Sudan, Turco-Egyptian
Years: 1821 - 1885
Although a part of present-day northern Sudan was nominally an Egyptian dependency, both during the Mamluk and Ottoman periods, previous Egyptian rulers had demanded little more from the Sudanese Kashif than the regular remittance of tribute.
However, after Muhammad Ali had crushed the Mamluks in Egypt, a party of them had escaped and fled south.
In 1811, these Mamluks had established a state at Dunqulah as a base for their slave trading.
In 1820 the Sultan of Sennar had informed Muhammad Ali that he was unable to comply with the demand to expel the Mamluks.
In response Muhammad Ali had sent 4,000 troops to invade Sudan, clear it of Mamluks, and incorporate it into Egypt.
His forces receive the submission of the Kashif, disperse the Dunqulah Mamluks, conquer Kurdufan, and accept Sannar's surrender from the last Funj sultan, Badi VII.
However, the Arab Ja'alin tribes offer stiff resistance.
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The Egyptian government of Sudan becomes less harsh as the military occupation becomes more secure.
Egypt has saddled Sudan with a parasitic bureaucracy, however, and expects the country to be self-supporting.
Nevertheless, farmers and herders gradually return to Al Jazirah.
The Turkiyah also win the allegiance of some tribal and religious leaders by granting them a tax exemption.
Egyptian soldiers and Sudanese jahidiyah (slave soldiers; literally, fighters), supplemented by mercenaries recruited in various Ottoman domains, man garrisons in Khartoum, Kassala, Al Ubayyid, and at several smaller outposts.
The Shaiqiyah, Arabic speakers who had resisted Egyptian occupation, are defeated and allowed to serve the Egyptian rulers as tax collectors and irregular cavalry under their own sheikhs.
The Egyptians divide Sudan into provinces, which they then subdivide into smaller administrative units that usually correspond to tribal territories.
The Near East (1828–1971 CE): Canals, Mandates, Revolutions, and Wars of State-Building
Geography & Environmental Context
The Near East comprises Israel, Egypt, Sudan, western Saudi Arabia (the Hejaz), most of Jordan, southwestern Cyprus, southwestern Turkey, and Yemen. Anchors include the Nile Valley and Delta; Sinai; the Suez Isthmus and canal corridor; the Levantine coast from Gaza to Haifa; the Jordan Valley/Dead Sea basin; the Hejaz mountains and holy cities; Adana–Antalya and the Taurus foothills; southwestern Cyprus; and the Yemeni highlands and Tihāmah coast. River corridors, oases, and pilgrimage routes tied deserts, littorals, and mountain terraces into one strategic web.
Climate & Environmental Shifts
Late Little Ice Age variability gave way to warmer 20th-century trends, but water remained fate: Nile flood failures (e.g., 1877–78) and later regulation under the Aswan Low Dam (1902, raisings) and High Dam (1960–70) re-timed flows, sediments, and fisheries. Dust storms and drought pulses hit Jordan and the Negev; the Hejaz depended on erratic wadis and wells. In Sudan, Sahelian rainfall swings stressed grazing and Gezira canal allocations. Yemen’s terrace agriculture rose and fell with monsoon irregularity; cyclones occasionally lashed the Red Sea and Arabian coasts.
Subsistence & Settlement
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Egypt & Sudan: From the cotton boom (Crimean War, U.S. Civil War) to state irrigation and the Gezira Scheme (from 1925), export agriculture reoriented peasant fellahin labor. Cairo, Alexandria, and canal towns (Port Said, Ismailia, Suez) surged; Khartoum–Omdurman and riverine Sudanese towns became administrative and trade hubs, then capitals at independence (Sudan, 1956).
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Levant & Jordan: Mixed cereals, olives, and citrus persisted; irrigated citrus at Jaffa and valley schemes in Jordan expanded. After 1948, refugee camps, new towns, and state farming projects reshaped settlement on both sides of the Jordan.
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Israel (from 1948): Rapid urbanization (Tel Aviv, Haifa), coastal citrus and cotton, irrigated Negev schemes, and collective kibbutzim and moshavim reconfigured land use.
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Hejaz (western Saudi Arabia): Mecca–Medina economies centered on hajj provisioning, construction, and services; Jidda grew as the gateway port.
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Yemen: Highland terraces (sorghum, coffee, qat) supported dense villages; Aden (British, 1839–1967) was a coaling and bunkering hub, later a refinery port.
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SW Turkey & SW Cyprus: Citrus, tobacco, cotton, and coastal trade tied Antalya–Adana basins and Cypriot ports into Mediterranean circuits; SW Cyprus shifted from mixed farming to remittance- and tourism-adjacent services by mid-century.
