ABSTRACT
The reign of Khedive Isma'il marked the culmination of Turco-Egyptian power in the Sudan. Under him the administration regained the vigour which it had lost since the later years of Muhammad 'Ali, In his time the territories of Egypt's African empire were enormously increased. The combination of anti-slavery idealism with schemes for colonial expansion, a frequent phenomenon of European imperialism, was, at a rather earlier period, characteristic of Khedive Isma'il. The khedive saved appearances, realizing that Zubayr was beyond his power, by constituting the Bahr al-Ghazal a province and appointing Zubayr as its governor. The reign of Khedive Isma'il witnessed also an expansion of the Egyptian empire in the east, when in 1865 the ports of Suakin and Massawa were finally ceded by the Ottoman government to the viceroyalty of Egypt. The American Civil War caused a boom in Egyptian cotton, much to the khedive's profit.
