Steamships had replaced sailing ships in the transport of goods and military men. Steam driven locomotives made transport easier between colonized ports and inland, with raw materials being transferred from the interiors to the ports and soldiers being transferred from the ports inland. The telegraph tied distances closer together.At the turn of the century, the British were letting the Egyptians run their own internal affairs. The British were content to maintain control over the Suez Canal and to remain in charge of military and foreign affairs in Egypt. They left Egyptian lands to Egyptian landowners, who were growing cotton to sell to the British manufacturers. The British advocated no reforms in Egypt, fearing that talk of reforms there would inspire unrest.
A conflict with Egyptian opinion remained concerning who ruled in the Sudan, just south of Egypt. The Sudan had been ruled by Egypt. But to ward off French expansion into the region the British had expanded there. In 1899 the British had fought a great battle against the Sudanese at Omduran, just north of the town of Khartoum, and now, in British eyes, the Sudan was ruled by Britain. And, as in Egypt, the British left lands there in the hands of African landowners, who were also growing and selling cotton to Britain.