1898 — France Backs Down at Fashoda

On November 3, 1898, the French government ordered its expedition at Fashoda to withdraw, ending a confrontation that had brought Britain and France close to war. A French force of about 150 men under Jean-Baptiste Marchand had reached Fashoda, on the upper Nile, on July 10 and occupied an abandoned Egyptian fort. Sir Horatio Herbert Kitchener arrived on September 18, after taking Omdurman and Khartoum, and neither commander would yield his claim.

In Paris, Foreign Minister Théophile Delcassé, anxious to gain British support against Germany, chose withdrawal over war despite an outraged public reaction. In March 1899 the Nile and Congo watersheds were agreed as the frontier between their spheres, a settlement that led toward the Anglo-French Entente of 1904.