Chapter 328: Chapter 11 "Boundary Demarcation Agreement of Eastern Ai
March 14, 1871.
On the same day Ernst visited Sweden, East Africa and Egypt officially signed the "East Africa Kingdom and Egypt Boundary Agreement," determining the boundaries between the two nations.
Since 1870, the Egyptian Sultanate region began to notice the sudden increase of East Africans in the inland areas. Previously, Kashim had learned from a fleeing Great Prince of the Buganda Sultanate that the Buganda Kingdom had been annihilated by East Africa.
However, around 1868, after East Africa consolidated the original Buganda Kingdom, it started exploring downstream along the Nile River towards the Upper Nile Basin. The basin was densely packed with waterways and crisscrossing rivers, allowing East Africans to travel unobstructed by small boats all the way down the White Nile main stream directly to Sudan’s Jezira Plain.
At that time, East Africa was still in its colonial period, mainly surveying and analyzing Sudan’s rivers. But during the third conquest war, East Africa opportunistically occupied the entire Upper Nile Basin to connect the Azande Plateau and Ethiopian Plateau with its territory.
Almost the entire territory of what would later become independent South Sudan, the conquest of which was even simpler than East Africa anticipated. Turkana Province and North Lake Province could be accessed by boat downstream, taking merely a dozen days to open up the entire South Sudan.
Then East Africa officially bordered Egypt, catching Egypt off guard with the sudden presence of East African troops.
Egypt was extremely tense about the sudden emergence of East Africa, particularly in the Kashim area, which was the core region of the Sultanate. South of Kashim was the Jezira Plain, located between the Blue Nile and White Nile, extending nearly 250 kilometers long and over 120 kilometers wide, featuring a flat terrain gently sloping from southeast to northwest and possessing deep fertile soil, making it the Sudan region’s most essential irrigated agricultural zone.
If Egypt were to lose the Jezira Plain, its control in Sudan would be utterly nullified, despite the larger territorial area of other regions. Like the deserts on both sides of the Egyptian Nile, these areas were effectively useless, with almost no value.
Thus, the Egyptian government urgently dispatched diplomats to the East African controlled areas, negotiating to prevent East Africa from advancing northward. Though Egypt was not necessarily weaker than East Africa, in dealing with Europeans, Egypt naturally felt somewhat inferior. Additionally, Egypt was in conflict with the Abyssinian Empire in the south, forcing them to approach East Africa with negotiation as a means to avoid fighting on two fronts.
Faced with Egypt’s request for negotiations, East Africa naturally intended to make the most of it. Ernst spent an entire day researching the maps of the boundary between the two countries and proposed a very sincere offer.
The negotiation location was within Egypt, specifically at the southern river port city of Kusti, situated on the left bank of the White Nile, 260 kilometers from Kashim. It was a distribution center for cotton, gum arabic, livestock, fish, and grains. A pivotal transportation hub, it was vital for the exchange of goods between Khartoum, Obeid, and Juba.
The signatories were Rahman, a high official from the Kashim area of Egypt, and Miles, East Africa Kingdom’s interim appointed envoy to Egypt, the first envoy named Miles.
Kusti.
Miles: "Mr. Rahman, this is our East Africa Kingdom’s final resolution plan regarding the boundaries between our two nations. If Egypt cannot accept it, we can only express our regret."
Rahman: "?!!!"
Rahman felt threatened but restrained himself for Egypt’s interests, picked up the blueprint from Miles, and started examining it.
"Mr. Miles, I must clarify beforehand that the Darfur Sultanate is an independent country. It is not under Egyptian control," Rahman said to Miles, feeling speechless.
Without even clarifying Egypt’s territories, these East Africans drew lines as they pleased; quite peculiar indeed.
Miles: "Ah! I thought the Darfur region was under your control too! So you’re referring to the Darfur Sultanate, right?"
Rahman: "Yes, Your Excellency Miles, the Darfur Sultanate has always been an independent nation, merely having some trade relations with us, considered a nominal vassal state. However, it’s too far from us, so Egypt cannot control the Darfur Sultanate."
Miles nodded, "I see, and what about the Kordofan region?"
Rahman: "The Kingdom of Kordofan is also established by the Fur people. If Your Excellency is interested in Kordofan, we can cooperate; the south would belong to you, but the north to Egypt."
