The Era of Colonies.
Since civilization began nations have endeavored to extend their
dominions, not alone by adding to their territory by the conquest of
adjoining countries, but also by sending out their excess population
to distant regions and founding colonies that served as aids to and
feeders of the parent state. In the ancient world the active commercial
nations, Phoenicia and Greece, were alert in this direction, some of
their colonies,--Carthage, for instance,--becoming powerful enough to
gain the status of independent states. In modern times the colonial era
began with the discovery of America in 1492 and the circumnavigation
of Africa immediately afterwards. Spain and Portugal, the leaders
in enterprise at that period, were quick to take advantage of their
discoveries, while France, Great Britain and Holland came into the
field as founders of colonies at a later date.
[=Progress in Colonization=]
At the opening of the nineteenth century Spain and Portugal still
held the great dominions they had won. They divided between them
the continent of South America, while Spain held a large section of
North America, embracing the whole continent south of Canada and west
of the Mississippi River, together with the peninsula of Florida.
Portugal held, in addition to Brazil, large territories in east and
west Africa and minor possessions elsewhere. As regards the remaining
active colonizing nations,--Great Britain, France, and Holland,--some
striking transformations had taken place. Great Britain, while late to
come into the field of colonization, had shown remarkable activity and
aggressiveness in this direction, robbing Holland of her settlement
on the Atlantic coast of America, and depriving France of her great
colonial possessions in the east and the west.
[=French Activity in Founding Colonies=]
France had shown a remarkable activity in colonization. In the east she
gained a strong foothold in India, which promised to expand to imperial
dimensions. In the west she had settled Canada, had planted military
posts along the great Mississippi River and claimed the vast territory
beyond, and was extending into the Ohio Valley, while the British
still confined themselves to a narrow strip along the Atlantic coast.
The war which broke out between the English and French colonists in
1754 put an end to this grand promise. When it ended France had lost
all her possessions in America and India, Great Britain becoming heir
to the whole of them with the exception of the territory west of the
Mississippi, which was transferred to Spain. As regards Holland, she
had become the successor of Portugal in the east, holding immensely
valuable islands in the Malayan archipelago.
The colonial dominion of Great Britain, however, suffered one great
loss before the end of the eighteenth century. It failed to recognize
the spirit of Anglo-Saxon colonists, and by its tyranny in America gave
rise to an insurrection which ended in the freedom of its American
colonies. It still held Canada and many of the West India Islands,
but the United States was free, and by the opening of the nineteenth
century had fairly begun its remarkable development.
Such was the condition of colonial affairs at the beginning of the
century with which we are concerned. Spain and Portugal still held the
greatest colonial dominions upon the earth, France had lost nearly the
whole of her colonies, Holland possessed the rich spice islands of the
eastern seas, and Great Britain was just entering upon that activity
in colonization which forms one of the striking features of nineteenth
century progress.
[=Spain's Colonial Decline=]
At the close of the century a remarkable difference appears. Spain had
lost practically the whole of her vast colonial empire. She had learned
no lesson from England's experience with her American colonies, but
maintained a policy of tyranny and oppression until these far-extended
colonial provinces rose in arms and won their independence by courage
and endurance. Her great domain west of the Mississippi, transferred
by treaty to France, was purchased by the United States. Florida was
sold by her to the same country, and by the end of the first quarter of
the century she did not own a foot of land on the American continent.
She still held the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico in the West Indies,
but her oppressive policy yielded the same result there as on the
continent. The islanders broke into rebellion, the United States came
to their aid, and she lost these islands and the Philippine Islands
in the East. At the end of the century all she held were the Canary
Islands and some small possessions elsewhere.
Portugal had also suffered a heavy loss in her colonial dominions,
but in a very different manner. The invasion of the home state by
Napoleon's armies had caused the king and his court to set sail for
Brazil, where they established an independent empire, while a new
scion of the family of Braganza took Portugal for his own. Thus, with
the exception of Canada, Guiana, and the smaller islands of the West
Indies, no colonies existed in America at the end of the century, all
the former colonies having become independent republics.
[=The Colonial Development of Great Britain=]
The active powers in colonization within the nineteenth century were
the great rivals of the preceding period, Great Britain and France,
though the former gained decidedly the start, and its colonial empire
to-day surpasses that of any other nation of mankind. It is so
enormous, in fact, as to dwarf the parent kingdom, which is related to
its colonial dominion, so far as comparative size is concerned, as the
small brain of the elephant is related to its great body.
[=Other Colonizing Powers=]
Other powers, not heard of as colonizers in the past, have recently
come into this field, though too late to obtain any of the great
prizes. These are Germany and Italy, the latter to a small extent.
But there is a great power still to name, which in its way stands as
a rival to Great Britain, the empire of Russia, whose acquisitions
in Asia have grown enormous in extent. These are not colonies in the
ordinary sense, but rather results of the expansion of an empire
through warlike aggression, but they are colonial in the sense of
absorbing the excess population of European Russia. The great territory
of Siberia was gained by Russia before the nineteenth century, but
within recent years its dominion in Asia has greatly increased, and it
is not easy to tell just when and where it will end.
[=Growth of the British Colonies=]
With this preliminary review we may proceed to consider the history of
colonization within the century. And first we must take up the results
of the colonial enterprise of Great Britain, as much the most important
of the whole. Of this story we have already described some of the
leading features. A chapter has been given to the story of the Indian
empire of Great Britain, far the largest of her colonial possessions,
and another to that of South Africa. In addition to Hindustan, in which
the dominion of Great Britain now extends to Afghanistan and Thibet in
the north, the British colony now includes Burmah and the west-coast
region of Indo-China, with the Straits Settlements in the Malay
peninsula, and the island of Ceylon, acquired in 1802 from Holland.
