AFRICA - PARTITION AMONG EUROPEAN POWERS In the last quarter of the 19th century the map of Africa was transformed. Af ter the discovery of the Congo the story of ex ploration takes second place; the continent becomes the theatre of European expansions. Lines of partition, drawn often through trackless wildernesses, marked out the possessions of Germany, France, Great Britain, and other Powers. Railways penetrated the interior, vast areas were opened up to civilized occupation, and from ancient Egypt to the Zambezi the continent was startled into new life.
Before 1875 the only European Powers with any considerable interest in Africa were Britain, Portugal, and France.
In North Africa the Turks had (in 1835) assumed direct con trol of Tripoli, while Morocco had fallen into a state of decay though retaining its independence. A remarkable change had taken place in Egypt, where the Khedive Ismail had introduced a somewhat fantastic imitation of European civilization. In ad dition Ismail had conquered Darfur, annexed Harar and the Somali ports on the Gulf of Aden, was extending his power south ward to the equatorial lakes, and even contemplated reaching the Indian ocean. The Suez canal, opened in 1869, had a great influ ence on the future of Africa, as it again made Egypt the high way to the East, to the detriment of the Cape route.
In 1875 other European nations—with the occasional exception of Great Britain—were indifferent to Portugal's pretensions, and her estimate of her African empire as covering over 70o,000sq.m. was not challenged. But the area under effective control of Portugal at that time did not exceed 40,000 sq. miles. Great Britain then held some 25o,000sq.m., France about 17o,000sq.m., and Spain L000sq. miles. The total area of Africa ruled by Europeans did not exceed 1,271,000sq.m.; roughly one-tenth of the continent.
Egypt and the Egyptian Sudan, Tunisia, and Tripoli were sub ject in differing ways to the overlordship of the sultan of Tur key, and with these may be ranked, in the scale of organized gov ernments, the three principal independent states, Morocco, Abys sinia, and Zanzibar, as also the negro republic of Liberia. There remained, apart from the Sahara, roughly one-half of Africa, ly ing mostly within the tropics, inhabited by a multitude of tribes and peoples living under various forms of government and sub ject to frequent changes in respect of political organization. In the whole of this vast region the negro and Negro-Bantu races predominated, for the most part untouched by Mohammedanism or Christian influences. The larger States and Sultanates pos sessed neither the means nor the inclination to extend their in fluence beyond their own borders. The exploitation of Africa continued to be entirely the work of alien races.
Thecauses which led to the partition of Africa are to be found in the economic and political state of western Europe at the time. Germany, strong and united as the result of the Franco-Prussian War of 187o, was seeking new outlets for her energies—new markets for her growing industries, and with the markets, colonies. For different reasons the war of 1870 was also the starting-point for France in the building up of a new colonial empire. In her endeavour to regain the position lost in that war France had to look beyond Europe. To the two causes mentioned must be added others. Great Britain and Portugal, when they found their interests threatened, bestirred themselves, while Italy also conceived it necessary to become an African Power. The struggle was not, however, precipitated by the action of any of the great Powers but by the ambitious projects of Leo pold II., king of the Belgians, who, in Sept. 1876, took what may be described as the first definite step in the modern partition of the continent. He summoned to a conference at Brussels repre sentatives of Great Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, Austria Hungary, Italy, and Russia, to deliberate on the best methods to be adopted for the exploration and civilization of Africa, and the opening up of the interior of the continent to commerce and industry. The conference was entirely unofficial. The delegates who attended neither represented nor pledged their respective governments. Their deliberations lasted three days and resulted in the foundation of "The International African Association," with its headquarters at Brussels. It was further resolved to es tablish national committees in the various countries represented, which should collect funds and appoint delegates to the Inter national Association. The central idea appears to have bgen to put the exploration and development of Africa upon an inter national footing. But it quickly became apparent that this was an unattainable ideal. The national committees were soon work ing independently of the International Association, and the associ ation itself passed through a succession of stages until it became purely Belgian in character, and at last developed into the Congo Free State, under the personal sovereignty of King Leopold.
Stanley's journey down the Congo had stirred ambition in other capitals than Brussels. France had always taken a keen interest in West Africa, and in the years 1875 to 1878 Savorgnan de Brazza had carried out a successful exploration of the Ogowe river to the south of the Gabun. In Portugal, too, the discovery of the Congo, with its magnificent unbroken waterway of more than a thousand miles into the heart of the continent, served to revive the languid energies of the Portuguese, who promptly be gan to furbish up claims whose age was in inverse ratio to their validity. In Jan. 1879 Stanley left Europe as the accredited agent of King Leopold and the Congo committee. De Brazza returned to Africa at the beginning of 188o, and while Stanley, on behalf of King Leopold, was making treaties and founding stations along the southern bank of the river, de Brazza and other French agents were equally busy on the northern bank.
