Through his various public projects – the opening of schools, the building of hospitals, the founding of factories and the creation of a modern army – the Pasha is seen not merely as having improved the finances of Egypt or as having enhanced the efficiency of the bureaucracy of Cairo, but as having laid the very foundation for a “national” take-off. These efforts at “modernization” on the part of the Pasha are usually portrayed as being part of a master-plan, a well-integrated scheme of development that was aimed not only at “modernizing” Egyptian society and transforming its economy, but also at gaining independence from Ottoman control from which it was believed to have been suffering for nearly three centuries.

Builds on: "Muhammad Ali's reign paradoxically joined efficient governance with brutal exploitation."

Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed…, loc. 77