SPOILING THE EGYPTIANS Near Fine in Very Good dust jacket

Dustjacket has wear but no tears. ; This is the story of the technical, financial and economic colonisation of Egypt by Western Europe between Napoleon's invasion in 1798 and the British occupation in 1882. During this period a country which remained, formally, a province of the Ottoman Empire enjoying a considerable measure of autonomy, in fact fell almost entirely under the control of European foreigners. John Marlowe begins by describing how the French invasion opened up Egypt to Western influences, and how British involvement derived principally from anxiety over communications with India. He goes on to demonstrate how the economic and financial invasion of Egypt which started after the defeat and diminution of Mohamed Ali in 1840 was facilitated by the extraterritorial privileges and immunities conferred on Europeans by the Capitulations; and how this invasion was accelerated and complicated by rivalry and suspicion between the Powers, and was made lethal to Egypt by the folly of her rulers. Under Mohamet Said (1854-63) and Ismail (1853 until his deposition in 1879) the key word in Egyptian affairs was 'loan'. A defenceless country which offered rich prizes to European investors and adventurers was steered into bankruptcy by men governing in a despotic tradition who regarded the country's wealth as their own and whose only remedy for debt was to borrow more. ; 280 pages