Technology & Material Culture
Irrigation barrages, canals, and later high dams transformed the Nile and Gezira. The Suez Canal (opened 1869) revolutionized global shipping, spawning company towns and a cosmopolitan dockside material culture. Railways (Cairo–Aswan; Haifa lines; Hejaz Railway to Medina, partial after 1908), and later highways and pipelines, re-mapped mobility. Urban crafts modernized into mills, ginneries, refineries, cement works, and shipyards (Alexandria, Suez, Aden, Haifa). Print, records, cinema, radio, and then television spread from Cairo and Jaffa to remote valleys; domestic life pivoted from mud-brick and courtyard houses toward apartment blocks and concrete terraces.
Movement & Interaction Corridors
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Canal & Red Sea trunk: The Suez Canal fused Mediterranean and Indian Ocean worlds; bazaars, souks, and shipping firms connected Port Said to Bombay and Marseille.
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Pilgrimage highways: Annual hajj flows—by steamer and road—underwrote Hejazi economies; 20th-century health, water, and transport investments scaled the pilgrimage.
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Mandates & air routes: British and French mandate systems (to the north and east) touched this subregion via ports and pipelines; air corridors (Cairo, Lydda/Lod, Jidda, Aden) knitted it to empire and, later, post-imperial networks.
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Refuge and labor: After 1948, Palestinian displacement reshaped Gaza, Jordan, and Israel; Sudanese and Egyptian workers circulated along river and canal fronts; Yemeni and Hejazi workers moved between Aden, Jidda, and the Gulf.
Cultural & Symbolic Expressions
Cairo’s presses, al-Azhar reforms, and the Nahda (Arab renaissance) seeded newspapers, novels, and constitutional ideas; Umm Kulthūm, ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, and film studios made Egypt the Arabic world’s cultural capital. Zionist revival in Hebrew letters, schools, and settlement institutions culminated in Israeli state culture after 1948. Coptic institutions in Egypt, Jewish and Christian communities in Palestine/Israel, Greek communities in Cyprus, and Zaydi religious life in Yemen signaled deep pluralism. The hajj remained the ritual axis of the Hejaz. Street murals, political posters, and radio speeches (from Nasser to King ʿAbdullāh, from Imam Yahyā to President al-Sallāl, the first head of the Yemen Arab Republic) turned modern media into public ritual.
Environmental Adaptation & Resilience
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Water mastery: Barrages, canals, and later the High Dam stabilized irrigation but altered silt, fisheries, and disease ecologies; drainage and sāqiya replacement reduced water-borne burdens even as schistosomiasis lingered.
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Terrace care: In Palestine, Jordan, and Yemen, stone terraces and cisterns conserved soil and water; spring captures and wadis were regulated for villages and kibbutzim.
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Pastoral pivots: In Sudan and the Hejaz, herders shifted routes with drought; market sedentarization advanced along roads and rail.
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Urban services: Public health campaigns (malaria control, vaccination), modern hospitals, and grain boards buffered shocks; rationing and port provisioning sustained cities during wars and closures.
Political & Military Shocks
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Egypt & Sudan: ʿUrābī Revolt (1881–82) and British occupation (1882); Anglo-Egyptian Condominium in Sudan (1899); Egyptian Revolution (1952); Suez Crisis (1956) after canal nationalization; Sudanese independence (1956) and post-colonial realignments.
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Hejaz & western Arabia: Hashemite control ended with Saudi conquest (1925); pilgrimage administration and urban growth accelerated under the new state.
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Israel–Arab wars: 1948–49 war and armistices; 1956 Suez War; 1967 Six-Day War (Sinai, Gaza, West Bank, Golan outside our strict list but West Bank affects Jordan); War of Attrition (1969–70) along the Suez.
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Jordan: Emirate (1921), independence (1946), refugee integration after 1948, and Black September (1970) tensions.
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Cyprus (SW): British administration (from 1878), enosis debates, and independence (1960) set the stage for later crises.
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Yemen: Imamate rule in the north; Aden under Britain; North Yemen Civil War (1962–70) pitted republicans and royalists with Egyptian and Saudi intervention; South Yemen independence (1967) transformed Aden.
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Turkey (SW): From Ottoman to Republic (1923); land and port development in Adana–Antalya, integration with national reforms.
Transition
Between 1828 and 1971, the Near East shifted from an Ottoman-provincial world of canals, caravans, and terraces into a mosaic of post-imperial states and mass politics. The Suez Canal remade global trade; British occupation, mandate-era corridors, and Zionist settlement recast demographics and power; 1948, 1956, and 1967 etched borders through cities and fields. Nasserist high modernism—dams, factories, land reform—collided with cold-war alignments and regional wars. In the Hejaz, the hajj scaled into a modern infrastructural pilgrimage; in Yemen, revolutions and decolonization closed the imperial coaling age of Aden. By 1971, the subregion’s everyday life—from Nile canals and Jordan terraces to Hejazi hostels and Yemeni hill towns—was reordered by states, mass media, and wars, setting the stage for oil-era geopolitics and yet-deeper contests over water, land, and sovereignty.
