sudan

Gordon of khartoum was a great film. The first scene depicts the massacre of a 10,000 expeditionary force made up of Egyptian conscripts and their commanding officer, Colonel William Hicks. Sent to subdue the Mahdist rebels, this British version of General Custer meets an Arab version of Sitting Bull.




Perhaps for these British officers, there was little difference between the "Fuzzy-Wuzzy" and some North American Indians they once did battle with. General Garnet Wolseley, who would eventually head up an abortive mission to rescue Gordon from Khartoum, made the rounds across the British Empire, including Canada where he commanded the Red River Expedition. This was a force sent against Louis Riel and the rebellious Metis, composed of trappers and hunters with mixed Native and French Canadian ancestry. According to Robin Neillands:



"Wolseley's force made their way across the wilderness to Manitoba in canoes paddled by French-Canadian 'voyageurs'. The rebellion had collapsed before they reached Fort Garry but the 'voyageurs' were to enter Wolseley's mind again in the Sudan a few years later. During this expedition he began to gather around his headquarters a group of efficient and forward-looking officers." ("The Dervish Wars," p. 45)



In other words, counter-insurgency tactics learned in native Canada would come in handy in the Sudan. After Canada, Wolseley moved on to West Africa, where he fought the Ashanti from 1870-1873. By this time, he was the youngest General in the British army at the age of 40.



His higher-ups regarded Colonel Hicks, who was less skilled than Wolseley at colonial subjugation