Chapter 01 · c. 3000 BCE – c. 1700 CE
Peoples of the Upper Nile
Cattle-herding Nilotic societies and the Sudd wetland shape a world of pastoral clans and divine kings.
The lands of the upper White Nile have supported transhumant cattle-keeping cultures for thousands of years; archaeological evidence points to herding societies in the Sudd marshlands as early as the third millennium BCE. The Sudd, one of the world's largest wetlands formed where the White Nile spreads across a vast floodplain, set the rhythm of life: peoples moved with the seasons between dry-season cattle camps near the river and higher rain-season settlements.
Nilotic-speaking peoples, the ancestors of today's Dinka (Jieng), Nuer (Naath), Shilluk (Chollo) and Luo groups, spread across this country, with a major expansion from around the fourteenth century coinciding with the collapse of the Christian Nubian kingdoms of Makuria and Alodia to the north. The Dinka and Nuer built decentralised, cattle-centred societies without kings, ordered instead by clans, age-sets and lineage. Cattle were wealth, bridewealth and identity.
Others organised into more centralised states. The Shilluk founded a kingdom along the White Nile around the mid-fifteenth century, traditionally ascribed to the demigod founder Nyikang and ruled by a sacred king, the Reth, whose health was bound to the wellbeing of the nation; Fashoda became the royal seat. To the southwest, the Azande, a non-Nilotic people, entered the region and by the time of European contact had built some of its largest and most powerful states.
“The monarchy of the Shilluk has been at once political and religious; the king guaranteed the social order, and his health and the health of the nation were intertwined.”
— On the Shilluk Reth
Turning points
- c. 3000 BCEPeoples & Migration
Cattle-herding cultures in the Sudd
Archaeological evidence indicates transhumant cattle-raising societies established in the Sudd marshlands of the upper White Nile.
See the data - c. 14th centuryPeoples & Migration
Nilotic expansion across the upper Nile
Western Nilotic peoples including the Dinka and Nuer spread out from the Sudd, a dispersal linked to the decline of the Christian Nubian kingdoms of Makuria and Alodia.
See the data - c. mid-15th centuryFormation
- c. 1690sPolitics & Power
Fashoda made the Shilluk royal seat
King Tugo founds Fashoda as the permanent residence of the Shilluk kings, formalising the kingdom's investiture rituals and divine kingship.
Chapter sources: History of South Sudan, Precolonial History of South Sudan, Shilluk Kingdom, South Sudan country profile
Chapter 02 · 1821 – 1898
Conquest, Ivory and the Slave Raids
Turco-Egyptian expansion, the zariba traders and Mahdist war devastate the southern Nile peoples.
From 1820-1821 the armies of Muhammad Ali, the Ottoman viceroy of Egypt, conquered the Funj lands and pushed Turco-Egyptian power up the Nile in search of gold, ivory and slaves. Khartoum grew as the administrative and trading centre, and over the following decades expeditions probed ever deeper into the south. By the 1840s steamers had pushed up the White Nile toward present-day Juba, opening the region to commercial penetration.
Slave raiding became foundational to the southern economy of this period. Armed merchants, many operating from Khartoum, built fortified camps known as zaribas across the Bahr al-Ghazal and beyond, seizing captives and ivory; figures such as al-Zubayr Rahma Mansur dominated this commerce. Contemporary estimates of the scale are grim, with tens of thousands of people taken each year at the trade's height in the 1860s and 1870s. The raids hollowed out communities and seared a lasting memory of predation from the north.
Egyptian rule established Equatoria as a southern province, governed by appointees including the explorer Samuel Baker and later Charles Gordon, partly under European pressure to suppress the slave trade. That order collapsed when the Mahdist revolt swept Sudan from 1881; Khartoum fell in 1885 and the Mahdist state held sway until an Anglo-Egyptian army destroyed it at Omdurman in 1898, reopening the south to outside conquest.
“The expansion of Turco-Egyptian rule created the conditions for slaving expeditions deep into the southern Sudan and a chain of fortified zaribas.”
— On the nineteenth-century slave trade
Turning points
- 1821War & Rupture
Turco-Egyptian conquest reaches Sudan
Muhammad Ali's forces conquer the Funj lands and extend Egyptian rule up the Nile, seeking gold, ivory and slaves and making Khartoum the seat of administration.
See the data - 1850s–1870sCatastrophe
Zariba slave and ivory raids
Armed traders such as al-Zubayr Rahma Mansur establish fortified zaribas across the south; contemporary estimates put captives taken at tens of thousands a year by the mid-1870s.
See the data - 1869Colonisation
Equatoria province established
Samuel Baker is appointed governor of Equatoria, an Egyptian southern province later led by Charles Gordon, partly to suppress the slave trade.
See the data - 1885War & Rupture
Mahdist revolt and the fall of Khartoum
The Mahdist uprising overruns Sudan and captures Khartoum, ending Turco-Egyptian rule and bringing further upheaval to the southern Nile peoples.
