Independence and civil wars:The continued British occupation of Sudan fuelled an increasingly strident nationalist backlash to Egypt, with Egyptian nationalist leaders determine to force Britain to recognize a single independent union of Egypt and Sudan. With the formal end of Ottoman rule in 1914 , Hussayn Kamal was declare Sultan of Egypt and Sudan, as was his brother Fuad I who succeded him. The insistence of a single Egyptian-Sudanese state pbut the British persisted when the sultanate was retitled the kingdom of Egypt and Sudan, but the British continued to frustrate these efforts. The Egyptian revolution of 1952 finally heralded the beginning of the march towards Sudanese independence.Having abolished the monarchy in 1953, Egypt's new leaders, Muhammad Naguib , whose mother was Sudanese, and later Gamal Abdel-Nasser, believed the only way to end British domination in Sudan was for Egypt to officially abondon its sovereignty over Sudan.The British on the other hand continued their political and financial support for the Mahdi successor Sayyid Abdel Rahman whom they believed could resist the Egyptian to allow the Sudanese in the north and south together self determination and a free vote on Independence.
Until 1946 the British empire administered south Sudan and northSudan as separate regions. At this time, the two areas were merged into a single administrative region as part of British strategy in the Middle East.This act was taken without consultation with sutherners , who feared being subsumed by the the political power of the larger north. Southern Sudan is inhabited primarily by Christians and animists and considers itself culturally sub-Saharan, while most of the north is inhabited by Muslims who considers themselves culturally Arabic.
In 1954 the Govt. of Egypt and Britain signed a treaty guaranteering Sudanese Independence on 1 Jan., 1956, in a special ceremony held at the people's Palace where the Egyptian and British flags were lowered and the new Sudanese flag composed of green , blue and white stripes, was raised in their place. Afterwards, Ismail al Azhari was elected first Prime Minister and led the first modern Sudanese govt.