[=Australia and New Zealand=]
In the eastern seas Great Britain possesses another colony of vast
dimensions, the continental island of Australia, which, with its area
of nearly 3,000,000 square miles, is three-fourths the size of Europe.
The first British settlement was made here in 1788, at Port Jackson,
the site of the present thriving city of Sydney, and the island was
long maintained as a penal settlement, convicts being sent there as
late as 1868. It was the discovery of gold in 1851 to which Australia
owed its great progress. The incitement of the yellow metal drew the
enterprising thither by thousands, until the population of the colony
is now more than 3,000,000, and is growing at a rapid rate, it having
developed other valuable resources besides that of gold. Of its cities,
Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, has more than 300,000 population;
Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, probably 250,000, while there
are other cities of rapid growth. Australia is the one important
British colony obtained without a war. In its human beings, as in its
animals generally, it stood at a low level of development, and it was
taken possession of without a protest from the savage inhabitants.
The same cannot be said of the inhabitants of New Zealand, an important
group of islands lying east of Australia, which was acquired by Great
Britain as a colony in 1840. The Maoris, as the people of these islands
call themselves, are of the bold and sturdy Polynesian race, a brave,
generous, and warlike people, who have given their new lords and
masters no little trouble. A series of wars with the natives began in
1843 and continued until 1869, since which time the colony has enjoyed
peace. It can have no more trouble with the Maoris, since there are
said to be no more Maoris. They have vanished before the "white man's
face." At present this colony is one of the most advanced politically
of any region on the face of the earth, so far as attention to the
interests of the masses of the people is concerned, and its laws and
regulations offer a useful object lesson to the remainder of the world.
[=Other British Colonies=]
In addition to those great island dominions in the Pacific, Great
Britain possesses the Fiji Islands, the northern part of Borneo, and
a large section of the extensive island of Papua or New Guinea, the
remainder of which is held by Holland and Germany. In addition there
are various coaling stations on the islands and coast of Asia. In the
Mediterranean its possessions are Gibraltar, Malta, and Cyprus, and
in America the great colony of Canada, a considerable number of the
islands of the West Indies, and the districts of British Honduras and
British Guiana. Of these, far the most important is Canada, to which a
chapter will be devoted farther on in our work.
[=The Interior of Africa and Asia=]
We have here to deal with the colonies in two of the continents,
Asia and Africa, of which the history presents certain features of
singularity. Though known from the most ancient times, while America
was quite unknown until four centuries ago, the striking fact presents
itself that at the beginning of the nineteenth century the continents
of North and South America were fairly well known from coast to centre,
while the interior of Asia and Africa remained in great part unknown.
This fact in regard to Asia was due to the hostile attitude of its
people, which rendered it very dangerous for any European traveler
to attempt to penetrate its interior. In the case of Africa it was
due to the inhospitality of nature, which had placed the most serious
obstacles in the way of those who sought to penetrate beyond the coast
regions. This state of affairs continued until the latter half of the
century, within which period there has been a remarkable change in
the aspect of affairs, both continents having been penetrated in all
directions and their walls of isolation completely broken down.
[=Early Colonies in Africa=]
Africa is not only now well known, but the penetration of its interior
has been followed by political changes of the most revolutionary
character. It presented a virgin field for colonization, of which the
land-hungry nations of Europe hastened to avail themselves, dividing
up the continent between them, so that, by the end of the century, the
partition of Africa was practically complete. It is one of the most
remarkable circumstances in the history of the nineteenth century that
a complete continent remained thus until late in the history of the
world to serve as a new field for the outpouring of the nations. The
occupation of Africa by Europeans, indeed, began earlier. The Arabs
had held the section north of the Sahara for many centuries, Portugal
claimed--but scarcely occupied--large sections east and west, and the
Dutch had a thriving settlement in the south. But the exploration
and division of the bulk of the continent waited for the nineteenth
century, and the greater part of the work of partition took place
within the final quarter of that century.
[=The Partition of Africa=]
In this work of colonization Great Britain was, as usual, most
energetic and successful, and to-day the possessions and protectorates
of this active kingdom in Africa embrace 2,587,755 square miles;
or, if we add Egypt and the Egyptian Soudan--practically British
territory--the area occupied or claimed amounts to 2,987,755 square
miles. France comes next, with claims covering 1,232,454 square miles.
Germany lays claim to 920,920; Italy, to 278,500; Portugal, to 735,304;
Spain, to 243,877; the Congo Free State, to 900,000; and Turkey (if
Egypt be included), to 798,738 square miles. The parts of Africa
unoccupied or unclaimed by Europeans are a portion of the Desert of
Sahara, which no one wants; Abyssinia, still independent though in
danger of absorption; and Liberia, a state over which rests the shadow
of protection of the United States.
[=British Colonies in Africa=]
Of the British colonial possessions in Africa we have already
sufficiently described that in the south, extending now from Cape Town
to Lake Tanganyika, and forming an immense area, replete with natural
resources, and capable of sustaining a very large future population.
On the east coast is another large acquisition, British East Africa,
extending north to Abyssinia and the Soudan and west to the Congo Free
State, and including part of the great Victoria Nyanza. Further north
a large slice has been carved out of Somaliland, facing on the Gulf
of Aden. The remainder of this section of Africa is claimed--though
very feebly held--by Italy, whose possessions include Somaliland
and Eritrea, a coast district north of Abyssinia. Great Britain, in
addition, lays claim to Sierra Leone and the Ashantee country on the
west coast and an extensive region facing on the Gulf of Guinea, and
extending far back into the Soudan.
