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BIBLIOG RA PAY .C.R.LepsiUS, Denkmaler aus Aegypten and Aethiopien (1849), Abb. vi., Briefe aus Aegypten, Aethiopien, (1852), Nubische Grammatik (188o) ; H. Brugsch, Zeitschrift fur aegyptische Sprache (1887) ; F. Cailliaud, Voyage a Ml roe et an Fleuve Blanc (1826); E. A. Wallis Budge, The Egyptian. Sudan (1907); G. A. Reisner and C. M. Firth, Reports on The Archaeological Survey of Nubia; G. Elliott Smith and F. Wood Jones, ibid. vol. ii. "The Human Remains" (191o) ; J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt (1906-1907), A History of Egypt (1905), Temples of Lower ;'Nubia (1906), Monuments of Sudanese Nubia (1908); D. Randall-Maclver and C. L. Woolley, Reports of the Eckley B. Coxe, jun. expedition, viz. vol. i. Areika (1909), vols. iii., iv., v. Karanog (vol.. (iii. "The Romano-Nubian Cemetery," text, vol. iv. ibid., plates, 1910), vol. vii. Behen; G. S. Mileham, Reports of the Eckley B. Coxe, jun., expedition, vol. ii. Churches in Lower Nubia (1910); F. LI. Griffith, Reports on the Eckley B. Coxe, jun., expedition, vol. vi. Meroitic Inscriptions from Shablul and Karanog, Meroitic Inscriptions , and 2 vols. on Tombs of El Amarna; and the " Archaeological Survey "of the Egypt Exploration Fund. (D. R.-M.) Ancient Monuments south of Halfa.Ruins of pyramids, temples, churches and other monuments are found along both banks of the Nile almost as far south as the Fourth Cataract, and again in the " Island of Meroe." In the following list
Leaving the Nile at this point and striking direct across the Bayuda Desert, the river is regained at a point above the Atbara confluence. Thirty miles north of the town of Shendi are the pyramids of Meroe (or Assur) in three distinct groups. From one of these pyramids was taken " the treasure of Queen Candace," now, in the Berlin Museum. Many of the pyramids have a small shrine on the eastern side inscribed with debased Egyptian or Meroite hieroglyphics. These pyramids are on the right bank of the Nile, that is in the " Island of Meroe." Portions (including a harbour) of the site of the city of Meroe, at Begerawia, not far from the pyramids named, were excavated in 19091910 (see MERGE). In this region, and distant from the river, are the remains of several cities, notably Naga, where are ruins of four temples, one in the Classic style. On the east bank of the Blue Nile, about 13 M. above Khartum at Soba, are ruins of a Christian basilica. Farther south still, at Ceteina on the White Nile (in 1904), and at Wad el-Hadad, some miles north of Sennar, on the Blue Nile (in 1908), Christian remains have been observed. Between the Nile at Wadi Haifa and the Red Sea are the remains of towns inhabited by the ancient miners who worked the district. The most striking of these towns is Deraheib (Castle Beautiful), so named from the picturesque situation of the castle, a large square building with pointed arches. The walls of some 500 houses still stand. For a popular account (with many illustrations) of these ruins see J. Ward, Our Sudan: Its Pyramids and Progress (London, 1905). (F. R. C.) HISTORY A. From the Earliest Time to the Egyptian Conquest.The southern regions of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan are without recorded history until the era of the Egyptian conquest in the 19th century. In the northern regions, known as Ethiopia or Nubia, Egyptian influence made itself felt as early as the Old Empire. In process of time powerful states grew up with capitals at Napata and Meroe (see ante Archaeology and ETHIOPIA and EGYPT). The Nubiansthat is the dwellers in the Nile valley between Egypt and Abyssiniadid not embrace Christianity until the 6th century, considerably later than their Abyssinian neighbours. The Arab invasion of North Africa in the 7th century, which turned Egypt into a Mahommedan country, had not the same effect in Nubia, the Moslems, though they frequently raided the country, being unable to hold it. On the ruins of the ancient Ethiopian states arose Christian the Christian kingdoms of Dongola and Aloa, with Kingdoms of capitals at Dongola and Soba (corresponding roughly Nubia. to Napata and Meroe). These kingdoms continued to exist until the middle of the 14th century or later (see DONGOLA: Mudiria). Meanwhile Arabs of the Beni Omayya tribe, under pressure from the Beni Abbas, had begun to cross the Red Sea as early as the 8th century and to settle in the district around Sennar on the Blue Nile, a region which probably marked the southern limits of the kingdom of