In 1889 it became known to the British government that a

considerable Portuguese expedition was being organized under

the command of Major Serpa Pinto, for operating in the Zambezi

region. In answer to inquiries addressed to the Portuguese

government, the foreign minister stated that the object of

the expedition was to visit the Portuguese settlements on the

upper Zambezi. The British government was, even so late as

1889, averse from declaring a formal protectorate over the

Nyasa region; but early in that year H. H. (afterwards Sir

Harry) Johnston was sent out to Mozambique as British consul,

with instructions to travel in the interior and report on

the troubles that had arisen with the Arabs on Lake Nyasa

and with the Portuguese. The discovery by D. J. Rankin in

1889 of a navigable mouth of the Zambezi--the Chinde--and

the offer by Cecil Rhodes of a subsidy of L. 10,000 a year

from the British South Africa Company, removed some of the

objections to a protectorate entertained by the British

government; but Johnston's instructions were not to proclaim

a protectorate unless circumstances compelled him to take that

course. To his surprise Johnston learnt on his arrival at

the Zambezi that Major Serpa Pinto's expedition had been

suddenly deflected to the north. Hurrying forward, Johnston

overtook the Portuguese expedition and warned its leader that

any attempt to establish political influence north of the

Ruo river would compel him to take steps to protect British

interests. On arrival at the Ruo, Major Serpa Pinto returned

to Mozambique for instructions, and in his absence Lieutenant

Coutinho crossed the river, attacked the Makololo chiefs

and sought to obtain possession of the Shire highlands by a

coup de main. John Buchanan, the British vice-consul, lost

no time in declaring the country under British protection,

and his action was subsequently confirmed by Johnston on his

return from a treaty-making expedition on Lake Nyasa. On the

news of these events reaching Europe the British government

addressed an ultimatum to Portugal, as the result of which

Lieutenant Coutinho's action was disavowed, and he was ordered

to withdraw the Portuguese forces south of the Ruo. After

prolonged negotiations, a convention was signed between Great

Britain and Portugal on the 20th of August 1890, by which

Great Britain obtained a broad belt of territory north of the

Zambezi, stretching from Lake Nyasa on the east, the southern

end of Tanganyika on the north, and the Kabompo tributary of

the Zambezi on the west; while south of the Zambezi Portugal

retained the right bank of the river from a point ten miles above

Zumbo, and the western boundary of her territory south of the

river was made to coincide roughly with the 33rd degree of east

longitude. The publication of the convention aroused deep

resentment in Portugal, and the government, unable to obtain

its ratification by the chamber of deputies, resigned. In

October the abandonment of the convention was accepted by

the new Portuguese ministry as a fait accompli; but on

the 14th of November the two governments signed an agreement

for a modus vivendi, by which they engaged to recognize

the territorial limits indicated in the convention of 20th

August ``in so far that from the date of the present agreement

British and Portuguese spheres defined.

to the termination thereof neither Power will make treaties,

accept protectorates, nor exercise any act of sovereignty

within the spheres of influence assigned to the other party

by the said convention.'' The breathing-space thus gained

enabled feeling in Portugal to cool down, and on the 11th of

June 1891 another treaty was signed, the ratifications being

exchanged on the 3rd of July, As already stated, this is the

main treaty defining the British and Portuguese spheres both

south and north of the Zambezi. It contained many other

provisions relating to trade and navigation, providing, inter

alia, a maximum transit duty of 3% on imports and exports

crossing Portuguese territories on the east coast to the British

sphere, freedom of navigation of the Zambezi and Shire for

the ships of all nations, and stipulations as to the making of

railways, roads and telegraphs. The territorial readjustment

effected was slightly more favourable to Portugal than that

agreed upon by the 1890 convention. Portugal was given both

banks of the Zambezi to a point ten miles west of Zumbo--the

farthest settlement of the Portuguese on the river. South of

the Zambezi the frontier takes a south and then an east course

till it reaches the edge of the continental plateau, thence

running, roughly, along the line of 33 deg. E. southward to the

north-eastern frontier of the Transvaal. Thus by this treaty

Portugal was left in the possession of the coast-lands, while

Great Britain maintained her right to Matabele and Mashona

lands. The boundary between the Portuguese sphere of influence

on the west coast and the British sphere of influence north

of the Zambezi was only vaguely indicated; but it was to be

drawn in such a manner as to leave the Barotse country within

the British sphere, Lewanika, the paramount chief of the

Marotse, claiming that his territory extended much farther

to the west than was admitted by the Portuguese. In August

1903 the question what were the limits of the Barotse kingdom

was referred to the arbitration of the king of Italy. By

his award, delivered in June 1905, the western limit of the

British sphere runs from the northern frontier of German

South-West Africa up the Kwando river to 22 deg. E., follows

that meridian north to 13 deg. S., then runs due east to 24 deg.

E., and then north again to the frontier of the Congo State.

Before the conclusion of the treaty of June 1891 with Portugal,

the British government had made certain arrangements for

the administration of the large area north of the Zambezi

reserved to British influence. On the 1st of February

Sir Harry Johnston was appointed imperial commissioner in

Nyasaland, and a fortnight later the British South Africa

Company intimated a desire to extend its operations north of the

Zambezi. Negotiations followed, and the field of operations

of the Chartered Company was, on the 2nd of April 1891,

extended so as to cover (with the exception of Nyasaland)

the whole of the British sphere of influence north of the

Zambezi (now known as Northern Rhodesia). On the 14th of May

a formal protectorate was declared over Nyasaland, including

the Shire highlands and a belt of territory extending along

the whole of the western shore of Lake Nyasa. The name

was changed in 1893 to that of the British Central Africa

Protectorate, for which designation was substituted in

1907 the more appropriate title of Nyasaland Protectorate.

At the date of the assembling of the Berlin conference the

German government had notified that the coast-line on the

Germany's share of South Africa.

south-west of the continent, from the Orange river to Cape

Frio, had been placed under German protection. On the 13th of

April 1885 the German South-West Africa Company was constituted

under an order of the imperial cabinet with the rights of state

sovereignty, including mining royalties and rights, and a

railway and telegraph monopoly. In that and the following years

the Germans vigorously pursued the business of treaty-making

with the native chiefs in the interior; and when, in July

1890, the British and German governments came to an agreement

as to the limits of their respective spheres of influence in

various parts of Africa, the boundaries of German South-West

Africa were fixed in their present position. By Article

III. of this agreement the north bank of the Orange river up

to the point of its intersection by the 20th degree of east

longitude was made the southern boundary of the German sphere of

influence. The eastern boundary followed the 20th degree

of east longitude to its intersection by the 22nd parallel

of south latitude, then ran eastwards along that parallel

to the point of its intersection by the 21st degree of east

longitude. From that point it ran northwards along the

last-named meridian to the point of its intersection by the

18th parallel of south latitude, thence eastwards along that

parallel to the river Chobe or Kwando, and along the main

channel of that river to its junction with the Zambezi, where it

terminated. The northern frontier marched with the southern

boundary of Portuguese West Africa. The object of deflecting

the eastern boundary near its northern termination was to give

Germany access by her own territory to the upper waters of the

Zambezi, and it was declared that this strip of territory

was at no part to be less than 20 English miles in width.

To complete the survey of the political partition of Africa south

of the Zambezi, it is necessary briefly to refer to the events

Fate of the Dutch Republics.

connected with the South African Republic and the Orange Free

State. In October 1885 the British government made an

agreement with the New Republic, a small community of Boer

farmers who had in 1884-85 seized part of Zululand and set up a

government of their own, defining the frontier between the New

Republic and Zululand; but in July 1888 the New Republic was

incorporated in the South African Republic. In a convention

of July-August 1890 the British government and the government

of the South African Republic confirmed the independence of

Swaziland, and on the 8th of November 1893 another convention

was signed with the same object; but on the 19th of December

1894 the British government agreed to the South African

Republic exercising ``all rights and powers of protection,

legislation, jurisdiction and administration over Swaziland and

the inhabitants thereof,'' subject to certain conditions and

provisions, and to the non-incorporation of Swaziland in the

Republic. In the previous September Pondoland had been

annexed to Cape Colony; on the 23rd of April 1895 Tongaland

was declared by proclamation to be added to the dominions of

Queen Victoria, and in December 1897 Zululand and Tongaland,

or Amatongaland, were incorporated with the colony of

Natal. The history of the events that led up to the Boer

War of 1899-1902 cannot be recounted here (see TRANSVAAL,

History), but in October 1899 the South African Republic and

the Orange Free State addressed an ultimatum to Great Britain

and invaded Natal and Cape Colony. As a result of the military

operations that followed, the Orange Free State was, on the

28th of May 1900, proclaimed by Lord Roberts a British colony

under the name ``Orange River Colony,'' and the South African

Republic was on the 25th of October 1900 incorporated in the

British empire as the ``Transvaal Colony.'' In January 1903

the districts of Vryheid (formerly the New Republic), Utrecht

and part of the Wakkerstroom district, a tract of territory

comprising in all about 7000 sq. m., were transferred from

the Transvaal colony to Natal. In 1907 both the Transvaal

and Orange River Colony were granted responsible government.

On the east coast the two great rivals were Germany and Great

Britain. Germany on the 30th of December 1886, and Great

Anglo-German rivalry in East Africa.

Britain on the 11th of June 1891, formally recognized the

Rovuma river as the northern boundary of the Portuguese sphere

of influence on that coast; but it was to the north of that

river, over the vast area of East or East Central Africa in

which the sultan of Zanzibar claimed to exercise suzerainty,

that the struggle between the two rival powers was most

acute. The independence of the sultans of Zanzibar had

been recognized by the governments of Great Britain and

France in 1862, and the sultan's authority extended almost

uninterruptedly along the coast of the mainland, from Cape

Delgado in the south to Warsheik on the north--a stretch of

coast more than a thousand miles long--though to the north

the sultan's authority was confined to certain ports. In

Zanzibar itself, where Sir John Kirk, Livingstone's companion

in his second expedition, was British consul-general, British

influence was, when the Berlin conference met, practically

supreme, though German traders had established themselves on

the island and created considerable commercial interests.

Away from the coasts the limits and extent of the sultan's

authority were far from being clearly defined. The sultan

himself claimed that it extended as far as Lake Tanganyika, but

the claim did not rest on any very solid ground of effective

occupation. The little-known region of the Great Lakes had

for some time attracted the attention of the men who were

directing the colonial movement in Germany; and, as has been

stated, a small band of pioneers actually landed on the

mainland opposite Zanzibar in November 1884, and made their

first ``treaty'' with the chief of Mbuzini on the 19th of

that month Pushing up the Wami river the three adventurers

reached the Usagara country, and concluded more ``treaties,''

the net result being that when, in the middle of December,

Karl Peters returned to the coast he brought back with him

documents which were claimed to concede some 60,000 sq.

m. of country to the German Colonization Society. Peters

hurried back to Berlin, and on the 17th of February 1885 the

German emperor issued a ``Charter of Protection'' by which

His Majesty accepted the suzerainty of the newly-acquired

territory, and ``placed under our Imperial protection the

territories in question.'' The conclusion of these treaties

was, on the 6th of March, notified to the British government

and to the sultan of Zanzibar. Immediately on receipt of

the notification the sultan telegraphed an energetic protest

to Berlin, alleging that the places placed under German

protection had belonged to the sultanate of Zanzibar from

the time of his fathers. The German consul-general refused

to admit the sultan's claims, and meanwhile agents of the

German society were energetically pursuing the task of

treaty-making. The sultan (Seyyid Bargash) despatched a

small force to the disputed territory, which was subsequently

withdrawn, and in May sent a more imposing expedition under

the command of General Lloyd Mathews, the commander-in-chief

of the Zanzibar army, to the Kilimanjaro district, in

order to anticipate the action of German agents. Meanwhile

Lord Granville, then at the British Foreign Office, had

Lord Granville's complaisance towards Germany.

taken up an extremely friendly attitude towards the German

claims. Before these events the sultan of Zanzibar had, on

more than one occasion, practically invited Great Britain

to assume a protectorate over his dominions. But the

invitations had been declined. Egyptian affairs were, in

the year 1885, causing considerable anxiety to the British

government, and the fact was not without influence on the

attitude of the British foreign secretary. On the 25th

of May 1885, in a despatch to the British ambassador at

Berlin, Lord Granville instructed Sir E. Malet to communicate

the views of the British cabinet to Prince Bismarck:--

I have to request your Excellency to state that the supposition

that Her Majesty's Government have no intention of opposing

the German scheme of colonization in the neighbourhood of

Zanzibar is absolutely correct. Her Majesty's Government, on

the contrary, view with favour these schemes, the realization

of which will entail the civilization of large tracts over

which hitherto no European influence has been exercised, the

co-operation of Germany with Great Britain in the work of

the suppression of the slave gangs, and the encouragement of

the efforts of the Sultan both in the extinction of the slave

trade and in the commercial development of his dominions.

