- 246 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Khedive Ismail's Army
About this book
Khedive Ismail's Army examines military failure in the age of imperialism.
On paper, the mid-nineteenth century Egyptian army seems a formidable regional power. It had a tradition of success, modern weapons, and mercenary officers with experience in major wars. Egypt's ruler, Khedive Ismail, hoped to combine the imported technology and brains with native manpower, and establish an Egyptian dominated Horn of Africa. His soldiers did conquer parts of the Sudan, but they suffered disastrous defeats during the Egyptian Abyssinian War of 1875 to 1876.Presenting the first detailed examination of the Egyptian Abyssinian War in English, this new book also looks at the root problems that made Ismail's soldiers ineffective. These include issues of class, racism, internal, and external politics, finance, and the rapidly changing world of mid-Nineteenth Century military technology. This book is aimed at military historians, and will be of interest to those studying the Middle East or North East Africa.
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Information
Table of contents
- Front Cover
- KHEDIVE ISMAIL'S ARMY
- Title Page
- Copyright
- CONTENTS
- List of maps
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Geographical gazetteer
- 1 Diamonds in the rough
- 2 Creating a military machine: Muhammad Ali and his Neo-Mamluks
- 3 ‘Hideous Negroes from Nubia’: Egypt and the Crimean War
- 4 ‘The army was his hobby’: Said and the Mexican adventure
- 5 Conscripts, stage villains, and slave-soldiers: rank and file in Khedive Ismail’s army
- 6 Native-born or mercenary? Selecting officers for the army of Khedive Ismail
- 7 Weapons procurement policies and the Egyptian economy
- 8 The Khedive and the Sultan
- 9 The imperial road: Egyptian expansion in the Sudan, 1869–1879
- 10 Imperial apogee: the coming of the Egyptian–Abyssinian War
- 11 Descent into the maelstrom: Egypt invades the Somali Coast, Harar, and Awsa
- 12 A ridge too far: the Gundet Campaign
- 13 The Abyssinian army
- 14 The Gura Campaign (January–March 1876)
- 15 End game
- Glossary
- Notes
- Select bibliography
- Index