[=African Colonies of France=]
Next to Great Britain in activity in the acquisition of African
territory comes France, which within the recent period has enormously
extended its claims to territory in this continent. Of these the most
difficult in acquirement was Algeria, on the Mediterranean, which
France first invaded in 1830, but did not obtain quiet possession of
for many years and then only at the cost of long and sanguinary wars.
At a later date the adjoining Moorish kingdom of Tunis was added,
and since then the claims of France have been extended indefinitely
southward, to include the greater part of the western half of the
Sahara--the Atlantic coast district of the Sahara being claimed by
Spain. Of this great desert region almost the whole is useless to any
nation, and France holds it mainly as a connecting link between her
possessions in Algeria and the Soudan.
French Soudan has had a phenomenal growth, the French displaying the
same enterprise here as they did in America in the rapid extension of
their Canadian province. Claiming, as their share in the partition of
Africa, the Atlantic coast region of Senegal and an extensive district
facing on the Gulf of Guinea and the South Atlantic, and known as
French Congo, they have made an enormous spread, northward from the
latter, westward from Senegal, and southward from Algeria, until now
their claims cover nearly the whole of the Soudan--a vast belt of
territory stretching from the Atlantic nearly across the continent and
bordering on the Egyptian Soudan in the east. The French claim, indeed,
extended as far as the Nile, being based on Major Marchand's journey
to the river in 1898. But the English conquests in that region barred
out the French claim, and it has been abandoned. In addition to the
territories here named, France has taken possession of a portion of the
coast region of Abyssinia, between the Italian and the British regions,
and completely shutting out that ancient kingdom from the sea.
[=German and Italian Colonies=]
The latest of the nations to develop the colonizing spirit were Italy
and Germany. We have described Italy's share in Africa. Germany's is
far larger and more important. In East Africa it holds a large and
valuable region of territory, on the Zanzibar coast, between British
East Africa and Portuguese Mozambique, and extending westward to Lake
Nyassa and Tanganyika and the Congo Free State, and northward to the
Victoria Nyanza. It cuts off British territory from an extension
throughout the whole length of Africa, and if Cecil Rhodes' Cairo to
Cape Town Railway is ever completed, some hundreds of miles of it will
have to run through German territory.
In South Africa Germany has seized upon abroad region left unclaimed
by Great Britain, the Atlantic coast section of Damaraland and Great
Namaqualand, and also an extensive section on the right of the Gulf
of Guinea, stretching inward like a wedge between British and French
possessions in this region. On the Gold Coast it has also a minor
territory, lying between British Ashantee and French Dahomey.
[=The Congo Free State=]
The broad interior of the continent, the mighty plateau region watered
by the great Congo River and its innumerable affluents, first traversed
by the daring Stanley not many years in the past, has been erected into
the extensive and promising Congo Free State, under the suzerainty of
the king of Belgium. It is the most populous and agriculturally the
richest section of Africa, while its remarkable extension of navigable
waters give uninterrupted communication through its every part. It has
probably before it a great future.
[=The French Conquest of Madagascar=]
Off the east coast of Africa lies the great island of Madagascar, now
a French territory. France has had military posts on its coast for
more than two hundred years, and in 1883 began the series of wars
which resulted in the conquest of the island. The principal war of
invasion began in 1895 and ended in a complete overthrow of the native
government, Madagascar being declared a French colony in June, 1896.
Of these European possessions in Africa, all are held with a strong
hand except those of Portugal, which unprogressive state may soon
give up all claim to her territories of Angola and Mozambique. Great
Britain and Germany have been negotiating with Portugal for the
purchase of these territories--to be divided between them. As one part
of the bargain, Great Britain will get the important Delagoa Bay, and
definitely shut in the Boer Republic from the sea.
[=Wars in Africa=]
This division of Africa between the European nations, with the
subsequent taking possession of the acquired territories, has not
been accomplished without war and bloodshed; England, France, and
Italy having had to fight hard to establish their claims. In only two
sections, Abyssinia and the Egyptian Soudan, have the natives been
able to drive out their invaders, and the wars in these regions call
for some fuller notice.
[=Defeat of the Italians in Abyssinia=]
The first war in Abyssinia occurred in 1867, when England, irritated
by an arbitrary action of the Emperor Theodore, declared war against
him, and invaded his rocky and difficult country. The war ended in the
conquest of Magdala and the death of Theodore. In 1889 Italy aided
Menelek in gaining the throne, and was granted the large district of
Eritrea on the Red Sea, with a nominal protectorate over the whole
kingdom. Subsequently Menelek repudiated the treaty, and in 1894 the
Italians invaded his kingdom. For a time they were successful, but in
March, 1896, the Italian army met with a most disastrous defeat, and
in the treaty that followed Italy was compelled to acknowledge the
complete independence of Abyssinia. It was the one case in Africa in
which the natives were able to hold their own against the ambitious
nations of Europe.
[=The Expansion of Egypt=]
In Egypt they did so for a time, and a brief description of the recent
history of this important kingdom seems of interest. Egypt broke loose
in large measure from the rule of Turkey during the reign of the able
and ambitious Mehemet Ali, who was made viceroy in 1840. In 1876 the
independence of Egypt was much increased, and its rulers were given
the title of khedive, or king. The powers of the khedives steadily
increased, and in 1874-75 Ismail Pasha greatly extended the Egyptian
territory, annexing the Soudan as far as Darfur, and finally to the
shores of the lately discovered Victoria Nyanza. Egypt thus embraced
the valley of the Nile practically to its source, presenting an aspect
of immense length and great narrowness.
