1798 – Napoleon Bonaparte leads a campaign in Egypt and Syria 1828 to 1908 – Decline of the Ottoman Empire 1869 – Construction of the Suez Canal is completed 1882 – British troops occupy Cairo – Egypt becomes British protectorate 1908 to 1922 – Defeat and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire 1917 – Lord Balfour, Foreign Minister of Great Britain, in letter to Lord Rothschild, gives British government approval to Zionist's goal of building a "national home" in Palestine 1918 – Britain and France occupy former Ottoman Empire lands 1919 to 1921 – Franco-Syrian War 1919 to 1923 – Asia Minor Catastophe reshapes Anatolia, as continuous fighting incorporates the newly founded Republic of Turkey, Armenia, France, Greece 1922 – Egypt is granted nominal independence from the United Kingdom.