In the same despatch Lord Granville instructed Sir E. Malet

to intimate to the German government that some prominent

capitalists had originated a plan for a British settlement

in the country between the coast and the lakes, which are

the sources of the White Nile, ``and for its connexion with

the coast by a railway.'' But Her Majesty's government would

not accord to these prominent capitalists the support they

had called for, ``unless they were fully satisfied that

every precaution was taken to ensure that it should in no

way conflict with the interests of the territory that has

been taken under German protectorate,'' and Prince Bismarck

was practically invited to say whether British capitalists

were or were not to receive the protection of the British

government. The reference in Lord Granville's despatch was

to a proposal made by a number of British merchants and others

who had long been interested in Zanzibar, and who saw in the

rapid advance of Germany a menace to the interests which had

hitherto been regarded as paramount in the sultanate. In

1884 H. H. Johnston had concluded treaties with the chief

of Taveta in the Kilimanjaro district, and had transferred

these treaties to John Hutton of Manchester. Hutton, with Mr

(afterwards Sir William) Mackinnon, was one of the founders

of what subsequently became the Imperial British East Africa

Company. But in the early stages the champions of British

interests in East Africa received no support from their own

government, while Germany was pushing her advantage with the

energy of a recent convert to colonial expansion, and had

even, on the coast, opened negotiations with the sultan of

Witu, a small territory situated north of the Tana river, whose

ruler claimed to be independent of Zanzibar. On the 5th of May

1885 the sultan of Witu executed a deed of sale and cession to

a German subject of certain tracts of land on the coast, and

later in the same year other treaties or sales of territory

were effected, by which German subjects acquired rights on

the coast-line claimed by the sultan. Inland, treaties had

been concluded on behalf of Germany with the chiefs of the

Kilimanjaro region, and an intimation to that effect made to

the British government. But before this occurred the German

government had succeeded in extracting an acknowledgment

of the validity of the earlier treaties from the sultan of

Zanzibar. Early in August a powerful German squadron appeared

off Zanzibar, and on the 14th of that month the sultan yielded

to the inevitable, acknowledged the German protectorate over

Usagara and Witu, and undertook to withdraw his soldiers.

Meanwhile negotiations had been opened for the appointment of

an international commission, ``for the purpose of inquiring

Partition of the sultanate of Zanzibar.

into the claims of the sultans of Zanzibar to sovereignty

over certain territories on the east coast of Africa, and

of ascertaining their precise limits.'' The governments to

be represented were Great Britain, France and Germany, and

towards the end of 1885 commissioners were appointed. The

commissioners reported on the 9th of June 1886, and assigned

to the sultan the islands of Zanzibar, Pemba, Lamu, Mafia

and a number of other small islands. On the mainland they

recognized as belonging to the sultan a continuous strip of

territory, 10 sea-miles in depth, from the south bank of

the Minengani river, a stream a short distance south of the

Rovuma, to Kipini, at the mouth of the Tana river, some 600

m. in length. North of Kipini the commissioners recognized

as belonging to the sultan the stations of Kismayu, Brava,

Marka and Mukdishu, with radii landwards of 10 sea-miles,

and of Warsheik with a radius of 5 sea-miles. By an exchange

of notes in October--November 1886 the governments of Great

Britain and Germany accepted the reports of the delimitation

commissioners, to which the sultan adhered on the 4th of the

following December. But the British and German governments

did more than determine what territories were to be assigned

to the sultanate of Zanzibar. They agreed to a delimitation

of their respective spheres of influence in East Africa.

The territory to be affected by this arrangement was to be

bounded on the south by the Rovuma river, ``and on the north

by a line which, starting from the mouth of the Tana river,

follows the course of that river or its affluents to the point

of intersection of the equator and the 38th degree of east

longitude, thence strikes direct to the point of intersection

of the 1st degree of north latitude with the 37th degree

of east longitude, where the line terminates.'' The line of

demarcation between the British and the German spheres of

influence was to start from the mouth of the river Wanga or

Umba (which enters the ocean opposite Pemba Island to the

north of Zanzibar), and running north-west was to skirt the

northern base of the Kilimanjaro range, and thence to be

drawn direct to the point on the eastern side of Victoria

Nyanza intersected by the 1st degree of south latitude.

South of this line German influence was to prevail; north

of the line was the British sphere. The sultan's dominions

having been thus truncated, Germany associated herself with

the recognition of the ``independence'' of Zanzibar in which

France and Great Britain had joined in 1862. The effect

of this agreement was to define the spheres of influence of

the two countries as far as Victoria Nyanza, but it provided

no limit westwards, and left the country north of the Tana

river, in which Germany had already acquired some interests

near the coast, open for fresh annexations. The conclusion

of the agreement immediately stimulated the enterprise

both of the German East African Company, to which Peters's

earlier treaties had been transferred, and of the British

capitalists to whom reference had been made in Lord Granville's

despatch. The German East African Company was incorporated

by imperial charter in March 1887, and the British capitalists

formed themselves into the British East Africa Association,

and on the 24th of May 1887 obtained, through the good offices

of Sir William Mackinnon, a concession of the 10-miles strip

of coast from the Umba river in the south to Kipini in the

north. The British association further sought to extend

its rights in the sphere reserved to British influence by

making treaties with the native chiefs behind the coast

strip, and for this purpose various expeditions were sent

into the interior. When they had obtained concessions

over the country for some 200 m. inland the associated

Formation of British East Africa.

capitalists applied to the British government for a charter, which

was granted on the 3rd of September 1888, and the association became

the Imperial British East Africa Company (see BRITISH EAST AFRICA).

The example set by the British company in obtaining a lease

of the coast strip between the British sphere of influence

and the sea was quickly followed by the German association,

which, on the 28th of April 1888, concluded an agreement

with the sultan Khalifa, who had succeeded his brother

Bargash, by which the association leased the strip of Zanzibar

territory between the German sphere and the sea. It was not,

however, until August that the German officials took over the

administration, and their want of tact and ignorance of native

administration almost immediately provoked a rebellion of

so serious a character that it was not suppressed until the

imperial authorities had taken the matter in hand. Shortly

after its suppression the administration was entrusted to an

imperial officer, and the sultan's rights on the mainland strip

were bought outright by Germany for four millions of marks

Events of great importance had been happening, meanwhile, in

the country to the west and north of the British sphere of

influence. The British company had sent caravans into the

interior to survey the country, to make treaties with the

native chiefs and to report on the commercial and agricultural

possibilities. One of these had gone up the Tana river.

But another and a rival expedition was proceeding along

the northern bank of this same river. Karl Peters, whose

energy cannot be denied, whatever may be thought of his

methods, set out with an armed caravan up the Tana on the

pretext of leading an expedition to the relief of Emin Pasha,

the governor of the equatorial province of the Egyptian

Sudan, then reported to be hemmed in by the dervishes at

Wadelai. His expedition was not sanctioned by the German

government, and the British naval commander had orders to

prevent his landing. But Peters succeeded in evading the

British vessels and proceeded up the river, planting German

flags and fighting the natives who opposed his progress.

Early in 1890 he reached Kavirondo, and there found letters

from Mwanga, king of Uganda, addressed to F. J. Jackson, the

leader of an expedition sent out by the British East Africa

Uganda secured by Great Britain.

Company, imploring the company's representative to come

to his assistance and offering to accept the British

flag. To previous letters, less plainly couched. from the

king, Jackson had returned the answer that his instructions

were not to enter Uganda, but that he would do so in case of

need. The letters that fell into Peters's hands were in

reply to those from Jackson. Peters did not hesitate to

open the letters, and on reading them he at once proceeded

to Uganda, where, with the assistance of the French Roman

Catholic priests, he succeeded in inducing Mwanga to sign

a loosely worded treaty intended to place him under German

protection. On hearing of this Jackson at once set out for

Uganda, but Peters did not wait for his arrival, leaving

for the south of Victoria Nyanza some days before Jackson

arrived at Mengo, Mwanga's capital. As Mwanga would not

agree to Jackson's proposals, Jackson returned to the coast,

leaving a representative at Mengo to protect the company's

interests. Captain (afterwards Sir) F. D. Lugard, who had

recently entered the company's employment, was at once ordered

to proceed to Uganda. But in the meantime an event of great

importance had taken place, the conclusion of the agreement

between Great Britain and Germany with reference to their

different spheres of influence in various parts of Africa.

The Anglo-German agreement of the 1st of July 1890 has already

been referred to and its importance insisted upon. Here

we have to deal with the provisions in reference to East

Africa. In return for the cession of Heligoland, Lord

Salisbury obtained from Germany the recognition of a British

protectorate over the dominions of the sultan of Zanzibar,

including the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, but excluding

the strip leased to Germany, which was subsequently ceded

absolutely to Germany. Germany further agreed to withdraw

the protectorate declared over Witu and the adjoining coast

up to Kismayu in favour of Great Britain, and to recognize as

within the British sphere of influence the vast area bounded,

on the south by the frontier line laid down in the agreement

of 1886, which was to be extended along the first parallel

of south latitude across Victoria Nyanza to the frontiers of

the Congo Free State, on the west by the Congo Free State and

the western watershed of the Nile, and on the north by a line

commencing on the coast at the north bank of the mouth of the

river Juba, then ascending that bank of the river until it

reached the territory at that time regarded as reserved to

the influence of Italy13 in Gallaland and Abyssinia, when it

followed the frontier of the Italian sphere to the confines of

Egypt. To the south-west of the German sphere in East Africa

the boundary was formed by the eastern and northern shore of

Lake Nyasa, and round the western shore to the mouth of the

Songwe river, from which point it crossed the Nyasa-Tanganyika

plateau to the southern end of the last-named lake,

Limits of German East Africa defined.

leaving the Stevenson Road on the British side of the boundary.

The effect of this treaty was to remove all serious causes of

dispute about territory between Germany and Great Britain in East

Africa. It rendered quite valueless Peters's treaty with

Mwanga and his promenade along the Tana; it freed Great Britain

from any fear of German competition to the northwards, and

recognized that her influence extended to the western limits of

the Nile valley. But, on the other hand, Great Britain had to

relinquish the ambition of connecting her sphere of influence

in the Nile valley with her possessions in Central and South

Africa. On this point Germany was quite obdurate; and, as

already stated, an attempt subsequently made (May 1894) to

secure this object by the lease of a strip of territory from

the Congo Free State was frustrated by German opposition.

Uganda having thus been assigned to the British sphere of

influence by the only European power in a position to contest

its possession with her, the subsequent history of that

region, and of the country between the Victoria Nyanza and the

coast, must be traced in the articles on BRITISH EAST AFRICA

and UGANDA, but it may be well briefly to record here the

following facts:--The Imperial British East Africa Company,

finding the burden of administration too heavy for its financial

resources, and not receiving the assistance it felt itself

entitled to receive from the imperial authorities, intimated

that it would be compelled to withdraw at the end of the year

1892. Funds were raised to enable the company to continue

its administration until the end of March 1893, and a strong

public protest against evacuation compelled the government

to determine in favour of the retention of the country. In

January 1893 Sir Gerald Portal left the coast as a special

commissioner to inquire into the ``best means of dealing with

the country, whether through Zanzibar or otherwise.'' On the

31st of March the union jack was raised, and on the 29th of

May a fresh treaty was concluded with King Mwanga placing his

country under British protection. A formal protectorate was

declared over Uganda proper on the 19th of June 1894, which was

subsequently extended so as to include the countries westwards

towards the Congo Free State, eastwards to the British East

Africa protectorate and Abyssinia, and northwards to the

Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The British East Africa protectorate

was constituted in June 1895, when the Imperial British East

Africa Company relinquished all its rights in exchange for

a money payment, and the administration was assumed by the

imperial authorities. On the 1st of April 1902 the eastern

province of the Uganda protectorate was transferred to the

British East Africa protectorate, which thus secured control

of the whole length of the so-called Uganda railway, and

at the same time obtained access to the Victoria Nyanza.

