1.
2008 attack on Omdurman and Khartoum
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In May 2008, the Justice and Equality Movement, a Darfur ethnic minority rebel group, undertook a raid against the Sudanese government in the cities of Omdurman and Khartoum. More than 220 people were reported to be killed in the raid, including a Russian pilot and it was the first time that the War in Darfur, previously confined to western Sudan, reached the countrys capital. Overall, the war has claimed the lives of up to 300,000 people, despite decades of warfare in Southern Sudan, Khartoum had not experienced any street fighting since 1976. On May 10,2008, Sudanese National Islamic Front government troops, witnesses reported heavy gunfire and artillery fire in the west of Sudans capital and Sudan Peoples Armed Forces helicopters and vehicles rushing through the streets towards Omdurman. The plane was shot down by a machine gun and the pilot was killed as his parachute did not open after ejecting. JEM forces entered the city of Omdurman, targeting the Arbaeen military base, government troops backed up by tanks, artillery, and helicopter gunships were immediately deployed to Omdurman, and heavy fighting raged for several hours. Both attacks were repelled by government forces, Sudanese police said the alleged leader of the attackers, Mohamed Saleh Garbo, and his intelligence chief, Mohamed Nur Al-Deen, were both killed in the clash. The government declared an overnight curfew shortly after its cessation of hostilities at 1400 GMT. The JEM, however, had denied the claim of victory against the rebels, instead stating that fighting was still going on in Omdurman. According to a report by Human Rights Watch, sporadic fighting continued for the next 48 hours, Omdurman residents said there was more fighting on the morning of May 11. There were also reports of fighting on May 12 at markets in central Khartoum, the group has identified their goal as the overthrow of Omar al-Bashirs military government. He also said the rebels lost at least two-thirds of their vehicles, while the interior minister Ibrahim Mahmoud said the government forces destroyed more than 40 and seized about 17 vehicles. Also on this day, JEM admitted defeat in the raid in which said a third of all their fighters took part. The groups deputy chairman, Mahmoud Suleiman, said in a statement that it might have lost the Khartoum battle, but it has not lost the war. Turabi was released later that day, denying any such relationship between the PNC and JEM, the government said it has learned lessons from the raid and will be better prepared next time. It also offered a $125,000 USD bounty for Ibrahim, as one batch of the sentences was handed down, the condemned men stood up and shouted Go, JEM, go. Chad denied the allegations, but Sudan immediately cut off relations with Chad for the first time since a non-aggression pact was signed between the two governments in mid-March. He expressed concern about the effects that the attack would have on the UNs own efforts in the region and we want to see a calm and order restored
2.
Anglo-Egyptian invasion of Sudan
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The Anglo-Egyptian invasion of Sudan in 1896–1899 was a reconquest of territory lost by the Khedives of Egypt in 1884 and 1885 during the Mahdist War. The British had failed to organise a withdrawal of Egyptian forces from Sudan. The invasion of 1896-99 defeated and destroyed the Mahdist state and re-established Anglo-Egyptian rule, there was a considerable body of opinion in Britain in favour of retaking Sudan after 1885, largely to avenge Gordon. However Lord Cromer, the British Consul-General in Egypt, had been the architect of the British withdrawal after the Mahdist uprising and he remained sure that Egypt needed to recover its financial position before any invasion could be contemplated. Sudan is worth a good deal to Egypt he said, but it is not worth bankruptcy, as late as 15 November 1895 he had been assured by the British government that it had no plans to invade Sudan. The French government had in fact just dispatched Jean-Baptiste Marchand up the Congo with the aim of reaching Fashoda on the White Nile. This encouraged the British to attempt the full-scale defeat of the Mahdist state, Lord Salisbury then ordered the Sirdar, Brigadier Herbert Kitchener to make preparations for an advance up the Nile. As Governor-General of Suakin from 1886–88, Kitchener had held off the Mahdist forces under Osman Digna from the Red Sea coast, Kitchener took a methodical, unhurried approach to recovering Sudan. In the first year his objective was to recover Dongola, in the second, to construct a new railway from Wadi Halfa to Abu Hamad, in the third, to retake Khartoum. All the soldiers were Sudanese or Egyptian, with the exception of a few hundred men from the North Staffordshire Regiment and some Maxim gunners. The Egyptian army in the 1880s was consciously trying to distance itself from the times of Muhammad Ali, nevertheless on the eve of the 1896 invasion the manumission status and precise recruitment conditions of many Sudanese soldiers in the Egyptian army was unclear. Egyptian conscripts were required to serve six years in the army, whereas Sudanese soldiers enlisted before 1903 were signed up for life, Kitchener placed great importance on transport and communications. Reliance on river transport, and the vagaries of the Nile flooding, had reduced Garnet Wolseleys Nile Expedition to failure in 1885 and this required the building of new railways to support his invasion forces. The first phase of railway building followed the campaign up the Nile to the supply base at Akasha. This bypassed the second cataract of the Nile and thereby ensured that supplies could reach Dongola all year round, the railway extended as far as Akasha on 26 June and as far as Kosheh on 4 August 1896. A dockyard was constructed and three new gunboats, larger than the Egyptian river boats already deployed, were brought in sections by rail. Each carried one 12-pounder forward-firing gun, two 6-pounders midships and four Maxim guns, at the end of August 1896 storms washed away a 12-mile section of the railway as preparations were being made to advance on Dongola. Kitchener personally supervised 5,000 men who worked night and day to ensure it was rebuilt in a week, after Dongola was taken, this line was extended south to Kermah
3.
