Historians have often written of the nineteenth century in Africa mainly as a period when Europeans were increasing their influence and power in preparation for later conquest. It should rather be seen as a period when, with the aid of a greatly increased supply of firearms from the new coal-fired furnaces and of cheap textile manufactures from the steam-driven factories of the industrialising countries, world trade was pressing remorselessly into Africa in search of whatever might be exportable with the limited means of transport available. For most of the nineteenth century, the agents of this pressure were the rulers and traders of the coastal regions, including, first and foremost, those of the predominantly Muslim countries bordering on the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.

Muhammad Ali (1805–1849): The Revival of Red Sea Trade

In all this part of the world, the French conquest and occupation of Egypt between 1798 and 1800 had marked a turning point. Napoleon's decisive victory at the battle of the Pyramids had revealed the weakness and technical military inferiority of the whole of the Ottoman empire, and, like many other such victories in history, it provoked a compelling desire in the conquered to learn the skills of the victors. Soon after the end of the Napoleonic wars, French military instructors were to be found throughout the Ottoman lands, and in addition to their military manuals, the intelligent and ambitious among the Turkish officer class were reading widely in European history and political philosophy.