See the data - 1898War & Rupture
Mahdist state crushed at Omdurman
An Anglo-Egyptian army defeats the Mahdist forces at Omdurman, clearing the way for the reconquest of Sudan, including the south.
See the data
Chapter sources: Turco-Egyptian conquest of Sudan (1820–1824), History of South Sudan, Al-Zubayr Rahma Mansur, Khartoum, Sudan (1821– ), Anglo-Egyptian Condominium
Chapter 03 · 1899 – 1955
The Condominium and the Southern Policy
British rule administers the south apart from the north, then hands it to Khartoum without its consent.
After the reconquest, the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium was established in 1899 to govern Sudan jointly in name, but in practice under British control. The south, sparsely administered and impoverished, was treated very differently from the Arabic-speaking, Muslim north. British officials limited the influence of northern traders and Islam in the south, and Christian missions, restricted in the north, were active there in education.
This separation hardened into the formal Southern Policy. Closed District ordinances from the 1920s restricted movement and trade between north and south, and a 1930 memorandum directed administrators to develop the southern provinces of Bahr al-Ghazal, Equatoria and Upper Nile as a distinct bloc, promoting local languages and English rather than Arabic. The policy left the south educationally and economically far behind, while entrenching a sense that it was a separate world from Khartoum.
In 1946 Britain abruptly reversed course, deciding to join the south to the north without meaningful consultation of southerners. The 1947 Juba Conference brought northern and southern figures together, but southern delegates had little leverage. As decolonisation accelerated, the south found itself bound into a single Sudanese state in which the northern elite held the levers of power, its fears of domination largely unanswered.
“British policy in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan bears some responsibility for the deep-rooted divisions between north and south.”
— Africa at LSE
Turning points
- 1899Colonisation
Anglo-Egyptian Condominium established
Britain and Egypt establish joint rule over Sudan, with the largely Christian and traditionalist south administered separately from the Arab-Muslim north.
See the data - 1922Colonisation
Closed District ordinances
Colonial 'closed district' rules restrict travel and trade between north and south, isolating the southern provinces and curbing northern and Arabic influence.
See the data - 1930Colonisation
The Southern Policy formalised
A government memorandum directs administrators to develop the south as a distinct bloc, favouring local languages and English over Arabic and limiting northern contact.
See the data - 1946Politics & Power
Britain reverses course
Colonial authorities abandon the Southern Policy and move to unite the south with the north, without meaningful consultation of southerners.
- 1947Politics & Power
Juba Conference
Northern and southern representatives meet at Juba to discuss the south's place in a future Sudan, but southern delegates have little leverage over the outcome.
Chapter sources: Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, British policy in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and the north–south divide, History of South Sudan
Chapter 04 · 1955 – 2005
Marginalisation and Two Civil Wars
From the Torit mutiny to the SPLM/SPLA, the south fights two long wars against rule from Khartoum.
Even before Sudan's independence on 1 January 1956, southern soldiers feared domination by the north. In August 1955 the Equatorial Corps garrison at Torit mutinied, an event widely taken as the opening of the First Sudanese Civil War. Through the 1960s southern fighters coalesced into the Anyanya insurgency. The war ended only with the Addis Ababa Agreement of 27 February 1972, which granted the south regional autonomy under President Jaafar Nimeiri and integrated Anyanya fighters into the army.
The peace lasted just over a decade. In 1983 Nimeiri abolished the southern region and moved to impose Islamic sharia law across all of Sudan. Southern soldiers mutinied again, and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and Army (SPLM/SPLA) formed under John Garang, opening the Second Sudanese Civil War. Garang's movement initially fought not for separation but for a reformed, united 'New Sudan'. The war was protracted and catastrophic, marked by famine and by internal splits, including the 1991 Bor episode after a factional breakaway.
Over more than two decades the conflict killed an estimated two million people and displaced millions more through fighting, famine and disease, one of the deadliest wars of its era. Sustained negotiations under regional and international pressure eventually produced a breakthrough, culminating in the agreement that would set the south on the road to a referendum on its own future.
“The Sudan People's Liberation Movement and Army, led by John Garang, fought the central government for more than two decades.”
— On the Second Sudanese Civil War
Turning points
- Aug 1955War & Rupture
Torit mutiny begins the First Civil War
Southern soldiers of the Equatorial Corps mutiny at Torit over fears of northern domination, an event marking the start of the First Sudanese Civil War.
See the data - 1 Jan 1956Independence
Sudan's independence; the south sidelined
Sudan becomes independent under a northern-dominated government, with southern demands for federalism largely unmet.
See the data - 27 Feb 1972Politics & Power
- 1983War & Rupture
Second Civil War and the rise of the SPLM/SPLA
Khartoum abolishes southern autonomy and moves to impose sharia; the SPLM/SPLA forms under John Garang, beginning the Second Sudanese Civil War.
See the data - 1983Catastrophe
An estimated two million dead
Over more than two decades the war kills around two million people through combat, famine and disease and uproots millions, among the deadliest conflicts of its time.