Aloa. The Omayya, who during the following centuries were reinforced by further immigrants from Arabia, intermarried with the negroid races, and gradually Arab influence became predominant and Islam the nominal faith of all the inhabitants of Sennar. In this way a barrier was erected between the Christians of Nubia and those of Abyssinia. By the 15th century the Arabized negro races of the Blue Nile had grown into a powerful nation known as the Funj (q.v.), and during that century they extended their conquests north to the borders of Egypt. The kingdom of Dongola had already been reduced to a condition of anarchy by Moslem invasions from the north. Christianity was still professed by some of the Nubians as late as the 16th century, but the whole Sudan north of the lands of the pagan
The first of the Funj monarchs acknowledged king of the whole of the allied tribes, of which the Hameg were next in importance to the Funj, was Amara Dunkas, who ~PFre/ reigned c. 14841526' During the reign of Adlan, c. 196-1603, the fame of Sennar attracted learned men to his court from such distant places as Cairo and Bagdad. Adlan's great-grandson Badi Abu Daku attacked the Shilluk negroes and raided Kordofan. This monarch built the great mosque at Sennar, almost the only building in the town to survive the ravages of the dervishes in the 19th century. In the early part of the r8th century there was war between the Sennari and the Abyssinians, in which the last named were defeated with great slaughter. It is said that the cause of quarrel was the seizure by the king of Sennar of presents sent by the king of France to the Negus. The victory over the " infidel" Abyssinians became celebrated throughout the Mahommedan world, and Sennar was visited by many learned and celebrated men from Egypt, Arabia and India. Towards the end of the 18th century the Hameg wrested power from the Funj and the kingdom fell into decay, many of the tributary princes refusing to acknowledge the king of Sennar. These disorders continued up to the time of the conquest of the country by the Egyptians. B. From the Egyptian Conquest to the Rise of the Mandi.The conquest of Nubia was undertaken in 1820 by order of Mehemet Ali, the pasha of Egypt, and was accomplished in conyuestbythe two years following. In its consequences this proved one of the most important events in the history of Africa. Mehemet Ali never stated the reasons which led him to order the occupation of the country, but his leading motive was, probably, the desire to obtain possession of the mines of gold and precious stones which he believed the Sudan contained. He also saw that the revenue of Egypt was falling through the diversion, since about 1800, of the caravan routes from the Nile to the Red Sea ports, and may have wished to recapture the trade, as well as to secure a country whence thousands of slaves could be brought annually. Mehemet Ali also wished to crush the remnant of the Mamelukes who in 1812 had established themselves at Dongola, and at the same time to find employment for the numerous Albanians and Turks in his army, of whose fidelity he was doubtful. Mehemet Ali gave the command of the army sent to Nubia to his son Ismail, who at the head of some 4000 men left Wadi Haifa in October 1820. Following the Nile route he occupied Dongola without opposition, the Mamelukes fleeing before him. (Some of them went to Darfur and Wadai, others made their way to the Red Sea. This was the final dispersal of the Ma melukes.) With the nomad Shagia, who dominated the district, 1 Various lists and dates of reign of the rulers of Sennar are given; reference may be made in Stokvis's Manuel d'histoire vol. i. (Leiden, 1888), and to The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, vol. i. (London, 1905). Ismail had two sharp
auxiliary
Ismail's death was speedily avenged. A second Egyptian army, also about 4000 strong, had followed that of Ismail's up the Nile, and striking south-west from Debba had wrested, after a sharp
2 For a list
