Fashoda Incident The Fashoda Incident or " Fashoda Crisis " ( 1898 ) was the climax of imperial territorial disputes between Britain and France in Eastern Africa . A French expedition to Fashoda on the White Nile sought to gain control of the Nile River and thereby exclude Britain from the Sudan , and possibly force the British out of Egypt as well . The British held firm as Britain and France were on the verge of war . It ended in a diplomatic victory for the British . It gave rise to the ' Fashoda syndrome ' in French foreign policy , or seeking to assert French influence in areas which might be becoming susceptible to British influence . Background . During the late 19th century , Africa was rapidly being occupied by European colonial powers . This period in African history is usually called the Scramble for Africa . The two principal powers involved in this scramble were Britain and France , along with Germany , Belgium , Italy , Portugal , and Spain . The French thrust into the African interior was mainly from the continent ' s Atlantic coast ( modern Senegal ) eastward , through the Sahel along the southern border of the Sahara , a territory covering modern Senegal , Mali , Niger , and Chad . Their ultimate goal was to have an uninterrupted link between the Niger River and the Nile , hence controlling all trade to and from the Sahel region , by virtue of their existing control over the caravan routes through the Sahara . France also had an outpost near the mouth of the Red Sea in Djibouti ( French Somaliland ) , which could serve as an eastern anchor to an east - west belt of French territory across the continent . The British , on the other hand , wanted to link their possessions in Southern Africa ( modern South Africa , Botswana , Malawi , Lesotho , Zimbabwe , and Zambia ) , with their territories in East Africa ( modern Kenya ) , and these two areas with the Nile basin . Sudan ( which in those days included modern South Sudan and Uganda ) was the key to the fulfilment of these ambitions , especially since Egypt was already under British control . This ' red line ' ( i . e . a proposed railway , see Cape - Cairo railway ) through Africa was made most famous by the British and South African political force Cecil Rhodes , who wanted Africa " painted [ British ] Red " . When one draws a line from Cape Town to Cairo ( Rhodes ' dream ) and another line from Dakar to French Somaliland ( now Djibouti ) by the Red Sea in the Horn ( the French ambition ) , these two lines intersect in eastern South Sudan near the town of Fashoda ( present - day Kodok ) , explaining its strategic importance . The French east - west axis and the British north - south axis could not co - exist ; the nation that could occupy and hold the crossing of the two axes would be the only one able to proceed with its plan . Fashoda was also bound up in the Egyptian Question – a long running dispute between the United Kingdom and France over the legality of the British occupation of Egypt . Since 1882 many French politicians , particularly those of the " parti colonial " , had come to regret France ’ s decision not to join with Britain in occupying the country . They hoped to force Britain to leave , and thought that a colonial outpost on the Upper Nile could serve as a base for French gunboats . These in turn were expected to make the British abandon Egypt . Another proposed scheme involved a massive dam , cutting off the Nile ’ s water supply and forcing the British out . These ideas were highly impractical , but they succeeded in frightening many British officials . Stalemate . A French force of just 120 " tirailleurs " soldiers and 12 French officers ( Captain Marcel Joseph Germain - Captain Albert Baratier - Captain Charles Mangin - Captain Victor Emmanuel Largeau - Lieutenant Félix Fouqué - teacher Dyé - Doctor Jules Emily Major - Warrant Officer De Prat - Sergeant George Dat - Sergeant Bernard - Sergeant Venail - the military interpreter Landerouin ) set out from Brazzaville in a borrowed Belgian steamer , under Major Jean - Baptiste Marchand with orders to secure the area around Fashoda , and make it a French protectorate . They steamed up the Ubangi River to its head of navigation and then overland through jungle and scrub to the deserts of Sudan . They travelled across Sudan to the Nile River . They were to be met there by two expeditions coming from the east across Ethiopia , one of which , from Djibouti , was led by Christian de Bonchamps , veteran of the Stairs Expedition to Katanga . After an epic 14 - month trek across the heart of Africa the Marchand Expedition arrived on 10 July 1898 , but the de Bonchamps Expedition failed to make it after being ordered by the Ethiopians to halt , and then suffering accidents in the Baro Gorge . On 18 September , a powerful flotilla of British gunboat s arrived at the isolated Fashoda fort , led by Sir Herbert Kitchener and including Lieutenant - Colonel ( later General ) Horace Smith - Dorrien . As the commander of the Anglo - Egyptian army that had just defeated the forces of the Mahdi at the Battle of Omdurman , Kitchener was in the process of reconquering the Sudan in the name of the Egyptian Khedive . Both sides were polite but insisted on their right to Fashoda . News of the meeting was relayed to Paris and London , where it inflamed the imperial pride of both nations . Widespread popular outrage followed , each side accusing the other of naked expansionism and aggression . The crisis continued throughout September and October , and both nations began to mobilise their fleets in preparation for war . Resolution . In naval terms , the situation was heavily in the United Kingdom ’ s favour , a fact that French deputies acknowledged in the aftermath of the crisis . Though the French force was larger , the British had them outgunned . The French army was far larger than the British one , but there was little it would have been able to do against Britain without efficient naval support . Significant credit has been given to Marchand for remaining calm . The military facts were undoubtedly important to Théophile Delcassé , the newly appointed French foreign minister . He saw no advantage in a colonial war with the British , especially since he was keen to gain their friendship in case of any future conflict with Germany . He therefore pressed hard for a peaceful resolution of the crisis . The reopening of the Dreyfus Affair had done much to distract French public opinion from events in the Sudan and with people increasingly questioning the wisdom of a war over such a remote part of Africa , the French government quietly ordered its soldiers to withdraw on 3 November . Effects . In March 1899 , the French and British agreed that the source of the Nile and the Congo rivers should mark the frontier between their spheres of influence . The Fashoda incident was the last serious colonial dispute between Britain and France , and its classic diplomatic solution is considered by most historians to be the precursor of the Entente Cordiale .