MAPS OF HISTORY · HISTORY OF · Sudan

ONE LAND · 3 ATLASES

Sudan, on the map of history

What was Sudan before it was Sudan? Below, every era of this land in the Maps of History collection — who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed — each line linked to the dated map that shows it. Modern borders stand in as an honest approximation; every atlas says so on the map itself.

Anglo-Egyptian Sudan · The Great War, 1914–1918

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Sudan · The Cold War, 1945–1991

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Sudan · The Decolonization of Africa, 1945–1994

Anglo-Egyptian Sudan chose independence over union with Egypt on 1 January 1956 — an early flag, and a Nile-valley precedent. But independence also inaugurated Africa’s longest civil wars, between the Arab-Muslim north and the African south, that would run, on and off, for half a century and eventually split the country. Freedom and internal conflict arrived together.

OPEN THE DECOLONIZATION OF AFRICA ON THE LIVING MAP →