WI: Egypt under industrialized Ottomans

For the sake of this topic, this is what happens when the Ottomans didn't lost Egypt and defeated Muhammad Ali Pasha, one way or another. Thus, the Ottomans managed to retain their hold over Egypt in their empire to modern-day.

So, how would Egypt will turned out under the Ottoman Empire which succeeded in reformation and industrialized?

On other question, on a different topic. Assuming this industrialized Ottoman Empire granted independence to Egypt at the end of global colonialism, what will this independent Egypt would looked like?
 
Interesting question. Egypt lacks a lot of the components for industrialism - large scale iron and coal deposits, but has others - hydropower, cotton plantations and a traditionally strong agriculture that can improve and thus feed workers into an industrial economy.

If the Ottomans regain Egypt, say for example that they maintain a close alliance with the British after the Crimean War, win the war of 1877-78 and re-intregrate the Khedive after that, respecting French and British ownership of the Suez Canal company, I could see cotton based cloth weaving industry and then mass produced clothes industry spring up around the delta, with Egypt becoming the bread basket of much of the rest of the Ottoman Empire, with a more mechanised agriculture producing more grain. Eventually, the Nile will be dammed to provide electricity for the industries (that are probably based around the Nile Delta).
 
I don't think we'll see tons of industry honestly. As von Adler pointed out, Egypt is great for agriculture but doesn't really have a ton of resources traditionally associated with industrialization outside of possibly textiles. Plus, as part of the larger Ottoman Empire there's not really an advantage to industrializing Egypt when those same investments and factories would probably be better spent in Turkey. I think Egypt is going to be more like the the US South around the turn of the last century; a vital agriculture area and key for textiles but not really an ideal location for heavy industry.

I think perhaps the biggest need is for better and earlier rail networks through the Empire. Not only would that tie them together but it would also be a huge boon for investment and business. If you want to take this up into the 20th, there's hydropower and solar that could be a big advantage to attracting high tech investment.
 
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Interesting question. Egypt lacks a lot of the components for industrialism - large scale iron and coal deposits, but has others - hydropower, cotton plantations and a traditionally strong agriculture that can improve and thus feed workers into an industrial economy.

If the Ottomans regain Egypt, say for example that they maintain a close alliance with the British after the Crimean War, win the war of 1877-78 and re-intregrate the Khedive after that, respecting French and British ownership of the Suez Canal company, I could see cotton based cloth weaving industry and then mass produced clothes industry spring up around the delta, with Egypt becoming the bread basket of much of the rest of the Ottoman Empire, with a more mechanised agriculture producing more grain. Eventually, the Nile will be dammed to provide electricity for the industries (that are probably based around the Nile Delta).

Egypt doesn’t really have much going for it for hydropower. The Nile is needed for other purposes that preclude building too many dams along it. Historically, most of the dams are built near the sites of the cataracts in upper Egypt and Sudan. No reason to think this would be any different.
 
Interesting question. Egypt lacks a lot of the components for industrialism - large scale iron and coal deposits, but has others - hydropower, cotton plantations and a traditionally strong agriculture that can improve and thus feed workers into an industrial economy.

If the Ottomans regain Egypt, say for example that they maintain a close alliance with the British after the Crimean War, win the war of 1877-78 and re-intregrate the Khedive after that, respecting French and British ownership of the Suez Canal company, I could see cotton based cloth weaving industry and then mass produced clothes industry spring up around the delta, with Egypt becoming the bread basket of much of the rest of the Ottoman Empire, with a more mechanised agriculture producing more grain. Eventually, the Nile will be dammed to provide electricity for the industries (that are probably based around the Nile Delta).

I don't think we'll see tons of industry honestly. As von Adler pointed out, Egypt is great for agriculture but doesn't really have a ton of resources traditionally associated with industrialization outside of possibly textiles. Plus, as part of the larger Ottoman Empire there's not really an advantage to industrializing Egypt when those same investments and factories would probably be better spent in Turkey. I think Egypt is going to be more like the the US South around the turn of the last century; a vital agriculture area and key for textiles but not really an ideal location for heavy industry.

I think perhaps the biggest need is for better and earlier rail networks through the Empire. Not only would that tie them together but it would also be a huge boon for investment and business. If you want to take this up into the 20th, there's hydropower and solar that could be a big advantage to attracting high tech investment.

I think this hits an important point: The OP is talking about an Egypt that's part of an industrialized Ottoman Empire, not an industrialized Egypt, per say. It seems far more likely that the actual industrial centers are liable to spring up in the Aegean coastal regions, with much better developed transportation networks (Particularly in coastal shipping; I imagine the Empire would use steamers as a replacement for the railroads that would be difficult to build over its rough interior terrain, with development into the Anatolian platue mainly based around mineral extraction) such as Izmir and Bursa. Egypt itself is liable to become a source of cheap cereals and cotton to funnel into Aegean textile mills (alongside Anatolian and Balkan wool and raw silk) and as time goes on increasingly a source of labor as poor Egyptians migrate to the Empire's core to get factory jobs as agriculture mechanizes/consolidates.
 
From what I've read of the last posts, it seems to me that Ottoman Egypt will remained as the breadbasket of the Empire, given its' economic conditions. Well, I thought the Ottomans would built some industries in Egypt due to its geopolitical locations. Then again, there're serious requirements for industrialization to happen.

If Egypt becomes independent from Turkey, it'll probably ended up as a largely agricultural nation with little industries.
 
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