FRENCH COLONIAL EXPANSION 187 
The rule of the Khaliphate had steadily declined after the 
death of the Mahdi, Mohammed Ahmed, in June, 18835, 
until the government of the whole region was honeycombed 
with corruption and the extent of the atrocities committed 
by the leaders horrified the civilized world. DM. Liotard, 
who had become Commissioner-General of the Upper Congo, 
determined to round out the northeast frontier of his col- 
ony; and at the same time, by taking advantage of the 
situation in the Sudan he hoped to add a large portion of 
Bahr-el-Ghazel to the French possessions and provide an 
outlet by way of the Nile for the trade of the northern Congo 
region. The establishment of a definite connection between 
the French protectorates in the Sudan and Upper Congo with 
Abyssinia and the French colony of Obock (French Somali 
Coast) was even contemplated. 
Accordingly, on June 25, 1896, he sent out Major Mar- 
chand with a small company of eight officers and one hundred 
and twenty men, who explored the Ubangi district and 
traversed the Bahr-el-Ghazal country successfully. He 
reached the Nile ultimately, equipped a small flotilla and 
pushed north to Fashoda, where he raised the French flag 
and took possession of the territory on the left bank, on 
July 10, 1898. He repulsed an attack of the Dervishes in 
August; but his position — so far from any reliable source 
of supplies — was extremely precarious. 
Meanwhile Sir Herbert Kitchener was reconquering the 
Sudan for Egypt. In 1896, he defeated the Dervishes and 
occupied the province of Dongola. He constructed a rail- 
way and advanced steadily southward the next year. On 
September 2, 1898, he inflicted a decisive defeat on the 
chief Dervish army at Omdurman and two days later entered 
Khartoum in triumph. Without stopping to rest, he 
pushed on up the Nile with his army of 23,000 men, until he 
had captured, on September 15, the great camp of the Der-