Soon after, the finances of the country became so involved that they
were placed under European control, and the growth of English and
French influence led to the revolt of Arabi Pasha in 1879. This was
repressed by Great Britain, which bombarded Alexandria and defeated the
Egyptians, France taking no part. As a result the controlling influence
of France ended, and Great Britain became the practical ruler of Egypt,
which position she still maintains.
[=The Rise of the Mahdi=]
[=The Massacre of Hicks Pasha and His Army=]
In 1880 began an important series of events. A Mohammedan prophet arose
in the Soudan, claiming to be the Mahdi, a Messiah of the Mussulmans.
A large body of devoted believers soon gathered around him, and he set
up an independent sultanate in the desert, defeating four Egyptian
expeditions sent against him, and capturing El Obeid, the chief city
of Kordofan which he made his capital in 1883. Then against him Great
Britain dispatched an army of British and Egyptian soldiers, under
an English leader styled in Egypt Hicks Pasha. These advanced to El
Obeid, where they fell into an ambush prepared by the Mahdists, and,
after a desperate struggle, lasting three days, were almost completely
annihilated, scarcely a man escaping to tell the disastrous tale.
"General Hicks," said a newspaper correspondent, "charged at the head
of staff. They galloped towards a sheikh, supposed by the Egyptians to
be the Mahdi. Hicks rushed on him with his sword and cut his face and
arm; this man had on a Darfur steel mail-shirt. Just then a club thrown
struck General Hicks on the head and unhorsed him. The chargers of the
staff were speared but the English officers fought on foot till all
were killed. Hicks was the last to die."
Other expeditions of Egyptian troops sent against Osman Digma ("Osman
the Ugly"), the lieutenant of the Mahdi in the Eastern Soudan, met
with a similar fate, while the towns of Sinkat and Tokar were invested
by the Mahdists. To relieve these towns Baker Pasha advanced with a
force of 3,650 men. There was no more daring or accomplished officer
in the British army than Valentine Baker, but his expedition met with
the same fate as that of his predecessor. Advancing into the desert
from Trinkitat, a town some distance south of Suakim, on the Red Sea,
the force was met by a body of Mahdists, and the Egyptian soldiers at
once broke into a panic of terror. The Mahdists were only some 1,200
strong, but they surrounded and butchered the unresisting Egyptians in
a frightful slaughter.
[=The Battles Near Suakim=]
"Inside the square," said an eyewitness, "the state of affairs was
almost indescribable. Cavalry, infantry, mules, camels, falling
baggage and dying men were crushed into a struggling, surging mass.
The Egyptians were shrieking madly, hardly attempting to run away, but
trying to shelter themselves one behind another." "The conduct of the
Egyptians was simply disgraceful," said another officer. "Armed with
rifle and bayonet, they allowed themselves to be slaughtered, without
an effort at self-defence, by savages inferior to them in numbers and
armed only with spears and swords."
Baker and his staff officers, seeing that affairs were hopeless,
charged the enemy and cut their way through to the shore, but of the
total force two-thirds were left dead or wounded on the field. Such
was the "massacre" of El Teb, which was followed four days afterwards
by the capture of Sinkat and slaughter of its garrison. This butchery
was soon after avenged. General Graham was sent from Cairo with
reinforcements of British troops, which advanced on Osman's position,
and, in two bloody engagements subjected him to disastrous defeat. The
last victory was a crushing one, the total British loss being about
200, while, of the Arab loss, the killed alone numbered over 2,000.
[=Gordon Goes to Khartoum=]
In the same year in which these events took place (1884) General
Charles Gordon--Chinese Gordon, as he was called, from his memorable
exploits in the Flowery Kingdom--advanced by the Nile to Khartoum,
the far-off capital of the Mohammedan Soudan, of which he had been
governor-general in former years. His purpose was to relieve the
Egyptian garrison of that city--in which design he failed. In fact,
the Arabs of the Soudan flocked in such multitudes to the standard of
the Mahdi that Khartoum was soon cut off from all communication with
the country to the north, and Gordon and the garrison were left in a
position of dire peril. It was determined to send an expedition to his
relief, and this was organized under the leadership of Lord Wolseley,
the victor in the Ashantee and Zulu wars.
[=To the Rescue of Gordon=]
[=The Desert Fights=]
The expedition was divided into two sections, a desert column which was
to cross a sandy stretch of land with the aid of camels, from Korti to
Metamneh, on the Nile, thus cutting off a wide loop in the stream; and
a river column for whose transportation a flotilla of 800 whale boats
was sent out from England. The desert column found its route strongly
disputed. On the 7th of January, 1885, it was attacked by the Arabs
in overwhelming force and fighting with the ferocity of tigers, some
5,000 of them attacking the 1,500 British drawn up in square, round
which the fanatical Mahdists raged like storm-driven waves. The peril
was imminent. Among those who fell on the British side was Colonel
Burnaby, the famous traveler. The battle was a remarkably brief one,
the impetuous rush of the Arabs being repulsed in about five minutes
of heroic effort, during which there was imminent danger of their
penetrating the square and making an end of the British troops. As it
was the Arabs lost 1,100 in dead and a large number of wounded, the
British less than 200 in all. A few days afterwards the Arabs attacked
again, but as before were repulsed with heavy loss. On the 19th of
January the river was reached, and the weary troops bivouacked on its
banks.
