Master of Military Art and Science
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[,'I\SHODA: Tl1RNTNG POTNT IN I\NGLO-li'HENCn REIJArrrONS f\. S~rUDY IN MTLTTARy-poLtrrrCAL AFF'ATHS A thesis presented to the Faculty of the U. S. Army Command and General Staff College in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree MASTER OF MILITARY ART AND SCIENCE by PI\UL W. GR F.:N I Ef.~, MJ\.J, USA A.B., Providence College, 1960 M. S.F.S., Geargetown tJniversity, , 970 Fort Leavenworth, Kansas 1976 MA[)'rF:H o Ii' MTLrTAHY AHIP t\ND selmer. THESIS APPROVAL PAGE Name of Candidate----------------------Paul W. Grenier, MAJ, USA Title of Thesis Fashoda: Turning Point in Anglo-French Relations: A Study----------------------- in Military-Political Affairs Graduate Research Faculty 1 I).{ f) I (~I~ill: ' I tff ~, Member, Graduate Research Faculty Accepted this;?3~ay Of~1976~ , Dtrector, Master of Military Art and Science 1;111'1 opt ni.ons and conclusions expressed herein are those of (..h fk ; tldividual student author and do not necessarily repre sent the views of either the U. S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other governmental agency. (References .!:.s:. .thts study should include the foregoing statement.) ii Accession Nnmber: ADA089533 Citation Status: Active Citation Classification: Unclassified Field(s) & Group(s): 050600" HUMANITIES AND HISTORY 150600" MILITARY OPERATIONS, STRATEGY AND TACTICS Corporate Author: ARMY COMMAND AND GENERAL STAFF COLL FORT LEAVENWORTH KS Unclassified Title: Fashoda: Tuming Point in Anglo-French Relations: a Study in Military-Political Affairs. Title Classification: Unclassified Descriptive Note: Master's thesis, Personal Author(s): Grenier,Paul W. Report Date: 1976 Media Count: 85 Page(s) Cost: $9.60 Report Number(s): SBI-AD-E750 004 Monitor Acronym: SBI Monitor Series: AD-E7S0004 Report Classification: Unclassified Distribution Statement: Availability: Document partially illegible. DesCl'iptors: 'MILITARY OPERATIONS, 'FRANCE, 'SUDAN, 'UNITED KINGDOM, INTERNATIONAL POLITICS, EGYPT, MILITARY FORCES(FOREIGN), THESES, HISTORY, AFRICA, INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Identifiers: 'Fashoda, Fashoda Crisis, Marchand Expedition Abstract: This thesis deals with the military confrontation between French and Anglo-Egyptian forces at Fashoda, in the Nilotic Sudan, dlll'ing the period 19 September to II December, 1898. It examines the confrontation, on both the French and the British sides, as to origin, preparation, conduct, and resolution. It concludes that the peaceful resolution of the Fashoda Crisis was a major contributing factor in the Entente between France and Great Britain in 1904, and that an analysis of the political military relationships used by France in her militaly faillll'e at Fashoda, and by Great Britain in her success, shows that military activity is and must be politically defined, that conflict ofinterest is deh'imental to militaJy efficiency, and that victOly is ultimately a political concept. (author) Abstract Classification: Unclassified Distribution Limitation(s): 01 - APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE 23 - DOCUMENT PARTIALLY ILLEGIBLE Source Code: 037260 Document Location: DTIC ABSTRACT This thesis deals with the military confrontation between French and Anglo-Egyptian forces at Fashoda, in the Nilotic Sudan, during the period 19 September to 11 December, 1898. Tt examines the confrontation, on both the French and the British sides, as to origin, prepara tion, conduct, and resolution. It concludes that the peaceful resolution of the ~ashoda Crisis was a major contributing factor in the hiltente between France and Great Britain in 1904, and that an analysis of the political-military relationships used by France in her military' failure at Fashoda, and ~y Great Britain in her success, shows that military acti vity is and must be politically defined, that conflict of interest is detrimental to military efficiency, and that 7ictory is ultimately a political concept. iii FOREWORD The Anglo-French Entente of 1904 was an unexpected deviation in the habitual course of European diplomacy; from the days of Edward ITT and Philip VI, the start of the Hundred Years' War tn 1337, hostility between France and England seemed to bo (1 princtple of international relations. However, the li:ntente did not corne out of the blue. It had its causes, remote and proximate. Some of these causes are to be found in the relations of France and Great Britain to each other and others are to be found in the relations of France and Great Britain to third powers. During the Nineteenth Century, there were several milestones on the road followed by France and Britain in arriving at the Entente: cooperation during the Greek Rebellion in the 1R.20's and in the neutralization of Belgium in the 1830's; the Crimean War alliance of 1854, tenuous though i. twas (This was the first time that B'rance and England had fought on the same side in a war since the Crusades.); frequent coordination of policy both in the Near East and the Far East; and finally the crucial nego tiations immedj~tely preceeding the Entente. One of these milcntones, at the time unrecognized, was the peaceful resolution of the Anglo-French confrontation iv at Fashoda, in the Nilotic Sudan. This confrontation was the cltmax of the policies followed in the Nineteenth Century by France and Britain in one region where they were at odds, the Mediterranean, and especially P.gypt. 