Sudan Imperialism

Sudan, Imperialism and the Mahdi’s Holy War europeans tried to colonize africa in the late 1800’s in 1884-1885, 13 nations met in Berlin to talk about africa

The Berlin Conference agreement dealt mainly with opening up free trade along West African rivers and outlawing the slave trade. The agreement also recognized the idea of European powers carving Africa into territorial zones, in which each could pursue colonization by treaty with tribal chiefs or by conquest sudan formed army to prove that europeans were wrong

Ottoman Egypt and Sudan

Egypt was one of the Ottoman Empire by 1800 in 1805, Muhammad Ali seized power in Egypt

Ali sent his son up the Nile River to conquer northern Sudan in 1821. Arabs took advantage of tribal warfare in southern

The British viewed the Suez Canal as a vital link to its empire in Asia, especially India.

At this time, the khedive of Egypt’s economic program had driven the country deeply into debt.

French and British took over the finance of Egypt

In the 1870s, the khedive wanted to suppress the Arab slave trade in Sudan.

Gordon enthusiastically pursued crushing Sudan’s widespread slave trade, which Britain had outlawed in its empire, Gordon and his forces rescued thousands of black African slaves. Gordon blamed Egypt’s heavy taxes and corrupt officials.

When Gordon finally resigned as governor-general in 1880, Arab slave traders bribed Egyptian officials not to interfere with their profitable business. native egyptian officers overthrew the khedive

Britain and France each sent a fleet of warships to Alexandria to intimidate the rebels

Enraged mobs rioted in the city and killed about 50 Europeans. Britain sent 25,000 troops to Egypt and easily defeated the rebel Egyptian army

Britain then returned the government to the khedive

I am the

The Egyptian governor-general in Khartoum sent soldiers to arrest Ahmad, did not make it led about 10,000 followers to a remote area south of Khartoum

Ahmad took advantage of the widespread hatred of Egypt’s brutal colonial rule and announced a jihad, or holy war, against the “Turks,”

“I am the Mahdi,” he proclaimed in 1881, “the Successor of the Prophet of Allah.

3 kalifas, lieutenant; Abdallahi organized an Arab army of horsemen and infantry that defeated numerous Egyptian garrisons of soldiers and captured their firearms. in 1883, khedive sent an expedition to smash Mahdi’s army, Abdallahi’s fighters killed nearly every man in the Egyptian force, including Hicks------huge numbers of fighters from Arab tribes swarmed to the Mahdi.

British and khedive wanted to send Gordon back; When Gordon got to Khartoum in February 1884, he found it well fortified with a defense force of 7,000 soldiers

Finally, the British sent a relief expedition from Cairo up the Nile to Khartoum, a distance of more than 1,000 miles. shortage of food, Mahdi’s army collapsed

On January 26, 1885, Mahdi’s army stormed the city, a town across the river from Khartoum; Gordon was hacked to death by swords while defending himself at the governor’s palace; 10,000 soldiers and civilians were