The Escalation of the Anglo-French Confrontation in Northeast Africa in 1898. Fashoda: on the Way to the Entente

The article considers the problem of the escalation of the Anglo-French confrontation in Northeast Africa in 1898, the beginning of the Fashoda incident and its peaceful settlement. The paper analyzes the nature of the Anglo-French colonial rivalry in Egypt, highlights its chronological framework and substantiates the reason for the escalation of the confrontation between Paris and London in this region in the early 1880s. The author notes that Sudan began to involve Great Britain and France after a study conducted by French engineer Victor Prohm, the results of which showed that Egypt's water supply can be controlled from Sudan. The paper characterizes a new round of Anglo-French confrontation in Northeast Africa and the process of equipping and describes advancing French and British expeditions to Sudan. The author analyzes reasons for the beginning of the Fashoda incident and highlights the economic prerequisites for a peaceful resolution of the conflict. The main conclusion of the work is that due to the deep economic cooperation between France and Great Britain at this stage, neither side considered the war as a way out of the crisis. Thus, already at this stage, Paris and London realized that the interests of Great Britain and France are much closer, than the interests of any of these states in relation to Germany. This, in turn, pushed the two states to further rapprochement and the signing of the Entente Cordiale in 1904, which marked the beginning of the formation of the Entente.