Early in the 'eighties, as already seen, Italy had obtained her

first formal footing on the African coast at the Bay of Assab

Italy in East Africa.

(Aussa) on the Red Sea. In 1885 the troubles in which Egypt

found herself involved compelled the khedive and his advisers to

loosen their hold on the Red Sea littoral, and, with the tacit

approval of Great Britain, Italy took possession of Massawa and

other ports on that coast. By 1888 Italian influence had been

extended from Ras Kasar on the north to the northern frontier of

the French colony of Obok on the south, a distance of some 650

m. The interior limits of Italian influence were but ill

defined, and the negus Johannes (King John) of Abyssinia viewed

with anything but a favourable eye the approach of the Italians

towards the Abyssinian highlands. In January 1887 an Italian

force was almost annihilated at Dogali, but the check only

served to spur on the Italian government to fresh efforts.

The Italians occupied Keren and Asmara in the highlands, and

eventually, in May 1889, concluded a treaty of peace and

friendship with the negus Menelek, who had seized the throne

on the death of Johannes, killed in battle with the dervishes

in March of the same year. This agreement, known as the

treaty of Uccialli, settled the frontiers between Abyssinia

and the Italian sphere, and contained the following article:--

XVII. His Majesty the King of Kings of Ethiopia consents to

avail himself of the Italian government for any negotiations

which he may enter into with the other powers or governments.

In Italy and by other European governments this article was

generally regarded as establishing an Italian protectorate

over Abyssinia; but this interpretation was never accepted

by the emperor Menelek, and at no time did Italy succeed

in establishing any very effective control over Abyssinian

affairs. North of the Italian coast sphere the Red Sea littoral

was still under Egyptian rule, while immediately to the south

a small stretch of coast on the Gulf of Tajura constituted

the sole French possession on the East African mainland (see

SOMALILAND.) Moreover, when Egyptian claims to the Somali

coast were withdrawn, Great Britain took the opportunity to

establish her influence on the northern Somali coast, opposite

Aden. Between the 1st of May 1884 and the 15th of March 1886

ten treaties were concluded, placing under British influence

the northern Somali coast from Ras Jibuti on the west to Bandar

Ziada on the east. In the meantime Italy, not content with

her acquisitions on the Red Sea, had been concluding treaties

with the Somali chiefs on the east coast. The first treaty

was made with the sultan of Obbia on the 8th of February

1889. Later in the same year the British East Africa Company

transferred to Italy--the transference being subsequently

approved by the sultan of Zanzibar--the ports of Brava, Marka,

Mukdishu and Warsheik, leased from Zanzibar. On the 24th

of March 1891 an agreement between Italy and Great Britain

fixed the northern bank of the Juba up to latitude 6 deg. N. as

the southern boundary of Italian influence in Somaliland, the

boundary being provisionally prolonged along lines of latitude

and longitude to the intersection of the Blue Nile with 35 deg. E.

longitude. On the 15th of April 1891 a further agreement

fixed the northern limit of the Italian sphere from Ras Kasar

on the Red Sea to the point on the Blue Nile just mentioned.

By this agreement Italy was to have the right temporarily to

occupy Kassala, which was left in the Anglo-Egyptian sphere,

in trust for Egypt--a right of which she availed herself in

1894. To complete the work of delimitation the British and

Italian governments, on the 5th of May 1894, fixed the boundary

of the British sphere of influence in Somaliland from the

Anglo-French boundary, which had been settled in February 1888.

But while Great Britain was thus lending her sanction to

Italy's ambitious schemes, the Abyssinian emperor was becoming

more and more incensed at Italy's pretensions to exercise a

protectorate over Ethiopia. In 1893 Menelek denounced the

treaty of Uccialli, and eventually, in a great battle, fought at

Adowa on the 1st of March 1896, the Italians were disastrously

defeated. By the subsequent treaty of Adis Ababa, concluded

on the 26th of October 1896, the whole of the country to the

The independence of Abyssinia recognized.

south of the Mareb, Belesa and Muna rivers was restored to

Abyssinia, and Italy acknowledged the absolute independence of

Abyssinia. The effect of this was practically to destroy

the value of the Anglo-Italian agreement as to the boundaries

to the south and west of Abyssinia; and negotiations were

afterwards set on foot between the emperor Menelek and his

European neighbours with the object of determining the Abyssinian

frontiers. Italian Somaliland, bordering on the south-eastern

frontier of Abyssinia, became limited to a belt of territory

with a depth inland from the Indian Ocean of from 180 to 250

m. The negotiations concerning the frontier lasted until

1908, being protracted over the question as to the possession

of Lugh, a town on the Juba, which eventually fell to Italy.

After the battle of Adowa the Italian government handed over

the administration of the southern part of the country to the

Benadir Company, but in January 1905 the government resumed

control and at the same time transformed the leasehold rights

it held from the sultan of Zanzibar into sovereign rights by

the payment to the sultan of L. 144,000. To facilitate her

communications with the interior, Italy also secured from the

British government the lease of a small area of land immediately

to the north of Kismayu. In British Somaliland the frontier

fixed by agreement with Italy in 1894 was modified, in so

far as it marched with Abyssinian territory, by an agreement

which Sir Rennell Rodd concluded with the emperor Menelek in

1897. The effect of this agreement was to reduce the area

of British Somaliland from 75,000 to 68,000 sq. m. In the

same year France concluded an agreement with the emperor,

which is known to have fixed the frontier of the French Somali

Coast protectorate at a distance of 90 kilometres (56 m.)

from the coast. The determination of the northern, western

and southern limits of Abyssinia proved a more difficult

matter. A treaty of July 1900 followed by an agreement

of November 1901 defined the boundaries of Eritrea on the

side of Abyssinia and the Sudan respectively. In certain

details the boundaries thus laid down were modified by an

Anglo-Italian-Abyssinian treaty signed at Adis Ababa on the

15th of May 1902. On the same day another treaty was signed

at the Abyssinian capital by Sir John Harrington, the British

minister plenipotentiary, and the emperor Menelek, whereby the

western, or Sudan-Abyssinian, frontier was defined as far south

as the intersection of 6 deg. N. and 35 deg. E. Within the British

sphere were left the Atbara up to Gallabat, the Blue Nile up

to Famaka and the Sobat up to the junction of the Baro and

Pibor. While not satisfying Abyssinian claims to their full

extent, the frontier laid down was on the whole more favourable

to Abyssinia than was the line fixed in the Anglo-Italian

agreement of 1891. On the other hand, Menelek gave important

economic guarantees and concessions to the Sudan government.

In Egypt the result of the abolition of the Dual Control

was to make British influence virtually predominant, though

theoretically Turkey remained the suzerain power; and after

the reconquest of the Sudan by the Anglo-Egyptian army a

convention between the British and Egyptian governments was

signed at Cairo on the 19th of January 1899, which, inter

alia, provided for the joint use of the British and Egyptian

flags in the territories south of the 22nd parallel of north

latitude. From the international point of view the British

position in Egypt was strengthened by the Anglo-French declaration

of the 8th of April 1904. For some time previously there had been

The Anglo-French agreements of April 1904.

a movement on both sides of the Channel in favour of the

settlement of a number of important questions in which

British and French interests were involved. The movement

was no doubt strengthened by the desire to reduce to their

least dimensions the possible causes of trouble between the

two countries at a time when the outbreak of hostilities

between Russia (the ally of France) and Japan (the ally of

Great Britain) rendered the European situation peculiarly

delicate. On the 8th of April 1904 there was signed in

London by the British foreign secretary, the marquess of

Lansdowne, and the French ambassador, M. Paul Cambon, a series

of agreements relating to several parts of the globe. Here we

are concerned only with the joint declaration respecting Egypt

and Morocco and a convention relating, in part, to British

and French frontiers in West Africa. The latter we shall

have occasion to refer to later. The former, notwithstanding

the declarations embodied in it that there was ``no intention

of altering the political status'' either of Egypt or of

Morocco, cannot be ignored in any account of the partition in

Africa. With regard to Egypt the French government declared

``that they will not obstruct the action of Great Britain

in that country by asking that a limit of time be fixed for

the British occupation or in any other manner.'' France also

assented--as did subsequently the other powers interested--to

a khedivial decree simplifying the international control

exercised by the Caisse de la Dette over the finances of Egypt.

In order to appreciate aright that portion of the declaration

relating to Morocco it is necessary to say a few words about

the course of French policy in North-West Africa. In Tunisia

the work of strengthening the protectorate established in

1881 had gone steadily forward; but it was in Algeria that

the extension of French influence had been most marked.

The movement of expansion southwards was inevitable. With

the progress of exploration it became increasingly evident

that the Sahara constituted no insurmountable barrier

between the French possessions in North and West Central

Africa. But France had not only the hope of placing Algeria

in touch with the Sudan to spur her forward. To consolidate

her position in North-West Africa she desired to make

French influence supreme in Morocco. The relations between

the two countries did not favour the realization of that

ambition. The advance southwards of the French forces of

occupation evoked loud protests from the Moorish government,

particularly with regard to the occupation in 1900-1901 of

the Tuat Oases. Under the Franco-Moorish treaty of 1845 the

frontier between Algeria and Morocco was defined from the

Mediterranean coast as far south as the pass of Teniet el

Sassi, in about 34 deg. N.; beyond that came a zone in which

no frontier was defined, but in which the tribes and desert

villages (ksurs) belonging to the respective spheres of

influence were named; while south of the desert villages the

treaty stated that in view of the character of the country

``the delimitation of it would be superfluous.'' Though

the frontier was thus left undefined, the sultan maintained

that in her advance southwards France had trespassed on

territories that unmistakably belonged to Morocco. After

some negotiation, however, a protocol was signed in Paris on

France's privileged position in Morocco.

the 20th of July 1901, and commissioners appointed to devise

measures for the co-operation of the French and Moorish

authorities in the maintenance of peaceful conditions in

the frontier region. It was reported that in April 1902

the commissioners signed an agreement whereby the Sharifan

government undertook to consolidate its authority on the

Moorish side of the frontier as far south as Figig. The

agreement continued: ``Le Gouvernement francais, en

raison de son voisinage, lui pretera son appui, en cas de

besoin. Le Gouvernement francais etablira son autorite

et la paix dans les regions du Sahara, et le Gouvernement

marocain, son voisin, lui aidera de tout son pouvoir.''

Meanwhile in the northern districts of Morocco the conditions

of unrest under the rule of the young sultan, Abd el Aziz IV.,

were attracting an increasing amount of attention in Europe

and were calling forth demands for their suppression. It was

in these circumstances that in the Anglo-French declaration

of April 1904 the British government recognized ``that it

appertains to France, more particularly as a power whose

dominions are conterminous for a great distance with those of

Morocco, to preserve order in that country, and to provide

assistance for the purpose of all administrative, economic,

financial and military reforms which it may require.'' Both

parties to the declaration, ``inspired by their feeling of

sincere friendship for Spain, take into special consideration

the interests which that country derives from her geographical

position and from her territorial possessions on the Moorish

coast of the Mediterranean. In regard to these interests

the French government will come to an understanding with the

Spanish government.'' The understanding thus foreshadowed

was reached later in the same year, Spain securing a sphere

of interest on the Mediterranean coast. In pursuance of

the policy marked out in the Anglo-French declaration,

France was seeking to strengthen her influence in Morocco

when in 1905 the attitude of Germany seriously affected her

position. On the 8th of July France secured from the German

government formal ``recognition of the situation created

for France in Morocco by the contiguity of a vast extent

of territory of Algeria and the Sharifan empire, and by the

special relations resulting therefrom between the two adjacent

countries, as well as by the special interest for France,

due to this fact, that order should reign in the Sharifan

Empire.'' Finally, in January-April 1906, a conference of the

powers was held at Algeciras to devise, by invitation of the

sultan, a scheme of reforms to be introduced into Morocco

(q.v..) French capital was allotted a larger share than

that of any other power in the Moorish state bank which it

was decided to institute, and French and Spanish officers

were entrusted with the organization of a police force for

the maintenance of order in the principal coast towns. The

new regime had not been fully inaugurated, however, when a

series of outrages led, in 1907, to the military occupation

by France of Udja, a town near the Algerian frontier, and

of the port of Casablanca on the Atlantic coast of Morocco.

