The Egyptian Lever was an aspect of colonial Anglo-German relations in the late 19th century in which Germany would receive consent for her African colonial ventures from the United Kingdom in exchange for German support of the British occupation of Egypt.

After the French withdrawal from Egypt during the Napoleonic Wars an Ottoman-Albanian officer, Muhammad Ali seized control of Egypt through a three-way civil war, establishing himself as Wāli between 1805 and 1848. During his reign he let European contractors and managers enter the country, establishing a cordial relationship with the French. However, under his grandson, Abbas I (1848-1854) foreign policy was turned on its head, as Abbas turned to France's British rivals in order to fight the Ottomans.

By the 1870s and the rule of Isma'il Pasha, Egypt had fallen under corruption, mismanagement, increased European influence, and debt. The Khedive's measures to postpone bankruptcy having failed, the Commission of the Public Debt was established in 1876 to help take care of the nation's debt. Its members were nominated by France, Britain, Austria, and Italy. The same year, Egyptian revenues and expenditures were put under the surveillance of a French and British controller, establishing a period of Dual Control in Egypt. By the turn of the 1880s, important government or military posts were either controlled by Western Europeans, Turks, Circassians or Albanians.

Along with the growing fiscal crisis, there was a rise in literacy, furthering public consciousness which reached its boiling point when Colonel Ahmad Urabi launched a protest against European control. He was briefly imprisoned before being promoted as Minister of War in a newly-formed rebel government. This aggravated the British and French governments to the extent of threatening war. In June 1882, riots broke out in Alexandria against foreign nationals. With this, the British and French intervened, the British launching an invasion in July of that year. Urabi and his forces were defeated that September at the Battle of Tell El Kebir.

With the immediate threat of revolt now taken care of, the debate over occupation started. As early as two days after the victory at Tell El Kebir Prime Minister Gladstone called for evacuation from Egypt. Gladstone and the radical wing of the Liberals supported evacuation and ending Dual Control through the elimination of French influence in Egypt, in order to prevent any further need to intervene. However, on the other side of the aisle officials such as the Earl of Northbrook deemed it necessary to occupy Egypt to secure passage to the Indian colonies. Things remained stagnant until a revolt flared up in the Sudan, (which had been previously ignored by London) in which the Khedivate's main forces were massacred in November 1883. In turn, London sent General Charles Gordon on a relief expedition in 1884, but it soon became clear that the British weren't going to withdraw from Sudan or Egypt any time soon.

The French and British governments organized a conference to discuss the Egyptian Question, which was to be held on June 28, 1884. But throughout the springtime of that year, Foreign Secretary Granville tried negotiating with French Prime Minister Jules Ferry to reach an agreement before the conference date. While Ferry and Granville managed to come on agreement on a British evacuation timetable, the issue of finances and control over the Public Debt Commission let negotiations fall through. At the same time, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck was introducing the idea of Franco-German collaboration, which Ferry used to go on the offensive on the opening day of the conference, blocking any British proposals. With this, Granville adjourned the conference on its first day, ending hopes of resolving the Question in the meantime.

In 1883, the Bremen-born tobacco merchant Adolf Lüderitz bought the anchorage at Angra Pequena in South West Africa and all land within an eight kilometer radius from Chief Josef Frederiks II for £100 in gold coin and 200 rifles through his agent, Heinrich Vogelsang. Vogelsang continued to purchase land from Frederiks, buying the coast from Angra Pequena to the Orange River with a width of 20 "geographical miles" (Frederiks had thought that the German mile was the same as the English mile, but in fact was five times as long). Lüderitz later bought the northern coast all the way up to the Kunene River.

The venture had been officially protected by the German government on 24 April 1884, but on 29 May, the British Cape government announced the annexation of the Walvis Bay Enclave, incensing the Germans. With this, the German ambassador in London, Münster, threatened to cut German support in Egypt unless demands were met, with the same threats repeated by Herbert von Bismarck to Granville. Gladstone's cabinet decided in favor to give into German demands, but Bismarck rejected this. With Reichstag elections approaching, Bismarck purposely dug up a dispute in New Guinea to leverage support among the electorate, worsening Anglo-German relations.