1. Suez Canal

The main reason why British want to colonise Egypt is because of the critical role Egypt plays in the trades between Europe and the East (where British India , the ‘pearl on the British crown'). The opening of the Suez cannel in 1869, a 163km man-made canal that cuts across Sinai connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, had dramatically shortened the sea voyage form Britain to India and the Far East by six thousand tedious miles of travel. Hence, securing Egypt meant securing this trade route and Egypt became a transportation hub for news coming from Far East and India to London via Suez Canal . In short terms, it became the transit stop between Britain and her Far East possessions.

2. Cotton

Cotton was introduced under Mohamed Ali's rule and had since become Egypt 's main crop, long before the British take-over in 1882. During the American Civil War (1861 - 1865) the British cotton mills ran out of cotton and required an alternative source of cotton. Britain turned to Egypt to supply them with cotton since Egypt 's cotton was a high quality product and hence British companies started to invest heavily in the cotton production in Egypt . By 1880, 80% of Egypt 's exports and 44% of her imports were contributed to trade with Britain and by 1914, cotton made up 90% of Egypt 's exports.

3. Strategic position

Egypt was important to the British Empire because of its strategic position. The completion of the Suez Canal in 1869 magnified Egypt 's importance as the communications and transportation hub of the British Empire . In fact, in World War I, Britain made use of its strategic location and declared that the Canal was closed to all but allied and neutral shipping parties.

During the World War I, after the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, Egypt was found to be an extremely useful staging post to launch offensive on the Ottoman Empire due to the proximity to the Empire. Even during the World War II, Egypt served as one of Britain's key military with little supply from Britain . It was the Italian and German interest in Egypt that almost made Egypt a battlefield (The Germans almost pushed the British back to Alexandria , but stopped at Alamein due to lack of supply), since Egypt was the only thing stopping them from the oil fields in Asia.

Sources

1. http://www.britishempire.co.uk/maproom/egypt.htm
2. http://www.touregypt.net/ehistory.htm
3. http://www.cusd.chico.k12.ca.us/~bsilva/projects/imperialism/baldwin.htm
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Modern_Egypt
5. http://www.presidency.gov.eg/html/history.html