During the reign of Muhammad Ali Pasha, Egypt interestingly began to undergo an Industrial Revolution, with factories being developed from the 1810s into the 1840s, at which point Egypt seemed to be on route to become an industrial power. This eventually stopped due to a number of factors, primarily, IMO, because of economic exploitation by European powers, but let’s assume that, for whatever reason, the issues that ultimately caused Egyptian industrialization to decline are butterflied away. Maybe the British and French relinquish their tariffs on Egyptian goods, maybe the Egyptians enact their own tariffs. How does Egypt develop as an industrial power?
While local resources meant that Egypt likely couldn’t become an extremely powerful industrialized state off of early 19th Century resources, once natural gas and solar power begin to develop, an independent and fully industrialized Egypt would be in a perfect position to adopt these energy sources before much of the world, not to mention that Egyptian industrialization began decades before the Scramble for Africa, so Egypt could plausibly build up a sphere of influence of independent African states well before colonialism swept over much of the region.
While local resources meant that Egypt likely couldn’t become an extremely powerful industrialized state off of early 19th Century resources, once natural gas and solar power begin to develop, an independent and fully industrialized Egypt would be in a perfect position to adopt these energy sources before much of the world, not to mention that Egyptian industrialization began decades before the Scramble for Africa, so Egypt could plausibly build up a sphere of influence of independent African states well before colonialism swept over much of the region.