Khurshid Pasha, governor-general for 13 years (1826-1839), was one of these exceptions. He gained a great reputation both for rectitude and vigour. He led expeditions up the White Nile against the Dinkas as far as Fashoda; defeated the Abyssinians on the Sennar frontier, and taught the natives of Khartum to build houses of brick. Kassala founded. In 1837 the pasha himself visited the Sudan, going as far as Fazokl, where he inspected the goldfields. In 1849 Abd-el-Latif Pasha became governor-general and attempted to remedy some of the evils which disfigured the administration. He remained in office, however, little more than a year, too short a period to effect reforms. The Sudan was costing Egypt more money than its revenue yielded, though it must not be forgotten that large sums found their way illicitly into the, hands of the pashas. The successors of Mehemet Ali, in an endeavour to make the country more profitable, extended their conquests to the south, and in 1853 and subsequent years trading posts were established on the Upper Nile, the pioneer European merchant being John Petherick, British consular agent at Khartum.' Petherick sought for ivory only, but those who followed him soon found that slave-raiding was more profitable than elephant hunting. The viceroy Said, who made a rapid tour through the Sudan in 1857, found it in a deplorable condition. The viceroy ordered many reforms to be executed and proclaimed the abolition of slavery. The reforms were mainly inoperative and slavery continued. The project which Said also conceived of linking the Sudan to Egypt by railway remained unfulfilled. The Sudan at this time (c. 1862) is described by Sir Samuel Baker as utterly ruined by Egyptian methods of government and the retention of the country only to be accounted for by the traffic in slaves. The European merchants above Khartum had sold their posts to Arab agents, who oppressed the natives in every conceivable fashion. Ismail Pasha, who became viceroy of Egypt in 1863, gave orders for the suppression of the slave trade, and to check the operations of the Arab traders a military force was stationed at Fashoda (1865), this being the most southerly point then held by the Egyptians. Ismail's efforts to put an end to the slave trade, if sincere, were ineffective, and, moreover, south of Kordofan the authority of the government did not extend beyond the posts occupied by their troops. Ismail, however, was ambitious to extend his dominions and to develop the Sudan on the lines he had conceived for the development of Egypt. He obtained (1865) from the sultan of Turkey a firman assigning to him the administration of Suakin and Massawa; the lease which Mehemet Ali had of these ports having lapsed after the death of that pasha. Ismail subsequently (1870-1875) extended his sway over the whole coast from Suez to Cape Guardafui and garrisoned the towns of Berbera, Zaila, &c., while in 1874 the important town of Harrar, the entrepbt for southern Abyssinia, was seized by Egyptian troops. The khedive had also seized Bogos, in the hinterland of Massawa, a province claimed by Abyssinia. This action led to wars with Abyssinia, in which the Egyptians were generally beaten. Egyptian authority was withdrawn from the coast regions south of Suakin in 1884 (see below and also ABYSSINIA; ERITREA and SOMALILAND). At the same time that Ismail annexed the seaboard he was extending his sway along the Nile valley to the equatorial lakes, and conceived the idea of annexing all the country between the Nile and the Indian Ocean. An expedition was sent (1875) to the Juba River with that object, but it was withdrawn at the request of the British government, as it infringed the rights of the sultan of Zanzibar.2 The control of all territories south of Gondokoro had been given (April 1, 1869) to Sir Samuel Baker, who, however, only left Khartum to take up his governor-The ship in February 187o. Reaching Gondokoro on Equatorial the 26th of May following, he formally annexed Regions: that station, which he named Ismailia, to the khedival Darfur domains. Baker remained as governor of the Equaconquered. tonal Provinces until August 1873, and in March 1874 Colonel C. G. Gordon took up the same post. Both Baker and ' The government monopoly in trade ceased after the death of Mehemet Ali in 1849. 2 The Juba was quite unsuitable as a means of communication between the Indian Ocean and the Nile. The proposal made to Ismail by Gordon was to send an expedition to Mombasa and thence up the Tana River, but for some unexplained reason, or perhaps by mistake, the expedition was ordered to the Juba (see Col. Gordon in Central Africa, 4th ed., 1885, pp. 65, 66, 150 and 151, and Geog. !ourn.. Feb. 1, 1909, p. 150). Gordon made strenuous efforts towards crushing the slave trade, but their endeavours were largely thwarted by, the inaction of the authorities at Khartum. Under Gordon the Upper Nile region as far as the borders of Uganda came effectively under Egyptian control, though the power of the government extended on the east little beyond the banks of the rivers. On