It only remains to be noted, in connexion with the story

of French activity in North-West Africa, that with such

energy was the penetration of the Sahara pursued that in

April 1904 flying columns from Insalah and Timbuktu met

by arrangement in mid-desert, and in the following year it

was deemed advisable to indicate on the maps the boundary

between the Algerian and French West African territories.

Brief reference must be made to the position of Tripoli.

While Egypt was brought under British control and Tunisia

became a French protectorate, Tripoli remained a province

of the Turkish empire with undefined frontiers in the

hinterland, a state of affairs which more than once threatened

to lead to trouble with France during the expansion of the

latter's influence in the Sahara. As already stated, Italy

early gave evidence that it was her ambition to succeed

to the province, and, not only by the sultan of Turkey but

in Italy also, the Anglo-French declaration of March 1899,

respecting the limits of the British and French spheres

of influence in north Central Africa, was viewed with some

concern. By means of a series of public utterances on the

part of French and Italian statesmen in the winter 1901-1902 it

Italy's interest in Tripoli.

was made known that the two powers had come to an understanding

with regard to their interests in North Africa, and in May 1902

Signor Prinetti, then Italian minister for foreign affairs,

speaking in parliament in reply to an interpellation on the

subject of Tripoli, declared that if ``the status quo in

the Mediterranean were ever disturbed, Italy would be sure of

finding no one to bar the way to her legitimate aspirations.''

At the opening of the Berlin conference Spain had established no

formal claim to any part of the coast to the south of Morocco;

but while the conference was sitting, on the 9th of January 1885,

the Spanish government intimated that in view of the importance

of the Spanish settlements on the Rio de Oro, at Angra de Cintra,

Spanish colonies.

and at Western Bay (Cape Blanco), and of the documents

signed with the independent tribes on that coast, the king

of Spain had taken under his protection ``the territories

of the western coast of Africa comprised between the

fore-mentioned Western Bay and Cape Bojador.'' The interior

limits of the Spanish sphere were defined by an agreement

concluded in 1900 with France. By this document some 70,000

sq. m. of the western Sahara were recognized as Spanish.

The same agreement settled a long-standing dispute between

Spain and France as to the ownership of the district around

the Muni river to be south of Cameroon, Spain securing a block

of territory with a coast-line from the Campo river on the

north to the Muni river on the south. The northern frontier

is formed by the German Cameroon colony, the eastern by

11 deg. 20' E., and the southern by the first parallel of north

latitude to its point of intersection with the Muni river.

Apart from this small block of Spanish territory south of

Cameroon, the stretch of coast between Cape Blanco and the

Division of the Guinea coast.

mouth of the Congo is partitioned among four European powers--Great

Britain, France, Germany and Portugal --and the negro republic of

Liberia. Following the coast southwards from Cape Blanco is

first the French colony of Senegal, which is indented, along

the Gambia river, by the small British colony of that name, and

then the comparatively small territory of Portuguese Guinea,

all that remains on this Coast to represent Portugal's share in

the scramble in a region where she once played so conspicuous a

part. To the south of Portuguese Guinea is the French Guinea

colony, and still going south and east are the British

colony of Sierra Leone, the republic of Liberia, the French

colony of the Ivory coast, the British Gold Coast, German

Togoland, French Dahomey, the British colony (formerly known

as the Lagos colony) and protectorate of Southern Nigeria,

the German colony of Cameroon, the Spanish settlements on the

Muni river, the French Congo colony, and the small Portuguese

enclave north of the Congo to which reference has already been

made, which is administratively part of the Angola colony.

When the General Act of the Berlin conference was signed the

whole of this coast-line had not been formally claimed; but

no time was lost by the powers interested in notifying claims

to the unappropriated sections, and the conflicting claims

put forward necessitated frequent adjustments by international

agreements. By a Franco-Portuguese agreement of the 12th of

May 1886 the limits of Portuguese Guinea--surrounded landwards

by French territory--were defined, and by agreements with

Great Britain in 1885 and France in 1892 and 1907 the Liberian

republic was Confined to an area of about 43,000 sq. m.

The real struggle in West Africa was between France and Great

Britain, and France played the dominant part, the exhaustion

of Portugal, the apathy of the British government and the

late appearance of Germany in the field being all elements

that favoured the success of French policy. Before tracing

the steps in the historic contest between France and Great

Britain it is necessary, however, to deal briefly with the

part played by Germany. She naturally could not be disposed

of by the chief rivals as easily as were Portugal and

Liberia. It will be remembered that Dr Nachtigal, while the

proposals for the Berlin conference were under discussion,

had planted the German flag on the coast of Togo and in

Cameroon in the month of July 1884. In Cameroon Germany

found herself with Great Britain for a neighbour to the

north, and with France as her southern neighbour on the Gabun

river. The utmost activity was displayed in making treaties

with native chiefs, and in securing as wide a range of coast for

German enterprise as was possible. After various provisional

agreements had been concluded between Great Britain and

Germany, a ``provisional line of demarcation'' was adopted in

the famous agreement of the 1st of July 1890, starting from

the head of the Rio del Rey creek and going to the point,

about 9 deg. 8' E., marked ``rapids'' on the British Admiralty

chart. By a further agreement of the 14th of April 1893,

the right bank of the Rio del Rey was made the boundary

between the Oil Rivers Protectorate (now Southern Nigeria) and

Cameroon. In the following November (1893) the boundary was

continued from the ``rapids'' before mentioned, on the Calabar

or Cross river, in a straight line towards the centre of the

town of Yola, on the Benue river. Yola itself, with a radius

Germany in west Central Africa.

of some 3 m., was left in the British sphere, and the German

boundary followed the circle eastwards from the point of

intersection as it neared Yola until it met the Benue river.

From that point it crossed the river to the intersection of

the 13th degree of longitude with the 10th degree of north

latitude, and then made direct for a point on the southern

shore of Lake Chad ``situated 35 minutes east of the meridian

of Kuka.'' By this agreement the British government withdrew

from a considerable section of the upper waters of the

Benue with which the Royal Niger Company had entered into

relations. The limit of Germany's possible extension

eastwards was fixed at the basin of the river Shari, and

Darfur, Kordofan and the Bahr-el-Ghazal were to be excluded

from her sphere of influence. The object of Great Britain

in making the sacrifice she did was two-fold. By satisfying

Germany's desire for a part of Lake Chad a check was put on

French designs on the Benue region, while by recognizing the

central Sudan (Wadai, &c.) in the German sphere, a barrier

was interposed to the advance of France from the Congo to the

Nile. This last object was not attained, inasmuch as Germany

in coming to terms with France as to the southern and eastern

limits of Cameroon abandoned her claims to the central

Sudan. She had already, on the 24th of December 1885, signed

a protocol with France fixing her southern frontier, where it

was coterminous with the French Congo colony. But to the east

German explorers were crossing the track of French explorers

from the northern bank of the Ubangi, and the need for an

agreement was obvious. Accordingly, on the 4th of February

1894, a protocol--which, some weeks later, was confirmed by

a convention-- was signed at Berlin, by which France accepted

the presence of Germany on Lake Chad as a fait accompli and

effected the best bargain she could by making the left bank

of the Shari river, from its outlet into Lake Chad to the

10th parallel of north latitude, the eastern limit of German

extension. From this point the boundary line went due west

some 230 m., then turned south, and with various indentations

joined the south-eastern frontier, which had been slightly

extended so as to give Germany access to the Sanga river--

a tributary of the Congo. Thus, early in 1894, the German

Cameroon colony had reached fairly definite limits. In 1908

another convention, modifying the frontier, gave Germany

a larger share of the Sanga, while France, among other

advantages, gained the left bank of the Shari to 10 deg. 40' N.

The German Togoland settlements occupy a narrow strip of

the Guinea coast, some 35 m. only in length, wedged in

between the British Gold Coast and French Dahomey. At first

France was inclined to dispute Germany's claims to Little

Popo and Porto Seguro; but in December 1885 the French

government acknowledged the German protectorate over these

Exclusion of Germany from the Niger.

places, and the boundary between French and German territory,

which runs north from the coast to the 11th decree of

latitude, was laid down by the Franco-German convention

of the 12th of July 1897. The fixing of the 11th parallel

as the northern boundary of German expansion towards the

interior was not accomplished without some sacrifice of German

ambitions. Having secured an opening on Lake Chad for her

Cameroon colony, Germany was anxious to obtain a footing on

the middle Niger for Togoland. German expeditions reached

Gando, one of the tributary states of the Sokoto empire on

the middle Niger, and, notwithstanding the existence of prior

treaties with Great Britain, sought to conclude agreements

with the sultan of that country. But this German ambition

conflicted both with the British and the French designs in

West Africa, and eventually Germany had to be content with

the 11th parallel as her northern frontier. On the west

the Togoland frontier on the coast was fixed in July 1886

by British and German commissioners at 1 deg. 10' E. longitude,

and its extension towards the interior laid down for a short

distance. A curious feature in the history of its prolongation

was the establishment in 1888 of a neutral zone wherein neither

power was to seek to acquire protectorates nor exclusive

influence. It was not until November 1899 that, as part of

the Samoa settlement, this neutral zone was partitioned between

the two powers and the frontier extended to the 11th parallel.

The story of the struggle between France and Great Britain

in West Africa may roughly be divided into two sections, the

Anglo-French rivalry in West Africa.

first dealing with the Coast colonies, the second dealing with

the struggle for the middle Niger and Lake Chad. As regards

the Coast colonies, France was wholly successful in her design

of isolating all Great Britain's separate possessions in that

region, and of securing for herself undisputed possession of

the upper Niger and of the countries lying within the great

bend of that river. When the British government awoke to

the consciousness of what was at stake France had obtained

too great a start. French governors of the Senegal had

succeeded, before the Berlin Conference, in establishing forts

on the upper Niger, and the advantage thus gained was steadily

pursued. Every winter season French posts were pushed farther

and farther along the river, or in the vast regions watered

by the southern tributaries of the Senegal and Niger rivers.

This ceaseless activity met with its reward. Great Britain

found herself compelled to acknowledge accomplished facts and

to conclude agreements with France, which left her colonies

mere coast patches, with a very limited extension towards the

interior. On the 10th of August 1889 an agreement was signed

by which the Gambia colony and protectorate was confined to

a narrow strip of territory on both banks of the river for

about 200 m. from the sea. In June 1882 and in August 1889

provisional agreements were made with France fixing the western

and northern limits of Sierra Leone, and commissioners were

appointed to trace the line of demarcation agreed upon by the two

governments. But the commissioners failed to agree, and on the

21st of January 1895 a fresh agreement was made, the boundary

being subsequently traced by a mixed commission. Sierra Leone,

as now definitely constituted, has a coast-line of about 180

m. and a maximum extension towards the interior of some 200 m.

At the date of the Berlin conference the present colonies

of Southern Nigeria and the Gold Coast constituted a single

colony under the title of the Gold Coast colony, but on the

13th of January 1886 the territory comprised under that title

was erected into two separate colonies--Lagos and the Gold

Coast (the name of the former being changed in February 1906

to the colony of Southern Nigeria). The coast limits of the

new Gold Coast colony were declared to extend from 5 deg. W.

to 2 deg. E., but these limits were subsequently curtailed by

agreements with France and Germany. The arrangements that

fixed the eastern frontier of the Gold Coast colony and its

hinterland have already been stated in connexion with German

Togoland. On the western frontier it marches with the French

colony of the Ivory Coast, and in July 1893, after an unsuccessful

attempt to achieve the same end by an agreement concluded in

1889, the frontier was defined from the neighbourhood of the

Tano lagoon and river of the same name, to the 9th degree of

north latitude. In August 1896, following the destruction of

the Ashanti power and the deportation of King Prempeh, as a

result of the second Ashanti campaign, a British protectorate

was declared over the whole of the Ashanti territories and

a resident was installed at Kumasi. But no northern limit

had been fixed by the 1893 agreement beyond the 9th parallel,

and the countries to the north--Gurunsi (Grusi), Mossi and

Gurma---were entered from all sides by rival British, French

and German expeditions. The conflicting claims established

by these rival expeditions may, however, best be considered in

connexion with the struggle for supremacy on the middle Niger

and in the Chad region, to which it is now necessary to turn.

