Content deleted Content added
→History: more |
→History: gold |
||
Line 13:
The northernmost post was [[Kiro]], on the west bank of the Nile a short distance above the British post at [[Mongalla, South Sudan|Mongalla]]. Edward Fothergill visited the Sudan around 1901, basing himself at Mongalla between [[Lado, South Sudan|Lado]] to the south and Kiro to the north, but on the east shore of the river. By his account "Kiro, the most northern station of the Congo on the Nile, is very pretty and clean. Lado, the second station, is prettier still". However, he said that although the buildings were well made, they were too closely crowded together.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/edward-fothergill/five-years-in-the-sudan-hto/page-10-five-years-in-the-sudan-hto.shtml
|title=''Five years in the Sudan'' |author=Edward Fothergill,
|publisher=Hurst & Blackett |year=1910}}</ref>
The Lado Enclave was important to the Congo Free State as it included [[Rejaf]], which was the terminus for boats on the [[Nile]]. Rejaf was the seat of the Commander, the only European colonial official within the enclave, who were in place from 1897 to June 1910. Efforts were made to properly defend Lado against any possible incursion by another colonial power, with twelve heavy Krupp fort guns installed in November 1906.<ref>"The Lado Enclave", ''[[The Hobart Mercury|The Mercury]]'', 30 November 1906, p. 5.</ref>
There were also rumours of gold deposits in Lado which led to great interest in the region in the early years of the twentieth century.<ref>Wack, p. 291.</ref>
On 10 June 1910, following Leopold’s death, the district officially became a province of the [[Anglo-Egyptian Sudan]] and in 1912 the southern half was ceded to [[Uganda]], then a British protectorate.<ref>Ascherson, N. ''The King Incorporated: Leopold II in the Age of Trusts'', Granta Books, 2001. ISBN 1-86207-290-6.</ref> However, in reality, following Leopold's death and the susbsequent withdrawal of Belgian troops, British authorities neglected to administer the area, leaving the enclave to become a "no man's land".<ref name=geo>"Review of 'Big Game Hunting in Central Africa", ''The Geographical Journal'', vol. 77, no. 3, March 1931, p. 276.</ref> Ivory hunters moved in and shot almost all of an estimated herd of 2000 elephants resident in the enclave, netting the hunters large profits.<ref name=geo/>
| |||