Beschreibung
Very good. Dissected and laid on linen. Wear and small area of loss at one fold intersection towards bottom-left. Light foxing in top-left corner. Size 21.5 x 30.5 Inches. A colorful, large format c. 1884 chromolithograph folding map of Sudan by G. W. Bacon and Co. The map was produced during the Mahdist War, a widespread revolt against the British-backed Khedivate of Egypt, more specifically during or soon after the Siege of Khartoum and an ultimately failed British expedition to relieve the city. A Closer Look Coverage extends from Darfur to the Red Sea, covering an area largely congruent with the present-day Republic of Sudan. The Nile River system, including the White, Blue, and Black (Atbarah) Nile, stands out prominently in bold black lines. Roads ('routes and tracks'), railways, telegraph lines, garrisons, towns, hills, wells, and other water sources are indicated. The Arabic names of regions and geographic features are included, along with local groups or tribes. A legend at top-right lists translations of Arabic terms, while five inset maps surround the main map, depicting (clockwise): a wider view of Egypt and Sudan, the port city of Suakin, Khartoum, a map of the entirety of Africa, and a map showing the land approaches to Suakin from the south. The Gordon Relief Expedition This map is undated and only obliquely mentions conflict, but it was produced in the context of the Mahdist War, a massive Holy War against the rule of the British-backed Khedivate of Egypt beginning in 1881. The conflict was initially only one of many in the orbit of Britain's global empire, but it captured the public's imagination in 1884, when the charismatic adventurer-soldier Charles Gordon, acting beyond his orders from the British government, decided to defend Khartoum in a months-long siege, prompting the organization of a relief expedition. Charles George Gordon (1833 - 1885) was one of the more colorful and storied British imperial adventurers of the 19th century. Born to a family with a long line of British military service, he attended a military academy and then served in the Royal Engineers during the Crimean War with great distinction. Already at a young age, Gordon had a reputation for pluckiness and for disregarding orders, which would ultimately be his undoing. Finding peacetime life uninteresting, Gordon volunteered to fight in China during the Second Opium War (1856 - 1860), which he arrived too late to participate in, instead finding work in Shanghai leading a multinational group of mercenaries known as the Ever Victorious Army against the rebels of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. He gained a reputation for honesty and effectiveness, imposing strict discipline on his mercenary force that was otherwise prone to plunder, rape, and corruption. Gordon was highly decorated by the Tongzhi Emperor and was praised by the foreign community in China, earning him the nickname 'Chinese Gordon.' At the same time, his frankness, such as criticizing Chinese officials to their face and refusing monetary rewards from the emperor, was seen as uncouth and impudent. After his service to the emperor in China, Gordon found employment with the Egyptian Khedive government, which appointed him as governor of their southern Equatoria province, over which they had only nominal control. Gordon was appalled by the Ottoman-Egyptian bureaucracy, which he found oppressive and corrupt, and the prevalence of the slave trade (Gordon's abolitionism was inspired by his intense religiosity). Nevertheless, his capabilities as an administrator and diplomat allowed him to rise to the position of Governor-General of the Sudan, earning the new nickname of 'Gordon Pasha'. Still, Gordon eventually alienated other officials in the bureaucracy (several of whom he fired) to the point that he was not asked to continue in his position and left Egypt in 1880. He then briefly worked as a bureaucrat in India before resigning, returning to China (against orders from the military),
Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers Sudan-bacon-1884
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