During the reign of Muhammad Ali's grandson, Isma'il Pasha, Egypt consolidated and expanded its control of the Sudan as far south as the Great Lakes region, whilst simultaneously acquiring territory in modern-day Chad, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia.

Egypt was at the height of its power, with Isma'il seeking the establishment of a contiguous African empire that could be a bulwark against European expansion in Africa.

[citation needed] Isma'il's grand ambitions were, however, cut short by Egypt's ruinous defeat in the Ethiopian-Egyptian War, which exacerbated pre-existing financial problems in the country caused by his cripplingly expensive programmes of rapid modernisation.

Though it remained de jure a self-governing vassal state of the Ottoman Empire, true power now rested with the United Kingdom's representative in Cairo.

Once established, the condominium witnessed ever-decreasing Egyptian control, and would for most of its existence be governed in practice by the United Kingdom through the Governor-General in Khartoum.

Following the Ottoman Empire's entry in to the First World War as a member of the Central Powers in 1914, the United Kingdom deposed the anti-British Abbas II in favour of his pro-British uncle, Hussein Kamel.

However, in the terms of the legal instrument by which the United Kingdom recognised Egyptian independence, it specifically reserved the issue of the governance of Sudan as a question to be resolved in the future.

Defying Egyptian and Sudanese demands, the United Kingdom gradually assumed more control of the condominium, edging out Egypt almost completely by 1924.

The region had longstanding linguistic, cultural, religious, and economic ties to Egypt, and had been partially under the same government at intermittent periods since the times of the pharaohs.

Muhammad Ali was aggressively pursuing a policy of expanding his power with a view to possibly supplanting the Ottoman Empire (to which he technically owed fealty), and saw Sudan as a valuable addition to his Egyptian dominion.

During his reign and that of his successors, Egypt and Sudan came to be administered as one political entity, with all ruling members of the Muhammad Ali dynasty seeking to preserve and extend the "unity of the Nile Valley".

With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, Egypt and Sudan's economic and strategic importance increased enormously, attracting the imperial attentions of the Great Powers, particularly the United Kingdom.

The manner of Tewfik's ascension at the hands of foreign powers greatly angered Egyptian and Sudanese nationalists who resented the ever-increasing influence of European governments and merchants in the affairs of the country.

Whilst primarily a Sudanese figure, Abdalla even attracted the support of some Egyptian nationalists, and caught Tewfik and the British off-guard.

Though he died six months after the fall of Khartoum, Ahmad's call was fully echoed by his successor, Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, who invaded Ethiopia in 1887, and penetrated as far as Gondar, and the remainder of northern Sudan and Egypt in 1889.

Abdullahi wrecked virtually all of the previous Egyptian, and Funj administrative systems, and gravely weakened Sudanese tribal unities.

[2] After a series of Mahdist defeats, Tewfik's son and successor, Abbas II, and the British decided to re-establish control over Sudan.

Thus, an agreement was reached in 1899 establishing Anglo-Egyptian rule (a condominium), under which Sudan was to be administered by a governor-general appointed by Egypt with British consent.

The insistence of a single Egyptian-Sudanese state persisted when the Sultanate was re-titled the Kingdom of Egypt and Sudan, but the British continued to frustrate these efforts.

This defeat was alleged to have partially been the result of the Egyptian garrison in Khartoum North not supporting the insurrection with artillery as was previously promised.

Since the British claim to control in Sudan theoretically depended upon Egyptian sovereignty, the revolutionaries calculated that this tactic would leave the UK with no option but to withdraw.