Publish :  1899

Pages :  288

Download :  29,885

The River War

An Account of the Reconquest of the Sudan

By    Winston Churchill

The reconquest of the Egyptian Sudan was a military achievement remarkable first of all for the fact that unvarying and complete success attended every movement form the advance from Wady Halfa to the defeat and death of the Khalifa. This success was mainly due to one man endowed with extraordinary organizing genius, seconded by able and zealous subordinates.

avery of the aboriginals is outweighed by the intelligence of the invaders and their superior force of character. During the second century of the Mohammedan era, when the inhabitants of Arabia went forth to conquer the world, one adventurous army struck south. The first pioneers were followed at intervals by continual immigrations of Arabs not only from Arabia but also across the deserts from Egypt and Marocco. The element thus introduced has spread and is spreading throughout the Soudan, as water soaks into a dry sponge. The aboriginals absorbed the invaders they could not repel. The stronger race imposed its customs and language on the negroes. The vigour of their blood sensibly altered the facial appearance of the Soudanese. For more than a thousand years the influence of Mohammedanism, which appears to possess a strange fascination for negroid races, has been permeating the Soudan, and, although ignorance and natural obstacles impede the progress of new ideas, the whole of the black race is gradually ado