Initiated by Dejazmach Wube Haile Maryam to overthrow Ras Ali II as Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia and gain control of the country, this confused battle is won by Ras Ali, but at a steep price, and this victory fails to cement his position as the most powerful nobleman of his time.
His enemies are still operating in Gojjam, Damot, Dembiya, and Lasta; the clergy is still hostile to him, and his own Christian subjects in Begemder and Amhara are even more disaffected.
To secure the Abuna's help, he will be forced to free Dejazmach Wube and go to war against his ally Dejazmach Merso to help Wube recover his territories.
His Moslem allies in Welo, alarmed at the Christian Birru Aligaz being invested on their borders, will likewise grow disaffected.
Ras Ali will be forced to seek help elsewhere, and seek it from the Egyptians, who at the moment Are consolidating their hold on Sudan.
Although in the short term a beneficial move, this will only serve to further erode his local support, leading to a vicious cycle leading to Ras Ali's eventual defeat by a competent rival—the future Emperor Tewodros I.
Because Sudan is close to Middle Eastern slave markets, it is a natural supplier of captives.
Consequently, the slave trade in the South intensifies in the nineteenth century and continues after the British have suppressed slaving in much of sub-Saharan Africa.
Annual raids result in the capture of countless thousands of Southern Sudanese and the destruction of the region's economy and stability.
The horrors associated with the slave trade generate European interest in Sudan.
The Near East, 1852 to 1863 CE: Economic Shifts and Societal Transformations
The Suez Canal and Economic Concessions
In 1854, Egypt’s ruler, Sa'id Pasha, grants his friend, French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps, a significant concession to construct a canal linking the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. The resulting Suez Canal Company undertakes the project under terms highly favorable to the company but costly to Egypt. The agreement includes granting the company a strip of tax-free land between the Nile and the canal site, allowing lucrative cultivation along a freshwater canal built there. Additionally, Sa'id provides labor for the canal’s construction, amounting effectively to forced labor.
Agricultural and Industrial Developments
Following the economic setbacks after Muhammad Ali's rule, Sa'id attempts economic revival by reintroducing key agricultural, educational, and irrigation projects initiated by his father. Under Sa'id’s administration, Egypt passes its first land law in 1858, formally establishing private land ownership rights. He dismantles previous agricultural monopolies, permitting landowners to freely sell their produce and select their crops. Sa'id also modernizes the Egyptian military by standardizing military service and implementing Egypt’s first organized pension system for public servants.
Decline of Industrial Ambitions and Rise of Cotton Export
Muhammad Ali’s ambitious plan to industrialize Egypt had largely failed by the time of his death, undermined by internal limitations and external European pressures. Despite these setbacks, Egyptian agriculture experiences significant growth, particularly in cotton exports. Driven by British demand, Egypt’s export of long-staple cotton increases dramatically, tripling between 1840 and 1860. During the American Civil War, cotton production in Egypt expands even further, with prices rising significantly due to global shortages.
Socioeconomic Changes and the Emergence of New Classes
The integration of Egypt into the global capitalist economy profoundly reshapes its social structure. A powerful elite emerges, primarily composed of large landowners of Turco-Circassian descent, alongside a growing middle class of medium-sized Egyptian landowners. In rural areas, rising debts force peasants off their land, prompting migration to urban centers where they swell the ranks of the urban poor and unemployed. Concurrently, cities witness the rise of a professional middle class including civil servants, lawyers, teachers, and technicians, alongside the influx of Western ideas and cultural practices.
Slavery and Administrative Changes in Sudan
In 1854, under European pressure, Egypt officially ends state participation in the slave trade and completely prohibits slave trading by 1860. However, enforcement is weak, allowing private slave traders, equipped with steamboats and firearms, to continue operations, overwhelming local resistance. This unchecked trade contributes to the rise of private armies and "bush empires" led by groups such as the Baqqara Arabs in southern Sudan.
During this period, Ottoman authorities also introduce secular commercial and criminal legal codes in Egypt and Sudan, reducing the influence of traditional Islamic qadi courts to personal status issues. The administration promotes orthodox Islamic teachings favored by the Ottoman government, staffing mosques and schools with personnel trained at Cairo's renowned Al-Azhar University. However, many Sudanese reject this official orthodoxy, preferring traditional religious practices.