Although the Transvaal be tween the years 1877 and 1881 had become and ceased to be British, in other respects British territory had been extended in South Africa. And in 1883, in order that the trade route to the interior might be kept open for British expansion northward from the Cape Colony, negotiations for the settlement of the western border of the restored republic were opened in London. The border was defined in the Convention of London (Feb. 27, 1884), and at the same time the Bechuana peoples were taken under British protection. Subsequently, March 23, 1885, the Bechuanaland Protectorate was extended northwards to 22° S. latitude, and westward to 2o° E. longitude. (See SOUTH AFRICA, TRANSVAAL, etc.) Before the convention was signed measures had been taken—without British opposition—at Berlin to es tablish German authority on the west coast between the Orange river and the Portuguese province of Angola; and on Sept. 8, 1884, the German Government intimated to the British Govern ment "that the west coast of Africa from 26° S. latitude to Cape Frio, excepting Walfish Bay, had been placed under the protection of the German emperor." In the same year, through the activities of Gustav Nachtigal, Togo and the Cameroon district were placed under German protection. Before either of these events had occurred Great Britain had become alive to the fact that she could no longer dally with the subject, if she desired to consoli date her possessions in West Africa. The British Government had again and again refused to accord native chiefs the protection they demanded. The Cameroon chiefs had several times asked for British protection, and always in vain. But at last it became apparent, even to the official mind, that rapid changes were being effected in Africa, and on May 16, 1884, Edward Hyde Hewett, British consul, received instructions to return to the west coast and to make arrangements for extending British protection over certain regions. He arrived too late to save either Togoland or Cameroon, in the latter case arriving five days after King Bell and the other chiefs on the river had signed treaties with Nach tigal. But the British consul was in time to secure the delta of the River Niger and the Oil rivers district, extending from Rio del Rey to the Lagos frontier, where for a long period British traders had held almost a monopoly of the trade.
Meanwhile the French Government was strenuously endeavour ing to extend France's influence in West Africa, in the countries lying behind the coast-line. During the year 1884 no fewer than
treaties were concluded with native chiefs, an even larger number having been concluded in the previous twelve-month. In this fashion France was pushing on towards Timbuktu, in steady pursuance of the policy which resulted in surrounding all the old British possessions in West Africa with a continuous band of French territory. On the lower Niger, however, in 1877, Mr. Goldie Taubman (afterwards Sir George Taubman Goldie) con ceived the idea of establishing a settled government. Through his efforts the various trading firms formed themselves in 1879 into the "United African Company," and the foundations were laid of something like settled administration. An application was made to the British Government for a charter in 1881, and the capital of the company increased to a million sterling. Hence forth the company was known as the "National African Com pany," and it was acknowledged that its object was not only to develop the trade of the lower Niger, but to extend its operations to the middle reaches of the river, and to open up direct relations with the great Fula empire of Sokoto and the smaller states asso ciated with Sokoto under a somewhat loosely defined suzerainty.
In North and East Africa also events had moved since 1875. In 1881 -France, with the consent of the Powers, undertook to reorganize the finances and administration of the meagre remains of the once splendid and powerful kingdom of Tunis. Two years later, with Lord Granville's circular despatch of Jan. 3, 1883, England's long and onerous tutelage of Egypt began. (See EGYPT.) In East Africa, north of the Portuguese possessions, where the sultan of Zanzibar was the most considerable native potentate, Germany was secretly preparing the foundations of German East Africa. Italy, too, had obtained a footing on the African continent. The Rubattino Steamship Company as far back as 187o had bought the port of Assab as a coaling station, but it was not until 1882 that it was declared an Italian colony. This was followed by the conclusion of a treaty with the sultan of Assab, chief of the Danakil, signed on March 15, 1883, and subsequently approved by the king of Shoa, whereby Italy ob tained the cession of part of Ablis (Aussa) on the Red sea, Italy undertaking to protect with her fleet the Danakil littoral. One other event must be recorded. The king of the Belgians had been driven to the conclusion that, if his African enterprise was to obtain any measure of permanent success, its international status must be recognized ; and negotiations for the purpose were opened with various governments.