Here they were met by four steamers which Gordon had sent down the
Nile, after plating their hulls with iron as a protection against Arab
bullets. Various circumstances now caused delay, and several days
passed before General Wilson, in command of the expedition, felt it
safe to advance on Khartoum. At length, on January 24th, two of the
steamers, with a small force of troops, set out up the river, but met
with so many obstacles that it was the 28th before they came within
sight of the distant towers of Khartoum. From the bank came a shout
to the effect that Khartoum had been taken and Gordon killed two days
before. As they drew nearer there came evidence that the announcement
was true. No British flag was seen flying; not a shot came from the
shore in aid of the steamers. Masses of the enemy could be seen in all
directions. A storm of musketry beat like hail on the iron sides of
the boats. Wilson, believing the attempt hopeless, gave the order to
turn and run at full speed down the river. They did so amid a rattle of
bullets and bursting of shells from the artillery of the enemy.
[=Death of General Gordon=]
The news they brought was true. The gallant Gordon was indeed dead. The
exact events that took place are not known. Some attributed the fall of
the town to the act of a traitor, some to the storming of the gates.
It does not matter now; it is enough to know that the famous Christian
soldier had been killed with all his men--about 4,000 persons being
slaughtered, in a massacre that continued for six hours. That was the
end of it. The British soon after withdrew and left Khartoum and the
Soudan in the undisputed possession of the Arabs. The Mahdi had been
victorious, though he did not live long to enjoy his triumph, he dying
some months later.
[=The Advance of the British and Recapture of the
Soudan=]
And so matters were left for nearly twelve years, when the British
government, having arranged affairs in Egypt to its liking, and put the
country in a prosperous condition, decided to attempt the reconquest
of the Soudan, and avenge the slaughtered Gordon. An expedition was
sent out in 1896, which captured Dongola in September and defeated the
dervish force in several engagements. The progress continued, slowly
but surely, up the Nile. In 1897 other advantages were gained. But it
was not until 1898 that the Anglo-Egyptian force, under Sir Herbert
Kitchener, known under his Egyptian title of the Sirdar, reached the
vicinity of Khartoum. The Egyptian soldiers under him were of other
stuff than those commanded by Baker Pasha. From a mob with arms in hand
they had been drilled into brave and steady soldiers, quite capable of
giving a good account of themselves. At Omdurman, near Khartoum, the
dervishes were met in force and a fierce and final battle was fought.
The Arabs suffered a crushing defeat, losing more than 10,000 men,
while the British loss was only about 200. This brilliant victory ended
the war on the Nile. The fight was taken out of the Arabs. The Soudan
was restored to Egypt by British arms, fourteen years after it had been
lost to the Mahdi.
[=The Partition of Asia=]
Asia has been invaded by the nations of civilization almost as actively
as Africa, and to-day, aside from the Chinese and Japanese Empires, far
the greater part of that vast continent is under foreign control, the
only important independent sections being Turkey, Arabia, Persia, and
Afghanistan. As matters now look, all of these, China included, before
the twentieth century is very old may be in European hands, and the
partition of Asia become as complete as that of Africa. The nations
active in this work have been Great Britain, Russia, and France, while
Holland is in possession of Java, Sumatra, and others of the valuable
spice islands of the eastern seas. Of the enterprise of Great Britain
in extending her colonial dominion in Hindostan and Burmah we have
already spoken. The enterprise of France here demands attention.
[=French and British Methods of Colonization=]
France has always been remarkably active in her colonizing enterprises.
In America she surpassed Great Britain in the rapid extension of
her dominion, though she fell far behind in the solidity of her
settlements. It has been the same in Africa. France has spread out
with extraordinary rapidity over the Soudan, while England has moved
much more slowly but far more surely. The enterprises of the one are
brilliant, those of the other are solid, and it is the firmness with
which the Anglo-Saxon race takes hold that makes it to-day the dominant
power on the earth. The French have the faculty of assimilating
themselves with foreign peoples, accepting their manners and customs
and becoming their friends and allies. The British, on the contrary,
are too apt to treat their colonial subjects as inferior beings, but
they combine their haughtiness with justice, and win respect at the
same time as they inspire distrust and fear.
[=Operations of France in Indo-China=]
The colonizing enterprise of France in Asia, after the French had been
ousted from India by Great Britain, directed itself to the peninsula
of Indo-China. This was the only region of the Asiatic coast land
which was at once safe to meddle with and worth the cost and trouble.
In 1789 the emperor of Annam accepted French aid in the conquest of
the adjoining states of Cochin China and Tonquin. The wedge of French
influence, thus entered, was not removed. Missionaries sought those
far-off realms, and in time found themselves cruelly treated by the
natives. As usual in such cases, this formed a pretext for invasion
and annexation, and in 1862 a portion of Cochin China was seized upon
by France, the remainder being annexed in 1867. Meanwhile, in 1863,
the "protection" of France was extended over the neighboring state of
Cambodia.
North of Cochin China lies Annam, and farther north, bordering on
China, is the province of Tonquin, inhabited largely by Chinese. The
four states mentioned constitute the eastern half of Indo-China. The
western portion is formed by the kingdom of Burmah, now a British
possession. Between these lies the contracted kingdom of Siam, the only
portion of the peninsula that retains its independence.
[=The Black Flags=]
The attention of France was next directed to Tonquin, the northern
province of the Annamite Empire, which was invaded in 1873, and its
capital city, Hanoi, captured. Here the French found foeman worthy of
their steel. After the suppression of the Taiping rebellion in China
certain bands of the rebels took refuge in Tonquin, where they won
themselves a new home by force of arms, and in 1868 held the valley of
the Red River as far south as Hanoi. These, known as the "Black Flags,"
were bold, restless, daring desperadoes, who made the conquest of the
country a difficult task for the French. By their aid the invading
French were driven from Hanoi and forced back in defeat.
