1.32 Africa: a.d. 1801 to 1900  (Page 2/7)

Egypt was independent in all but name. Some gold was found in the southern part and the ivory trade enjoyed a boom. Some 20,000 slaves were imported each year. When Mohammed Ali died in 1849 he left his successors the strongest government, most efficient army and most prosperous economy in Africa. At that time no part of northeast Africa was under any European sovereignty. (Ref. 83 ) Muhammad Ali's grandson, Ismail, educated in France, ascended to power with the title of king, while still paying tribute to Constantinople. 30,000 Egyptian soldiers kept northern Sudan under Turco-Egyptian rule, although there were still tribal chiefs. In south Sudan there was a Shilluk Kingdom of Nilotic people, although under Turkish suzerainty and a large independent tribal group called "Nuers". (Ref. 83 )

A cholera epidemic of 1831 caused the death of 13% of the population of Cairo.

The first Egyptian railway was constructed in 1854 and others in the Near East followed soon after. By 1875 Egypt was the only African country with more than 1,000 miles of railroad track, but wheeled vehicles were otherwise nowhere of use. Long staple cotton had been discovered and put into production in the 1820s and 30s, with new land under cultivation. Cash crops for export from Egypt included that cotton and tobacco and it should be noted that during the American Civil War the demand for Egyptian cotton in- creased greatly so that it became worth ten times as much money as previously. Its worth almost trebled again in the next 45 years. (Ref. 140 , 83 )

French interests constructed the Suez Canal in 1869, but the English gained a share of it by purchase from Egypt in 1875 because the canal saved 41% of the mileage from London to Bombay and 29% of that to Singapore. After the French and English had established a joint control over Egypt in 1880, a native revolt against the British was led by Arabi Pasha in 1881-82, but the British countered with a military expedition two years later which resulted in actual British control of the country, although theoretically it was still under Turkish jurisdiction. The French had withdrawn. In the south the British were repeatedly under attack in the 1880s and 1890s by Muslims led by the Mahdi and his successor, the Khalifa. (Ref. 139 , 8 , 175 , 83 )

At the end of the century the British and French again came to blows over the eastern Sudan. The French backed down and, as mentioned earlier, the Sudan became an Anglo- Egyptian condominium in 1898. Indian immigrants to British East Africa eventually surpassed whites in number, however, and currently the migration of a great many of these dark, British citizens to England is giving the administration much trouble. (Ref. 68 , 154 , 8 )

North central and northwest africa

This was a period when the North African coast was divided among the imperialistic European powers, chiefly France and England. As the latter took over Egypt, France became interested in the more western areas, in spite of some Spanish footholds. Starting about 1830 hundreds of thousands of southern Europeans settled in North Africa, controlling practically all trade, industry and finance, but they did not fuse with the natives racially and they remained a distant and distinct group, arousing increasing local animosity. In the mountains the Berber Montagnards governed themselves in cantons or village republics and often some of these grouped loosely together for mutual protection. In the vast area of the central Sahara the Tauregs, of Berber stock, were arranged in 5 groups or confederations of tribes, named from the massifs that made up the core of their respective territories. Raiding was the profession of the nobles and most had large numbers of Negro slaves. (Ref. 83 )