With these events there had grown up a general conviction that it would be desirable for the Powers interested in Africa to come to some agreement as to "the rules of the game," and to define their respective interests as far as practicable. A treaty between Britain and Portugal, giving undue recognition to Portuguese territorial claims, which was signed by Lord Granville on Feb. 26, 1884, but not ratified in view of the protests it had evoked, brought this sentiment to a head ; and it was agreed to hold an international conference on African affairs. The conference assembled at Berlin on Nov. 15, 1884, and after protracted deliberations the "General Act of the Berlin Conference" was signed by the representatives of all the Powers attending the conference, on Feb. 26, 1885. The Powers represented were Germany, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, the United States, France, Great Britain, Italy, Holland, Portugal, Russia, Sweden and Norway, and Turkey. Ratifications were deposited by all the signatory Powers with the exception of the United States. The General Act dealt with six specific subjects: (I) Freedom of trade in the basin of the Congo, (2) the slave trade, (3) neutrality of territories in the basin of the Congo, (4) navigation of the Congo, (5) navigation of the Niger, and (6) rules for future occupation on the coasts of the African continent. For the present purpose, however, the re sults effected by the Berlin Act may be summed up as follows. The signatory Powers undertook that any fresh act of taking possession on any portion of the African coast must be notified by the Power taking possession, or assuming a protectorate to the other signatory Powers. It was further provided that any such occupation to be valid must be effective. It is also noteworthy that the first reference in an international act to the obligations attaching to "spheres of influence" is contained in the Berlin Act.
Before the General Act was signed the International Association of the Congo was recognized by all the signatory Powers, with the not very important exception of Turkey. Two Months later, in April 1885, King Leopold, with the sanction of the Belgian legislature, formally assumed the headship of the new state ; and on Aug. 1 in the same year his Majesty notified the powers that from that date the "Independent State of the Congo" declared that "it shall be perpetually neutral" in conformity with the pro visions of the Berlin Act. Thus was finally constituted the Congo Free State, under the sovereignty of King Leopold, though the boundaries claimed for it at that time were considerably modified by subsequent agreements.
In the 15 years that remained of the 19th century the work of partition was practically completed. The international agreements which determined in the main the limits of the possessions of the various powers are I. The agreement of July 1, 1890, between Great Britain and Germany defining their spheres of influence in East, West, and South-west Africa. This agreement was the most comprehensive of all the "deals" in African territory, and included in return for the recognition of a British protectorate over Zanzibar the cession of Heligoland to Germany.
II. The Anglo-French declaration of Aug. 5, 18go, which recog nized a French protectorate over Madagascar, French influence in the Sahara, and British influence between the Niger and Lake Chad.
III. The Anglo-Portuguese treaty of June i 1, 1891, whereby Iii. The Anglo-Portuguese treaty of June i 1, 1891, whereby the Portuguese possessions of the west and east coasts were separated by a broad belt of British territory, extending north to Lake Tanganyika.
IV. The Franco-German convention of March 15, 1894, by which the Central Sudan was left to France (this region by an Anglo-German agreement of Nov. 15, 1893, having been recog nized as in the German sphere). By this convention France was able to effect a territorial junction of her possessions in North and West Africa with those in the Congo region.
V. Protocols of March 24 and April
1891, for the demarcation of the Anglo Italian spheres in East Africa.
VI. The Anglo-French convention of June 14, 1898, for the delimitation of the possessions of the two countries west of Lake Chad, with the supplementary decla ration of March 21, 1899, whereby France recognized the upper Nile valley as in the British sphere of influence.
Congo Free State, which occupied, geographically, a central position, may serve as the start ing-point for the story of the partition after the Berlin Conference. By his will, dated Aug. 2, 1889, King Leopold made Belgium formally heir to the sovereign rights of the Congo Free State. Proposals for Belgium to assume responsibility for its administration were made unsuccess fully in 1895 and 1901. Later, the agita tion in Great Britain and America against the Congo system of government and the admissions of an official commission of enquiry concerning its maladministration strength ened the movement in favour of transfer, until in 1905 Leopold II. was forced to yield, and the annexation treaty was approved by the Belgian parliament Thus the Congo state, of ter an exist ence of 24 years as an independent power, became a Belgian colony. (See CONGO, FREE STATE and BELGIAN CONGO.) French and British Rivalry.
