Egypt remained semi-autonomous under the Mamluks until it was invaded by the Frenchforces

of Napoleon Bonaparte 1798 (see French campaign in Egypt and Syria). After the French were
defeated by the British, a power vacuum was created in Egypt, and a three-way power struggle
ensued between the Ottoman Turks, Egyptian Mamluks who had ruled Egypt for centuries,
and Albanian mercenaries in the service of the Ottomans.
The Muhammad Ali dynasty
Main article: History of Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty

Egypt under Muhammad Ali dynasty

Muhammad Ali was the founder of the Muhammad Ali dynasty and the first Khedive of Egypt and Sudan.

After the French were expelled, power was seized in 1805 by Muhammad Ali Pasha,
an Albanian military commander of the Ottoman army in Egypt. While he carried the title of viceroy of
Egypt, his subordination to the Ottoman porte was merely nominal.[citation needed] Muhammad
Ali massacred the Mamluks and established a dynasty that was to rule Egypt until the revolution of
1952.
The introduction in 1820 of long-staple cotton transformed its agriculture into a cash-
crop monoculture before the end of the century, concentrating land ownership and shifting
production towards international markets.[42]