Muhammad Ali of Egypt

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Often referred to as the father of modern Egypt, Muhammad Ali (or Mehmet Ali in Albanian) revolutionized Egyptian society from the beginning of his reign in 1805 to Fuad II, the last King of the Muhammad Ali dynasty that ended in 1953. Under his rule, Muhammad Ali implemented political, social, and economic change to Egypt and even expanded his empire. Muhammad Ali was born in 1769 to Turkish tobacco merchants at Kavalla in present-day Greece under Turkish rule (as well as Egypt). His ancestry had been widely debated. Although his parents were Albanian, his ancestry could be traced back five centuries back to central Turkey. Nevertheless, most of the Balkans were considered part of the Ottoman Empire especially Turkey. As a young man, Muhammad Ali was charismatic until his father died. His uncle, the governor of Kavalla, soon took him in. Under his uncle, Muhammad Ali had joined the Ottoman military and was even to marry heiress Emina of Nosratli.
Although France and the Ottoman Empire had been considered allies, the French started their campaign in Egypt from 1798 to 1801 under Napoleon Bonaparte’s leadership. During the French occupation, the sultan ordered Muhammad Ali’s uncle to dispatch 300 men to which the governor placed Ali Agha and Muhammad Ali as leaders of the unit. It was not until 1801 when Muhammad Ali ascended the military hierarchy to commander and the French were defeated after Napoleon fled to seize power in France. Later on, Muhammad Ali would bring in Frenchmen to be educated in Egyptian education establishments in the belief that it would further stimulate the modernization process.
It is important to note the presence of the Mamluks in Egypt. The Mamluks were people descended from slaves that seized control ...

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...nomy and made Egypt even more valuable but it had also gathered resentment from the people. Finally, the military coup d’état lead by Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew the last king of the Dynasty in Egypt and Sudan and totally ended British Occupation during the Egyptian Revolution of 1952.
Muhammad Ali was a brilliant military leader who had directly threatened the Ottoman Empire and expanded to Suden yet his leadership over the region that he had seized was lackluster. Because of Muhammad Ali, even though Egypt had a taste of modernization, it ultimately lead to British occupation and Egypt acting as its cash cow. The dynasty would be described at times as autocratic and bureaucratic but Muhammad Ali will forever be known as the father of Egyptian modernizations as it is indeed fact, however, he will also be known for subjecting Egypt through European intervention.

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