ABSTRACT
A military republic is almost invariably regarded as militaristic, as bent on military expansion at the expense of other essential public activities. The Anglo-Egyptian condominium that lasted for more than a half century was a condominium in name only. Britain governed the territory as a British dependency. British officials filled all the top positions; only below the level of district officers did Egyptians qualify for employment in the bureaucracy and for comparable ranks in the army. Such influence as Egypt could bring to bear in the opening decades of the condominium was finally erased late in 1924. The officers who ran the Sudanese government for the next half-dozen years were skimmed off the top of the military hierarchy. Under the leadership of ‘Abbud, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, as the junta was called, set itself up as an exclusive policy-framing directorate.
