bria_29_3:Layout 1 3/14/2014 6:41 PM Page 6 bria_29_3:Layout 1 3/14/2014 6:41 PM Page 7 the rebels. Enraged mobs rioted in the Believing these victories proved city and killed about 50 Europeans. that Allah had blessed the jihad, huge SUDAN, IMPERIALISM, The French withdrew their fleet, but numbers of fighters from Arab tribes the British opened fire on Alexandria swarmed to the Mahdi. They joined AND THE MAHDI’SHOLYWAR and leveled many buildings. Later in his cause of liberating Sudan and DURING THE AGE OF IMPERIALISM, EUROPEAN POWERS SCRAMBLED TO DIVIDE UP the year, Britain sent 25,000 troops to bringing Islam to the entire world. AFRICA. IN SUDAN, HOWEVER, A MUSLIM RELIGIOUS FIGURE KNOWN AS THE MAHDI Egypt and easily defeated the rebel The worried Egyptian khedive and LED A SUCCESSFUL JIHAD (HOLY WAR) THAT FOR A TIME DROVE OUT THE BRITISH Egyptian army. Britain then returned British government decided to send AND EGYPTIANS. the government to the khedive, who Charles Gordon, the former governor- In the late 1800s, many European Ali established Sudan’s colonial now was little more than a British general of Sudan, to Khartoum. His nations tried to stake out pieces of capital at Khartoum, where the White puppet. Thus began the British occu- mission was to organize the evacua- Africa to colonize. In what is known and Blue Nile rivers join to form the pation of Egypt. tion of all Egyptian soldiers and gov- as the “scramble for Africa,” coun- main Nile River, which flows north to While these dramatic events were ernment personnel from Sudan. tries sought to acquire territories with the Mediterranean Sea. Khartoum happening in Egypt, a spellbinding British Prime Minister William Glad- valuable resources and to control grew into a major trading center. religious figure, calling himself the stone did not want to get entangled in economically strategic rivers. By the 1860s, a weakened Ot- Mahdi, was stirring up rebellion another colonial war. Many African tribal chiefs signed toman Empire ruled Egypt indirectly against Egyptian rule in Sudan. When Gordon got to Khartoum treaties with European countries, giv- through a khedive (viceroy). He and Wikimedia Commons in February 1884, he found it well ing them the sole right to trade along most of the top government and mil- ‘I Am the Mahdi’ Muhammad Ahmad (1844–1885), an Islamic fortified with a defense force of The Mahdi, or the “Expected One,” religious leader, led a rebellion in Sudan 7,000 soldiers. But advance units of major rivers. In 1884–85, 13 European itary leaders were Turks, but they in- against colonial rule. nations with ambitions for their em- creasingly identified themselves with is part of the traditions of Islam. Ac- the Mahdi’s army had already begun pires met in Berlin to discuss Africa. an independent Egypt rather than the cording to these traditions, a figure will and other “corrupted” Muslims. “I to arrive. Gordon soon found him- The Berlin Conference agreement Ottoman Empire. be sent by God at the end of times to am the Mahdi,” he proclaimed in self besieged. He could have evacu- dealt mainly with opening up free The Suez Canal, connecting the rule the world in preparation for the 1881, “the Successor of the Prophet ated himself earlier by steamboat, trade along West African rivers and Red Sea with the Mediterranean, was messiah. Jesus will return and together of Allah. Cease to pay taxes to the in- but declared he would not abandon outlawing the slave trade. The agree- completed by a French company in with the Mahdi defeat the false mes- fidel [unbeliever] Turks and let every- the others. ment also recognized the idea of Eu- 1869. For the first time, Britain began siah and bring justice to the world be- one who finds a Turk kill him, for the Back in London, pressure grew ropean powers carving Africa into to take a strategic interest in Egypt. fore Judgment Day. Turks are infidels.” on the government to “save Gordon.” territorial zones, in which each could The British viewed the Suez Canal as Born on a White Nile island in The Mahdi appointed three kalifas, The British did not know that they pursue colonization by treaty with a vital link to its empire in Asia, es- Sudan, Muhammad Ahmad grew up to or lieutenants. The most important were up against not just a political re- tribal chiefs or by conquest. pecially India. be known as a deeply religious Muslim. was Kalifa Abdallahi who became the volt against Egypt but a fanatical re- The Europeans who signed the At this time, the khedive of He studied the Quran in Khartoum and Mahdi’s military commander. Abdal- ligious movement. agreement saw little chance of signif- Egypt’s economic program had preached a pure form of Islam. lahi organized an Arab army of horse- Finally, the British sent a relief icant African resistance. But as the driven the country deeply into debt. By the 1870s, Ahmad had be- men and infantry that defeated expedition from Cairo up the Nile to Berlin Conference met, a Muslim re- Fearing that a financially unstable come a popular religious figure in numerous Egyptian garrisons of sol- Khartoum, a distance of more than ligious leader in Sudan had assem- Egypt could endanger the Suez Arab Sudan. In 1881, he declared diers and captured their firearms. 