Mehmed Ali’s Sudan invasion combined multiple strategic motives beyond conquest

Evidence

The Sudan campaign is considered to have provided the Pasha with an opportunity to rid himself of even more of the undisciplined and quarrelsome Albanian troops who had survived the Wahhabi wars. The Pasha might also have been lured by the alleged abundance of rich gold mines in Sinnār. More important was the need to conscript the black Sudanese in the army he was contemplating and which he had already undertaken the first steps to create. Finally, Mehmed Ali was also eager to be rid of the remnant of the mamluk forces who had taken refuge in Dongola and whom he considered a constant source of menace. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 193

Categorization

• XREF: Multiple motives for a single campaign echo the layered reasons historians weigh in other imperial expansions; relates to the reader’s military expansion theme.