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So this is my first attempt at writing a proper Timeline. Given it's my first attempt and that it will be a very general thing, expect this TL to be a very bad one. Also I'm not native speaker so you'll see typos and all that.
Introduction
Since the Berlin Conference, European powers had competed for the African cake, each one wanting the biggest chunk they could get. Amongst these powers there were two that held the biggest claims, the French Republic and the United Kingdom. Both empires had already taken large pieces of the continent from their respective centers of power (Dakar in the French case and Cape Town in the British). Both countries happened to have minor colonies in the other side of the continent, Djibouti and Egypt. And both wanted to connect their colonies into a contiguous empire.
If you look at a map of Africa and draw two lines connecting these points you see they intersect in South Sudan, close to the town of Fashoda. France had sent an expedition up the Congo River to take control of the area. Commanded by a certain Jean-Baptiste Marchand, it took off from the Congo on May 1897. It took them 14 months of slow march through the jungles and marshes of the Congo to finally reach the Nile. "The same river Napoleón went through" - thought Marchand. His expedition reached the Nile on June 10th. However, something wasn't going according to the plan. An expedition commanded by Christian de Bonchamps was supposed to be here, coming from Yibuti. But it wasn't. Marchand decided to wait, ignoring Ethiopian tribes refused to let Bonchamps' expedition to cross their country.
French poster about Marchand's expedition.
Britain controlled Egypt, and thus Sudan as it was an Egyptian territory. However the Sudanis refused and launched an insurrection against their British overlords, the Mahdist War in 1881. It took the British quite some time to build up their forces for an attack, but by 1898 they were crushing the uprising. Their leader, Abdallah ibn Muhammad was decisively defeated in the Battle of Omdurman on September 2nd 1898. He was forced to flee south with his 52,000-strong army obliterated. "South, yes, but where?" - thougt Horatio Herbert Kitchener, chief of the British expedition. He decided to go up the Nile. After all it was the only major source of wated available, and soldiers need water.
On September 18th, Kitchener's forces encountered Marchand's expedition in Fashoda. Kitchener politely asked Marchand to leave, but he refused. Both forces were on a standby as no one wanted to retreat and no one wanted to push the other out. The French had a force of 120 franc-tireurs and 12 officers. The British had ten times the amount of soldiers. Marchand knew that and he remained calm, knowing that if this came to blows his force would be obliterated. Nothing he knew an accident would force his hand.
Back to Europe, the incident was met with anger and accusations from both sides. Both nations' imperial pride was hurt and no proud Frenchmen or Englishmen would permit this to happen. Media began publichsing satirical drawings and jingoist ones were warning that a war was soon to come. Within the governments, despite the anger and offences towards the other, cooler heads prevailed. Why would anyone seriously think a small incident in Africa could cause a war between the two great colonial empires? The situation in France was different, no one wanted another humilliation by a foreign power. Not after the Franco-Prussian war. As Henri Rochefort stated "Germany keeps slapping us in the face. Let’s not offer our cheek to England". France was not prepared at all for a major war. The Dreyfus affair had divided the French army in two blocks, one more "liberal" and the other more "reactionary". But the army didn't really matter in a war with Britain. It was the navy that mattered, and be sure that despite the Royal Navy is not unbeatable, it is several times the size of the French Fleet and slightly more modern. France simply had no chance in the naval camp. And without a navy to transport troops, the army becomes useless in a colonial war.
The standoff continued through September into October. Tensions kept rising and during October the Royal Navy began preparations for a possible conflict with France and called for reservists to resume service. French generals began planning and plans were laid for a recruitment campaign. In Africa the situation was both calmed and tense. It's been around a month since the British gunboats appeared and they have not left, nor have the French. But both commanders refuse to do anything and remain polite to each other.
Amongst soldiers, the situation is different. Some French soldiers are getting anxious about the issue and want to continue all the way to Djibouti. But their pride doesn't allow them to.
October 11th 1898
It was 2:42 PM. Marchand was on his tent writing a letter to be delivered to his wife. Despite being October, it's still over 30ºC outside. Enough heat to trigger a powder explosion if it remains. It hasn't happened yet because Marchand has been strict to his soldiers about it, specially native soldiers and assistants. Suddenly a quick blast was heard. Mardhand raised his head. "It has to be an accident" - he said. He went back to the letter and picked his quill to resume the letter. Then a second explosion was heard. And a third, and a fourth...
His assistant ran into his tent and before he could say anything Marchand asked:
-"Charles! What's going on?"
-"Sir, one of our guns has missfired. British troops have replied with their own. Now we are in a battle, sir!"
-"For the love of god, really?" - a bigger explosion was heard - "Was... was that artillery firing?"
The assistant glanced to the Nile and saw an explosion on the French bank. - "Definetely".
-"Ugh, I tried to be polite and work a way out of this without fighting, and now some of my soldiers ignored my orders about gunpowder and turned this into a battle. If it stops or we survive, I swear he..."
-"Major, we have no time for this, we have to get out of here, we'll be bombed if not!"
-"Pick a rifle, we are going to fight."
-"Wait what?"
-"Our soldiers need us. And we're proud Frenchmen. We have been forced to the battle and that's what we're going to do" - He picked the rifle from the floor - "Charge!"
Charles smiled to this. "We'll see again, sir, wether it's after the battle or in the heavens."
A certain native assistand that didn't speak French well misunderstood Marchand's orders. He kept the gunpowder and bullets in his rifle during the whole day and eventually, due to the intense heat and the dry air, the gunpowder reached a critical point and exploded all out of sudden. The bullet hit no one, but Egyptian soldiers in the east bank of the Nile understood this as an attack and they responded. It didn't take much time before both forces were openly engaging each other. Kitchener didn't want a battle either. But if he was forced into it, he would avoid casualties. "Send the gunboats to where the French are and shoot at them".
The gunboats simply smashed the French as they had nothing to respond to that amount of firepower. Marchand himself was hit by a bullet in his left lung around 3:58 PM. He died some minutes after due to a lack of oxygen and intense bleeding. Out of his total force od 132 men, 78 died and 39 were wounded. The remaining 15 surrendered shortly after. Amongst them was Charles Mangin, Marchand's right hand. The British and their Egyptian allies lost a total of 27 men, 13 of them being dead.
The battle sent shockwaves through both France and Britain. French forces were specially angered. "We have been defeated and hurt, but it's our duty to continue what the British started!" (French Media said that the British shot first). The French Parliament debated wether or not to scalate the incident and start a war that was essentially impossible to win. The rightwing politicans shouted "War! War! War!"...
France declared war on the United Kingdom on October 23rd 1898.
Btw I posted a modern-day map of this in the Map Thread. If you saw it, you've eaten the greatest spoiler ever.