The growing power of Mehemet (Mohamed) Ali of Egypt in the near east alarmed the major nation of europe. In
the summer 1839 Egyptian forces had destroyed a strong Turkish Army at Nizib and and captured the sultan's fleet at Alexandria. Mahmud II had die and had been succeeded by his 16-year-old son, Abdul Majed I, who was powerless to oust the Egyptians from Syria. Great Britain, Austria, Prusia, and Russia (with France opposing) then intervened. The English admiral Robert Stopford took an allied fleet into the eastearn Mediteranian. On November 3, Stopford's ship bombarded Acre, in modern Israel, reduced the defense and stormed the town. The Egyptian forces of Gen. Ibrahim Pasha, son of Mehemet Ali, evacuated Acre and soon all of Syria. The following year, Mehemet Ali agreed to return the Turkish fleet and abandon claims to Syria, in exchange for the hereditary rule of Egypt.