Ismail the Magnificent modernised Egypt and borrowed it into foreign hands
When Ismail Pasha took power in 1863, Egypt owed about 3 million pounds. By the time creditors closed in, the debt had passed 100 million, in a country collecting roughly 8 million a year in revenue. His plan for paying loans was to take out new ones at higher interest, and it ended with Britain owning Egypt's canal shares.
Grandson of Muhammad Ali and born in Cairo in 1830, Ismail was educated in Paris before becoming heir to his uncle Said, who kept him busy with missions abroad to the Pope, Napoleon III and the Ottoman sultan. In 1861 he led 18,000 troops to put down a revolt in Sudan. Proclaimed ruler on 19 January 1863, he wanted a grander title than governor, and in 1867 paid the sultan extra tribute to be recognised as Khedive, with succession passing from father to son.
His ambitions were enormous. Around 46 million pounds went on 8,000 miles of irrigation canals; he added railways, telegraph lines, 400 bridges, harbour works at Alexandria and thousands of schools, and multiplied the education budget more than tenfold. A new quarter of Cairo was laid out on Parisian lines, over one hundred thousand Europeans came to work there, and a national library opened in 1871. He also created an advisory assembly in 1866 whose village headmen gradually gained real influence.
Grand projects abroad proved costly. He oversaw Egypt's share of the Suez Canal and celebrated its opening with a lavish international festival paid for by borrowing. Pushing into the Ethiopian highlands, his armies were beaten by Emperor Yohannes IV at Gundet in 1875 and at Gura in 1876, where his son Hassan was captured and ransomed.
In 1875, with no lenders left, he sold Egypt's canal shares to the British government for close to 4 million pounds. British and French inspectors followed, then joint control of the treasury, and in 1878 he surrendered much of his personal estate and accepted constitutional limits. In 1879 the two powers had him removed. Historian Eugene Rogan noted the irony: development meant to secure independence had made Egypt ever more exposed to European interference. Ismail died on 2 March 1895, and the canal city of Ismailia keeps his name.
Source: Isma'il Pasha of Egypt
