Isma'il Pasha

Ismail Pasha (Arabic إسماعيل باشا, DMG Ismā ʿ īl Paša; born December 31, 1830 in Cairo, † March 2, 1895 in Constantine Opel ) was from 1863 to 1879 Ottoman viceroy of Egypt. He is also known by the nickname Ismail the Magnificent. Ismail carried out an extensive modernization of Egypt, but plunged the country into severe debt. Under his reign Egypt reached the greatest extent, to the area of ​​South Sudan today Gondokoro.

Life

Ismail was born in Cairo, the second of three sons of Ibrahim Pasha. He was a grandson of the founder of the ruling dynasty until 1953 of Muhammad Ali. Ismail was raised together with his eldest brother Ahmed in Paris. When his father died in 1849, he returned to the Nile. After his older brother's death, he became heir to his uncle, Muhammad Said, the Wali of Egypt. This appointed him in 1855 in the State and entrusted him with important official functions. Ismail was sent, among others, on a diplomatic mission abroad, then to the Pope, the French Emperor Napoleon III. and to the Turkish Sultan. 1861 Ismail led in a prolonged absence of his uncle in its place the government. Towards the end, he received orders to suppress a revolt erupted in Sudan. At the top of a 14,000 -strong corps he fulfilled the mission successfully.

After the death of his uncle Muhammad Said on January 18, 1863, he was proclaimed without opposition to his successor. He got in 1867, awarded to the doubling of the tribute, built by Sultan Abdulaziz and the hereditary title Khedive.

Ismail led the state affairs with both skill and wasteful. After his forced abdication left the Khedive of Egypt. A stay in Constantinople Opel was denied initially. On June 30, 1879 Ismail departed with a train full of goods in Cairo. He embarked on July 1, 1879 by Alexandria with his harem to Naples, and tried in vain to get through round trips to the European powers to restore his rule. The Sultan Abdulhamid II Ismail Pasha finally allowed to retire to his palace on the Bosporus Emirgan. There he remained, more or less a state prisoner until his death. The former viceroy died 1895 in Constantinople Opel. Successor as Khedive Tawfiq was his son (1879 - 1892). His younger son Fuad I in 1922 was the first king of Egypt.

Political action

Ismail continued the oriented liberal principles policies of his predecessor. Its lavish royal household, investment and military expenditure devoured enormous resources and loaded Egypt increasingly with debt. Ismail expressed on the people, especially the fellahin, taxes and compulsory labor to apply the high sums. Nevertheless, he gained significant contributions to his country: he

  • Introduced the cultivation of cotton in Egypt and created a sugar industry.
  • Continued through the completion of the Suez Canal against Turkish intrigues instigated by England.
  • Called 1866 an Egyptian notables, to discuss internal reforms.
  • Designed for the control system and the postal system.
  • Built palaces, loading and entertained lavishly opera, and theater, built in Cairo, a museum, a library and an observatory.
  • Advanced Cairo large westward and built the new district Parisian model. Also Alexandria was urban improved.
  • Initiated a project for railway construction.

Mainly Ismail's attention was directed to consolidate the rule of his dynasty and to make themselves independent of the Turkish Sultan. In May 1866 he received the consent of the Sublime Porte to regulate the succession in a direct line. A year later, when the Ottoman Empire needed his help because of an insurrection in Crete, the Sultan Abdulaziz granted him the title of " Khedive " ( " Viceroy " ) and some concessions for the independence of the administration of Egypt.

Ismail went to it, is to create a strong army on the European model and a fleet of ironclads. When he 1869 a trip to the courts of Europe took over the neutralization of the Suez Canal and the abolition of consular jurisdiction anknüpfte independent negotiations with the powers and so made ​​known his desire for independence, stepped in the door. Ismail, who could hope for a war on no outside help, had to submit to the Turkish Sultan, assure a limitation of the army to 30,000 men and deliver the gate in March 1870 his ironclads in December 1869. In July 1870 and the years 1872 and 1873 Ismail Konstantin Opel visited. With a baksheesh policy he tried to improve his position. With ample cash gifts to Sultan Abdulaziz and his chief officials, he obtained a new firman of 8 June 1873 of namely a toll of 1 million dollars imposed upon him (= 3 million gold marks ), but it a higher rank and a very high degree of independence the Viceroyalty guaranteed.

This - earlier replaced - new Ferman confirmed the Cairo Khedive direct inheritance for male descendants ( primogeniture ). In addition, in the Sultan adoption

  • The complete independence of the Egyptian administration and the judiciary,
  • The right to conclude contracts with foreign powers to conclude ( on trade and internal affairs of the country, not political and government contracts),
  • To mint money ( but with the Turkish sultan signature ) and
  • The power to issuance of bonds or other debt,

Anchored.

Ismail armed campaigns led to the conquest of Darfur. The sultanate was annexed on December 9, 1874. A campaign to northern Abyssinia, however, was not successful. 1877 included Egypt and Abyssinia a peace treaty.

All the developments were deeply Egypt fall into the fault of the great European powers and used those to squeeze out concessions from Ismail. In Alexandria, an international court was established in 1875, which replaced the previous consular jurisdiction of European powers in the country. It decided on litigation of Egyptians with foreigners and litigation of foreigners among themselves. The panel was occupied with European and local judges. This mixed system was one of the most unpopular measures with the locals.

Due to the administrative reforms, a strong construction activity, and a misguided fiscal policy, public debt rose sharply. To the financial ruin of Egypt was mainly attributable to participation in the cost of construction of the Suez Canal. Finally, the debt expanded under Ismail Pasha so that the state in 1878 was no longer able to pay its creditors the interest. From state debt of £ 3 million when he took office as Viceroy £ 100 million had become. Early as 1875, Egypt was effectively bankrupt. The owners of the bonds were restless. Ismail was forced to sell one of its great stock of Sueskanalaktien to Britain. On November 24, 1875 176,602 shares for 3,976,582 pounds sterling changed hands. In the following year France and Britain established a Control Commission for the broken Egyptian finances.

The state came in 1878 completely under international supervision. In the Egyptian Cabinet under Prime Minister Nubar Pasha, the Briton Charles Rivers Wilson were appointed as Minister of Finance and the Frenchman Marquis de Blignieres as labor minister under foreign pressure down. The did not like to deal with many Egyptians and crowding around the dissatisfied Supreme Ahmad Urabi. The Urabi movement consumed Egypt in the following years. Ismail Pasha did little to counter the revolt, hoping to get rid of the European powers thereby. He dissolved the government. Britain and France were but on the re-establishment of her ministers. When the Khedive to was not prepared in view of the ruling in many parts of the country disaffection, he was forced at the instigation of the European powers on June 26, 1879 by the Turkish Sultan for waste to abdicate. His office, his son Tawfiq (also called " Tewfik " written ) that the wishes of the powers was accorded to slavishly.

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Honors and Awards

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