nationalists are exiled to other parts of the British Empire. The Ottoman Empire is an ally of Britain’s enemy, Germany, in World War I and so Egypt is declared a British protectorate. The Ottoman Empire is unexpectedly resilient in the war. A confused and uncoordinated British Government, preoccupied principally by the war in western Europe, makes irreconcilable commitments in the Levant, promising independence with one hand but withholding it with the other, and also responding to Zionist pressure to support a Jewish national home in Palestine.