Sudanese Economic Development and Continued Exploitation
In Sudan, the Egyptian government encourages economic growth primarily through state monopolies exporting slaves, ivory, and gum arabic. Tribal land previously held communally increasingly transitions to private ownership, often controlled by influential tribal leaders who sell land to external buyers. Despite attempts at diversification, the slave trade remains the dominant economic activity in Sudan until its gradual suppression in the late 1860s.
Legacy of the Era: Societal and Economic Reorientation
The era from 1852 to 1863 highlights significant transformations in Egypt and Sudan, driven by economic integration into global markets, agricultural expansion, and profound societal shifts. These changes, while initially fostering economic growth, deepen Egypt's dependency on European markets and contribute to internal social stratification, shaping the political and economic contours of the Near East for decades to come.
Thereafter, authorities have sold licenses to private traders who compete with government slave raids.
In 1854 Cairo ends state participation in the slave trade and in 1860, in response to European pressure, prohibits the slave trade altogether.
However, the Egyptian army fails to enforce the prohibition against the private armies of the slave traders.
The introduction of steamboats and firearms enables slave traders to overwhelm local resistance and prompts the creation of southern "bush empires" by Baqqara Arabs.
In some areas, tribal land, which had been held in common, becomes the private property of the sheikhs, who sometimes sell it to buyers outside the tribe, but the slave trade is the most profitable business in Sudan and remains the focus of Egyptian interests in the country until its gradual suppression in the 1860s.
The change reduced the prestige of the qadis, Islamic judges whose sharia courts are confined to dealing with matters of personal status.
The Turkiyyah also encourages a religious orthodoxy favored in the Ottoman Empire.
The government builds mosques and staffs religious schools and courts with teachers and judges trained at Cairo's Al-Azhar University.
The government favors the Khatrniyyah, a traditional religious order, because its leaders cooperate with the regime, but Sudanese Muslims condemn the official orthodoxy as decadent because it has rejected popular beliefs and practices.
During this era, regional princes, and noble lords of diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds have vied with each other for power and control of the Gondarine Emperor.
A puppet Emperor of the Solomonic dynasty would be enthroned in Gondar by one nobleman, only to be dethroned and replaced by another member of the Imperial dynasty when a different regional prince was able to seize Gondar and the reins of power.
Regions such as Gojjam and Shewa are ruled by their own branches of the Imperial dynasty and, in Shewa, the local prince goes as far as assuming the title of King.
In Wollo, competing royal powerful Oromo and Muslim dynasties also vie for power.
Nevertheless, a semblance of order and unity has been maintained in northern Ethiopia during the era of the Princes by the powerful rases of the Were Sheik dynasty of Wollo such as Ras Ali the Great and Ras Gugsa who control Gondar and the Emperor.
Kassa had begun his career in this era as a shifta (outlaw), but after amassing a sizable force of followers, had been able to not only restore himself to his father's previous fief of Qwara but had been able to control all of Dembiya.
Moreover, he had gained popular support by his benevolent treatment of the inhabitants in the areas he controls.
This had garnered notice of the nobleman in control of Gondar, Ras Ali II of Yejju of Wollo.
Empress Menen Liben Amede, wife of Emperor Yohannes III, and the daughter of Ras Ali had arranged for Kassa to marry her granddaughter, Tewabech Ali.
She had awarded him all of Ye Meru Qemas in the hopes of binding him firmly to her son and herself.
Although all sources and authorities believe that Kassa truly loved and respected his wife, his relationship with his new in-laws deteriorated largely because of the disdainful treatment he repeatedly received from the Empress Menen.
By 1852, he had rebelled against Ras Ali and, in a series of victories—Gur Amaba, Takusa, Ayshal, and Amba Jebell —over the next three years he had handily defeated every army the Ras and the Empress sent against him.
At Ayshal he had captured the Empress Menen, and Ras Ali had fled.
Kassa had announced that he was deposing Emperor Yohannes III, then marched on his greatest remaining rival, Dejazmach Wube Haile Maryam of Semien.
Following the defeat of Dejazmach Wube, Kassa is crowned Emperor by Abuna Salama III in the church of Derasge Maryam on February 11, 1855.
He takes the throne name of Tewodros II, attempting to fulfill a prophecy that a man named Tewodros will restore the Ethiopian Empire to greatness and rule for forty years.
Tewodros had refused to acknowledge an attempt to restore the former Emperor Sahle Dengel in the place of the hapless Yohannes III, who had acknowledged Tewodros immediately.
Yohannes III is treated well by Tewodros, who seems to have had some personal sympathy for him.
His views on Sahle Dengel are not known but are not likely to have been sympathetic.
In the nineteenth century, the Azande fight the French, the Belgians and the Mahdists to maintain their independence.
Egypt, under the rule of Khedive Isma'il Pasha, first attempts to control the region in the 1870s, establishing the province of Equatoria in the southern portion.