Sudanese Sultanates

The Sudanese are a large collection of people-groups – the most numerous of which are Sudanese Arabs – indigenous to modern-day Sudan. During the early modern period, this region was ruled primarily by two sultanates: Darfur (17th-20th centuries) and Sennar (16th-19th centuries). Both of these profited immensely off the bustling trade networks running along the Nile and its tributaries as well as – infamously – the slave trade running along them. As the centuries rolled on, Sudanese independence was threatened from several directions. The Ottomans expanded along the Nile from the north, while the Ethiopians campaigned from the east. The early 19th century saw the Ottomans briefly occupying many Sudanese lands, dismantling the Sennar Sultanate and subjugating the Darfur Sultanate. The British then occupied Sudan during the First World War in 1916, ending Ottoman rule. Four decades later, Sudan attained independence in 1956.

From the game's History encyclopedia, AoE3: DE 100.19.18309.