MAHDIST WAR: A HISTORY from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History

 















Published by Hourly History in 2020.

One of the nice things about the e-books that Hourly History publishes is that they offer free books every week and they cover a wide range of topics in a manageable size. This book is a great example. There is no way that I would have read a 400 page history of this war simply but I was perfectly willing to read about it for an hour while while waiting for an appointment.

If you have never heard of the Mahdist War, join the club. This is one of the seemingly never-ending series of colonial wars that Britain took up as the European powers divided up Africa in the 1800's. 
The Mahdist flag

In this case, Sudan rose up and threw out their joint Ottoman/Egyptian overlords, which caused a lot uproar in the area. The British thought it would be a danger to their vassal state of Egypt and possibly Ethiopia, Somalia and may even threaten shipping along the Horn of Africa and access to India.

This was probably an overreaction, but the British decided to put the rebellion down. They sent in Egyptian troops, they tried to recruit local troops and, finally, they decided to send in soldiers from other parts of the British Empire. When they failed (due to some seriously bad choices by their officers), they did it again. At various points there were 3 or 4 different armies marching around fighting against each other. Eventually, they subdued Somalia. 

Looking back on this war more than 100 years later, it looks like a big waste of lives and money. The UK is no longer a presence in the area and Sudan continues to be in an uproar. 

I rate this ebook 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here:  THE MAHDIST WAR: A HISTORY from BEGINNING to END (kindle) by Hourly History.

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