Sudan - Challenges to British rule

Question 1

How did Britain gain control of the Sudan ?

Answer 1

• Kitchener conquered the Egyptian Sudan, culminating in the battle of Omdurman and the fall of Khartoum

Question 2

Why did many welcome the downfall of the Mahdist regime ?

Answer 2

• they had severely damaged the Sudanese economy
• population decline of 50% through famine, disease , persecution and warfare

Question 3

How did the British struggle to establish power ?

Answer 3

• took Britain more than 30 years to subdue the tribes in the South Sudan

Question 4

What policies did the British implement in Sudan ?

Answer 4

• British attempted to create a modern government, introduce a new penal codes , establish land tenure rules
• system of taxation for the first time in Sudan which incensed the Sudanese

Question 5

What were the threats / opposition to British rule ?

Answer 5

• Tribes refused to renounce their customs and pay taxation ; inter - tribal feuds persisted, bringing down the heavy hand of the British law
• A total of 33 punitive expeditions were mounted to force tribesmen to accept the new order and rebellious natives were often brutally treated
• Further mahdist uprisings in 1900, 1902-3, 1904 and 1908.

Question 6

How did the tribes react to British rule ?

Answer 6

• Tribes refutes to renounce their customs and pay taxation; inter - tribal feuds persisted, bringing down the heavy hand of the British law

Question 7

How did the British react / suppress the Mahdist uprisings ?

Answer 7

• A series of swift public hangings accompanies the last as the British sought to make an example of rebels, not even affording them a trial

Question 8

Did the British bring development to the Sudan ?

Answer 8

• The region did experience considerable economic development in the hands of the British , particularly in the Nile valley

Question 9

How was their economic development in the Sudan ?

Answer 9

• Telegraph and railway lines were extended to key areas in northern Sudan
• Port Sudan openend in 1906, as the country’s principal outlet to the sea
• In 1911 a joint government / private initiative et up the Gezira scheme to provide high quality cotton for the British textile industry and there was improvements in irrigation schemes

Question 10

How was Britain conquest of the Sudan reported in British press ?

Answer 10

• conquest of Egyptian Sudan was reported in the Daily Mail as having secured the ‘ downfall of the worst tyranny in the world ‘