Mahdist War
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Eighteen years of war resulted in the joint-rule state of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, a condominium of the British Empire and the Kingdom of Egypt. Following the invasion by Muhammad Ali in 1819, Sudan was governed by an Egyptian administration, because of the heavy taxes it imposed and because of the bloody start of the Turkish-Egyptian rule in Sudan, this colonial system was resented by the Sudanese people. Throughout the period of Turco-Egyptian rule, many segments of the Sudanese population suffered extreme hardship because of the system of taxation imposed by the central government. Under this system, a tax was imposed on farmers and small traders. In bad years, and especially during times of drought and famine, fearing the brutal and unjust methods of the Shaiqiyya, many farmers fled their villages in the fertile Nile Valley to the remote areas of Kordofan and Darfur. The jallaba were also known to be slave trading tribes, by the middle 19th century the Ottoman Imperial subject administration in Egypt was in the hands of Khedive Ismail. Thus an ever increasing British role in Egyptian affairs seemed necessary and this commission eventually forced Khedive Ismail to abdicate in favor of his son Tawfiq in 1877, leading to a period of political turmoil. Also in 1873, Ismail had appointed General Charles Chinese Gordon Governor of the Equatorial Provinces of Sudan, for the next three years, General Gordon fought against a native chieftain of Darfur, Al-Zubayr Rahma Mansur. Upon Ismails abdication in 1877, Gordon found himself with dramatically decreased support, exhausted by years of work, he resigned his post in 1880 and left early the next year. His policies were soon abandoned by the new governors, but the anger, another widely reported potential source of frustration was the Turco-Egyptian abolition of the slave trade, one of the main sources of income in Sudan at the time. In the 1870s, a Muslim cleric named Muhammad Ahmad preached renewal of the faith and liberation of the land, soon in open revolt against the Egyptians, Muhammad Ahmad proclaimed himself the Mahdi, the promised redeemer of the Islamic world. In August 1881 the then-governor of the Sudan, Raouf Pasha, the captains of the two companies were each promised promotion if their soldiers were the ones to return the Mahdi to the governor. Both companies disembarked from the steamer that had brought them up the Nile to Aba Island, arriving simultaneously, each force began to fire blindly on the other, allowing the Mahdis scant followers to attack and destroy each force in turn at the Battle of Aba. The Mahdi then began a retreat to Kordofan, where he was at a distance from the seat of government in Khartoum. This movement, couched as a progress, incited many of the Arab tribes to rise in support of the Jihad the Mahdi had declared against the Turkish oppressors. Another Egyptian expedition dispatched from Fashoda was ambushed and slaughtered on the night of 9 December 1881, the Mahdi also legitimized his movement by drawing deliberate parallels to the life of the Prophet Muhammad. He called his followers Ansar, after the people who greeted the Prophet in Medina, and he called his flight from the British, the hijrah, after the Prophets flight from the Quraysh. The Egyptian administration in the Sudan, now thoroughly concerned by the scale of the uprising and this force approached the Mahdist gathering, whose members were poorly clothed, half starving, and armed only with sticks and stones
4.
