Dinshaway Incident
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The Dinshaway Incident occurred in Egypt in June 1906. It gave impetus to the growing nationalist movement in that country.
In 1906 Egypt was a de facto British protectorate. In June of that year five British officers decided to go pigeon hunting near the Nile Delta village of Dinshaway. During the course of the expedition, fire from one of the guns set fire to a pile of grain on a village threshing floor. In response, the owner of the threshing floor tried to seize the gun; five villagers, including the owner's wife, were wounded in the ensuing melée. Two officers were badly wounded in the struggle, one later dying from heat stroke.
The British response to this occurrence was swift and harsh. Fifty-two members of the village were put on trial for premeditated murder. Thirty-two were found guilty: most were flogged, but four male villagers were hanged.
The Egyptian population was outraged by this incident. For the first time, urban intellectual critics of the British régime found common cause with the peasantry. The long-time British administrator of Egypt, Lord Cromer, was forced to resign in the wake of protests over this incident.
It should also be noted that pigeons are domestic animals in Egypt. They are raised in large tower-like structures typically built on top of Egyptian households.
[edit] External links
- Why Haditha Reminds This Historian of an Awful Chapter in British History. History News Network. Retrieved on September 6, 2006. By Keith David Watenpaugh
