Egypt is often depicted as a colony of the British Empire, especially in maps of the British Empire at its height. Yet from what I understand, Britain’s control over Egypt seemed to have stemmed mostly for its strong economic power over the country rather than any direct military force. A different set-up from the Empire’s presence in much of India for example.
Still, while they had control over it, was Egypt “officially” an independent nation that just so happened to have very close ties to Britain, or was it legally under British authority in some way? Is it de jure accurate to put Egypt in the British empire on a map, or is that more of a de facto acknowledgement of the political situation in Egypt?
Actually, direct British military forces were stationed in Egypt for over 70 years, despite the fact that Egypt was an Ottoman province and nominally independent during/after WWI.
The British forces invaded Egypt in 1882 to protect the Empire's interest in the Suez Canal and British forces (average about 5000 troops) remained in Egypt until WWI with no legal basis(effectively a military occupation). The affairs in Egypt that concerned the British economic and military interest would be under the control of the Foreign Office rather than the Colonial Office.
When the Ottoman (in which Egypt was nominally part of) declared war on the Entente in November 1914, the British took their chances and "formally" declared Egypt as a British protectorate. This allow the British to fully utilise the country as a base of operation against the Ottoman and there were as many as 400,000 troops in Egypt under Imperial command by 1918.
After WWI ended, the British was compelled to relinquish the protectorate status in 1922 due to mounting local revolutions. However, under the "Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence" issued by the UK, the British retained the control of Egypt's foreign relations, communications and military. Obviously there were other privileges enjoyed by the British as well, such as separate courts not subject to Egyptian law. Military wise, there were about 3 British brigades stationed in Egypt during the Interwar period and the Commander-in-Chief of the nominally independent Egyptian Army was filled by British.
The British unofficial influence relaxed somewhat after the 1936 Treaty, in which the British forces will be restricted to only the Suez Canal Zone and naval base at Alexandria. Under the Italian threat at the time, the Treaty allowed the British forces to protect Egypt in case of emergency for the duration of 20 year, which allowed the Allies to use Egypt as a base again in WWII. After the War, the still unpopular 1936 Treaty was repealed by the Egyptian in 1951 and the British agreed to withdraw from the Suez Canal Zone in 1954 (All withdrew by 1956).
So basically, the British would consider Egypt as military occupied (1882-1914), a protectorate (1914-1922), an "informal" protectorate (1922-1936) and partially occupied (1936-1956). The contemporary British Empire maps did reflect these statues by shading Egypt as pink rather than red, or at least mentioned it in the map's legend. I think a lot of the more casual maps in our time tended to ignore the details and just include Egypt and other protectorates as "part of the Empire" for simplicity sake.