Omdurman
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Omdurman is the largest city in Sudan and Khartoum State, lying on the western banks of the River Nile, opposite the capital, Khartoum. Omdurman has a population of 2,395,159 and is the centre of commerce. With Khartoum and Khartoum North or Bahri, it forms the cultural and industrial heart of the nation, the name Omdurman literally translates as Mother of Durmān, but who she was or might have been is not known. There are unattested legends of a known as Umm Durmān who lived in an area at the confluence of the White and Blue Niles. In 1884, Muḥammad Aḥmad, the Mahdi, made his headquarters in the village of Omdurman. The conflicts that followed over the fifteen years have become known as the Mahdist War. Following the defeat of the defenders of Khartoum in 1885. The city, now the location of the tomb of the Mahdi, however, in the Battle of Omdurman in 1898, Lord Kitchener decisively defeated the Mahdist forces and killed the Khalifa, ensuring British control over the Sudan. In the battle Omdurman, the British army faced Sudanese defenders consisting of over 52,000 poorly armed desert tribesmen dervishes, in space of five hours the battle was over. The Sudanese defenders suffered over 93 percent casualty with at least 10,000 killed, by contrast there were fewer than four hundred casualties on the British side with forty-eight British soldiers lost their life. Then, General Kitchener proceeded to order the destruction of the Mahdis tomb, Kitchener restored Khartoum as the capital and, from 1899 until 1956 Sudan was jointly governed by Great Britain and Egypt. Although most of the city was destroyed in the battle, the Mahdis tomb was restored and refurbished, on 10 May 2008 the Darfur rebel group of the Justice and Equality Movement moved into the city where they engaged in heavy fighting with Sudanese government forces. Their goal was to topple Omar Hassan al-Bashirs government, Omdurman features a hot desert climate, with only the months of July and August seeing significant precipitation. Khartoum averages a little over 155 millimetres of precipitation per year, based on annual mean temperatures, Omdurman is one of the hottest major cities in the world. Temperatures may exceed 53 °C in mid-summer. It has dry winters and its average annual high temperature is 37.1 °C, with six months of the year seeing an average monthly high temperature of at least 38 °C. Furthermore, throughout the year, none of its average high temperatures falls below 30 °C. This is something not seen in major cities with hot desert climates such as Riyadh or Baghdad or Phoenix. Although its diurnal temperature variation is fair enough temperatures cool off during the night, the city literally does not experience seasons, just like most parts of the Arabian peninsula and north-eastern Africa where its either hot or very hot all year long
5.
Khartoum
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Khartoum is the capital and second largest city of Sudan and the state of Khartoum. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile, flowing north from Lake Victoria, the location where the two Niles meet is known as al-Mogran. The main Nile continues to north towards Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. The origin of the word, Khartoum, is uncertain, one theory argues that khartoum is derived from Arabic khurṭūm, probably referring to the narrow strip of land extending between the Blue and White Niles. Some scholars speculate that the word derives from the Nubian word, Agartum, other Beja scholars suggest Khartoum is derived from the Beja word, Hartoom. Additionally, the dream interpreting magicians in Genesis 41,8 are referred to as חַרְטֻמֵּ֥י, suggesting that in ancient times the word already existed. In 1821, Khartoum was established 24 kilometres north of the ancient city of Soba, by Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Egypts ruler, Muhammad Ali Pasha, who had just incorporated Sudan into his realm. Originally, Khartoum served as an outpost for the Egyptian Army and it also became a focal point for the slave trade. Later, it became the center of Sudan and official capital. On 13 March 1884, troops loyal to the Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad started a siege of Khartoum, the siege ended in a massacre of the Anglo-Egyptian garrison. On 26 January 1885, the damaged city fell to the Mahdists. On 2 September 1898, Omdurman was the scene of the bloody Battle of Omdurman, in 1973, the city was the site of an anomalous hostage crisis in which members of Black September held 10 hostages at the Saudi Arabian embassy, five of them diplomats. The US ambassador, the US deputy ambassador, and the Belgian chargé daffaires were murdered, a 1973 United States Department of State document, declassified in 2006, concluded, The Khartoum operation was planned and carried out with the full knowledge and personal approval of Yasser Arafat. In 1977, the first oil pipeline between Khartoum and the Port of Sudan was completed, throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Khartoum was the destination for hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing conflicts in neighboring nations such as Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Uganda. Many Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees assimilated into society, while others settled in large slums at the outskirts of the city, since the mid-1980s, large numbers of refugees from South Sudan and Darfur fleeing the violence of the Second Sudanese Civil War and Darfur conflict have settled around Khartoum. In 1991, Osama bin Laden purchased a house in the affluent al-Riyadh neighborhood of the city and he lived there until 1996, when he was banished from the country. The destruction of the factory produced diplomatic tension between the U. S. and Sudan, the factory ruins are now a tourist attraction. The sudden death of SPLA head and vice-president of Sudan, John Garang, the riots finally died down after Southern Sudanese politicians and tribal leaders sent strong messages to the rioters
6.