the west the Bahr-el-Ghazal had been overrun by Arab or semi-Arab slave-dealers. Nominally subjects of the khedive, they acted as free agents, reducing the country over which they terrorized to a state of abject misery. The most powerful of the slave traders was Zobeir Pasha, who, having defeated a force sent from Khartum to reduce him to obedience; invaded Darfur (1874). The khedive, fearing the power of Zobeir, also sent an expedition to Darfur, and that country, after a stout resistance, was conquered. Zobeir claimed to be made governor-general of the new province; his request being refused, he went to Cairo to urge his claim. At Cairo he was detained by the Egyptian authorities. Though spasmodic efforts were made to promote agriculture and open up communications the Sudan continued to be a constant drain on the Egyptian exchequer. The khedive Ismail revived Said's project of a railway, and a survey for a line from Wadi Halfa to Khartum was made (1871), while a branch line to Massawa was also contemplated. As with Said's project these schemes came to naught.3 In October 1876 Gordon left the Equatorial Provinces and gave up his appointment. In February 1877, under pressure from the British General and Egyptian governments, he went to Cairo, where Gordon he. was given the governorship of the whole of the Governor-Egyptian territories outside Egypt; namely, the genera'. Sudan provinces proper, the Equatorial Provinces, Darfur, and the Red Sea and Somali coasts. He replaced at Khartum Ismail Pasha Eyoub, a Turk made governor-general in. 1873, who had thwarted as much as he dared all Gordon's efforts to reform. Gordon remained in the Sudan until August 1879. During his tenure of office he did much to give the Sudanese the benefit of a just and considerate government. In 1877 Gordon suppressed a revolt in Darfur and received the submission of Suliman Zobeir (a son of Zobeir Pasha), who was at the head of a gang of slave-traders on the Bahr-el-Ghazal frontier. In 1878 there was further trouble in Darfur and also in Kordofan, and Gordon visited both these provinces, breaking up many companies of slave-hunters. Meantime Suliman (acting on the instructions of his father, who was still at Cairo) had broken out into open revolt against the Egyptians in the Bahr-el-Ghazal. The crushing of Suliman was entrusted by Gordon to Romolo Gessi (1831-1881), an Italian who had previously served under Gordon "on the Upper Nile. Gessi, after a most arduous campaign (1878-79), in which he displayed great military skill, defeated and captured Suliman, whom, with other ring-leaders, he executed. The slave-raiders were completely broken up and over ro,000 captives released. A remnant of Zobeir's troops under a chief named Rabah succeeded in escaping west- - ward, (see RABAH). Having conquered the province Gessi was made governor of the Bahr-el-Ghazal and given the rank of pasha. When Gordon left the Sudan he was succeeded at Khartum by Raouf Pasha, under whom all the old abuses of the Egyptian administration were revived. At this time the high European officials in the Sudan, besides Gessi, included Emin Pasha (q.v.) then a bey onlygovernor of the Equatorial Province since 1878, and Slatin Pashathen also a beygovernor of Darfur. Gessi, who had most successfully governed his province, found his position under Raouf intolerable, resigned his post in September 188o and was succeeded by Frank Lupton, an English-man, and formerly captain of a Red Sea merchant steamer, who was given the rank of bey. At this period (188o-1882) schemes for the reorganization and better administration of the Sudan were elaborated on paper, but the revolt in Egypt under Arabi (see EGYPT: History) and the appearance in the Sudan of a Mandi prevented these schemes from being put into 3 Up to 1877, when the work was abandoned, some 5o m. of rails had been laid from Wadi Halfa at a cost of some 450,000. Assuan and collected at Khartum troops from some of the out-lying stations. By this time the situation had altered for the worse and Mandism was gaining strength among tribes in the Nile valley at first hostile to its propaganda. As the only means of preserving authority at Khartum (and thus securing the peaceful withdrawal of the garrison) Gordon repeatedly telegraphed to Cairo asking that Zobeir Pasha might be sent to him, his intention being to hand over to Zobeir the government of the country. Zobeir (q.v.), a Sudanese Arab, was probably the one man who could have withstood successfully the Mandi. Owing to Zobeir's notoriety as a slave-raider Gordon's request was refused. All hope of a peaceful retreat of the Egyptians was thus rendered impossible. The Mandist movement
