“L’Organisation de l’Orient,” wrote M. Lavisse,[1] “est, en somme, le
fait capital de la période moderne.” The process—whether it is called
the “organisation” or “Westernisation” or “dissolution of the Turkish
Empire”—is certainly a capital fact in the history of the nineteenth
century, and the French invasion of Egypt in 1798 is a notable landmark
in it.
The object of this essay is to trace the diplomatic history of that
wonderful episode and of the events which led to the rise of Mehemet
Ali, the founder of modern Egypt. The first seven chapters of this work
formed the substance of a dissertation approved in 1919 for the Degree
of B.A. with Honours in Modern History in the University of Liverpool.
The rest of the study was approved in 1924 for the Degree of M.A. in the
University of London and was awarded a mark of distinction. Since that
date, however, some eminent workers have appeared on the same field.
Largely through the munificence of H.M. the King of Egypt and the help
of the Royal Geographical Society of Egypt, M. G. Douin,[2] M. François
Charles-Roux[3] and M. Edouard Driault[4] have published first-class
works on one or other aspect of the period dealt with in this work. This
essay is, nevertheless, published in its original form, for it
systematically co-ordinates the results of researches in the British and
French Archives and is held together by the view that the diplomatic
origins of the Egyptian Question are best studied in close connection
with the general situation in the West. That situation has been,
accordingly, linked up to European action in Egypt by chapters dealing
with the policy of the Powers as it affected the Turkish Empire.
The writer, while conscious of the blemishes of the work of a beginner
writing in a foreign language, submits this essay to the British public.
It has been his privilege to do his work in the Institute of Historical
Research and owes more than he can express to the unwearied assistance
given by his teachers and fellow-students. He owes special thanks,
however, to his teachers, Professor Arnold Toynbee and Dr. Harold
Temperley and to his fellow-student and friend, Miss G. Humberstone,
M.A.
[Footnote 1: _Vue générale sur l’Histoire Politique de l’Europe_, p.
181.]
[Footnote 2: _L’Egypte Indépendante: Projet de 1801_. Cairo, 1924.
_L’Egypte de 1802 à 1804_ (French Consular Correspondence). Cairo,
1925.]
[Footnote 3: _L’Angleterre et l’Expédition d’Egypte_, 2 vols. Cairo,
1925.]
[Footnote 4: _Mohammed Ali et Napoléon_ (1807-1814. French Consular
Correspondence.) Cairo, 1925.]