A few days before the meeting of the Berlin conference Sir

George Goldie had succeeded in buying up all the French

interests on the lower Niger. The British company's influence

had at that date been extended by treaties with the native

chiefs up the main Niger stream to its junction with the

Benue, and some distance along this latter river But the

great Fula states of the central Sudan were still outside

European influence, and this fact did not escape attention in

Germany. German merchants had been settled for some years

on the coast, and one of them, E. R. Flegel, had displayed

great interest in, and activity on, the river. He recognized

that in the densely populated states of the middle Niger,

Sokoto and Gando, and in Bornu to the west of Lake Chad, there

was a magnificent field for Germany's new-born colonizing

zeal. The German African Company14 and the German Colonial

Society listened eagerly to Flegel's proposals, and in April

1885 he left Berlin on a mission to the Fula states of Sokoto and

Gando. But it was impossible to keep his intentions entirely

secret, and the (British) National African Company had no

desire to see the French rivals, whom they had with so much

difficulty dislodged from the river, replaced by the even

more troublesome German. Accordingly Joseph Thomson, the

young Scottish explorer, was sent out to the Niger, and had

the satisfaction of concluding on the 1st of June 1885 a

treaty with ``Umoru, King of the Mussulmans of the Sudan and

Sultan of Sokoto,'' which practically secured the whole of

the trading rights and the control of the sultan's foreign

relations to the British company. Thomson concluded a similar

treaty with the sultan of Gando, so as to provide against the

possibility of its being alleged that Gando was an independent

state and not subject to the suzerainty of the sultan of

Sokoto. As Thomson descended the river with his treaties, he

met Flegel going up the river, with bundles of German flags

and presents for the chiefs. The German government continued

its efforts to secure a footing on the lower Niger until

the fall of Prince Bismarck from power in March 1890, when

opposition ceased, and on the failure of the half-hearted

attempt made later to establish relations with Gando from

Togoland, Germany dropped out of the competition for the

The Niger Company granted a charter.

western Sudan and left the field to France and Great Britain.

After its first great success the National African Company

renewed its efforts to obtain a charter from the British

government, and on the 10th of July 1886 the charter was

granted, and the company became ``The Royal Niger Company,

chartered and limited.'' In June of the previous year a British

protectorate had been proclaimed Over the whole of the coast

from the Rio del Rey to the Lagos frontier, and as already

stated, on the 13th of January 1886 the Lagos settlements had

been separated from the Gold Coast and erected into a separate

colony. It may be convenient to state here that the western

boundary of Lagos with French territory (Dahomey) was determined

in the Anglo-French agreement of the 10th of August 1889, ``as

far as the 9th degree of north latitude, where it shall stop.''

Thus both in the Gold Coast hinterland and in the Lagos hinterland

a door was left wide open to the north of the 9th parallel.

Notwithstanding her strenuous efforts, France, in her advance

down the Niger from Senegal, did not succeed in reaching Sego

on the upper Niger, a considerable distance above Timbuktu,

until the winter of 1890-1891, and the rapid advance of British

influence up the river raised serious fears lest the Royal Niger

Company should reach Timbuktu before France could forestall

her. It was, no doubt, this consideration that induced the

French government to consent to the insertion in the agreement

of the 5th of August 1890, by which Great Britain recognized

France's protectorate over Madagascar, of the following article:

The Government of Her Britannic Majesty recognizes the sphere of

influence of France to the south of her Mediterranean possessions

up to a line from Say on the Niger to Barrua on Lake Chad, drawn

m such a manner as to comprise in the sphere of action of the

Niger Company all that fairly belongs to the kingdom of Sokoto;

the line to be determined by the commissioners to be appointed.

The commissioners never were in fact appointed, and the

proper meaning to be attached to this article subsequently

became a subject of bitter controversy between the two

countries. An examination of the map of West Africa will

show what possibilities of trouble were left open at the

end of 1890 by the various agreements concluded up to that

date. From Say on the Niger to where the Lagos frontier came

to an abrupt stop in 9 deg. N. there was no boundary line between

the French and British spheres of influence. To the north

of the Gold Coast and of the French Ivory Coast colony the

way was equally open to Great Britain and to France, while

the vagueness of the Say-Barrua line left an opening of which

France was quick to avail herself. Captain P. L. Monteil,

who was despatched by the French government to West Africa in

1890, immediately after the conclusion of the August agreement,

did not hesitate to pass well to the south of the Say-Barrua

line, and to attempt to conclude treaties with chiefs who

were, beyond all question, within the British sphere. Still

farther south, on the Benue river, the two expeditions of

Lieutenant Mizon--in 1890 and 1892--failed to do any real

harm to British interests. In 1892 an event happened which

had an important bearing on the future course of the dispute.

French advance Timbuktu.

After a troublesome war with Behanzin king of to the native

state of Dahomey, France annexed some portion of Dahomeyan

territory on the coast, and declared a protectorate over

the rest of the kingdom. Thus was removed the barrier which

had up to that time prevented France from pushing her way

Nigerwards from her possessions on the Slave Coast, as well

as from the upper Niger and the Ivory Coast. Henceforth

her progress from all these directions was rapid, and in

particular Timbuktu was occupied in the last days of 1893.

In 1894 it appears to have been suddenly realized in France

that, for the development of the vast regions which she was

placing under her protection in West Africa, it was extremely

desirable that she should obtain free access to the navigable

portions of the Niger, if not on the left bank, from which she

was excluded by the Say-Barrua agreement, then on the right

bank, where the frontier had still to be fixed by international

agreement. In the neighbourhood of Bussa there is a long

stretch of the river so impeded by rapids that navigation is

practically impossible, except in small boats and at considerable

risk. Below these rapids France had no foothold on the river,

both banks from Bussa to the sea being within the British

sphere. In 1890 the Royal Niger Company had concluded a treaty

with the emir and chiefs of Bussa (or Borgu); but the French

declared that the real paramount chief of Borgu was not the

king of Bussa, but the king of Nikki, and three expeditions

were despatched in hot haste to Nikki to take the king under

French protection. Sir George Goldie, however, was not to be

baffled. While maintaining the validity of the earlier treaty

with Bussa, he despatched Captain (afterwards General Sir) F.

D. Lugard to Nikki, and Lugard was successful in distancing

all his French competitors by several days, reaching Nikki

on the 5th of November 1894 and concluding a treaty with the

king and chiefs. The French expeditions, which were in great

strength, did not hesitate on their arrival to compel the

king to execute fresh treaties with France, and with these in

their possession they returned to Dahomey. Shortly afterwards

a fresh act of aggression was committed. On the 13th of

February 1895 a French officer, Commandant Toutee, arrived

on the right bank of the Niger opposite Bajibo and built a

fort. His presence there was notified to the Royal Niger

Company, who protested to the British government against

this invasion of their territory. Lord Rosebery, who was

then foreign minister, at once made inquiries in Paris, and

received the assurance that Commandant Toutee was ``a private

traveller.'' Eventually Commandant Toutee was ordered to

withdraw, and the fort was occupied by the Royal Niger Company's

troops. Commandant Toutee subsequently published the official

instructions from the French government under which he had

acted. It was thought that the recognition of the British

claims, involved in the withdrawal of Commandant Toutee,

had marked the final abandonment by France of the attempt

to establish herself on the navigable portions of the Niger

below Bussa, but in 1897 the attempt was renewed in the most

determined manner. In February of that year a French force

suddenly occupied Bussa, and this act was quickly followed

by the occupation of Gomba and Illo higher up the river. In

November 1897 Nikki was occupied. The situation on the Niger

had so obviously been outgrowing the capacity of a chartered

company that for some time before these occurrences the

assumption of responsibility for the whole of the Niger region

The Franco-British settlement of 1898.

by the imperial authorities had been practically decided on;

and early in 1898 Lugard was sent out to the Niger with a number

of imperial officers to raise a local force in preparation for

the contemplated change. The advance of the French forces from

the south and west was the signal for an advance of British

troops from the Niger, from Lagos and from the Gold Coast

protectorate. The situation thus created was extremely

serious. The British and French flags were flying in close

proximity, in some cases in the same village. Meanwhile the

diplomatists were busy in London and in Paris, and in the latter

capital a commission sat for many months to adjust the conflicting

claims. Fortunately, by the tact and forbearance of the officers

on both sides, no local incident occurred to precipitate a

collision, and on the 14th of June 1898 a convention was signed

by Sir Edmund Monson and M. G. Hanotaux which practically

completed the partition of this part of the continent.

The settlement effected was in the nature of a compromise.

France withdrew from Bussa, Gomba and Illo, the frontier

line west of the Niger being drawn from the 9th parallel to

a point ten miles, as the crow flies, above Giri, the port of

Illo. France was thus shut out from the navigable portion of

the middle and lower Niger; but for purely commercial purposes

Great Britain agreed to lease to France two small plots of land

on the river-the one on the right bank between Leaba and the

mouth of the Moshi river, the other at one of the mouths of the

Niger. By accepting this line Great Britain abandoned Nikki

and a great part of Borgu as well as some part of Gando to

France. East of the Niger the Say-Barrua line was modified

in favour of France, which gained parts of both Sokoto and

Bornu where they meet the southern edge of the Sahara. In the

Gold Coast hinterland the French withdrew from Wa, and Great

Britain abandoned all claim to Mossi, though the capital of

the latter country, together with a further extensive area

in the territory assigned to both powers, was declared to be

equally free, so far as trade and navigation were concerned,

to the subjects and protected persons of both nationalities.

The western boundary of the Gold Coast was prolonged along

the Black Volta as far as latitude 11 deg. N., and this parallel

was followed with slight deflexions to the Togoland frontier.

In consequence of the acute crisis which shortly afterwards

occurred between France and Great Britain on the upper Nile,

the ratification of this agreement was delayed until after

the conclusion of the Fashoda agreement of March 1899 already

referred to. In 1900 the two patches on the Niger leased to

France were selected by commissioners representing the two

countries, and in the same year the Anglo-French frontier

from Lagos to the west bank of the Niger was delimited.

East of the Niger the frontier, even as modified in 1898,

failed to satisfy the French need for a practicable route to

Lake Chad, and in the convention of the 8th of April 1904, to

which reference has been made under Egypt and Morocco, it was

Further concessions to France.

agreed, as part of the settlement of the French shore question

in Newfoundland, to deflect the frontier line more to the

south. The new boundary was described at some length, but

provision was made for its modification in points of detail

on the return of the commissioners engaged in surveying the

frontier region. In 1906 an agreement was reached on all

points, and the frontier at last definitely settled, sixteen

years after the Say-Barrua line had been fixed. This revision

of the Niger-Chad frontier did not, however, represent the

only territorial compensation received by France in West

Africa in connexion with the settlement of the Newfoundland

question. By the same convention of April 1904 the British

government consented to modify the frontier between Senegal

and the Gambia colony ``so as to give to France Yarbutenda

and the lands and landing-places belonging to that locality,''

and further agreed to cede to France the tiny group of islands

off the coast of French Guinea known as the Los Islands.

