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The Impact of French Occupation on Egypt (1798-1801): A Reassesment

Akademika

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Title The Impact of French Occupation on Egypt (1798-1801): A Reassesment
 
Creator Mujani (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, inawan@ukm.my), Wan Kamal
Ismail (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, inawan@ukm.my), Napisah Karimah
 
Subject —
 
Description The aim of this article is to reassess how far the remarks that ‘the French occupation on Egypt (1798-1801) had brought massive reformation from political, economic and social aspects and at the same time it also gave many positive effects until the country started its process of modernization.’ We view that such statement should be reviewed since there are still many writers support such incorrect ideas which were not supported by historical facts. The history proves that the French was not sucessful in bringing the reformation to Egypt from political, economic and social aspects. Moreover, their invasion caused more negative effects compared to the positive effects. Politically, eventhough the Egyptians were exposed to the idea of democracy and parliamentary by the establishment of several Diwans (House of Representatives), in reality they were not in power because the true power was completely in the hand of French. From the the economic aspect on the other hand, the French did not succeed in bringing the development in trade, agriculture and industry because of the recurrent political unrests and the imposition of heavy taxes which gave bad effects to the people. Meanwhile, from the social aspect, most of the reformations in knowledge, education, technology etc were also done for sake of French. The real changes and reformations in Egypt only occurred after the retreat of French i.e during the reign of Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha (1805-1849) who developed Egypt on all the three main aspects of politics, economics and social which finally brought the positive effects to the development of the country.Keywords: Effects of French occupation, reassessment, modernisation of Egypt, Muhammad ‘Ali PashaABSTRAKArtikel ini bertujuan untuk menilai semula sejauh mana kebenaran dakwaan yang menyebut bahawa ‘pendudukan Perancis ke atas Mesir dari 1798 hingga 1801 telah membawa pembaharuan besar kepada negara tersebut dari aspek politik, ekonomi dan sosial, di samping ia juga banyak meninggalkan kesan positif sehingga negara itu melangkah ke zaman kemodenannya.’ Pada pendapat penulis, isu ini perlu dilihat semula memandangkan sehingga kini masih terdapat beberapa penulis lain yang sehaluan dengan pandangan tersebut yang sebenarnya tidak tepat dan tidak disokong oleh fakta-fakta sejarah. Realiti sejarah membuktikan bahawa Perancis tidaklah berjaya membawa pembaharuan ke atas Mesir dari sudut politik, ekonomi dan sosial. Malah, kedatangan mereka lebih banyak meninggalkan kesan negatif berbanding kesan positif. Sebagai contoh, meskipun penduduk Mesir didedahkan kepada idea demokrasi melalui penubuhan beberapa buah Diwan (Dewan Perwakilan) dan berpeluang melibatkan diri dalam pentadbiran negara, namun hakikatnya mereka tidak memiliki apa-apa kuasa kerana ia masih berada di tangan Perancis secara mutlak. Dari aspek ekonomi, Perancis juga tidak berjaya membawa kemajuan dalam sektor perdagangan, pertanian, dan perindustrian lantaran ketidakstabilan politik dan penguatkuasaan cukai-cukai tinggi yang memberi kesan buruk kepada rakyat Mesir. Sementara dari sudut sosial, kebanyakan pembaharuan yang dilakukan hanyalah untuk kepentingan Perancis sahaja sama ada dalam aspek pengetahuan, pendidikan, teknologi mahupun yang lain. Pembaharuan sebenar di Mesir hanyalah berlaku selepas pengunduran Perancis iaitu pada zaman Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha (1805-1849) yang telah memajukan negara tersebut dari aspek ekonomi, politik dan sosial yang akhirnya memberi kesan positif kepada pembangunan negara itu.Kata kunci: Kesan penaklukan Perancis, penilaian semula, pemodenan Mesir, Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha
 
Publisher UNIVERSITI KEBANGSAAN MALAYSIA
 
Contributor —
 
Date 2012-05-02
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
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Format application/pdf
 
Identifier http://ejournal.ukm.my/akademika/article/view/532
 
Source Akademika; Vol 79, No 1 (2010): AKADEMIKA 79
0126-8694
0126-5008
 
Language eng
 
Relation http://ejournal.ukm.my/akademika/article/view/532/4089