[=The Siege of Sontay=]
[=A Night Attack=]
The French resumed their work of conquest in 1882, again taking the
city of Hanoi, and in December, 1883, a strong expedition advanced
up the Red River against the stronghold of Sontay, which, with the
neighboring Bac Ninh, was looked upon, in a military sense, as the key
to Tonquin. The enterprise seemed a desperate one, the expeditionary
force consisting of but 6,000 soldiers and 1,350 coolies, while behind
the strong works of the place were 25,000 armed men, of whom 10,000
were composed of the valiant Black Flags. But cannon served the place
of men. The river defences were battered down and preparations made to
storm the citadel. During the succeeding night, however, the French ran
imminent risk of a disastrous repulse. At one o'clock at night, when
all but the sentries were locked in slumber, a sudden shower of rockets
was poured on the thatched roofs of the huts in which the soldiers
lay asleep, and with savage yells the Chinese rushed from their gates
and into the heart of the camp, firing briskly as they came. The
French troops, fatigued with the hard fighting of the preceding day,
and demoralized by the suddenness of the attack and the pluck and
persistent energy of the assailants, were thrown almost into panic, and
were ready to give way when the Chinese trumpets sounded the recall and
the enemy drew off. As it appeared afterwards this attack was made by
only 300 men. It would undoubtedly have stampeded the invading forces
but for the vigilance of the sentinels.
[=The Storming of the Citadel=]
On the next day, December 16th, the fort was stormed, and taken after
a desperate resistance. There is but one incident of the assault that
we need relate. As the French rushed across the bridge that spanned
the wide ditch and approached the gate of the citadel, there was seen
an instance of cool and devoted bravery hardly excelled by that which
was displayed by the famous "captain of the gate" who held the Tiber
bridge, against the Tuscan host. There, told off to guard the narrow
passage between the stockade and the wall, stood a gallant Black
Flag soldier. His Winchester repeating rifle was in his hand, its
magazine filled with cartridges. Although half the French force were
at the gate, he quailed not. Shot after shot he fired, deliberately
and calmly, and each bullet found its billet. Down went brave Captain
Méhl, leader of the Foreign Legion, with a ball through his heart, and
other attackers were slain; and when the stormers rushed in at last the
heroic Black Flag, true to his trust, died with his face to the foe, as
a soldier should die. The French, quick to recognize bravery either in
friend or enemy, buried him with military honors when the day's fight
was over, at the gate which he defended so well.
The capture of this town, followed by that of Bac-Ninh, which was
similarly taken by storm, completed the work of conquest and firmly
established the French in their occupation of Tonquin.
[=France in Possession=]
They had, however, still the Chinese to deal with. China claimed a
suzerainty over this region and protested against the French invasion,
and in 1885 went to war for the expulsion of the foreign conquerors.
During the previous year the Black Flags had engaged in murderous raids
on the French mission stations, in which they massacred nearly 10,000
native Christians. In the war with China, they, with other Chinese
troops, held the passes above Tuyen-Kivan for nearly a month against
repeated assaults by the French, and were still in possession of their
posts when peace was declared. China had yielded the country to France.
In 1895 France gained the right to extend a railway from Annam into
China, a concession which was protested against by Great Britain,
then in possession of the adjoining province. In 1896 a treaty was
made between these two powers, which fixed the Mekong or Cambodia
River as their dividing line. As a result those powers now hold all
of Indo-China except the much diminished kingdom of Siam. France has
permitted the form of the old government to continue, the Emperor of
Annam still reigning--though he does not rule, since the real power is
in the hands of the French governor-general at Hanoi.
[=The Advance of Russia in Asia=]
While Great Britain and France were thus establishing themselves in
the south, Russia was engaged in the conquest of the north and centre
of the continent. The immense province of Siberia, crossing the whole
width of the continent in the north, was acquired by Russia in the
seventeenth century, after which the progress of Russia in Asia ceased
until the nineteenth century, within which the territory of the
Muscovite empire in that continent has been very greatly extended.
Two provinces were wrested from Persia in 1828, as the prize of a
victorious war, and in 1859 the conquest of the region of the Caucasus
was completed by the capture of the heroic Schamyl. In 1858 the left
bank of the great Amur River was gained by treaty with China, after
having been occupied by force.
Soon after this period, Russia began the work of conquest in the region
of Turkestan, that long-mysterious section of Central Asia, inhabited
in part by fierce desert nomades, who for centuries made Persia the
spoil of their devastating raids, and in part by intolerant settled
tribes, among whom no Christian dared venture except at risk of his
life. It remained in great measure a _terra incognita_ until the
Russians forced their way into it arms in hand.
[=The Invasion of Turkestan=]
The southern border of Siberia was gradually extended downward over
the great region of the Mongolian steppes until the northern limits
of Turkestan were reached, and in 1864 Russia invaded this region
subduing the oasis of Tashkend after a fierce war. In 1868 the march of
invasion reached Bokhara, and in 1873 the oasis of Khiva was conquered
and annexed. In 1875-76 Khokand was conquered after a fierce war,
and annexed to Russia. This completed the acquisition of the fertile
provinces of Turkestan, but the fierce nomades of the desert remained
unsubdued, and the oasis of Merv and the country of the warlike Tekke
Turcomans were still to conquer. This, which was accomplished in
1880-81, merits a fuller description.
A broad belt of desert lands stretches across the continent of Asia
from Arabia, in the southwest, to the rainless highlands of Gobi, or
Shamo, in the far east. This desert zone is here and there broken by a
tract of steppe land that is covered with grass for a portion of the
year, while more rarely a large oasis is formed where the rivers and
streams, descending from a mountain range, supply water to a fertile
region, before losing themselves in the sands of the desert beyond.
