The Development Project of Muhammad Ali

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Basically , Muhammad Ali's development strategy was based on agriculture . He expanded the cultivated areas; and introduced the cultivation of cotton , planted crops , sugar cane and rice . He also aimed at exporting these crops , especially the long-staple cotton . Public works were financed from the surplus income of agricultural production . He attended to developing the infrastructure of the country , improving methods of irrigation , excavating canals , building dams and barrages .
Besides , Muhammad Ali was also committed to the industrial development of Egypt . He raised the country from medieval feudalism to something close to industrialization . The government set up modern factories for weaving cotton , silk , and wool . With the assistance of foreign advisers and imported machinery , he established factories for producing sugar , indigo , glass , and tanning . Prohibiting the export of the agricultural products , he monopolized their resources . Consequently , the government was buying directly from the peasants and selling to the buyer , cutting out the intermediaries or merchants . Commercial activities took place aiming at establishing foreign trade monopolies and acquiring a favorable balance of trade . However , in 1838 Muhammad Ali was compelled to agree to the Anglo-Ottoman Convention which established "free trade" in Egypt .
Muhammad Ali also worked on financing and equipping the military . He was an ambitious expansionist whose armies extended his power over Syria , Sudan , Greece and the Arabian Peninsula until he controlled a large portion of the Ottoman Empire by 1839 .
When he died in 1848 , his heirs made their objectives to continue reforms and social projects in order to catch up with European civilization . Among these projects was the creation of railways , factories as well as the first postal and telegraph system in the world . The young Egyptian cotton industry grew , while the production of the U . S . A was affected by civil war . Profits were generally used in sustaining new projects . The biggest of all was the Suez Canal , opened in 1869 with great pomp and with the assistance of almost all European monarchs .