Muhammad Ali Research Paper

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The reformation of Muhammad Ali In Egypt

The era of Muhammad Ali Pasha in Egypt is the start of the age of renaissance in Egypt because he did reforms in every sector by hiring experts from Europe ,sending missions ,and purchasing equipment for the industry . The research question is what are the negative aspects of Muhammad Ali reforms in Egypt . The purpose of this paper is to assess Muhammed Ali's Major reforms in Egypt. This paper will argue that Muhammad Ali's reforms in Egypt was beneficial and profitable for the economy but it has negative aspects on human because in the agrarian reforms such as the cultivation of crops and digging new canals depended on corvee labor , also the industrial reforms affects the workers in factories …show more content…

Some argued that every reformation he did was to serve the military in order to establish his own empire and gain independence from the ottoman empire. One of these important reforms were the reforms he did in the agriculture. Muhammad Ali started reforming agriculture in Egypt by digging new canals and barriers such as Al-Mahmudyyia , changing the system of irrigation in the Delta from temporarily to permanent irrigation because the agriculture in Egypt was depending on the flood of the Nile before that , and cultivating new crops such as , olive and long –staple cotton that was the most important crop in Egypt for the trade and cultivating the cotton was produced in 1818 and it was very successful. While these projects were great and bring the prosperity for the Egyptian economy , it was on the expense of the peasants because they were forced to work in these projects under the name of corvee labor. Corvee labor means forcing the people to work in the projects with little wage and some times with no wage . Harrison (1995) argued that the prosperity of the Egypt during the reign of Muhammad Ali was build upon social ills ,as tens of thousands of Egyptian peasants were used to carry out the new projects with little or no compensation and very high taxation . Although Muhammad Ali abolished the system of Al-Altizam and eliminate the power of the Multazmin the new bureaucracy imposed high taxes on the peasants without considering their living conditions (Fahmy,1993). Muhammad Ali also was emphasizing on forcing the peasants to work as he said "I say the boy does not willingly go to school but is forced by his parents until he grows older and knows the value of learning, so driving all men to dykes and canals is difficult

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