The Suez Canal Part 3

The Suez Canal was completed in 1869, and it was hailed as a technical triumph, linking the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and shaving thousands of miles off the trip between Europe and most of Asia. But it was initially a failure as a business, drawing only a tenth of the expected traffic in its first year. But things slowly improved as rates were cut and more shippers found the time saved to be worth the price. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to save Ismail's finances from the consequences of his borrowing binge, which by 1875 had reached nearly a hundred million pounds. Lenders were unwilling to extend further credit, so he was forced to unload his one remaining asset: his 44% stake in the Canal Company. It was expected that the French would buy it, but the British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, saw the value of the Canal to the British Empire and swooped in to buy Ismail's share on behalf of the British government. The government didn't have the 4 million pounds required, but it quickly secured a quite reasonable loan from Lionel Rothschild, and was soon the largest shareholder in the Canal.

But the money in question was a pittance against Ismail's debt, and a year later, he was forced to accept an Anglo-French commission to run Egypt's finances, effectively handing over control of the country to its bankers. Ismail was obviously unhappy and tried to retake his country, but his ministers began to turn on him and in 1879 he was deposed in favor of his son, Tewfik. Further indignities, like forcing Egypt to sell its 15% share of canal revenues, soon ignited Egyptian nationalism, which wasn't particularly happy with either the Europeans or the Turkish/Albanian upper class that dominated politics. The results were predictable, and in 1882, things spilled over into armed rebellion. The British, increasingly dependent on the Canal, sent the fleet, which ended up bombarding Alexandria. It was followed by an Army, which swiftly routed the Egyptians and turned Egypt into a de-facto British colony, although it was still formally part of the Ottoman Empire. The French, who had declined to join the intervention, were unhappy that the Canal was now under British control, and managed to get a treaty passed that declared the Canal to be neutral and open to ships of all nations. The British were not particularly happy about this, and the neutrality language would repeatedly find itself in tension with language allowing regulation in the interest of Egyptian security.¹

A French seaplane operates from the Canal

This state of affairs lasted for three decades, as the Suez Canal grew in importance in world trade, and to the British Empire specifically. But in 1914, war broke out between Britain and the Ottomans, and the British swiftly deposed the pro-Ottoman Abbas II and replaced him with his uncle Hussein Kamel, who declared Egypt to be an independent Sultanate under British protection. The Canal was swiftly closed to the ships of the Central Powers, and thousands of Indian and ANZAC troops were rushed to protect Egypt, digging in along the Canal. The Ottomans launched an attack through Sinai as their first major act after joining the war, but only a few companies made it across thanks to the fire of the defending troops and their supporting warships. The Ottomans, whose hopes for the Egyptian populace to rise in revolt had been thwarted, withdrew, leaving only a small party that attempted to harass the British, and despite the occasional mine laid in the canal, traffic soon returned to normal, while the defending force was drawn down to support operations elsewhere, most notably at Gallipoli. As a result, little happened in Sinai through the rest of 1915, although the Turks built out their transportation network to support their next offensive.

Turkish troops in action at Katia

By this point, the British had realized that while using the Canal itself as part of their defenses was perfectly reasonable if they wanted to keep the Ottomans out of Egypt, it was not a particularly good plan if the objective was to keep the Canal open.² The defensive line would need to be pushed far enough forward to keep the enemy out of artillery range at the very least, and in the spring of 1916, the British began to push the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) eastward, occupying the oasis at Katia near the Mediterranean coast and destroying the water sources that would allow forces to bypass them to the south. Unfortunately, their enemies also had plans, and managed to get a column to Katia without the British noticing, smashing several cavalry squadrons and capturing the town. But despite their tactical success, the Ottomans were unsuccessful at keeping troops in Egypt and away from the Western Front. The British had also been working on plans to draw off the opponent's army, in this case by supporting a revolt against the Ottomans by Hussein bin Ali, the Sharif of Mecca, which broke out in June.³ With the assistance of the Royal Navy, the rebels soon seized ports on the Red Sea, allowing the Allies to provide supplies directly, and tying down a large number of Turkish troops.

Australian cavalry overruns a Turkish trench at Magdhaba

But the revolt wasn't enough to end Ottoman plans for a further attack on the Canal, although this time they would be bolstered by a German force, which had been dispatched down the Danube, a route opened by the recent fall of Serbia. The British knew they were coming and dug in around Romani, anchoring one flank on the Mediterranean and the other on the dunes that dominated the interior. The presence of monitors offshore ruled out an attack on that flank, so the defenders stacked their forces inland, and prepared an offensive to try and trap the Ottoman force after the attack. Things kicked off in early August, and while the attackers made more progress than the British had hoped, the efforts of the ANZAC Mounted Division, the 52nd (Lowland) Division and the searing heat handed victory to the defenders, the heat and movement-sapping dunes ultimately allowed the German commander, Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein, to extract about half of his force before the EEF could spring its trap. But the momentum in the region had clearly shifted, and the Central Powers retreated over the next few months as the British pushed forward the railways and pipelines supplying their force. The threat to the Suez Canal was over, although the Sinai wouldn't be completely cleared until after the British took Magdhaba in the eastern part of the peninsula in December and further actions at Nekhl and Bir el Hassana in February.

Allenby enters Jerusalem on foot, out of respect for the Holy City

The British government wasn't satisfied with securing the Suez Canal, and dispatched its troops to invade the Ottoman province of Palestine, taking the town of Rafah in January 1917. The defenders fell back on the town of Gaza, where they were able to defeat two major British attacks, leading to a stalemate from April until October. Finally, at the end of October, the EEF, now under the command of Edmund Allenby, seized Beersheba, on the Ottoman flank. This destroyed the Ottoman position, and Allenby took the opportunity to drive north, capturing Jaffa (modern Tel Aviv) and Jerusalem within five weeks, greatly boosting British morale.

An armored car at Megiddo

The Arab revolt on the Red Sea coast had continued, bolstered by the Royal Navy and the support of an officer by the name of T.E. Lawrence, who was dispatched in October 1916. By the end of 1917, they had secured the entire coast of the Red Sea, helping to protect the British flank and later joining with them in the campaign in Ottoman Palestine. The British spent the first half of 1918 attempting to cross the Jordan River despite troops being diverted to the Western Front to deal with the German spring offensive. Finally, in September, Allenby unleashed an attack along the Mediterranean coast, breaking the Ottoman position at Megiddo⁴ through the use of armored cars and air power. He then pursued the collapsing Ottoman forces into Syria, capturing Damascus and Aleppo in short order before the collapsing position of the Central Powers forced the Ottomans to sign an armistice on board the pre-dreadnought Agamemnon.

Postwar, the British found themselves in a pickle. They had promised the Arabs independence in exchange for their support, as well as pledging to support a Jewish homeland in Palestine in the hopes of winning the support of Jewish communities around the globe. And they would ultimately use that pledge to secure what they really cared about, more defensive depth for the Suez Canal, in the form of a League of Nations mandate over Palestine. This was a truly excellent decision which has had no bad consequences whatsoever.

In the aftermath of WWI, nationalism and independence were in the air, and the population of Egypt grew increasingly restless under British control. Britain decided to solve this by declaring Egypt independent in 1922, while reserving responsibility for Egypt's defense and foreign relations. Astonishingly, this failed to solve the problem, as we'll see next time.