This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Steam, Cannon and Wires The Royal Navy and British Imperialism in Northeastern Africa, 1799-1899 Fargher, James Andrew Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). 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Fargher Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in War Studies King’s College London, University of London September 2018 Word Count: 93,848 Table of Contents Steam, Cannon, and Wires: .................................................................................................................... 1 Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................... 2 List of Charts & Figures........................................................................................................................... 5 Abstract .................................................................................................................................................. 6 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................ 7 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 8 Methodology ..................................................................................................................................... 12 Historiography ................................................................................................................................... 14 Studies and Theories of Imperialism ....................................................................................................................................... 15 Study of Imperial Defence ....................................................................................................................................................... 24 Red Sea & Gulf of Aden ........................................................................................................................................................... 28 Scholarship on the Royal Navy and Military Campaigns in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden .................................................... 31 Research Challenges & Outlook ......................................................................................................... 35 Chapter I ............................................................................................................................................... 42 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 42 Napoleon ........................................................................................................................................... 46 The Salt Expedition .................................................................................................................................................................. 53 Diplomatic Efforts in the Gulf ............................................................................................................. 56 Aden .................................................................................................................................................. 59 Abyssinia ............................................................................................................................................ 61 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 66 Chapter II .............................................................................................................................................. 68 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 68 France and the Origins of Imperial Defence ....................................................................................... 70 Fortifications At Home ....................................................................................................................... 73 Maritime Defences Abroad ................................................................................................................ 78 Intellectual Anxiety and the Philosophy of Decline ............................................................................. 80 Colomb and Imperial Defence ............................................................................................................ 82 Froude, Seeley and the Strategic Culture of Empire ........................................................................... 93 Sea Lines .......................................................................................................................................... 105 The Carnarvon Commission of 1879 ................................................................................................ 108 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 111 Chapter III ........................................................................................................................................... 113 2 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 113 Shipping & Lights ............................................................................................................................. 115 The Opening of the Suez Canal ........................................................................................................ 123 Undersea Telegraph Cables .............................................................................................................. 134 The mid-Victorian Royal Navy in the Red Sea ................................................................................... 140 Perim & Socotra ............................................................................................................................... 150 Egypt’s African Empire and Indirect British Control .......................................................................... 159 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 172 Chapter IV ........................................................................................................................................... 175 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 175 The State of Egypt and the Egyptian Sudan ...................................................................................... 177 The Mahdist Revolt of 1881 ............................................................................................................. 183 The Revolt Spreads East ................................................................................................................... 186 The British Position .......................................................................................................................... 187 The Battle of El Teb and the Changing Military Calculus in the Region ............................................. 196 The Suakin Expeditions .................................................................................................................... 207 Instability in the Wake of the Collapse of the Egyptian Colonial Empire ........................................... 225 Creation of British Somaliland .......................................................................................................... 227 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 232 Chapter V ...........................................................................................................................................