'rhis J;.k'lper examines the causes of the Fa.shoda Confron tation and the i.ncident itself, relates it to the Entente Cordiale, and offers certain conclusions concerning the relation between political and military affairs, which may be of interest to the modern military officer. The source material for this paper is drawn for the most part from the documents, official and private, avail able to those involved in the Fashoda Incident. Since Fashoda is considered to be one of the events prelimin~ry to World War I, many of these documents are found in the three major collections officially published after the war: British Documents ££ the Origins of the War, 1898-1914; Documents diplomatiques franiais, 1871-1914; and Die Grosse Politik der Europaeischen Kabinette, 1871-1914. Some, however, particularly French documents, are not included in these collections and were only recently rediscovered when the private papers of Theophile Delcasse were depo 61 ted in the l·'rench Na tional J\.rchi ves in 1965. As it was physically impossible for me to have direct access to these newly-rediscovered documents, J have relied, for my own purposes, on the works of two hi.storians--one v American and one French--who share the credit for their rediscovery. Roeer G. Rrown's Fashoda Reconsidered is a masterful analysts of the relationshtp between the Fashoda Incident and the Dreyfus Affair. Marc Michel's La Mission Marchand is a precise examination of the financing, orga nization, and support of the Marchand Expedition, as well as its progress, mile by mile, from one side of Africa to the other. I am grateful to these two historians for having done their task so well. J also express my gratitude to the librarians at the U. S. Army Command and General Staff College who were most helpful to me in obt~ining research materials; and to Lieutenant Colonel Paul (leandel, the French l1a; son officer at Fort Leavenworth, and Brigadier General Georges fricaud Chagnaud, the French Military Attach~ in Washington, D. C., who obtained for me a large part of the material contained in Appendi.x 2. T especi.ally thank l,ieutenant Colonel William A. Stofft, Hajor l1arold W. Nelson, and Doctor Joseph H. Goldman, of the Department of Strategy, O. s. Army Command and General Staff College. Their guidance and 8uggestLons contributed greatly to whatever merits this paper may have. I am, of course, solely responsible for the deficiencies that may remain. vi NOTES 1. r:l1he following examples of citations are offered to ease the reader's path: a. Documents in collections are cited numerically by series and volume number: France, ~linlstere des Affaires Etrangeres, Documents diplomatiques fran,ais, 1871-1914 (1st series, 16 volumes; Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1929-59), XII J no. 152. b. Documents cited in secondary works are cited here as they are in those works: Archives Nationales, 53, AP: rapiers de Sallintin (Hanotaux's testimony in 1898); cited in Roger G. Brown, Fashoda Reconsidered (Ral timore and London: The ,Johns !-toPklns Press, 1969), 19. c. Letters in collections are cited by author, addressee and date: (Henri Cambon, ed.) Pa.ul Cambon, Corres,E0ndance, 1870-1924 (3 vols.; Paris: F:ditions Grasset, 1940), T1, tetter to his mother, 1 Nov 98. d. Secondary works are cited in the usual manner: David S. Landes, Bankers and Pashas (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1958), 123. 2. The following abbreviations are used in citations: f\.. N • hrchives Nationales (French National Archives) B.D. Hritish Documents .Q.!l the Origins of the War B. T• Bi.bli.ot~que de l'Institut (l.ibrary of the French lnstitute) D.D.F. Documents diplomati~ues frtn~ais (French Diplomatic acumen s vii G.P. Die Grosse Politik der Eur0tUeiSChen Kabinette TTne Major Policies-01 the uropean Governments) Section Outre-Mer, Arhives Nationales (Colonial Records, French National Archives) 3. Translations from ~rench and German are my own, but no special note is made of translated material. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 11'0 REWO HD • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • tv NOTES. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • vii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION •••••••• • • • • • • • • • • 2. MOTIV~TION AND PREPARATION. •