Abstract
This study deals with the British foreign policy and the Egyptian affairs in the 1880s. From 1882 when the British occupied Egypt for strategic and imperial reasons, they endeavoured to leave Egypt, which complicated the British diplomatic position in Europe, so that the British reputation and honour wasn't injured.
For this purpose, the British Prime Minister, Marquis of Salisbury, despatched the diplomat Sir Henry Drummond-Wolff to Constantinople to reach an agreement with the Sublime Porte on the British presence in Egypt. In 1887, Sir Henry succeeded in his effort to conclude a British-Ottoman convention on Egypt, which solved up the problematic position of the British Army in the country.
Joint French-Russian pressure and threats to the Sultan and his empire gave rise the decline of the agreement. Despite Sir Henry's failure, the British diplomacy managed to realise the passage of the British-Ottoman convention on the Suez Canal.
In 1888 the representatives of European Powers and the Ottoman Empire signed a document ensuring free navigation in the Suez Canal in periods of peace and war. Thus, the British-Ottoman negotiations in the years 1885 and 1887 meant the last serious attempt to reach an agreement on Great Britain's withdrawal from Egypt.
From this time on, the occupation became permanent, coming to an end only with the British declaration of a protectorate over Egypt in 1914.