Chapter 317: East Egypt Border Demarcation Agreement
March 14, 1871.
On the same day that Ernst visited Sweden, East Africa and Egypt formally signed the "Border Demarcation Agreement between the Kingdom of East Africa and Egypt", which determined the border between the two countries.
Starting from 1870, the Sudan region of Egypt began to discover that the number of East Africans in the inland areas was suddenly increasing. Long before that, Khartoum had learned from the eldest prince of Buganda who fled to Sudan that the Buganda Kingdom had been destroyed by East Africa.
However, around 1868, after East Africa completed the integration of the former Buganda Kingdom, it began to explore the Upper Nile Basin downstream along the Nile River. The Upper Nile Basin is densely covered with rivers, and East Africans could take small boats and travel almost unimpeded along the main stream of the White Nile all the way to the Gezira Plain in Sudan.
At this time, East Africa was still in the colonial period, and its main focus was on mapping and counting the rivers in Sudan. However, during the Third War of Conquest, East Africa took advantage of the situation and occupied the entire upper Nile basin to connect the territories of the Azande Plateau and the Ethiopian Plateau.
It was almost the entire territory of South Sudan in the previous life. The conquest of South Sudan was simpler than East Africa had expected. Both Turkana Province and Northern Great Lakes Province could be reached by boat. In just over ten days, East Africa had opened up the entire territory of South Sudan.
Then East Africa officially bordered Egypt, and the sudden arrival of the East African army caught Egypt by surprise.
Egypt was naturally extremely nervous about the sudden attack on East Africa, especially the Khartoum area, which is the core area of Sudan. The Gezira Plain south of Khartoum is located between the Blue Nile and the White Nile. It is nearly 250 kilometers long and more than 120 kilometers wide. The terrain is flat and slopes slightly from southeast to northwest. The soil is deep and fertile. It is the most important irrigation agricultural area in Sudan.
If the Gezira Plain is lost, Egypt's rule in Sudan will be completely abolished. Although other areas have a larger land area, they are invalid territories like the deserts on both sides of the Nile River in Egypt and have almost no utilization value.
Therefore, the Egyptian government urgently dispatched diplomats to the East African-controlled area to prevent the East African Kingdom from moving north through negotiations. Although Egypt may not be inferior to East Africa in strength, it is naturally more vulnerable when facing Europeans. In addition, Egypt is in conflict with the Abyssinian Empire in the south. In order to avoid fighting on two fronts, Egypt had to negotiate with East Africa in a humble manner.
Faced with Egypt's active request for negotiations, East Africa naturally wanted to make a good deal of it. Ernst spent a whole day studying the border map between the two countries, and finally offered a very sincere price.
The negotiation site is located in Egypt, in the southernmost river port city of the Nile River - Kosti. Kosti is on the left bank of the White Nile River, 260 kilometers away from Khartoum. It is a distribution center for cotton, gum arabic, livestock, fish, and grain. It is a water and land transportation hub and an important port on the White Nile River. All material exchanges between Khartoum, Obeid, and Juba pass through it.
The people responsible for signing the contract were Rahman, a senior official in Egypt's Khartoum region, and the East African Kingdom's temporary ambassador to Egypt. The first ambassador to Egypt was named Miles.
Krusty.
Miles: "Mr. Rahman, this is the final resolution of our East African Kingdom on the border between the two countries. If the Egyptian side still cannot accept it, then we can only express regret."
Rahman: “?!!!”
Rahman felt threatened, but for the sake of Egypt's interests, he resisted the urge to take the drawing from Miles' hand and began to look at it.
"Mr. Miles, I want to make it clear in advance that the Sultanate of Darfur is an independent country and is not under the control of Egypt." Rahman said to Miles speechlessly.
It's really weird that these East Africans just draw lines at random without even knowing the territory of Egypt.
Miles: "Ah! I thought you guys were in charge of the Darfur region too! You were talking about the Darfur Sultanate, right?"
Rahman: "Yes, Sir Miles, the Sultanate of Darfur has always been an independent country. It has some trade relations with us and is our nominal vassal state, but it is too far away from us, so we in Egypt cannot do anything about the Sultanate of Darfur."
Miles nodded and said, "I see. What about the Kordofan region?"
Rahman: "The Kingdom of Kordofan is actually a country established by the Fur people. If you are interested in Kordofan, we can cooperate. The south will belong to you, but the north will belong to Egypt."