Sudan
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Sudan, also known as North Sudan since South Sudans independence and officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northern Africa. It is the third largest country in Africa, the River Nile divides the country into eastern and western halves. Before the Sudanese Civil War, South Sudan was part of Sudan, Sudan was home to numerous ancient civilizations, such as the Kingdom of Kush, Kerma, Nobatia, Alodia, Makuria, Meroë and others, most of which flourished along the Nile. During the pre-dynastic period Nubia and Nagadan Upper Egypt were identical, by virtue of its proximity to Egypt, the Sudan participated in the wider history of the Near East inasmuch as it was Christianized by the 6th century, and Islamized in the 15th. As a result of Christianization, the Old Nubian language stands as the oldest recorded Nilo-Saharan language, Sudan was the largest country in Africa and the Arab world until 2011, when South Sudan separated into an independent country, following an independence referendum. Sudan is now the third largest country in Africa and also the third largest country in the Arab world and its capital is Khartoum, the political, cultural and commercial centre of the nation. It is a representative democratic federal republic. The politics of Sudan are regulated by an organization called the National Assembly. The Sudanese legal system is based on Islamic law, the countrys place name Sudan is a name given to a geographical region to the south of the Sahara, stretching from Western Africa to eastern Central Africa. The name derives from the Arabic bilād as-sūdān, or the lands of the Blacks, during the fifth millennium BC migrations from the drying Sahara brought neolithic people into the Nile Valley along with agriculture. The population that resulted from this cultural and genetic mixing developed social hierarchy over the centuries become the Kingdom of Kush at 1700 BC. The Kingdom of Kush was an ancient Nubian state centered on the confluences of the Blue Nile and White Nile, and the Atbarah River and it was established after the Bronze Age collapse and the disintegration of the New Kingdom of Egypt, centered at Napata in its early phase. After King Kashta invaded Egypt in the eighth century BC, the Kushite kings ruled as pharaohs of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt for a century before being defeated and driven out by the Assyrians. At the height of their glory, the Kushites conquered an empire that stretched from what is now known as South Kordofan all the way to the Sinai, pharaoh Piye attempted to expand the empire into the Near East, but was thwarted by the Assyrian king Sargon II. Sennacheribs successor Esarhaddon went further, and invaded Egypt itself, deposing Taharqa, Taharqa fled back to his homeland where he died two years later. Egypt became an Assyrian colony, however, king Tantamani, after succeeding Taharqa, Esarhaddon died while preparing to leave the Assyrian capital of Nineveh in order to eject him. However, his successor Ashurbanipal sent an army into southern Egypt and routed Tantamani. During Classical Antiquity, the Nubian capital was at Meroë, in ancient Greek geography, the Meroitic kingdom was known as Ethiopia
7.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
8.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established as a sovereign state on 1 January 1801 by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The growing desire for an Irish Republic led to the Irish War of Independence, Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, and the state was consequently renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Britain financed the European coalition that defeated France in 1815 in the Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire thereby became the foremost world power for the next century. The Crimean War with Russia and the Boer wars were relatively small operations in a largely peaceful century, rapid industrialisation that began in the decades prior to the states formation continued up until the mid-19th century. A devastating famine, exacerbated by government inaction in the century, led to demographic collapse in much of Ireland. It was an era of economic modernization and growth of industry, trade and finance. Outward migration was heavy to the colonies and to the United States. Britain also built up a large British Empire in Africa and Asia, India, by far the most important possession, saw a short-lived revolt in 1857. In foreign policy Britain favoured free trade, which enabled its financiers and merchants to operate successfully in many otherwise independent countries, as in South America. Britain formed no permanent military alliances until the early 20th century, when it began to cooperate with Japan, France and Russia, and moved closer to the United States. A brief period of limited independence for Ireland came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the British governments fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with the French resulted in the decision to unite the two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801, however, King George III was bitterly opposed to any such Emancipation and succeeded in defeating his governments attempts to introduce it. When the Treaty of Amiens ended the war, Britain agreed to return most of the territories it had seized, in May 1803, war was declared again. In 1806, Napoleon issued the series of Berlin Decrees, which brought into effect the Continental System and this policy aimed to eliminate the threat from the British by closing French-controlled territory to foreign trade. Frances population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of the British Isles, Napoleon expected that cutting Britain off from the European mainland would end its economic hegemony. The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent, after Napoleons surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned. The Allies united and the armies of Wellington and Blucher defeated Napoleon once, simultaneous with the Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes, arming hostile Indians and British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 1812 with the United States. The war was little noticed in Britain, which could devote few resources to the conflict until the fall of Napoleon in 1814, American frigates inflicted a series of defeats on the Royal Navy, which was short on manpower due to the conflict in Europe
9.