Unlike the greatly independent Darfur Sultanate, the Kingdom of Kordofan was truly like a little brother to the Sultanate. When the Sultanate was still independent, it had long coveted Kordofan, often engaging with Abyssinia and the Kingdom of Kordofan.
Miles: "Your meaning is that the Kingdom of Kordofan is your vassal state?"
Rahman: "In theory, that’s the case, but the Fur people’s resistance in Kordofan is quite strong, so we’ve only occupied part of its territory."
Especially the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan, where the Nuba people’s resistance against the Sultanate was the greatest.
Miles was unaware of this, always believing that the north of the East African Kingdom was entirely Sultanate territory. Apparently, the intelligence provided by the Kingdom had been misleading, and Ernst bore undeniable responsibility for this.
Miles said, "Since both countries are your Egyptian vassal states, you still have some rights. You can unilaterally sell them to us, and we’ll solve the remaining issues in East Africa."
Rahman: "According to the map like this?"
Miles: "Exactly."
Rahman: "Alright, but we can only transfer the sovereign authority in those regions to you on behalf of Egypt. Henceforth, it’s up to you to resolve matters with them."
Rahman didn’t care about the fate of the Darfur Sultanate and the Kingdom of Kordofan. Who wouldn’t squander others’ generosity? But now was the time for Rahman to carefully negotiate with the East Africa Kingdom.
Rahman: "Your Excellency, we don’t mind the above two countries, but drawing the southern Jezira Plain into your territory is excessive! This is Egypt’s ancestral land."
Miles: "But there were no residents here when our East African troops advanced north, nor did we see any military obstruction from you. Additionally, there were no marks indicating this was Egyptian territory."
Rahman: "The southern Jezira Plain has always been considered Egyptian territory by all powers. Though we haven’t stationed troops there, even the Abyssinian Empire daren’t randomly declare sovereignty over this place."
Miles: "I see, but East Africa being newcomers doesn’t understand. Moreover, it isn’t our responsibility. If you had placed some road signs there, we wouldn’t have had this misunderstanding."
No misunderstanding existed; East Africa Kingdom’s occupation of the southern Jezira Plain aimed to pressure Egypt into concessions elsewhere.
The Jezira Plain’s importance to the Sudan region was equivalent to the significance of the land along the Nile River to Egypt.
Rahman: "Now that our misunderstanding is cleared, will your country withdraw from the southern Jezira Plain?"
Miles: "Certainly, but to ensure the safety of the Nile River passage, we must retain part of the western region’s land."
Rahman: "This..."
Miles: "We don’t ask for much, mainly concerning the White Nile’s banks; we aren’t greedy about the Blue Nile."
Miles then drew a north-south line along the original southern Jezira Plain in front of Rahman.
Miles: "The majority eastern region still belongs to you, we only want this small portion of the west."
Seeing Miles only ask for a small area, Rahman finally breathed a sigh of relief, "Alright, that seems reasonable."
Miles: "Then let’s sign! From now on, there won’t be any interest conflicts between us."
Thus, Rahman signed his name on the agreement, unaware that the agreement also officially announced that Sudan’s oil resources had almost bid farewell to Egypt.
About ninety-nine percent of the oil fields were allocated to East Africa Kingdom’s area, leaving Egypt only a drop of soup.
According to the agreement: Demarcated by the Nuba Mountains south of Sudan’s Ubayd (Obeid) city, including territories south of the Nuba Mountains belonging to East Africa, with northern territories going to Egypt.
According to the agreement, the southern Kordofan Highlands and southern Darfur Highlands, parts of the southwest Jezira Plain, were incorporated into East Africa Kingdom.
In the previous era’s North Sudan, the South Kordofan State, East Darfur State, and South Darfur State, comprising three regions, were all incorporated into East Africa. Southwestern parts of the Blue Nile State were also integrated into East Africa.
Except for the southwestern part of the Jezira Plain, which truly belonged to Egypt, the remaining lands were in the hands of Darfur Sultanate and the Kingdom of Kordofan. East Africa still had to conquer these two nations to proceed.
But having first excluded Egypt, the strongest in the region, without Egyptian interference, dealing with Darfur Sultanate and Kingdom of Kordofan was not a difficult matter for East Africa.