ment. The Mandi had been regarded by his adhe- Khailfa's rents as the only true commander
execution (assuming that the Egyptian authorities were sincere in proposing reforms). C. The Rise and Power of Mandism.The Mandist movement
Hicks the Mandi gained his first considerable success. Pasha's The capture of El Obeid on the 17th of January Army. 1883 and the annihilation in the November following of an army of over 1o,00o men commanded by Hicks Pasha (Colonel William Hicks [q.v.] formerly of the Bombay army) made the Mandi undisputed master of Kordofan and Sennar. The next month, December 1883, saw the surrender of Slatin in Darfur, whilst in February 1884 Osman Digna, his amir in the Red Sea regions, inflicted a crushing defeat on some 4000 Egyptians at El Teb near Suakin. In April following Lupton Bey, governor of Bahr-el-Ghazal, whose troops and officials had embraced the Mandist cause, surrendered and was sent captive to Omdurman, where he died on the 8th of May 1888. On learning of the disaster to Hicks Pasha's army, the British government (Great Britain having been since 1882 in military occupation of Egypt) insisted that the Egyptian government should evacuate such parts of the Sudan as they still held, and General Gordon was despatched, with Lieut.-Colonel Donald H. Stewart,' to Khartum to arrange the withdrawal of the Egyptian civil and military population. Gordon's instructions, based largely on his own suggestions, were not wholly consistent; they contemplated vaguely the establishment of some form ofstable government on the surrender of Egyptian authority, and among the documents with which he was furnished was a firman creating him governor- general of the Sudan .4 Gordon reached Khartum on the 18th of February 1884 and at first his mission, which had aroused great enthusiasm in England, promised success. To smooth the way for the retreat of the Egyptian garrisons and civilians he issued proclamations announcing that the suppression of the slave trade was abandoned, that the Mandi was sultan of Kordofan, and that the Sudan was independent of Egypt. He enabled some thousands of refugees to make their escape to ' Writing from Darfur in April 1879 Gordon said: " The government of the Egyptians in these far-off countries is nothing else but one of brigandage of the very worst description. It is so bad that all hope of ameliorating it is hopeless." 2 The Sudanese spoke of all foreigners as " Turks." This arose from the fact that most of the higher Egyptian officials were of Turkish nationality and that the army was officered mainly by Turks, Albanians,. Circassians, &c., and included in the ranks many Bashi-Bazuks (irregulars) of non-Sudanese origin. ' Colonel Stewart had been sent to Khartum in 1882 on a mission of inquiry, and he drew up a valuable report, Egypt, No. ii (1883). It is unnecessary here to enter upon a discussion of the precise nature of Gordon's instructions or of the measure in which he carried them out. The material for forming a judgment will he found in Gordon's Journals (1885), Morley's Life of Gladstone (19o3), Fitzmaurice's Life of Granville (1905), and Cromer's Modern Egypt (1908). (See also GORDON, CHARLES GEORGE.) Sennar town held out until the 19th of August, while the Red Sea ports of Suakin and Massawa never fell into the hands of the Mandists. The garrisons of some other towns were rescued by the Abyssinians. 6 This period in the history of the Sudan is known as the lblandia. Gordon at Khartum. had never embraced Mandism, or with the Italians, Egyptians and British. Notwithstanding all this opposition the khalifa found in his own tribesmen and in his black -troops devoted adherents and successfully maintained his position. The attempt to conquer Egypt ended in the total defeat of the dervish army at Toski (Aug. 3, 1889). The attempts to subdue the Equatorial Provinces were but partly successful. Emin Pasha, to whose relief H. M. Stanley had gone, evacuated Wadelai in April 1889. The greater part of the region and also most of the Bahr-el-Ghazal relapsed into a state of complete savagery. In the country under his dominion the khalifa's government was carried on after the manner of other Mahommedan states, but pilgrimages to the Mandi's tomb at Omdurman were substituted for pilgrimages to Mecca. The arsenal and dockyard and the printing-press at Khartum were kept busy (the workmen being Egyptians who had escaped massacre). Otherwise