Egypt
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Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian
10.
Khedivate of Egypt
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Upon the conquest of the Sultanate of Egypt by the Ottoman Empire in 1517, the country was governed as an Ottoman eyalet. The Porte was content to local rule to remain in the hands of the Mamluks, the Egyptian military caste of Circassian. Between 1799 and 1801, the Ottoman Porte, working at times with Frances main enemy, by August,1801, the remaining French forces of General Jacques-François Menou withdrew from Egypt. Following the defeat of the French, the Porte assigned Husrev Pasha as the new Wāli of Egypt, many of these were freed by or fled with the British, while others held Minya between Upper and Lower Egypt. Amid these disturbances, Husrev Pasha attempted to disband his Albanian bashi-bazouks without pay and this led to rioting that drove Husrev Pasha from Cairo. During the ensuing turmoil, the Porte sent Muhammad Ali Pasha to Egypt, however, Muhammad Ali seized control of Egypt, declaring himself ruler of Egypt and quickly consolidating an independent local powerbase. After repeated failed attempts to remove and kill him, in 1805, demonstrating his grander ambitions, Muhammad Ali Pasha claimed for himself the higher title of Khedive, ruling the self-proclaimed Khedivate of Egypt. He murdered the remaining Mamluk beys in 1811, solidifying his own control of Egypt and he is regarded as the founder of modern Egypt because of the dramatic reforms he instituted in the military, agricultural, economic and cultural spheres. By this revolutionary method of land nationalization Muhammad Ali became proprietor of nearly all the soil of Egypt, the pasha also attempted to reorganize his troops on European lines, but this led to a formidable mutiny in Cairo. Muhammad Alis life was endangered, and he sought refuge by night in the citadel, the revolt was reduced by presents to the chiefs of the insurgents, and Muhammad Ali ordered that the sufferers by the disturbances should receive compensation from the treasury. The project of the Nizam Gedid was, in consequence of this mutiny, while Ibrahim was engaged in the second Arabian campaign the pasha turned his attention to strengthening the Egyptian economy. He created state monopolies over the products of the country. He set up a number of factories and began digging in 1819 a new canal to Alexandria, the old canal had long fallen into decay, and the necessity of a safe channel between Alexandria and the Nile was much felt. Another notable fact in the progress of the country was the development of the cultivation of cotton in the Delta in 1822. The cotton grown had been brought from the Sudan by Maho Bey, efforts were made to promote education and the study of medicine. To European merchants, on whom he was dependent for the sale of his exports, Muhammad Ali showed much favor and it was also under Muhammad Alis encouragement that the overland transit of goods from Europe to India via Egypt was resumed. In 1820 Muhammad Ali gave orders to commence the conquest of eastern Libya and he first sent an expedition westward which conquered and annexed the Siwa oasis. Alis intentions for Sudan was to extend his rule southward, to capture the caravan trade bound for the Red Sea
Four awards were made of the Victoria Cross, all for gallantry shown on 2 September 1898.
Queen's Sudan Medal, British campaign medal awarded to British and Egyptian forces which took part in the Sudan campaign between 1896 and 1898.
Khedive's Sudan Medal (1897), Egyptian campaign medal awarded to British and Egyptian forces which took part in the Sudan campaign between 1896 and 1898.
