Why did the name Kush/Nubia change to Suddan?

Answer 1

Nubia is still there in southern Egypt between Aswan and Sudan

Answer 2

[edit] Early history of Sudan
Main article: Early history of Sudan
Three ancient kings of the Kushite kingdoms existed consecutively in northern Sudan. This region was also known as Nubia and Meroë, and these civilizations flourished mainly along the Nile River from the first to the sixth cataracts. The kingdoms were influenced by, and in turn influenced Pharaonic Egypt. when the Napatan Dynasty was founded under Alara and regained independence for the kingdom of Kush. Borders, however, fluctuated greatly. The country's dense population made it a problem however.

Much of the region was converted to Coptic Christianity during the third and fourth centuries AD. Islam was introduced in 640 AD with an influx of Muslim Arabs who had conquered Egypt, although the Christian Kingdoms of Nubia managed to persist until the 15th Century.

A merchant class of Arabs became economically dominant in feudal Sudan. An important kingdom in Nubia was the Makuria, which reached its height in the 8th-9th centuries, and was of the Melkite Christian faith, unlike its Coptic neighbours, Nobatia and Alodia.


[edit] Kingdom of Sinnar
During the 1600s the people called the Funj conquered much of Sudan, establishing the Kingdom of Sinnar. By the time the kingdom was conquered by Egypt in 1820, the government was substantially weakened by a series of succession arguments and coups within the royal family.


[edit] Foreign control: the Egyptian and British
Main article: Mahdist War
In 1820, Northern Sudan came under Egyptian rule when Mehemet Ali, the Ottoman viceroy of Egypt, sent armies led by his son Ismail Pasha and Mahammed Bey to conquer eastern Sudan. The Egyptians developed Sudan’s trade in ivory and slaves. Ismail Pasha, khedive of Egypt from 1863-1879, tried to extend Egyptian (and therefore British) influence south. This led to a revolt led by religious leader Muhammad ibn Abdalla, the self-proclaimed Mahdi (Guided One), who sought to purify Islam in Sudan. He led a nationalist revolt against Egyptian/British rule culminating in the fall of Khartoum and the death of the British General Charles George Gordon in 1885. The revolt was successful and Egypt and the British abandoned Sudan, and the resulting state was a theocratic Mahdist state.

In the 1890s the British sought to regain control of Sudan. Lord Kitchener led military campaigns from 1896-98, culminating in the Battle of Omdurman. An agreement was reached in 1899 establishing Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, under which Sudan was run by a governor-general appointed by Egypt with British consent. In reality, Sudan was a colony of Great Britain.

From 1924 until independence in 1956, the British had a policy of running Sudan as two essentially separate colonies, the south and the north.


[edit] Independence
The first real independence attempt was made in 1924 by a group of Sudanese military officers known as The White Flag Association. The group was led by first lieutenant Ali Abdullatif and first lieutenant Abdul Fadil Almaz. The latter led an insurrection of the military training academy, which ended in their defeat and the death of Almaz after the british army blew up the military hospital where he was garrisoned. this defeat was (allegedly) partially the result of the egyptian garrison in Khartoum North not supporting the insurrection with artillery as was previously promised.

"Afterwards, the newly elected government went ahead with the process of Sudanization of the state's government, with the help and supervision of an international committee. In November 1955, it declared the intentions of the Sudanese people to exercise their right to independence. This was duly granted and on January 1, 1956, Sudan was formally declared independent. In a special ceremony held at the People's Palace, the British and Egyptian flags were brought down and the new Sudanese flag, composed of green, blue and yellow stripes, was raised in their place."[1]


[edit] First Sudanese Civil War
Main article: First Sudanese Civil War
The year before independence, a civil war began between Northern and Southern Sudan. The Southerners, anticipating independence, feared the new nation would be dominated by the North.

Historically, the north of Sudan had closer ties with Egypt and was predominantly Arab and Muslim while the south was predominantly black, with a mixture of Christianity and Animism. These divisions had been further emphasized by the British policy of ruling the North and South under separate administrations. From 1924 on it was illegal for people living above the 10th parallel to go further south and for people below the 8th parallel to go further north. The law was ostensibly enacted to prevent the spread of malaria and other tropical diseases that had ravaged British troops, as well as to prevent Northern Sudanese from raiding Southern tribes for slaves. another reason was to facilitate spreading christianity among the predominantly animist population while stopping the arabic and islamic influence from advancing south. The result was increased isolation between the already distinct north and south and arguably laid the seeds of conflict in the years to come.

