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The history of what is modern day
Sudan can be traced back to 8000 years BCE when it was inhabited by a
Neolithic people living in fortified mud-brick villages engaged in gathering
and herding together with hunting and fishing on the River Nile. The
succeeding millennia saw the land interface with the rise and fall of many
people and kingdoms, not least its northern neighbour Egypt with whom it had
had an intermittent shared history and government since the time of the
Pharaohs. However it was Napoleon rather than any Egyptian who was
to shape modern day Sudan. His victory over the ruling Egyptian Mamelukes at the Battle of the Pyramids (above) on 21st July
1798 saw a brief French occupation of Egypt and the beginning of
the end of Marmeluke rule which at long been at odds with its
overseer, the
neighbouring Ottoman Empire.
By 1811 Muhammad Ali, an Albanian
commander in the Ottoman army, who had been sent in by the
Ottoman Empire to re-establish their sovereignty had skillfully
played both sides against each other and in March of that year
he invited all the leading Marmelukes to a celebration during
which they were hijacked and killed. Those who survived fled
into modern day Sudan whilst those who remained in Egypt were
hunted down and slaughtered. Ottoman Sultan, Selim III, whose own empire was crumbling by
this stage, was unable to intervene and Muhammad Ali set about
consolidating his position, today being seen as the founder of
modern Egypt leaving a dynasty that would survive until the
Egyptian revolution of 1852. In the meantime the Marmelukes had
regrouped at Dunqulah in the Sultanate of Sennar in modern day
Sudan and still seen as a threat, Muhammad Ali ordered the
Sultan to expel them. When he refused, Ali send his third son
with 10,000 troops into Sudan and brought it under his control
effectively designating the land of small, independent kingdoms,
sultanates and principalities into a recognisable single entity,
albeit under Egyptian rule although Southern Sudan remained very
much an area of fragmented tribes where slave traders
flourished.
Muhammad Ali was succeeded by his grandson Abbas I (1849-54)
and then Said Pasha (1854-63), Abbas's uncle after he was murdered, however both had little interest in Sudan. After Said
Pasha's death his nephew, Isma'il Pasha, succeeded him and he
invested heavily in both countries' infrastructure but, in doing
so, accumulated 100mUK worth of debt forcing Isma'il to sell his
shares to the British Government led by Disraeli for 3,976,582UK
and his ultimate downfall after the British and French
established control over Egyptian finances and government in
anticipation of its financial collapse and inevitable damage to
their interests in the region with Evelyn Baring becoming the
British "Controller of the Revenue" while the French provided a
"Controller of the Expenditure" in 1878.
The following year, Ismail was effectively dismissed with his
unwilling son Tewfik I installed in his place, however the debt
created by his father that had caused something of an economic
crisis in northern Sudan had already precipitated what could be
termed a nationalist movement. This was headed by religious
leader Muhammad Ahmad (above) which led to his Sudan
fighters controlling all of Sudan save for Khartoum by 1884.
British reinforcements were sent to evacuate the city however,
under the command of General Garnet Wolseley, they arrived two
days late to prevent the death of Major-General Charles Gordon
and the slaughter of 50,000 of the city's inhabitants. Ahmad
died a few months later and was succeeded by Abdallahi ibn
Muhammad who continued to run Sudan as an independent Mahdist
State for the next fourteen years somewhat unsuccessfully with
a series of civil wars until the British became increasingly
concerned about their interests in the area given the level of
instability in Sudan.
The British therefore decided to reconquer Sudan and sent in
the Anglo-Egyptian Nile Expeditionary Force under (Lord) Herbert
Kitchener and hostilities mainly ended on on 2nd September 1898
when Anglo-Egyptian troops (above) killed 10,800 Mahdists suffering only
48 deaths themselves. From 1899 until 1955 Sudan then came under
joint British-Egyptian rule as Anglo-Egyptian Sudan with plans
as early as 1943 to prepare North Sudan for self-government and
the south as a separate entity. This policy was reversed in 1946
much to the consternation of the black African Christians in
southern Sudan who believed they were considered inferior by the
Arab Muslim majority in the north and this sowed the seeds for
the ongoing conflict following Sudan's final independence in 1956.
The history of Sudan since that time is essentially a
story of two separate peoples being forced together with
not only no cultural ties nor identity, but a loathing of each
other, a loathing that has spilt out into decades of conflict,
the loss of a million lives and the displacement of four million
more. Even at the time of independence, the first Sudanese Civil
War was under way with the south demanding more autonomy and
this period ended in 1972 with the signing of the Addis Ababa
Agreement which granted the south limited self-governing powers
in return for the end of the armed conflict.
The second Sudanese War was triggered when President Gaafar Nimeiry (above) decided to modify that
agreement, including imposing Islamic law throughout the
country, without the consent of the south. This war lasted from 1983 to 2005 until the signing of the
Nairobi
Comprehensive Peace Agreement of that year which re-established
southern Sudan's former autonomy together with a promise of a
referendum on independence in 2011 which was duly held seeing
South Sudan emerge as the world's newest independent nation in
2011. Despite the
peace accord there has been ongoing conflict and violence
particularly in Darfur where a separate war rages until this day
where the Sudan Liberation Army together with other groups have
taken up arms against the government in an attempt to repel
Muslim Arabs and seek recognition of the area as an equal and
valued partner within Sudan. For the latest in Sudan's history check out our Sudan news pages.
History of Sudan: Volunteer in Sudan
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History of Sudan: Darfur Explained
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History of Sudan: Child Sponsor Sudan
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History of Sudan: Sudan Country Profile
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