ABSTRACT
In 1884 and 1885, two British military expeditions were sent to Suakin, an ancient port city on the Red Sea in the eastern Sudan, to prevent them from falling to an Islamist insurgency. This chapter explores the significance of these expeditions, which were launched as part of a nascent strategy to uphold British global commercial and naval dominance in the face of rising challenges from imperial rivals. Gladstone aimed to induce the Sublime Porte to send troops to prevent the area from falling under Mahdist control even as the Egyptians continued to evacuate their own troops from Sudan. The imperial fantasy provided by John Colomb, James Anthony Froude, Sir John Seeley and their supporters in Cabinet was backed by influential inter-imperial commercial interests. As agents of the imperial government, the private communications and shipping companies necessary for building a pan-imperial market and defence capability grasped the opportunity to fulfil their duty as patriotic British firms whilst also pleasing their shareholders.