The resulting conflict, known as the First Sudanese Civil War, lasted from 1955 to 1972. In 1972, a cessation of the north-south conflict was agreed upon under the terms of the Addis Ababa Agreement, following talks which were sponsored by the World Council of Churches. This led to a ten-year hiatus in the national conflict.


[edit] Second Sudanese Civil War
Main article: Second Sudanese Civil War
In 1983, the civil war was reignited following President Gaafar Nimeiry's decision to circumvent the Addis Ababa Agreement. President Gaafar Nimeiry attempted to create a Federated Sudan including states in southern Sudan, which violated the Addis Ababa Agreement that had granted the south considerable autonomy. The Sudan People's Liberation Army formed in May 1983 as a result. Finally, in June 1983, the Sudanese Government under President Gaafar Nimeiry abrogated the Addis Ababa Peace Agreement (A.A.A.)[3]. The situation was exacerbated after President Gaafar Nimeiry went on to implement Sharia Law in September of the same year [4].

The war continued even after Numeiri was ousted and a democratic government was elected with Al Sadig Al Mahdi's Umma party having the majority in the partliament. the leader of the SPLA John Garang refused to recognize the government and to negotiate with it as representative of the Sudan but agreed to negotiate with Government officials as representative of their political parties.

In 1989 a coup d'état brought control of Khartoum to the hands of Omar al-Bashir and the National Islamic Front headed by Dr. Hassan al-Turabi. Both groups are Sunni fundamentalists drawing most of their ideology from the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Together they formed the Popular Defense Forces (al Difaa al Shaabi) and began to give a religious justifiation to the already ongoing war with the SPLA in the tribal south, causing casualties among the Christian and animist minority.

This, however, was mainly viewed by the Northern Sudanese as a fight against the proxies of "western imperialism" who were trying to undermine the Islamic government and not as an attempt to impose Islam on the Southern Sudanese people, as most of the internally-displaced Southern Sudanese were living in the North and practising their religion freely. For instance, Mrs. Rebecca Garang was living in Khartoum North (a few kilometers away from where Al Bashir, the Sudanese president, was living) and freely practicing her Christian faith while her husband John Garang (now deceased) was fighting the government.

The SPLA started as a Marxist movement, with support from the Soviet Union and the Ethiopian Marxist President Mengistu Haile Meriem. Over time, however, it sought support in the West by using the Northern Sudanese government's religious propaganda to portray the war as a campaign by the Arab Islamic government to impose Islam and the Arabic language on the Christian South.

The war went on for more than twenty years, including the use of Russian-made combat helicopters and military cargo planes which were used as bombers to devastating effect on villages and tribal rebels alike. "Sudan's independent history has been dominated by chronic, exceptionally cruel warfare that has starkly divided the country on racial, religious, and regional grounds; displaced an estimated four million people (of a total estimated population of thirty-two million); and killed an estimated two million people."[2] It damaged Sudan's economy and led to food shortages, resulting in starvation and malnutrition. The lack of investment during this time, particularly in the south, meant a generation lost access to basic health services, education, and jobs.

In 1992 Turabi arranged a conference in Khartoum, amongst his guests were the NIF of Sudan, the FIS of Algeria, Gamaat Islamiya of Egypt, Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Islamic Jihad of Palestine, the graduates of madrassas (Islamic schools) that later become the Taliban, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hezbollah, Saddam Hussein's Baath party, and Lebanon's Salafists. These conferences continued to be held throughout the 1990s.

Peace talks between the southern rebels and the government made substantial progress in 2003 and early 2004. The peace was consolidated with the official signing by both sides of the Nairobi Comprehensive Peace Agreement 9 January 2005, granting Southern Sudan autonomy for six years, to be followed by a referendum about independence. It created a co-vice president position and allowed the north and south to split oil equally, but also left both the North's and South's armies in place. John Garang, the south's elected co-vice president died in a helicopter crash on August 1, 2005, three weeks after being sworn in. This resulted in riots, but the peace was eventually able to continue.

The United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) was established under UN Security Council Resolution 1590 of March 24, 2005. Its mandate is to support implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and to perform functions relating to humanitarian assistance, and protection and promotion of human rights.


Independence
- From Egypt and the United Kingdom January 1, 1956