Meantime the conclusion of the 1898 convention had left both

the British and the French governments free to devote increased

attention to the subdivision and control of their West African

possessions. On the 1st of January 1900 the imperial authorities

assumed direct responsibility for the whole of the territories

of the Royal Niger Company, which became henceforth a purely

commercial undertaking. The Lagos protectorate was extended

northwards; the Niger Coast protectorate, likewise with extended

frontiers, became Southern Nigeria; while the greater part

of the territories formerly administered by the company were

constituted into the protectorate of Northern Nigeria--all

three administrations being directly under the Colonial

Office In February 1906 the administration of the Southern

Nigerian protectorate was placed under that of Lagos at the

same time as the name of the latter was changed to the Colony

of Southern Nigeria, this being a step towards the eventual

Organization of the British and French protectorates.

amalgamation of all three dependencies under one governor or

governor-general. In French West Africa changes in the

internal frontiers have been numerous and important. The

coast colonies have all been increased in size at the expense

of the French Sudan, which has vanished from the maps as

an administrative entity. There are carved out of the

territories comprised in what is officially known as French

West Africa five colonies--Senegal, French Guinea, the Ivory

Coast, Dahomey and the Upper Senegal and Niger, this last

being entirely cut off from the sea--and the civil territory of

Mauritania. To the colony of the Upper Senegal and Niger

is attached the military territory of the Niger, embracing

the French Sahara up to the limit of the Algerian sphere of

influence. Not only are all these divisions of French West

Africa connected territorially, but administratively they

are united under a governor-general. Similarly the French

Congo territories have been divided into three colonies--the

Gabun, the Middle Congo and the Ubangi-Shari-Chad--all

united administratively under a commissioner-general.

There are, around the coast, numerous islands or groups of

islands, which are regarded by geographers as outliers of the

Ownership of the African Islands.

African mainland. The majority of these African islands were

occupied by one or other of the European powers long before

the period of continental partition. The Madeira Islands

to the west of Morocco, the Bissagos Islands, off the Guinea

coast, and Prince's Island and St Thomas' Island, in the

Gulf of Guinea, are Portuguese possessions of old standing;

while in the Canary Islands and Fernando Po Spain possesses

remnants of her ancient colonial empire which are a more

valuable asset than any she has acquired in recent times on the

mainland. St Helena in the Atlantic, Mauritius and some

small groups north of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, are

British possessions acquired long before the opening of the

last quarter of the 19th century. Zanzibar, Pemba and some

smaller islands which the sultan was allowed to retain were,

as has already been stated, placed under British protection in

1890, and the island of Sokotra was placed under the ``gracious

favour and protection'' of Great Britain on the 23rd of April

1886. France's ownership of Reunion dates back to the 17th

century, but the Comoro archipelago was not placed under French

protection until April 1886. None of these islands, with the

exception of the Zanzibar group, have, however, materially

affected the partition of the continent, and they need not

be enumerated in the table which follows. But the important

island of Madagascar stands in a different category, both on

account of its size and because it was during the period under

review that it passed through the various stages which led to

its becoming a French colony. The first step was the placing

of the foreign relations of the island under French control,

which was effected by the treaty of the 17th of December

1885, after the Franco-Malagasy war that had broken out in

1883. In 1890 Great Britain and Germany recognized a French

protectorate over the island, but the Hova government declined

to acquiesce in this view, and in May 1895 France sent an

expedition to enforce her claims. The capital was occupied on

the 30th of September in the same year, and on the day following

Queen Ranavalona signed a convention recognizing the French

protectorate. In January 1896 the island was declared a

French possession, and on the 6th of August was declared to

be a French colony. In February 1897 the last vestige of

ancient rule was swept away by the deportation of the queen.

Thus in its broad outlines the partition of Africa was begun

and ended in the short space of a quarter of a century.

There are still many finishing touches to be put to the

structure. The southern frontiers of Morocco and Tripoli remain

undefined, while the mathematical lines by which the spheres

of influence of the powers were separated one from the other

are being variously modified on the do ut des principle as

they come to be surveyed and as the effective occupation of

the continent progresses. Much labour is necessary before the

actual area of Africa and its subdivisions can be accurately

determined, but in the following table the figures are at least

approximately correct. Large areas of the spheres assigned

to different European powers have still to be brought under

European control; but this work is advancing by rapid strides.

BRITISH-- Sq. m.

Cape Colony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276,995

Natal and Zululand . . . . . . . . . . . 35,371

Basutoland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,293

Bechuanaland Protectorate . . . . . . . 225,000

Transvaal and Swaziland . . . . . . . . 117,732

Orange River Colony . . . . . . . . . . 50,392

Rhodesia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450,000

Nyasaland Protectorate . . . . . . . . . 43,608

British East Africa Protectorate . . . . 240,000

Uganda Protectorate . . . . . . . . . . 125,000

Zanzibar Protectorate . . . . . . . . . 1,020

Somaliland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68,000

Northern Nigeria . . . . . . . . . . . 258,000

Southern Nigeria (colony and protectorate) 80,000

Gold Coast and hinterland . . . . . 82,000

Sierre Leone (colony and protectorate) . 34,000

Gambia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,000

Total British Africa . . . . . . . 2,101,411

Egypt and Libyan Desert . . . . . . . . 650,000

Anglo-Egyptian Sudan . . . . . . . . . . 950,000

1,600,000

FRENCH--

Algeria and Algerian Sahara . . . . . . 945,000

Tunisia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51,000

French West Africa--

Senegal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74,000

French Guinea . . . . . . . . . . . . 107,000

Ivory Coast . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129,000

Dahomey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40,000

Upper Senegal and Niger, and

Mauritania (including French West

African Sahara) . . . . 1,581,000 1,931,000

French Congo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700,000

French Somaliland . . . . . . . . . . . 12,000

Madagascar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227,950

Total French Africa . . . . . . . 3,866,950

GERMAN--

East Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364,000

South.West Africa . . . . . . . . . . . 322,450

Cameroon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190,000

Togoland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33,700

Total German Africa . . . . . . . . 910,150

ITALIAN--

Eritrea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60,000

Somaliland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140,000

Total Italian Africa . . . . . . . . 200,000

PORTUGUESE--

Guinea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14,000

West Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480,000

East Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293,500

Total Portuguese Africa . . . . . . 787,500

SPANISH--

Rio de Oro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70,000

Muni River Settlements . . . . . . . . . . 9,800

Total Spanish Africa . . . . . . . . 79,800

BELGIAN--

Congo State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 900,000

TURKISH--

Tripoli and Benghazi . . . . . . . . . . 400,000

SEPARATE STATES--

Liberia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43,000

Morocco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220,000

Abyssinia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350,000

Total Independent Africa . . . . . . 613,000

Thus, collecting the totals, the result of the ``scramble''

has been to divide Africa among the powers as follows:--

Sq. m.

British Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,101,411

Egyptian Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,600,000

French Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,866,950

German Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 910,150

Italian Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200,000

Portuguese Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . 787,500

Spanish Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79,800

Belgian Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . 900,000

Turkish Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400,000

Independent Africa . . . . . . . . . . . 613,000

11,458,811

(J. S. K.)

1 Commercial treaties between Carthage and Rome were

made in the 6th and 5th centuries B.C.. The first

armed conflict between the rival powers, begun in 264

B.C., was a contest for the possession of Sicily.

2 This river was called by the Portuguese the Zaire.

They appear to have made no attempt to trace its course

beyond the rapids which stop navigation from the sea.

3 France acquired, as stations for her ships on the

voyage to and from India, settlements in Madagascar and the

neighbouring islands. The first settlement was made in 1642.

4 The Association, in 1831, was merged in the Royal Geographical Society.

5 The Mamelukes, whom the Turks had overthrown in the

16th century, had regained practically independent power.

6 In imitation of the British example, an American society

founded in 1822 the negro colony (now republic) of Liberia.

7 The first territorial acquisition made by Great Britain

in this region was in 1851, when Lagos Island was annexed.

8 As early as 1848 an Arab from Zanzibar journeying

across the continent had arrived at Benguella.

9 Another great traveller of this stamp was Wilhelm Junker, who spent

the greater part of the period 1875-1886 in the east central Sudan.

10 Specially appointed to consider West African affairs.

11 See the tables in Behm and Wagner's

Bevolkerung der Erde (Gotha, 1872).

12 in 1887 this society united with the German Colonial

Society, an organization founded in 1882. The united

society took the title of the German Colonial Company.

13 At this period negotiations between Great

Britain and Italy had begun but were not concluded.

14 This association, formed in 1878 by a union of associations

primarily intended for the exploration of Africa, ceased to exist in 1891.

VI. EXPLORATION AND SURVEY SINCE 1875

In giving the history of the partition of the continent,

the later work of exploration, except where, as in the

case of de Brazza's expeditions, it had direct political

consequences, has of necessity not been told. The results

achieved during and after the period of partition may now be

indicated. Stanley's great journey down the Congo in

1875-1876 initiated a new era in African exploration. The

numbers of travellers soon became so great that the once

marvellous feat of crossing the continent from sea to sea

became common. With increased knowledge and much ampler

means of communication trans-African travel now presents few

difficulties. While d'Anville and other cartographers of

the 18th century, by omitting all that was uncertain, had

left a great blank on the map, the work accomplished since

1875 has filled it with authentic topographical details.

Moreover surveys of high accuracy have been made at several

points. As the work of exploration and survey progressed

journeys of startling novelty became impossible--save in

the eastern Sahara, where the absence of water and boundless

wastes of sand render exploration more difficult, perhaps,

than in any other region of the globe. Within their

respective spheres of influence each power undertook detailed

surveys, and the most solid of the latest accessions to

knowledge have resulted from the labours of hard-working

colonial officials toiling individually in obscurity. Their

work it is impossible here to recognize adequately; the

following lines record only the more obvious achievements.

The relation of the Congo basin to the neighbouring river

systems was brought out by the journeys of many travellers.

In 1877 an important expedition was sent out by the Portuguese

government under Serpa Pinto, Brito Capello and Roberto

Work in the Congo.

Ivens for the exploration of the interior of Angola. The

first named made his way by the head-streams of the Kubango

to the upper Zambezi, which he descended to the Victoria

Falls, proceeding thence to Pretoria and Durban. Capello

and Ivens confined their attention to the south-west Congo

basin, where they disproved the existence of Lake Aquilunda,

which had figured on the maps of that region since the 16th

century. In a later journey (1884- 1885) Capello and Ivens

crossed the continent from Mossamedes to the mouth of the

Zambezi, adding considerably to the knowledge of the borderlands

between the upper Congo and the upper Zambezi. More important

results were obtained by the German travellers Paul Pogge and

Hermann von Wissmann, who (1880-1882) passed through previously

unknown regions beyond Muata Yanvo's kingdom, and reached the

upper Congo at Nyangwe, whence Wissmann made his way to the east

coast. In 1884-1885 a German expedition under Wissmann solved

the most important geographical problem relating to the southern

Congo basin by descending the Kasai, the largest southern

tributary, which, contrary to expectation, proved to unite

with the Kwango and other streams before joining the main

river. Further additions to the knowledge of the Congo

tributaries were made at the same time by the Rev. George

Grenfell, a Baptist missionary, who (accompanied in 1885 by K.

von Francois) made several voyages in the steamer ``Peace,''

especially up the great Ubangi, ultimately proved to be the

lower course of the Welle, discovered in 1870 by Schweinfurth.

In East as in West Africa operations were started by agents of

the Belgian committee, but with less success than on the Congo.

Opening up East Africa.

The first new journey of importance on this side was made

(1878-1880) on behalf of the British African Exploration

Committee by Joseph Thomson, who after the death of his

leader, Keith Johnston, made his way from the coast to the

north end of Nyasa, thence to Tanganyika, on both sides

of which he broke new ground, sighting the north end of

Lake Rukwa on the east. In 1882-1884 the French naval

lieutenant Victor Giraud proceeded by the north of Nyasa to

Lake Bangweulu, of which he made the first fairly correct

map. North of the Zanzibar-Tanganyika route a large area

of new ground was opened in 1883-1884 by Joseph Thomson,

who traversed the whole length of the Masai country to Lake

Baringo and Victoria Nyanza, shedding the first clear light

on the great East African rift-valley and neighbouring

highlands, including Mounts Kenya and Elgon. A great advance

in the region between Victoria Nyanza and Abyssinia was

made in 1887-1889 by the Austrians, Count Samuel Teleki and

Lieut. Ludwig von Hohnel, who discovered the large Basso

Norok, now known as Lake Rudolf, till then only vaguely

indicated on the map as Samburu. At this time Somaliland was

being opened up by English and Italian travellers. In 1883

the brothers F. L. and W. D. James penetrated from Berbera

to the Webi Shebeli; in 1892 Vittorio Bottego (afterwards

murdered in the Abyssinian highlands) started from Berbera

and reached the upper Juba, which he explored to its

source. The first person, however, to cross from the Gulf

of Aden to the Indian Ocean was an American, A. Donaldson

Smith, who in 1894-1895 explored the headstreams of the Webi

Shebeli and also explored the Omo, the feeder of Lake Rudolf.

