In that convention, the United Kingdom, Austria, Prussia, and Russia had offered Muhammad Ali hereditary rule of Egypt as part of the Ottoman Empire if he withdrew from the Syrian hinterland and the coast of Mount Lebanon. Muhammad Ali hesitated until British naval forces moved against Syria and Alexandria. After the British and Austrian navies blockaded the Nile delta coastline, shelled Beirut (on September 11, 1840), and after Acre had surrendered (on November 3, 1840), Muhammad Ali agreed to the terms of the Convention on November 27, 1840.
