116 



The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. 



When England, after the re-conquest of the Sudan in 1898, took 

 over the management of the country together with Egypt, without 

 the system of capitulations, which was found to be so harassing in 

 Egypt, nothing but chaos had to be faced in the Sudan. 

 Enormous stretches of the country were entirely laid waste, 

 production and consumption being reduced to a minimum, 

 business of all description was undermined, and what was 

 the worst of all, the population had decreased in an alarming manner 

 during the ravages of the Dervish regime. Whereas about 

 8J millions of natives were living in the Egyptian Sudan in 1882, in 

 16 years 3^ millions had lost their lives in wars, and about the same 

 number had succumbed to illnesses and starvation. During many 

 years neither life nor property had been secure, and the population 

 had declined to about 1^ millions, and this in a country which, with 

 the addition of Lado Enclave, covered an area of 2,505,900 square 

 kilometres, and is consequently five times the size of Germany. 



How does this country look? . 



THE LAND. 



Contrary to the hilly Western Sudan, lying within the sphere 

 of French influence, the flat Egyptian part of the Sudan, extending 

 between the 5 and 22 northern latitude, in which the Nile waters 

 a narrow strip of fertile land, is mostly a steppe. The 

 North shows first a continuation of the Egyptian desert, 

 then follows from near the Atbara savanna land, covered 

 with scrub and brush, mostly acacias, and only in the most southern 

 portion does the vegetation become tropical. The chief products of 

 the Sudan for the export trade were always gum arabic, ivory, 

 ostrich feathers, and some rubber, but also the whole of the plants 

 cultivated in Egypt grow well in the Sudan. It is estimated that 

 only 8,000 square kilometres, i.e.,, 3 per 1,000 of this immense dis- 

 trict, were under cultivation in 1909, the rest was desert, steppe, 

 swamp, and virgin forest. A rather important factor as to the 

 fertility of the soil are the " Wadis," i.e., more or less perceptible 

 hollows which have been washed out on the surface by rain, dried-up 

 watercourses, in which more moisture has remained than in the 

 surrounding parts of the land. They are not only the cultivable spots 

 in all the regions that do not lie close to a river and have no satis- 

 factory rainfall, but also the best natural meadows. 



The population of the Sudan has, meanwhile, risen again to 

 almost three millions, of which in the year 1907, in round figures, 

 3,100 were Europeans, and 17,000 Egyptians, Abyssinians, and 

 Indians. The capital, Khartoum, with Khartoum North and Omdur- 

 man, had at that time a resident population of 127,000, of whom 

 2,400 were Europeans. Fifty per cent, of the total population are 

 found in the two provinces of Kordofan and Bahr-el-Ghasal. 



