An Egyptian Bonaparte

Abstract

This chapter explains how Mehemet Ali became a French protégé and conversely a bugbear of the European northern courts. Drawing from the memory of the Napoleonic expedition to Egypt, helped by Champollion and nascent Egyptology and by his own modernising propaganda, the Pasha became identified as a standard bearer for the French civilising mission and, by extension, a Liberal champion against the ancien régime that was characterised by the Ottoman Empire. He also appealed to many European and British radicals and, in Britain, this created a challenge for a Whig cabinet that was reliant on radical parliamentary support. In the northern courts, this made him anathema: a rebel and an aggressor, as Bonaparte had been.