Fashoda Crisis of 1898

(also Fashoda Question or Fashoda Incident), a conflict between Great Britain and France resulting from their struggle for domination in Egypt. The conflict was provoked by the seizure in July 1898 of the village of Fashoda (now Kodok) on the upper Nile by a French detachment under Captain Marchand. In September 1898, Great Britain demanded the withdrawal of Marchand’s detachment. The French refused. The incident placed Great Britain, which proceeded to make military preparations, “within a hair’s breadth of war with France” (V. I. Lenin, Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 27, p. 418). France, which was unprepared for a naval war with Great Britain and which feared the weakening of French positions in Europe, finally yielded. On Nov. 3, 1898, the French government withdrew Marchand’s detachment from Fashoda, thus relinquishing French claims to the Nile valley. Later, under an Anglo-French agreement signed on Mar. 21, 1899, France received certain compensations in Central Africa.

In the aftermath of the Fashoda Crisis, which proved to be the climax in the struggle between Great Britain and France over the partitioning of Africa, Anglo-French conflicts receded in the face of Anglo-German and Franco-German conflicts. These circumstances paved the way for the formation of the Entente.