French Sudan change until 1933. At that point, the colony of the French Upper Volta ("Haute-Volta", modern Burkina Faso) dissolved, and the northern territory was added to French Sudan. In 1947, Upper Volta was reestablished, and the French Sudan borders became those that eventually became the borders of Mali. Kayes was the original capital city from the 1890s until 1908, when the capital moved to Bamako, where it remains. The colony supported mostly rain-fed agriculture, with limited irrigation for its first 30 years. The only cash crops were nuts gathered close to the railroad between Kayes and Bamako. However, following successful tests
History of Sudan 19th century, and established a province [[Equatoria]] in southern Sudan to further this aim, it was unable to establish effective control over the area. In the later years of the Turkiyah, [[United Kingdom|British]] missionaries traveled from modern-day [[Kenya]] into the Sudan to convert the local tribes to Christianity. [[File:1875 slave merchant Khartoum.jpeg|thumb|200px|A typical slave merchant of Khartoum, 1875]] In 1881, a religious leader named [[Muhammad Ahmad]] proclaimed himself the [[Mahdi]] ("guided one") and began a war to unify the tribes in western and central Sudan. His followers took the name "[[Ansar (Sudan)|Ansar]]s" ("followers") which they continue to use today, in