[=The Deserts of Central Asia=]
Eastward of the Caspian, and south of the Aral, much of the waste land
is a salt desert, and the shells, mixed with the surface sand, afford
further evidence that it was in times not very remote part of the
bottom of a large inland sea, of which the landlocked waters of Western
Asia are a survival.
Along the Caspian the steppe and desert sink gradually to the
water-level, and the margins of the sea are so shallow that, except
where extensive dredging works have been carried out, and long jetties
constructed, ships have to discharge their cargoes into barges two or
three miles from the shore.
This desert region marked for many years the southern limit of the
Russian empire in Central Asia. A barren waste is a more formidable
obstacle to an European army than the ocean itself; and the Turkoman
tribes of the oases not only refused to acknowledge the dominion of the
White Czar, but successfully raided up to the very gates of his border
forts in the spring, when the grass of the steppe afforded forage for
their horses. The first successful advance across the desert zone was
made by Kaufmann, whose expeditions followed the belt of fertile land
which breaks the desert where the Amu Daria (the Oxus of classical
times) flows down from the central highlands of Asia to the great lake
of the Aral Sea. But in 1878 the Russians began another series of
conquests, starting not from their forts on the Oxus, but from their
new ports on the southwestern shore of the Caspian.
[=The Country of the Tekke Turkomans=]
In this direction the most powerful of the Turkoman tribes were the
Tekkes of the Akhal oasis. Between their strongholds and the Caspian
there was a desert nearly 150 miles wide, and then the ridge of the
Kopet Dagh Mountains. The desert, which stretches from the northern
shore of the Atrek River, is partly sandy waste, partly a tract of
barren clayey land, baked hard by the sun; broken by cracks and
crevices in the dry season, and like a half-flooded brickfield when
it rains. The water of the river is scanty, and not good to drink.
It flows in a deep channel between steep banks, and so closely does
the desert approach it that for miles one might ride within a hundred
yards of its clay-banked cañon without suspecting that water was so
near. Where the Sumber River runs into the Atrek the Russians had an
advanced post--the earthwork fort of Tchad, with its eight-gun battery.
Following the Sumber, one enters the arid valleys on the south of the
Kopet Dagh range. On this side the slopes rise gradually; on the other
side of the ridge there is a sharp descent, and sometimes the mountains
form for miles a line of precipitous rocky walls. At the foot of this
natural rampart lay the fortified villages of the Tekke Turkomans.
[=The Land of Akhal=]
[=The Herds and Villages of the Tekkes=]
[=The Akhal Warriors=]
Numerous streams descend from the Kopet Dagh, flowing to the
north-eastward, and after a few miles losing themselves in the sands
of the Kara Kum desert. Between the mountain wall and the desert the
ground thus watered forms a long, narrow oasis--the land of Akhal--to
which a local Mussulman tradition says that Adam betook himself when
he was driven forth from Eden. No doubt much of the praise that has
been given to the beauty and fertility of this three-hundred-mile
strip of well-watered garden ground comes from the contrast between
its green enclosures and the endless waste that closes in the horizon
to the north-eastward. Corn and maize, cotton and wool, form part of
the wealth of its people. They had the finest horses of all Turkestan,
and great herds and flocks of cattle, sheep and camels. The streams
turned numerous mills, and were led by a network of tunnels and
conduits through the fields and garden. The villages were mud-walled
quadrangles, with an inner enclosure for the cattle; the kibitkas, or
tents, and the mud huts of the Tekkes filling the space between the
inner and outer walls, and straggling outside in temporary camps that
could be rapidly cleared away in war time. The people were over 100,000
strong--perhaps 140,000 in all--men, women and children. They were
united in a loose confederacy, acknowledged the lordship of the Khan
of Merv, who had come from one of their own villages. They raided the
Russian and Persian borders successfully, these plundering expeditions
filling up the part of the year when they were not busy with more
peaceful occupations. Along their fertile strip of land ran the caravan
track from Merv by Askabad to Kizil Arvat and the Caspian, and when
they were not at war the Tekkes had thus an outlet for their surplus
productions, among which were beautiful carpets, the handiwork of
their women. In war they had proved themselves formidable to all their
neighbors. United with the warriors of Merv, the men of Akhal had cut
to pieces a Khivan army in 1855 and a host of Persians in 1861.
The conquest of Akhal had long been a subject of Russian ambition. It
was not merely that they were anxious to put an end once for all to
the raids of the Turkomans of the great oasis, but they regarded the
possession of this region as a great step towards the consolidation of
their power in Asia. From Baku, the terminus of their railways in the
Caucasus, it was easy to ferry troops across the Caspian. What they
wanted was a secure road from some port on its eastern shore to their
provinces on the Upper Oxus, and anyone who knew the country must have
felt that this road would eventually run through the Akhal and the Merv
oases.
[=Repulse of Lomakine and the Russians=]
The first effort to subdue the Akhal warriors proved a complete
failure. As soon as peace was concluded with Turkey, after the war of
1877-78, General Lomakine was sent with a strong force to the Caspian,
whence he made his way by the caravan route over the desert to the
strong nomade fortress of Geok Tepe ("blue hills"), at the foot of the
mountain range mentioned. We shall say nothing more concerning this
expedition than that the attempt to take the fort by storm proved a
complete failure, and the Russians were forced to retreat in disorder.
