By about the middle of the 19th century, almost all major European states had colonies in various regions of the globe. During the last quarter of the 19th century, however, the tendency of Europeans to expand existing colonies or to establish new ones became widespread; this tendency became known as “colonial imperialism». The same effort for colonial expansion was made by Japan in the Far East, having visions on the opposite shores of China.
This movement first manifested itself in the United Kingdom during the prime ministership of Benjamin Disraeli (1874-1880). France then took over, expanding its colonial empire to areas such as Tunis, West Africa, Madagascar and Indochina. Despite being a strong European and world power, France had no significant alliances on the Old Continent, as a result of the network of alliances against her that the Iron Chancellor had created Otto von Bismarck. Even after his abdication in 1890, France was trying to balance the exigencies of its traditional rivalry with the United Kingdom with those arising from its hostile relations with Germany. The competition for the claim of the colonial territories certainly further strained the Franco-British relations. The two powers, after all, had common fields of action in Africa.
In particular, after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, Egypt became an area of extremely great importance for the control of maritime transport and the conduct of world trade. From 1882 the British exercised sovereignty over Egypt, which was de jure part of the Ottoman Empire, wishing to control this important hub for their interests. In their plans was the future railway connection of Egypt with their possessions in South Africa.
In the 1890s, however, France tried to challenge British supremacy in Egypt. In 1894 and 1895 the British warned the French that any action by them in the South Sudan, where the sources of the Nile were located, would provoke their “most serious conflict” to date. Controlling the course of the Nile was considered crucial to rule in Egypt. Despite British warnings, the French sent an expeditionary force under officer Jean Baptiste Marchand to cross Africa, starting from Senegal in the west to the French possession of Djibouti in the east. As it becomes apparent, the imperialism of the two strongest colonial powers intersected – specifically in South Sudan.
On July 10, 1898, Marchand’s group arrived at the village of Fasonda and raised the issue of sovereignty over the area. The British reacted immediately, sending an expeditionary force under Lord Herbert Kitchener to retake the upper Nile. The power difference between the two sides was huge. The British had mobilized over 1,500 men, while the French mission consisted of just over 150 men. Around Fasonda the French raised a wall of mud in their attempt to protect themselves from British fire. However, the episode in Fasonda was the fuse for the military mobilization of the two forces. The French began massing an army in the English Channel and everything seemed to indicate that Europe was on the brink of a new war in the summer of 1898.
That summer Théophile Delcassé took over the reins of foreign policy. Delcassé foresaw that a match with the United Kingdom at that time would be a disaster for France. He decided to give in to the demands of the British. On 3 November 1898 he ordered both Marchand and the troops mobilized elsewhere to fall back to their original positions. His ultimate aim was in this way to secure profits for France in Morocco.
Column editor: Myrto Katsigera, Vassilis Minakakis, Antigoni-Despina Poimenidou, Athanasios Syroplakis