Unlike the highly independent Darfur Sultanate, the Kingdom of Kordofan was truly a younger brother of the Sudan. In fact, when Sudan was still an independent country, the Sudan had plotted to take over Kordofan. At that time, the Sudanese Kingdom was constantly fighting with the Abyssinian Empire and the Kingdom of Kordofan.
Miles: "You mean that the Kingdom of Kordofan is your vassal state?"
Rahman: "In theory, that's true, but the Fur people in Kordofan put up strong resistance to us, so we only occupied part of the territory of the Kingdom of Kordofan."
In particular, Rahman wanted to throw the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan in East Africa, where the Nuba people living there were the most resistant to the Sudan.
Miles didn't know this. He always thought that the north of the East African Kingdom was all Sudan's territory. It seemed that he was delayed by the intelligence provided by the kingdom. Ernst had an unavoidable responsibility for this matter.
Miles said: "In this case, these two countries are vassal states of Egypt anyway, so you still have some rights. You sell them to us unilaterally, and we in East Africa will solve the rest ourselves."
Rahman: "Is it according to the map?"
Miles: “Exactly.”
Rahman: "Okay, but we can only hand over the suzerainty of the two regions to you in the name of Egypt, and you will have to deal with them on your own from now on."
Rahman didn't care about the life and death of the Darfur Sultanate and the Kordofan Kingdom. He was generous to others! But next Rahman was going to have a good fight with the East African Kingdom.
Rahman: "Sir, we don't care about the above two countries, but it is too much for you to include the southern part of the Gezira Plain into your territory! This is our Egyptian territory since ancient times."
Miles: "But when our East African troops were heading north, there were no residents here, and we didn't see any obstruction from your troops. There were also no signs indicating that this was Egyptian territory."
Rahman: "The southern part of the Gezira Plain has always been Egyptian territory tacitly acknowledged by all parties. Although we do not have troops stationed there, even the Abyssinian Empire does not dare to arbitrarily claim sovereignty over this place."
Miles: "I see. But we are new here in East Africa and don't know much about it. And this is not our fault. If you had put up a few road signs in Egypt, there wouldn't be this misunderstanding."
There is no misunderstanding. The East African Kingdom occupied the southern part of the Gezira Plain to force Egypt to make concessions in other areas.
The importance of the Gezira Plain to the Sudanese region is equivalent to the importance of the land along the Nile River to Egypt.
Rahman: "In this case, the misunderstanding between the two sides has been resolved. Can your country withdraw from the southern part of the Gezira Plain?"
Miles: "Of course, but in order to ensure the safety of the Nile waterway, we must retain some land in the western region."
Rahman: “This…”
Miles: "We don't ask for much, mainly the White Nile, we are not greedy for the Blue Nile."
Then Miles took out a pen and drew a north-south line in the southern part of the original Gezira Plain in front of Rahman.
Miles: "Most of the East still belongs to you. We only want this small piece of the West."
Seeing that Miles only wanted a small area, Rahman finally breathed a sigh of relief: "Okay, this makes sense."
Miles: "Then sign it! There will be no conflict of interest between the two parties from now on."
So Rahman signed his name on the agreement, but he didn't know that this agreement also completely announced that the oil resources in the Sudan region were almost gone from Egypt.
Almost 99 percent of the oil fields were included in the East African Kingdom, leaving only a drop of oil for future Egypt.
According to the agreement, the Nuba Mountains south of the Sudanese city of Ubaid will be the boundary. The area south of the Nuba Mountains will belong to East Africa, and the area north of the Nuba Mountains will belong to Egypt.
According to the agreement, the southern part of the Kordofan Plateau, the southern part of the Darfur Plateau, and parts of the southwestern part of the Gezira Plain were annexed to the East African Kingdom.
That is to say, the three regions of South Kordofan, East Darfur and South Darfur in northern Sudan in the past were all incorporated into East Africa, and the southwestern part of Blue Nile State was incorporated into East Africa.
Except for the southwestern part of the Gezira Plain, which truly belongs to Egypt, the rest of the land is in the hands of the Darfur Sultanate and the Kordofan Kingdom. East Africa still has to conquer these two countries.
However, if Egypt, the strongest country in the region, is left out in advance, it will not be difficult for East Africa to strike a blow against the Darfur Sultanate and the Kordofan Kingdom without Egyptian intervention.
(End of this chapter)
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