Khartum was deserted, the khalifa making Omdurman his capital and compelling disaffected tribes to dwell in it so as to be under better control. While Omdurman grew to a huge size the population of the country generally dwindled enormously from constant warfare and the ravages of disease, small-pox being endemic. The Europeans in the country were kept prisoners at Omdurman. Besides ex-officials like Slatin and Lupton, they included several Roman Catholic priests and sisters, and numbers of Greek merchants established at Khartum. Although several were closely imprisoned, loaded with chains and repeatedly flogged, it is a noteworthy fact that none was put to death. From time to time a prisoner made his escape, and from the accounts of these ex-prisoners knowledge of the character of Dervish rule is derived in large measure. The fanaticism with which the Mandi had inspired his followers remained almost unbroken to the end. The khalif a after the fatal day of Omdurman fled to Kordofan where he was killed in battle in November 1899. In January 1900 Osman Digna, a wandering fugitive for months, was captured. In 1902 the last surviving dervish amir of importance surrendered to the sultan of Darfur. Mandism as a vital force in the old Egyptian Sudan ceased, however, with the Anglo-Egyptian victory at Omdurman.'D. The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium.Of the causes which led to the reconquest of the Sudanthe natural desire of the Egyptian government to recover lost territory, the equally natural desire in Great Britain to "avenge " the death of Gordon were among themthe most weighty was the necessity of securing for Egypt the control of the Upper Nile, Egypt being wholly dependent on the waters of the river for its prosperity. That control would have been lost had a European power other than Great Britain obtained possession of any part of the Nile valley; and at the time the Sudan was reconquered (189698) France was endeavouring to establish her authority on the river between Khartum and Gondokoro, as the Marchand expedition from the Congo to Fashoda demonstrated. The Nile constitutes, in the words of Lord Cromer, the true justification of the policy of re-occupation, and makes the Sudan a priceless possession for Egypt .2 The Sudan having been reconquered by " the joint military and financial efforts" of Great Britain and Egypt, the British government claimed " by right of conquest " to share in the settlement of the administration and legislation of the country. To meet these claims an agreement (which has been aptly called the constitutional charter of the Sudan) between Great Britain and Egypt, was signed on the 19th of January 1899, establishing the joint sovereignty of the two states throughout Ia the autumn of 1903 Mahommed-el-Amin, a native of Tunis, proclaimed himself the Mandi and got together a following in Kordofan. He was captured by the governor of Kordofan and publicly executed at El Obeid. In April 1908 Abd-el-Kader, a Halowin Arab and ex-dervish, rebelled in the Blue Nile province, claiming to be the prophet Issa (Jesus). On the 29th of that month he murdered Mr C. C. Scott-Moncrieff, deputy inspector of the province, and the Egyptian mamur. The rising was promptly suppressed, Abd-el-Kader was captured and was hanged on the 17th of May. 2 Egypt, No. 1 (1905), p. 119.the Sudan .3 The reorganization of the country had already begun, supreme power being centred in one official termed the " governor-general of the Sudan." To this post was appointed Lord Kitchener, the sirdar ( commander
The first duty of the new administration, the restoration of public order, met with comparatively feeble opposition, though tribes such as the Nuba mountaineers, accustomed from time immemorial to raid their weaker neighbours, gave some trouble. In 1906, in 1908, and again in 1910 expeditions had to be sent against the Nubas. In the Bahr-el-Ghazal the Niam-Niams at first disputed the authority of the government, but Sultan Yambio, the recalcitrant chief, was mortally wounded in a fight in February 1905 and no further disturbance occurred. The delimitation (19031904) of the frontier between the Sudan and Abyssinia enabled order to be restored in a particularly lawless region, and slave-raiding on a large scale ended in that quarter with the capture and execution of a notorious offender in 1904. In Kordofan, Darfur and the Bahr-el-Ghazal the slave trade continued however for some years later. With good administration and public security the population increased steadily. The