Fashoda Incident
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The Fashoda Incident (1898) was the climax of territorial disputes between imperial Britain and France in Eastern Africa. It brought Britain and France to the verge of war but ended in a diplomatic victory for Britain.
During the late 19th century, Africa was rapidly being occupied by European colonial powers. This period in African history is usually called the Scramble for Africa. The two major powers involved in this scramble were the United Kingdom and France.
It came to pass that the French thrust into the African interior was mainly from West Africa (modern day Senegal) eastward, through the Sahel along the southern border of the Sahara, a territory covering modern day Senegal, Mali, Niger, and Chad. Their ultimate aim was to have an uninterrupted link between the Niger river and the Nile, hence controlling all trade to and from the Sahel region, by virtue of their existing control over the Caravan routes through the Sahara.
The British, on the other hand, wanted to link their possessions in Southern Africa (modern South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia), with their territories in East Africa (modern Kenya), and these two areas with the Nile basin. Sudan (which in those days included modern day Uganda) was obviously the key to the fulfillment of these ambitions, especially since Egypt was already under British control. This 'red line' (i.e. a proposed railway, see Cape-Cairo railway) through Africa is made most famous by Englishman and South African Political force Cecil Rhodes, who wanted Africa 'painted [British] Red'.
When one draws a line from Cape Town to Cairo (Rhodes' dream), and one from Dakar to the Horn (the French ambition), these two lines intersect somewhere in eastern Sudan near Fashoda (present-day Kodok), explaining its strategic importance. In short, Britain had sought to extend its East African empire contiguously from Cairo to the Cape of Good Hope, while France had sought to extend its own holdings from Dakar to the Sudan, which would enable its empire to span the entire continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.
Fashoda was also bound up in the Egyptian Question – a long running dispute between Britain and France over the legality of the British occupation of Egypt. Since 1882 many French politicians, particularly those of the parti colonial, had come to regret France’s decision not to join with Britain in occupying the country. They hoped to force Britain to leave, and thought that a colonial outpost on the Upper Nile could serve as a base for French gunboats. These in turn were expected to make the British abandon Egypt. Another proposed scheme involved a massive dam, cutting off the Nile’s water supply and forcing the British out. These ideas were highly impractical, but they succeeded in frightening many British officials, who sought to protect Egypt by securing the Nile.
A French force of 150 tirailleurs set out from Brazzaville under Major Jean-Baptiste Marchand with orders to secure the area around Fashoda as a French protectorate. After an epic 14-month trek across the heart of Africa they arrived on 10 July. On 18 September, a powerful flotilla of British gunboats arrived at the isolated fort, led by Lord Kitchener. As the commander of the Anglo-Egyptian army that had just defeated the forces of the Mahdi at the battle of Omdurman, he was in the process of reconquering the Sudan in the name of the Egyptian Khedive. Both sides were polite but insisted on their right to Fashoda.
News of the meeting was relayed to Paris and London, where it inflamed the imperial pride of both nations. Widespread popular outrage followed, each side accusing the other of naked expansionism and aggression. The crisis continued throughout September and October, and both nations began to mobilise their fleets in preparation for war.
Militarily, the situation was heavily in Britain’s favour, a fact that French deputies were to acknowledge in the aftermath of the crisis. The French fleet was badly built and poorly organised, while the British held an advantage both in numbers and technology.
This fact was undoubtedly an important one to Theophile Delcassé, the newly appointed French foreign minister. He was keen to gain Britain’s friendship in a future conflict with Germany, and saw no advantage in a colonial war with them. He therefore pressed hard for a peaceful resolution of the crisis. At the same time, people increasingly began to question the wisdom of war for the sake of such a remote part of Africa. In France, the reopening of the Dreyfus Affair did much to distract public opinion from events in the Sudan. The French government quietly ordered its soldiers to withdraw on 3 November.
In March 1899 the French and British agreed that the source of the Nile and the Congo rivers should mark the frontier between their spheres of influence.
Some historians consider that the resolution of this incident and the increase in strength of Germany were the precursors of the Entente Cordiale. In any case, it was the last serious colonial dispute between Britain and France.
See also
References
- Bates, Darell (1984). The Fashoda incident of 1898: encounter on the Nile. Oxford: OUP, ISBN 0192117718
- David Levering Lewis. The Race for Fashoda. New York: Weidenfield and Nicholson, 1987. ISBN 1555840582
- Wright, Patricia (1972). Conflict on the Nile: the Fashoda incident of 1898. London: Heinemann, ISBN 0434878308de:Faschoda-Krise