A Rejection of Protection: The Egyptian Uprising of 1919

In the last two months of 1918, a flurry of telegrams travelled back and forth between the British Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. in Cairo and the Foreign Office in London. So frequent were those telegrams – reaching two or three exchanges on some days – that they often crossed. Even with the fastest communication technology of the time, it was difficult to keep up with the pace at which events were developing in Egypt.

‘An organised campaign against the Protectorate’: The prologue to unrest

Before the First World War, Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire in name but was effectively governed from London. With its sway over the ruling family in Egypt, the British Government was able to exercise colonial influence without the need to formally annex Egypt. This delicate balance was disturbed when the Ottoman Empire joined the Central powers in October 1914. In retaliation, Britain declared the independence of the ‘Sultanate of Egypt’ from the Ottomans while simultaneously declaring it a British protectorate.

When the war ended and the Allied powers prepared for the Paris Peace Conference, an educated class in Egypt, like elsewhere in the British Empire, was promoting nationalist ideas inspired by President Woodrow Wilson’s pronouncement on the right of nations to self-determination. In a telegram dated 17 November 1918, the High Commissioner in Egypt, Reginald Wingate, wrote to the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Arthur Balfour, that he had received three such nationalists at the British Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. in Cairo. One of them was the Egyptian nationalist leader, Sa‘d Zaghlul.

The nationalists, who would soon organise themselves into the Wafd (literally, ‘the committee’) – Egypt’s oldest political party today – requested that they proceed to London to put forward their nationalist views. This request was denied, notwithstanding support for it by the Egyptian Sultan (later, King) Fu’ad I and senior ministers in his cabinet. Following repeated British refusals to allow the nationalists to travel, the Egyptian Cabinet resigned, and the nationalists stepped up their campaign. British officials saw this as an ‘organised campaign directed against the Protectorate’ and met it with suppression.

Despite the immediacy and urgency with which Wingate informed his superiors of developments in Egypt, they were less than happy that he had received the nationalists at the British Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. in the first place. Left to manage affairs in his absence was Milne Cheetham who, confronted by the escalating nationalist campaign, made a decision that is generally regarded today as the trigger to what became known as the 1919 Egyptian Revolution: he ordered the immediate arrest and deportation of Sa’d Zaghlul and three of his companions. They were put on a ship to Malta on 7 March 1919. The following day, protests erupted across the country.

Taken Completely by Surprise: British assessment of disorders

Britain was not prepared for the scale of the unrest or the accompanying violence that ensued. It was clear that the campaign had assumed a national character, with rural land workers ( fallāḥīn Arabic for ‘peasant’. It was used by British officials to refer to agricultural workers or to members of a social class employed primarily in agricultural labour. ), Copts, and women participating in anti-British protests and activities. The British authorities had to send reinforcements, which included the deployment of aeroplanes, to ‘cope with the disorders’ and restore the communication and transport links that had been severed by protesters (Mss Eur F112/259, f. 31r).

On 20 March, General Edmund Allenby – who was celebrated for his military successes in Palestine – was appointed special High Commissioner for Egypt and the Sudan and sent there to restore order. Within a short time of his arrival, he ordered the release of Zaghlul and his companions and lifted the restrictions on travel, effectively giving those Egyptians wishing to proceed to Europe to put forward their political views the freedom to do so. These measures were later criticised by other British officials.

While attempting to restore their control over Egypt, British officials were also trying to make sense of what had happened. A ‘Note on the Unrest in Egypt’ written by Ronald Graham, Assistant Under-Secretary of the Foreign Office in Egypt, in April 1919 outlines some of the underlying reasons for the unrest beyond Zaghlul’s deportation. Two particular reasons stand out. Firstly, that ‘those [Egyptians], who formerly hoped for a greater freedom of political expression, now aspire to complete independence’ (Mss Eur F112/259, f. 31v). Secondly, Graham acknowledges that the ‘fellaheen have certain very real grievances resulting from the war’ (Mss Eur F112/259, f. 32r), stemming from their essentially forced conscription and confiscation of resources for the British Labour Camel Transport Corps in the First World War.

Conclusion

The Egyptian uprising of 1919 marked a turning point in Britain’s relationship with Egypt. The dismissive assessments of officials in London contrasted with Allenby’s recognition that the status quo was unsustainable. Ronald Graham’s cautious diplomacy epitomised Britain’s struggle to reconcile imperialist control with growing nationalist pressures. Demonstrating that Egypt could not be governed without the consent of its people, the revolution was not merely a reaction to Zaghlul’s deportation, but the culmination of decades of economic exploitation, political subordination, and broken wartime promises. It was, above all, a declaration that Egyptians demanded to shape their own destiny.