In the region north-west of Victoria Nyanza the greatest

additions to geographical knowledge were made by H. M. Stanley

in his last expedition, undertaken for the relief of Emin

Pasha. The expedition set out in 1887 by way of the Congo to

carry supplies to the governor of the old Egyptian Equatorial

province. The route lay up the Aruwimi, the principal

tributary of the Congo from the north-east, by which the

expedition made its way, encountering immense difficulties,

through the great equatorial forest, the character and extent

of which were thus for the first time brought to light.

The return was made to the east coast, and resulted in the

discovery of the great snowy range of Ruwenzori or Runsoro,

and the confirmation of the existence of a third Nile lake

discharging its waters into the Albert Nyanza by the Semliki

river. A further discovery was that of a large bay, hitherto

unsuspected, forming the south-west corner of the Victoria Nyanza.

Great activity was also displayed in completing the work of

earlier explorers in North and West Africa. Morocco was in

Expeditions in North and West Africa.

1883-1884 the scene of important explorations by de Foucauld,

a Frenchman who, disguised as a Jew, crossed and re-crossed

the Atlas and supplied the first trustworthy information as

to the orography of many parts of the chain. In 1887-1889

Louis Gustave Binger, a French officer, made a great journey

through the countries enclosed in the Niger bend, and in

1890-1892 Col. P. F. Monteil went from St Louis to Say, on the

Niger, thence through Sokoto to Bornu and Lake Chad, whence

he crossed the Sahara to Tripoli. Meantime explorers had

been busy in the region between Lake Chad, the Gulf of Guinea

and the Congo. The Sanga, one of the principal northern

tributaries of the Congo, was reached from the north by

Lieut. Louis Mizon, a French naval officer, who drew the

first line of communication between the Benue and the Congo

(1890-1892). In 1890 Paul Crampel, who in the previous

year had explored north of the Ogowe, undertook a great

expedition from the Ubangi to the Shari, but was attacked and

killed, with several of his companions, on the borders of the

Bagirmi. Several other expeditions followed, and in 1806

Emile Gentil reached the Shari, launched a steamer on its

waters and pushed on to Lake Chad. Early in 1900 Lake

Chad was also reached by F. Foureau, a French traveller,

who had already devoted twelve years to the exploration of

the Sahara and who on this occasion had crossed the desert

from Algeria and had reached the lake via Air and Zinder.

The last ten years of the 19th century also witnessed many

interesting expeditions in east Central Africa. In 1891 Emin

Lakes and mountains of Equatorial Africa.

Pasha, accompanied by Dr F. Stuhlmann, made his way south

of Victoria Nyanza to the western Nile lakes, visiting for

the first time the southern and western shores of Albert

Edward. Stuhlmann also ascended the Ruwenzori range to a

height of over 13,000 ft. In the same year Dr O. Baumann,

who had already done good work in Usambara, near the coast,

started on a more extended journey through the region of steppes

between Kilimanjaro and Victoria Nyanza, afterwards exploring

the headstreams of the Kagera, the ultimate sources of the

Nile. In the steppe region referred to he discovered two new

lakes, Manyara and Eiassi, occupying parts of the East African

valley system. This region was again traversed in 1893-1894

by Count von Gotzen, who continued his route westwards to Lake

Kivu, north of Tanganyika, which, though heard of by Speke

over thirty years before, had never yet been visited. He also

reached for the first time the line of volcanic peaks north of

Kivu, one of which he ascended, afterwards crossing the great

equatorial forest by a new route to the Congo and the west

coast. Valuable scientific work was done in 1893 by Dr J.

W. Gregory, who ascended Mount Kenya to a height of 16,000

ft. In 1893-1894 Scott Elliot reached Ruwenzori by way of

Uganda, returning by Tanganyika and Nyasa, and in 1896 C. W.

Hobley made the circuit of the great mountain Elgon, north-east

of Victoria Nyanza. In 1899 Mount Kenya was ascended to its

summit by a party under H. J. Mackinder. The exploration

of Mount Kilimanjaro has been the special work of Dr Hans

Meyer, who first directed his attention to it in 1887.

The region south of Abyssinia proper and north of Lake Rudolf,

being largely the basin of the Sobat tributary of the Nile,

was traversed by several explorers, among whom may be mentioned

Capt. M. S. Wellby, who in 1898-1899 explored the chain of

small lakes in south-east Abyssinia, pushed on to Lake Rudolf,

and thence traversed hitherto unknown country to the lower

Sobat. Donaldson Smith crossed from Berbera to the Nile by

Lake Rudolf in 1899-1900, and Major H. H. Austin commanded

two survey parties between the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and Lake

Rudolf during 1899-1901. Meantime in south Central Africa the

Barotse country had been partly made known by the missionary

F. Coillard, who settled there in 1884, while the middle and

upper Zambezi basin were scientifically explored and mapped

by Major A. St H. Gibbons and his assistants in 1895-1896 and

1898-1900. In the same period the Congo-Zambezi watershed

was traced by a Belgian officer, Capt. C. Lemaire, who

had ascended one of the upper tributaries of the Kasai.

In the early years of the 19th century the first recorded

crossing of Africa took place. That crossing and all subsequent

crossings had been made either from west to east or east to

west. The first journey through the whole length of the

continent was accomplished in the two last years of the

century when a young Englishman, E. S. Grogan, starting from

Cape Town reached the Mediterranean by way of the Zambezi,

the central line of lakes and the Nile. Other travellers

followed in Grogan's footsteps, among the first, Major Gibbons.

Additions to topographical knowledge were made from about

1890 onwards by the international commissions which traced

Work of international commissions and surveying parties.

the frontiers of the protectorates of the European powers.

On several occasions the labours of the commissions disclosed

errors of importance in the maps upon which international

agreements had been based. Among those which yielded

valuable results were the Anglo-French commission which in

1903 traced the Nigerian frontier from the Niger to Lake

Chad, and the Anglo-German commission which in 1903-1904 fixed

the Cameroon boundary between Yola, on the Benue, and Lake

Chad. These expeditions and French surveys in the same region

during 1902-1903 resulted in the discovery that Lake Chad

had greatly decreased in area since the middle of the 19th

century. In 1903 a French officer, Capt. E. Lenfant, succeeded

in establishing the fact of a connexion between the Niger and Chad

basins. Subsequently Lenfant explored the western basin of the

Shari, determining (1907) the true upper branch of that river.

In East Africa a German-Congolese commission surveyed (1901-1902)

Lake Kivu and the volcanic region north of the lake, R. Kandt

making a special study of Kivu and the Kagera sources, while

the Anglo-German boundary commission of 1902-1904 surveyed

the valley of the lower Kagera, and fixed the exact position

of Albert Edward Nyanza. Much new information concerning

the border-lands of British East Africa and Abyssinia between

Lake Rudolf and the lower Juba was obtained by the survey

executed in 1902-1903 by a British officer, Captain P. Maud.

While political requirements led to the exact determination

of frontiers, administrative needs forced the governments

concerned to take in hand the survey of the countries under their

protection. Before the close of the first decade of the 20th

century tolerably accurate maps had been made of the German

colonies, of a considerable part of West Africa, the Algerian

Sahara and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, mainly by military

officers. A British naval officer, Commander B. Whitehouse,

mapped the entire coastdine of Victoria Nyanza. Government

and railway surveys apart, the chief points of interest for

explorers during 1904-1906 were the Ruwenzori range and the

connexion of the basin of Lake Chad with the Niger and Congo

systems. Lieut. Boyd Alexander was the leader of a party which

during the years named surveyed Lake Chad and a considerable

part of eastern Nigeria, returning to England via the Shari,

the Ubangi and the Nile. Two members of the party, Capt.

Claud Alexander and Capt. G. B. Gosling, died during the

expedition. The Ruwenzori Mountains proved a great source of

attraction. Sir H. H. Johnston had in 1900 ascended beyond

the snow-line to 14,800 ft.; in 1903 Dr J. J. David had reached

from the west to a height he believed to exceed 16,000 ft.;

and in the same year Capt. T. T. Behrens, of the Anglo-German

Uganda boundary commission, fixed the highest summit at 16,619

ft. During 1904-1906 some half-dozen expeditions were at work

in the region. That of the duke of the Abruzzi was the most

successful. In the summer of 1906 the duke or members of his

party climbed all the highest peaks, none of which reaches 17,000

ft., and determined the main lines of the watershed. Major

Powell-Cotton, a British officer who had previously done good

work in Abyssinia and British East Africa, spent 1905-1906 in a

detailed examination of the Lado enclave and the country west of

Ruwenzori and Albert and Albert Edward lakes. This expedition

was specially fruitful in additions to zoological knowledge.

Archaeological research, stimulated by the reports of Thomas

Shaw, British consular chaplain at Algiers in 1719- 1731,

by James Bruce's exploration, 1765-1767, of the ruins in

Barbary, and by the French conquest of Egypt in 1798,

has been systematically carried out in North Africa since

the middle of the 19th century (see EGYPT and AFRICA,

ROMAN.) In South Africa the first thorough examination of

the ruins in Rhodesia was made in 1905, when Randall-MacIver

demonstrated that the great Zimbabwe and similar buildings

were of medieval or post-medieval origin. (F. R. C.)

VII. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS

The eagerness with which the nations of western Europe

partitioned Africa between them was due, as has been seen,

more to the necessities of commerce than to mere land

hunger. Yet, except in the north and south temperate

regions, the commercial intercourse of the continent with

the rest of the world had been until the closing years of the

19th century of insignificant proportions. In addition to

slaves, furnished by the continent from the earliest times,

a certain amount of gold and ivory was exported from the

tropical regions, but no other product supplied the material

for a flourishing trade with those parts. To their Asiatic

and European invaders the Africans indeed owed many creature

comforts--the introduction of maize, rice, the sugar cane,

the orange, the lemon and the lime, cloves, tobacco and many

other vegetable products, the camel, the horse and other

animals--but invaluable to Africa as were these gifts they led

to little development of commerce. The continent continued

in virtual isolation from the great trade movements of the

Causes of isolation.

world, an isolation due not so much to its poverty in natural

resources, as to the special circumstances which likewise

caused so large a part of the continent to remain so long a

terra incognita. The principal drawbacks may be summarized

as: (1) the absence of means of communication with the

interior; (2) the unhealthiness of the coast-lands; (3) the

small productive activity of the natives; (4) the effects of

the slave trade in discouraging legitimate commerce. None

of these causes is necessarily permanent, that most difficult

to remove being the third; the negro races finding the means

of existence easy have little incentive to toil. The first

drawback has almost disappeared, and the building of railways

and the placing of steamers on the rivers and lakes--a work

continually progressing --renders it year by year easier for

producer and consumer to come together. As to the second

drawback, while the coast-lands in the tropics will always

remain comparatively unhealthy, improved sanitation and the

destruction of the malarial mosquito have rendered tolerable to

Europeans regions formerly notorious for their deadly climate.

At various periods since the partition of the continent began,

united action has been taken by the powers of Europe in the

interests of African trade. The Berlin conference of 1884-1885

decreed freedom of navigation and trade on the Congo and the

Niger, and the Anglo-Portuguese treaty of 1891 secured like

privileges for the Zambezi. The Berlin conference likewise

enacted that over a wide area of Central Africa--the conventional

basin of the Congo--there should be complete freedom of trade,

a freedom which later on was held to be infringed in the Congo

State and French Congo by the granting to various companies

proprietary rights in the disposal of the product of the

soil. More important in their effect on the economic condition

of the continent than the steps taken to ensure freedom

of trade were the measures concerted by the powers for the

suppression of the slave trade. The British government had

for long borne the greater part of the burden of combating

the slave trade on the east coast of Africa and in the Indian

Ocean, but the changed conditions which resulted from the

appearance of other European powers in Africa induced Lord

Salisbury, then foreign secretary, to address, in the autumn of

1888, an invitation to the king of the Belgians to take the

initiative in inviting a conference of the powers at Brussels

to concert measures for ``the gradual suppression of the

Suppression of the slave trade.

slave trade on the continent of Africa, and the immediate

closing of all the external markets which it still supplies.''