[=Skobeleff and the Siege of Geok Tepe=]
To retrieve this disaster General Skobeleff, the most daring of the
Russian generals, who had gained great glory in the siege of Plevna,
was selected, and set out in 1880. On the 1st of January, 1881, he
came in sight of the fort, with an army of 10,000 picked troops, and
fifty-four cannon. Behind the clay ramparts lay awaiting him from
20,000 to 30,000 of valiant nomades, filled with the pride of their
recent victory. The first batteries opened fire on the 8th, and the
siege works were pushed so rapidly forward that the Russians had gained
all the outworks by the 17th. This steady progress was depressing to
the Turkomans, who were not used to such a method of fighting. The
cannonade continued resistlessly, the wall being breached on the 23d
and the assault fixed for the next day. Two mines had been driven under
the rampart, one charged with gun-powder and one with dynamite, and all
was ready for the desperate work of the storming parties.
Early the next day all the Russian guns opened upon the walls, and a
false attack was made on the west side of the fort, the men firing
incessantly to distract the attention of the Turkomans, while the
actual column of attack was formed and held ready on the east. Another
column, 2,000 strong, waited opposite the south angle, the soldiers
ready and eager for the assault.
[=The Fort Carried by Storm=]
A little after eleven the mines were fired. The explosion caused
momentary panic among the garrison, and in the midst of the confusion
the two storming columns rushed for the breaches. But before they could
climb the heaps of smoking _debris_ the Tekkes were back at their
posts, and it was through a sharp fire of rifles and muskets that the
Russians pushed in through the first line of defence. The fight in and
around the breaches was a close and desperate struggle; but as the
stormers in front fell, others clambered up to replace them, and at
the same time Haidaroff, converting his false attack into a real one,
escaladed the southern wall.
[=A Frightful Massacre=]
"No quarter!" had been the shout of the Russian officers as they dashed
forward at the head of the stormers. The Tekkes expected none. They
fought in desperate knots, back to back, among the huts and tents of
the town, but at last they were driven out by the east side. Skobeleff
did not make Lomakine's mistake of blocking their way. He let them go;
but once they were out on the plain the Cossack cavalry was launched
in wild pursuit, and for ten long miles sword and spear drank deep
of the blood of the fugitives. Women as well as men were cut down or
speared as the horses overtook them. More than 8,000 Tekkes fell in the
pursuit. Asked a year after if this was true, Skobeleff said that he
had the slain counted, and that it was so. Six thousand five hundred
bodies were buried inside the fortress; eight thousand more strewed the
ten miles of the plain.
[=Submission of the Turkomans=]
Skobeleff looked on the massacre as a necessary element in the conquest
of Geok Tepe. "I hold it as a principle," he said, "that in Asia the
duration of peace is in direct proportion to the slaughter you inflict
on the enemy. The harder you hit them the longer they will keep quiet
after it." No women, he added, were killed by the troops under his
immediate command, and he set at liberty 700 Persian women who were
captives in Geok Tepe. After ten miles the pursuit was stopped. There
was no further resistance. Not a shot was fired on either side after
that terrible day. The chiefs came in and surrendered. The other towns
in the eastern part of the oasis were occupied without fighting; nay,
more, within a month of Geok Tepe Skobeleff was able to go without a
guard into the midst of the very men who had fought against him. We in
America cannot understand the calm submission with which the Asiatic
accepts as the decree of fate the rule of the conqueror whose hand has
been heavy upon him and his. The crumbling ramparts of Geok Tepe remain
a memorial of the years of warfare which it cost the Russians; and the
iron track on which the trains steam past the ruined fortress shows how
complete has been the victory.
Skobeleff looked upon his triumph as only the first step to further
conquests. But within eighteen months of the storming of Geok Tepe
he died suddenly at Moscow. Others have built on the foundations
which he laid; and, for good or ill, the advance which began with the
subjugation of the Tekke Turkomans has now brought the Russian outposts
in Central Asia in sight of the passes that lead across the mountain
barriers of the Indian frontier.
[=Great Development of Russia in Asia=]
This conquest was quickly followed by the laying of a railroad
across the desert, from the Caspian to the sacred Mohammedan city of
Samarcand, the former capital of the terrible Timur the Tartar, and the
iron horse now penetrates freely into the heart of that once unknown
land, its shrill whistle perhaps disturbing Timur in his tomb. Across
the broad stretch of Siberia another railroad is being rapidly laid,
and extended downward through Manchuria to the borders of China, a
stupendous enterprise, the road being thousands of miles in length.
Manchuria, the native land of the Chinese emperors, is now held firmly
by Russia, and the ancient empire of Persia, on the southern border of
Turkestan, is threatened with absorption. When and where the advance
of Russia in Asia will end no man can say, perhaps not until Hindustan
is torn from British hands and the empire of the north has reached the
southern sea. While Russia in Europe comprises about 2,000,000 square
miles, Russia in Asia has attained an area of 6,564,778 square miles,
and the total area of this colossal empire is nearly equal to that of
the entire continent of North America.
The final step in colonization--if we may call it by this name--belongs
to the United States, which at the end of the century laid its hand on
two island groups of the Eastern Seas, acquiring Hawaii by peaceful
annexation and the Philippine Islands by warlike invasion. What will be
the result of this acquisition on the future of the United States it is
impossible to say, but it brings the American border close to China,
and when the destiny of that great empire is settled, the republic of
the West may have something to say.
[=The Future of Colonizing Enterprise=]
At the end of the nineteenth century the work of the colonizing powers
was fairly at an end. Nearly all the available territory of the earth
had been entered upon and occupied. But the work, while in this sense
completed, was in a fuller sense only begun. It was left for the
twentieth century for those great tracts of the earth to be brought
properly under the dominion of civilization, their abundant resources
developed, peace and prosperity brought to their fertile soils, and
their long turbulent population taught the arts of peaceful progress
and civilized industry.