Defiance

During the spring of 1882, Ottoman Egypt's legitimate ruler, Khedive Tewfiq, was pushed aside by a nationalist army colonel, Ahmed Urabi Pasha. By that summer, Urabi's defiant opposition to Anglo-French control over Egypt's finances had transformed into a national movement openly hostile toward all things foreign and Christian. Concern over Egypt's apparent slide into political instability and the security of European financial investments caused alarm throughout Western Europe.
The violence…