1,000 miles. The commander took bled a huge army that proved how Canal, Britain and France jointly took himself the long-awaited Mahdi. He In 1883, the khedive sent an expe- his time building boats for infantry wrong the Europeans were. control of the country’s finances. claimed he was chosen by God to lib- dition of nearly 10,000 Egyptian troops transport and training a brand-new In the 1870s, the khedive wanted to erate Sudan from Egypt’s tyranny, led by British Col. William Hicks and camel cavalry. Ottoman Egypt and Sudan suppress the Arab slave trade in Sudan. sweep away the modern ways of a dozen European officers to smash The siege of Khartoum lasted al- By 1800, Egypt was part of the He appointed a British army officer, Wikimedia Commons “corrupted” Muslims, and restore the the Mahdi’s army. But Abdallahi’s most a year. Food ran short. Starva- Muslim Ottoman Empire, ruled by the Col. Charles Gordon, as governor-gen- Arab slave traders bribed Egyptian of- pure Islam practiced by the Prophet fighters killed nearly every man in the tion and disease weakened the sultan in Istanbul, Turkey. In 1805, eral of Sudan to take on this job. ficials not to interfere with their prof- Muhammad. Ahmad’s declaration Egyptian force, including Hicks. soldiers and civilians. The Mahdi’s Muhammad Ali, an Ottoman military Gordon enthusiastically pursued itable business. drew many new followers to him. The Egyptian governor-general officer, seized power in Egypt. crushing Sudan’s widespread slave In Egypt a year later, native An Imperialist’s Dream Ali sent his son up the Nile River trade, which Britain had outlawed in its Egyptian army officers led a patriotic in Khartoum sent soldiers to arrest Imperialism is the practice of nations’ building empires and holding other nations as to conquer northern Sudan in 1821. A Ahmad, but he and his supporters empire. He sent Egyptian troops headed revolt and overthrew the khedive, colonies or dependent states. Cecil Rhodes was a British businessman and diamond desert area, it was inhabited by Mus- by European officers to track down who still technically ruled in the defeated them with clubs, swords, and spears. He then led about mining baron in South Africa. In the following statement made in 1891, he described lim Arabs who were mainly nomadic Arab slave traders. In the process, Gor- name of the Ottoman Turk sultan. British imperialism. herders. Further south was a wetter don and his forces rescued thousands They then attempted to break away 10,000 followers to a remote area south of Khartoum. I contend that we are the first race in the world, and that the more of the world we region populated by black Africans of black African slaves. from both the Ottoman Turks and Eu- inhabit the better it is for the human race. Added to this, the absorption of the who were Christians or followers of Appalled by the brutal living con- ropean powers. Ahmad took advantage of the widespread hatred of Egypt’s brutal greater portion of the world under our rule simply means the end of all wars. The native religions. Arabs took advantage ditions he saw in Sudan, Gordon Worried that the Egyptian rebels furtherance of the British Empire [is] for the bringing of the whole uncivilized world of tribal warfare in southern Sudan to blamed Egypt’s heavy taxes and cor- would seize control of the Suez Canal, colonial rule and announced a jihad, or under British rule, for the recovery of the United States, for making the Anglo-Saxon buy and sell black captives in a highly rupt officials. When Gordon finally Britain and France each sent a fleet of holy war, against the “Turks,” a term race but one Empire. What a dream but yet it is probable. he used for the Ottomans, Egyptians, profitable slave trade. resigned as governor-general in 1880, warships to Alexandria to intimidate What was Cecil Rhodes’ point of view about British imperialism? 6 WORLD HISTORY WORLD HISTORY 7 (c) 2014 Constitutional Rights Foundation - www.crf-usa.org bria_29_3.indd 6 3/17/14 9:34 AM bria_29_3:Layout 1 3/14/2014 6:41 PM Page 6 bria_29_3:Layout 1 3/14/2014 6:41 PM Page 7 the rebels.