history of the country became one of peaceful progress marked by the growing content- The Bement of the people. The Sudan government devoted generative much attention to the revival of agriculture and wort of commerce, to the creation of an educated class of Britai Qreatn natives, and to the establishment of an adequate . judicial system. Their task, though one of immense difficulty, was however (in virtue of the agreement of the 19th of January 1899) free from all the international fetters that bound the administration of Egypt. It was moreover rendered easier by the decision to govern, as far as possible, in accordance with native law and custom, no attempt being made to Egyptianize or Anglicize the Sudanese. The results were eminently satisfactory. The Arab-speaking and Mahommedan population found their religion and language respected, and from the first showed a marked desire to profit by the new order. To the negroes of the southern Sudan, who were exceedingly suspicious of all strangerswhom hitherto they had known almost exclusively as slave-raidersthe very elements of civilization had, in most cases, to be taught. In these pagan
In their general policy the Sudan government adopted a system of very light taxation; low taxation being in countries such as Egypt and the Sudan the keystone of the political arch. This policy was amply justified by results. In 1899 the revenue derived from the country was E126,000, in 1909 it had risen to E1,o4o,000, despite slight reductions in taxation, a proof of the growing prosperity of the land. This prosperity was brought about largely by improving the water-supply, and thus bringing more land under cultivation, by the creation of new industries, and by the improvement of means of communication. A-shorter route to the sea than that through Egypt being essential for the ' At first Suakin was excepted from some of the provisions of this agreement, but these exceptions were done away with by a supplementary agreement of the loth of July 1899. commercial development of the country, a railway from the Nile near Berber to the Red Sea was built (1904-1906). This line shortened the distance from Khartum to the nearest seaport by nearly too() m., and by reducing the cost of carriage of merchandise enabled Sudan produce to find a profitable outlet in the markets of the world. At the same time river communications were improved and the numbers of wells on caravan roads increased. Steps were furthermore taken by means of irrigation works to regulate the Nile floods, and those of the river Gash. To the promotion of education and sanitation, and in the administration of justice, the government devoted much energy with satisfactory results. Indeed the regenerative work of Great Britain in the Sudan has been fully as successful and even more remarkable than that of Great Britain in Egypt. A large part of this work has been accomplished by officers of the British army. Some of the most valuable suggestions about such matters as land settlement, agricultural loans, &c., emanated from officers who a short time before were performing purely military duties. Nevertheless civil servants gradually replaced military officers in the work of administration, army officers being liable to be suddenly removed for war or other service, often at times when the presence of officials possessed of local experience was most important. In efficiency and devotion to duty the Egyptian officials under the new regime also earned high praise. The relations of the Sudan government with its Italian, Abyssinian and French neighbours was marked by cordiality, Bahr-el- but with the Congo Free State difficulties arose over Ghazal and claims made by that state to the Bahr-el-Ghazal Lado. (see AFRICA, 5). Congo State troops were in 1904 stationed in Sudanese territory. The difficulty was adjusted in 1906 when the Congo State abandoned all claims to the Ghazal province (whence its troops were withdrawn during 1907), and it was agreed to transfer the Lado enclave (q.v.) to the Sudan six months after the death of the king of the Belgians. Under the terms of this agreement the Lado enclave was incorporated in the Sudan in 1910. As to the general state of the country Sir Eldon Gorst after a tour of inspection declared in his report for 1909, " I do not suppose that there is any part of the world in which the mass of the population have fewer unsatisfied wants." End of Article: BIBLIOG RA PAY If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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