The conference assembled in November 1889, and on the 2nd of

July 1890 a general act was signed subject to the ratification

of the various governments represented, ratification taking

place subsequently at different dates, and in the case of

France with certain reservations. The general act began with

a declaration of the means which the powers were of opinion

might be most effectually adopted for ``putting an end to the

crimes and devastations engendered by the traffic in African

slaves, protecting effectively the aboriginal populations of

Africa, and ensuring for that vast continent the benefits of

peace and civilization.'' It proceeded to lay down certain

rules and regulations of a practical character on the lines

suggested. The act covers a wide field, and includes no

fewer than a hundred separate articles. It established

a zone ``between the 20th parallel of north latitude, and

the 22nd parallel of south latitude, and extending westward

to the Atlantic and eastward to the Indian Ocean and its

dependencies, comprising the islands adjacent to the coast as

far as 100 nautical miles from the shore,'' within which the

importation of firearms and ammunition was forbidden except

in certain specified cases, and within which also the powers

undertook either to prohibit altogether the importation and

manufacture of spirituous liquors, or to impose duties not

below an agreed-on minimum.1 An elaborate series of rules

was framed for the prevention of the transit of slaves by

sea, the conditions on which European powers were to grant

to natives the right to fly the flag of the protecting power,

and regulating the procedure connected with the right of

search on vessels flying a foreign flag. The Brussels Act

was in effect a joint declaration by the signatory powers of

their joint and several responsibility towards the African

native, and notwithstanding the fact that many of its articles

have proved difficult, if not impossible, of enforcement,

the solemn engagement taken by Europe in the face of the

world has undoubtedly exercised a material influence on the

action of several of the powers. Moreover, with the increase

of means of communication and the extension of effective

European control, slave-raiding in the interior was largely

checked and inter-tribal wars prevented, the natives being

thus given security in the pursuit of trade and agriculture.

Other important factors in the economic as well as the social

conditions of Africa are the advance in civilization made

by the natives in several regions and the increase of the

areas found suitable for white colonization. The advance in

civilization among the natives, exemplified by the granting to

them of political rights in such countries as Algeria and Cape

Colony, leads directly to increased commercial activity; and

commerce increases in a much greater degree when new countries--

e.g. Rhodesia and British East Africa--become the homes of

Europeans. Finally, in reviewing the chief factors which govern

the commercial development of the continent, note must be taken

of the sparsity of the population over the greater part of

Africa, and the efforts made to supplement the insufficient and

often ineffective native labour by the introduction of Asiatic

labourers in various districts--of Indian coolies in Natal and

elsewhere, and of Chinese for the gold mines of the Transvaal.

The resources of Africa may be considered under the head

of: (1) jungle products; (2) cultivated products; (3) animal

Chief economic resources.

products; (4) minerals. Of the first named the most important

are india-rubber and palm-oil. which in tropical Africa supply by

far the largest items in the export list. The rubber-producing

plants are found throughout the whole tropical belt, and the

most important are creepers of the order Apocynaceae, especially

various species of Landolphia (with which genus Vahea is now

united). In East Africa Landolphia kirkii (Dyer) supplies

the largest amount, though various other species are known.

Forms of apparently wider distribution are L. hendelotii,

which is found in the Bahr-el-Ghazal, and extends right

across the continent to Senegambia; and L. (formerly Vahea)

comorensis, which, including its variety L. florida, has

the widest distribution of all the species, occurring in Upper

and Lower Guinea, the whole of Central Africa, the east coast,

the Comoro Islands and Madagascar. In parts of East Africa

Clitandra orienitalis is a valuable rubber vine. In Lagos

and elsewhere rubber is produced by the apocynaceous tree,

Funtumia elastica, and in West Africa generally by various

species of Ficus, some species of which are also found in East

Africa. The rubber produced is somewhat inferior to that of

South America, but this is largely due to careless methods of

preparation. The great destruction of vines brought about

by native methods of collection much reduced the supply in

some districts, and rendered it necessary to take steps to

preserve and cultivate the rubber-yielding plants. This

has been done in many districts with usually encouraging

results. Experiments have been made in the introduction of

South American rubber plants, but opinions differ as to the

prospects of success, as the plants in question seem to demand

very definite conditions of soil and climate. The second

product, palm-oil, is derived from a much more limited area

than rubber, for although the oil palm is found throughout the

greater part of West Africa, from 10 deg. N. to 10 deg. S., the great

bulk of the export comes from the coast districts at the head

of the Gulf of Guinea. A larger supply, equal to any market

demand, could easily be obtained. A third valuable product

is the timber supplied by the forest regions, principally in

West Africa. It includes African teak or oak (Oldfieldia

africana), excellent for shipbuilding; the durable odum

of the Gold Coast (Chlorophora excelsa); African mahogany

(Khaya senegalensis); ebony (Diospyros ebenum); camwood

(Baphia nitida); and many other ornamental and dye woods.

The timber industry on the west coast was long neglected, but

since 1898 there have been large exports to Europe. In parts

of East Africa the Podocarpus milanjianus, a conifer, is

economically important. Valuable timber grows too in South

Africa, including the yellow wood (Podocarpus), stinkwood

(Ocotea), sneezewood or Cape ebony (Euclea) and ironwood.

Other vegetable products of importance are: Gum arabic, obtained

from various species of acacia (especially A. senegal),

the chief supplies of which are obtained from Senegambia

and the steppe regions of North Africa (Kordofan, &c.); gum

copal, a valuable resin produced by trees of the leguminous

order, the best, known as Zanzibar or Mozambique copal, coming

from the East African Trachylobium hornemannianum, and also

found in a fossil state under the soil; kola nuts, produced

chiefly in the coast-lands of Upper Guinea by a tree of the

order Sterculiaceae (Kola acuminata); archil or orchilla,

a dye-yielding lichen (Rocella tinctoria and triciformis)

growing on trees and rocks in East Africa, the Congo basin,

&c.; cork, the bark of the cork oak, which flourishes

in Algeria; and alfa, a grass used in paper manufacture

(Machrochloa tenacissima), growing in great abundance on

the dry steppes of Algeria, Tripoli, &c. A product to which

attention has been paid in Angola is the Almeidina gum or

resin, derived from the juice of Euphorbia tirucalli.

The cultivated products include those of the tropical and warm

temperate zones. Of the former, coffee is perhaps the most

valuable indigenous plant. It grows wild in many parts, the

home of one species being in Kaffa and other Galla countries

south of Abyssinia, and of another in Liberia. The Abyssinian

coffee is equal to the best produced in any other part of the

world. Cultivation is, however, necessary to ensure the best

results, and attention has been given to this in various European

colonies. Plantations have been established in Angola,

Nyasaland, German East Africa, Cameroon, the Congo Free State, &c.

Copra, the produce of the cocoa-nut palm, is supplied

chiefly by Zanzibar and neighbouring parts of the east

coast. Groundnuts, produced by the leguminous plant, Arachis

hypogaea, are grown chiefly in West Africa, and the largest

export is from Senegal and the Gambia; while Bambarra

ground-nuts (Voandzeia subterranea) are very generally

cultivated from Guinea to Natal. Cloves are extensively

grown on Zanzibar and Pemba islands, Pemba being the chief

source of the world's supply of cloves. The chief drawbacks

to the industry are the fluctuations of the yield of the

trees, and the risk of over-production in good seasons.

Cotton grows wild in many parts of tropical Africa, and is

exported in small quantities in the raw state; but the main

export is from Egypt, which comes third among the world's

sources of supply of the article. It is also cultivated in

West Africa--the industry in the Guinea coast colonies having

been developed since the beginning of the 20th century--and

in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, whence came the plants from

which Egyptian cotton is grown. Sugar, which is the staple

crop of Mauritius, and in a lesser degree of Reunion, is

also produced in Natal, Egypt, and, to a certain extent, in

Mozambique. Dates are grown in Tunisia and the Saharan

oases, especially Tafilet; maize in Egypt, South Africa and

parts of the tropical zone; wheat in Egypt, Algeria and the

higher regions of Abyssinia; rice in Madagascar. Wine is

largely exported from Algeria, and in a much smaller quantity

from Cape Colony; fruit and vegetables from Algeria. Tobacco

is widely grown on a small scale, but, except perhaps from

Algeria, has not become an important article of export,

though plantations have been established in various tropical

colonies. The cultivation of cocoa has proved successful in

the Gold Coast, Cameroon and other colonies, and in various

districts the tea plant is cultivated. Indigo, though not

originally an African product, has become naturalized and grows

wild in many parts, while it is also cultivated on a small

scale. The main difficulty in the way of tropical cultivation

is the labour question, which has already been referred to.

Of animal products one of the most important is ivory, the

largest export of which is from the Congo Free State. The

diminution in the number of elephants with the opening up

of the remoter districts must in time cause a falling-off

in this export. Beeswax is obtained from various parts

of the interior of West Africa, and from Madagascar. Raw

hides are exported in large quantities from South Africa,

as are also the wool and hair of the merino sheep and Angora

goat. Both hides and wool are also exported from Algeria and

Morocco, and hides from Abyssinia and Somaliland. Ostrich

feathers are produced chiefly by the ostrich farms of Cape

Colony, but some are also obtained from the steppes to

the north of the Central Sudan. Live stock, principally

sheep, is exported from Algeria and cattle from Morocco.

The exploited minerals of Africa are confined to a few districts,

the resources of the continent in this respect being largely

Mineral Wealth.

undeveloped. Since the discovery of gold in the Transvaal,

particularly in the district known as the Rand (1885), the

output has grown enormously, so that in 1898 the output of gold

from South Africa was greater than from any other gold-field

in the world. The Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 lost the Rand

the leading position, but by 1905 the output--in that year

over L. 20,800,000--was greater than it had ever been. The

supply of gold from South Africa is roughly 25% of the world's

output. The gold-yielding formations extend northwards through

Rhodesia. The Gold Coast is so named from the quantity

of gold obtained there, and since the close of the 19th

century the industry has developed largely in the hands of

Europeans. In the Galla countries gold has long been an

article of native commerce. It is also found in various parts

of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and along the western shore of the

Red Sea. Diamonds are found in large quantities in a series

of beds known as the Kimberley shales, the principal mines

being at Kimberley, Cape Colony. Diamonds are also found in

Orange River Colony, while one of the richest diamond mines

in the world--the Premier--is situated in the Transvaal near

Pretoria. Some 80% of the world's production of diamonds

comes from South Africa. Copper is found in the west of Cape

Colony, in German South-West Africa, and in the Katanga country

in the southern Congo basin, where vast beds of copper ore

exist. There are also extensive deposits of copper in the

Broken Hill district of Northern Rhodesia. It also occurs in

Morocco, Algeria, the Bahr-el-Ghazal, &c. Rich tin deposits

have been found in the southern Congo basin and in Northern

Rhodesia. Iron is found in Morocco, Algeria (whence there

is an export trade), and is widely diffused, and worked by

the natives, in the tropical zone. But the deposits are

generally not rich. Coal is worked, principally for home

consumption, in Cape Colony, Natal, the Transvaal, Orange

River Colony, and in Rhodesia in the neighbourhood of the

Zambezi. Coal deposits also exist in the German territory

north of Lake Nyasa. Phosphates are exported from Algeria and

Tunisia. Of other minerals which occur, but are little

worked, zinc, lead and antimony are found in Algeria, lead

and manganese in Cape Colony, plumbago in Sierra Leone.

The imports from foreign countries into Africa consist chiefly

of manufactured goods, varying in character according to the

development of the different countries in civilization. In

Egypt, Algeria and South Africa they include most of the

necessaries and luxuries of civilized life, manufactured

cotton and woollen goods, especially the former, taking the

first place, but various food stuffs, metal goods, coal and

miscellaneous articles being also included. In tropical

Africa, and generally where few Europeans have settled,

the great bulk of the imports consists as a rule of cotton

goods, articles for which there is a constant native demand.

No continent has in the past been so lacking in means of

communication as Africa, and it was only in the last decade

Development of means of communication.