No Longer Dhimmis: How European Intervention in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries Empowered Copts in Egypt

This paper will examine how European intervention in Egypt from Napoleon's occupation in 1798 to the departure of the monarchy in 1952 changed the social landscape of the country. Through Napoleonic decrees, diplomatic pressure, influence on the Mohammad Ali dynasty, and the expansion of European missionary education in Egypt, European involvement in Egyptian affairs was essential in allowing Copts and other Christians to reverse centuries of second-class status and ascend to play outsized roles in the economic and political life of the country.