| Beginning of the FASHODA CRISIS, between Britain and France (See Sept. 19). Since March 1896 the Egyptian forces, under Gen. Sir Herbert Kitchener, had been advancing up the Nile. The dervishes were decisively defeated on the Atbara River (April 8, 1898) and at Omdurman (Sept. 2). During the same period British expeditions were trying to reach the Nile from Uganda, all with the object of heading off the French, with whom the Congo government cooperated. The Marchand mission, sent out in Feb. 1896, succeeded, after countless delays and hardships, in reaching the Nile at Fashoda (now Kodok) on July 10, 1898, and establishing itself there. After the Battle of Omdurman, Kitchener at once proceeded up the Nile, where he found Marchand. The latter refused to evacuate without orders of his government. There ensued the most acute crisis in Anglo-French relations during the whole prewar period. The British refused to discuss the pros and cons of the French claims until Marchand had evacuated territory that the British claimed for Egypt by right of conquest. The French government, harassed by the Dreyfus affair (See 1894–1906), found itself unprepared for war at sea and, securing no support from Russia (visit of Muraviev to Paris, Oct.), it yielded to a poorly veiled threat of war. On Nov. 3 the evacuation of Fashoda was ordered. The French claims were not settled until March 21, 1899, when they were obliged to renounce all territory along the Nile, in return for worthless districts in the Sahara. The episode made more difficult the pursuit of a policy of friendship with Britain, as advocated by Théophile Delcassé, French foreign minister from June 1898 to June 1905. | 2 |
