The Late Ottoman Imperialist Endeavor In Central Africa: The Province Of Equatoria (Hatt-I Istiva)

Official URL: https://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b3199992

This study discusses the Egyptian-Sudanese province of Equatoria in the time of Governor Emin Pasha with a focus on his biography. The late 19th-century African continent witnessed imperial competition among the European states, including Egypt as a North African province of the Ottoman Empire. Khedive Ismail Pasha’s project of a united Nile empire resulted in expeditions to the then recently explored roots of the Nile and eventually led to the foundation of the province/directorate of Equatoria located in modern-day South Sudan and Uganda. It was the southernmost and remotest part of Egyptian Sudan, where the sovereign rights of the Ottomans were secured by their participation in the Berlin Conference (1885). For this reason, this thesis firstly aims to frame the Egyptian imperialism initiated by Kavalalı Mehmed Ali Pasha at an intersection with Ottoman Africa studies by discussing the borders of the Ottoman Empire in the south up to Lake Albert. This thesis argues that the founding of this province was an exceptional case of imperialism executed by the Ottomans right before European colonization in the early 1870s. By also challenging the Euro-centric view of colonialism, it considers Ismail Pasha’s actions resembling that of the European colonialist policies reflected in the Sudan. The earlier and later developments of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition proved the significance of Emin Pasha and the province by the wide and global recognition of them.