See the data
Figures of the era
John Garang de Mabior1945–2005
Founder and leader of the SPLM/SPLA
Led the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and Army through the Second Sudanese Civil War, championing a reformed, united 'New Sudan'. He signed the 2005 peace agreement and became first vice-president of Sudan, only to die in a helicopter crash weeks later.
Chapter sources: History of South Sudan, Sudan: The Addis Ababa Agreement, Addis Ababa Agreement (1972), South Sudan: The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, Conflict, Independence, Ten Years Later: Taking Stock of Sudan's Comprehensive Peace Agreement
Chapter 05 · 2005 – 2011
Peace, Referendum and a New State
The Comprehensive Peace Agreement leads to an overwhelming vote for independence and statehood in 2011.
On 9 January 2005 the Government of Sudan and the SPLM/SPLA signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), ending the Second Sudanese Civil War. The CPA established a six-year interim period of power-sharing, an autonomous Government of Southern Sudan, and crucially a referendum at the end of that period on whether the south would remain part of Sudan or become independent. John Garang was sworn in as first vice-president of Sudan in July 2005 but died in a helicopter crash that same month; Salva Kiir Mayardit succeeded him.
The promised vote took place in January 2011. Over a week of polling that began on 9 January, southern Sudanese voted on self-determination, and the result was decisive: 98.83% chose independence on a turnout of nearly 99%. The outcome reflected generations of grievance and the south's sense of distinct identity, and was broadly accepted, including by Khartoum.
South Sudan declared independence at midnight on 9 July 2011, becoming the world's newest widely recognised sovereign state and Africa's fifty-fourth country. The United States and many others recognised it the same day; on 14 July it became the 193rd member of the United Nations and later joined the African Union. Statehood, however, left unresolved disputes with Sudan over borders, oil revenues and the contested Abyei region.
“Southern Sudanese voted overwhelmingly for independence, with 98.83% in favour on a turnout of about 99%.”
— On the 2011 referendum
Turning points
- 9 Jan 2005Politics & Power
- Jul 2005Politics & Power
- 9–15 Jan 2011Independence
Self-determination referendum
In a week-long vote, 98.83% of southern Sudanese choose independence on a turnout of about 99%.
See the data - 9 Jul 2011Independence
Independence of South Sudan
At midnight on 9 July 2011 South Sudan becomes an independent state, the world's newest widely recognised nation, recognised the same day by the United States and others.
See the data - 14 Jul 2011Independence
Admission to the United Nations
South Sudan is admitted as the 193rd member state of the United Nations, and soon after joins the African Union.
See the data
Figures of the era
Chapter sources: South Sudan: The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, Conflict, Independence, Ten Years Later: Taking Stock of Sudan's Comprehensive Peace Agreement, Referendum in Southern Sudan, U.S. Relations With South Sudan, History of South Sudan
Chapter 06 · 2013 – present
A Young Nation at War
Within two years of independence the new state collapses into a civil war marked by famine and atrocity.
In December 2013 a political rupture between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar erupted into open conflict in Juba. Kiir accused Machar of an attempted coup, which Machar denied; the fighting rapidly took on an ethnic dimension between Dinka and Nuer communities and spread across the country. The South Sudanese Civil War that followed was marked by massacres, mass displacement and the use of starvation as a weapon.
The humanitarian toll was severe. In February 2017 famine was formally declared in parts of Unity state, with millions across the country needing emergency food aid; UN experts warned that famine driven by deliberate state or factional action could constitute an international crime. A 2018 study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine estimated that roughly 383,000 people had died as a result of the conflict by April 2018, about half through direct violence, while millions more were uprooted, many fleeing to neighbouring countries.
After repeated failed ceasefires, the parties signed the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS) on 12 September 2018. A Revitalised Transitional Government of National Unity was formed on 22 February 2020, with Machar sworn in once more as first vice-president under Kiir. The peace has held only fragilely, with delays to elections and recurrent violence keeping the world's youngest nation in a precarious balance between war and a still-unconsolidated peace.
“About 383,000 people are estimated to have died as a result of the war, roughly half of them through direct violence.”
— London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 2018
Turning points
- Dec 2013War & Rupture
Civil war erupts in Juba
A power struggle between President Salva Kiir and former vice-president Riek Machar ignites fighting in Juba that spreads nationwide and takes on an ethnic character.
See the data - Feb 2017Catastrophe
Famine declared in Unity state
The UN declares famine in parts of Unity state, with millions needing emergency aid; experts warn that famine used as a weapon of war may be an international crime.
See the data - 2018Catastrophe
An estimated 383,000 dead
A London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine study estimates about 383,000 conflict-related deaths by April 2018, roughly half from direct violence.
See the data - 12 Sep 2018Politics & Power
- 22 Feb 2020Politics & Power
Unity government formed
A Revitalised Transitional Government of National Unity is sworn in, with Riek Machar again first vice-president under President Salva Kiir, though the peace remains fragile.
Chapter sources: Civil war in South Sudan: a primer, History of South Sudan, Famine declared in region of South Sudan, 2017 South Sudan famine, Estimates of crisis-attributable mortality in South Sudan, The Formation of the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity in South Sudan