the capture of Khartum and the death of Gen. C. G. Gordon, the Sudan was abandoned to the dervishes. The Egyptian frontier was withdrawn to Wadi Halfa, and the vast provinces of Kordofan, Darfur, and the Bahr el-Ghazal were given over to dervish tyranny and misrule. It was obvious that Egypt would sooner or later seek to recover her position in the Sudan, as the command of the upper Nile was recognized as essential to her continued prosperity. But the in ternational position of the abandoned provinces was by no means clear. The British Government, by the Anglo-German agreement of July 189o, had secured the assent of Germany to the state ment that the British sphere of influence in East Africa was bounded on the west by the Congo Free State and by "the west ern watershed of the basin of the upper Nile"; but this claim was not recognized either by France or by the Congo Free State. From her base on the Congo, France was busily engaged pushing forward along the northern tributaries of the great river. The desire of France to secure a footing in the upper Nile valley was partly due to her anxiety to extend a French zone across Africa, but it was also to a large extent attributable to the belief, widely entertained in France, that by establishing herself on the upper Nile France could regain the position in Egyptian affairs which she had sacrificed in 1882.
In June 1896 Capt. J. Marchand left France with secret in structions to lead an expedition into the Nile valley. On July 1 o, 1898, he reached Fashoda, having established a chain of posts en route, and here the French flag was at once raised, and a "treaty" made with the local chief. Meanwhile, in 1896, an Anglo-Egyptian army, under the direction of Sir Herbert (after wards Lord) Kitchener, had advanced southwards for the recon quest of the Egyptian Sudan. On Sept. 2, 1898, Khartum was captured, and the khalifa's army dispersed. It was then that news reached the Anglo-Egyptian commander, from native sources, that there were white men flying a strange flag at Fashoda. The sirdar at once proceeded in a steamer up Nile, and courteously but firmly requested Capt. Marchand to remove the French flag. On his refusal the Egyptian flag was raised close to the French flag, and the dispute was referred to Europe for adjust ment between the British and French Governments. A critical situation ensued. Neither Government was inclined to give way, and for a time war seemed imminent. Happily Lord Salisbury was able to announce, on Nov. 4, that France was willing to recog nize the British claims, and the incident was finally closed on March 21, 1899, when an Anglo-French declaration was signed, by the terms of which France withdrew from the Nile valley and accepted a boundary line which satisfied her earlier ambition by uniting the whole of her territories in North, West, and Central Africa into a homogeneous whole, while effectually preventing the realization of her dream of a transcontinental empire from west to east.
In the southern half of the continent, between the years 1885 and 1891, the Por tuguese possessions on the west and east coasts were delimited, and Matabeleland and Mashonaland were occupied by the British South Africa Company. (See RHODESIA.) The relations between the British and Portuguese territories were determined by the treaty of June 11, 1891. Apart from defining the British and Por tuguese 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. Portugal was given both banks of the Zam bezi to a point ten miles west of Zumbo-the farthest settlement of the Portuguese on the river. The boundary between the Portu guese 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. Before the conclusion of the treaty the British Government had made certain arrangements for the administration of the large area north of the Zambezi re served to British influence. On Feb. 1 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 April 2, 1891, extended so as to cover (with the exception of Nyasaland) the whole of the British sphere of influence north of the Zambezi (afterwards Northern Rhodesia). On May 14 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.
In July 189o, the British and German Governments came to an agreement upon the limits of their respective spheres of influence in various parts of Africa, and the boundaries of German South-West Africa were fixed in the position they now hold as those of the territory mandated to the Union of South Africa. These Powers were also the two great rivals on the east coast. Germany, on Dec. 3o, 1886, and Great Britain, on June II, 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. By an exchange of notes in Oct.-Nov. 1886, to which the sultan adhered on Dec. 4, 1886, the British and German Governments determined what ter ritories were to be assigned to the sultanate of Zanzibar and agreed to a delimitation of their respective spheres of influence in East Africa. On Sept. 3, 1888, the British East Africa Association received a charter from the British Government and became the Imperial British East Africa Company. Shortly afterwards the German colony of East Africa was founded. (See KENYA.) Meanwhile, in the country to the west and north of the British sphere of influence a contest for Uganda had arisen between Karl Peters and the British East Africa Company. The contest was decided in favour of the latter by the Anglo-German Agreement of July I, 189o. The provisions relating to East Africa were these :—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 Kis mayu 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 ex tended 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 influ ence of Italy' 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, 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 Peter'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 con necting her sphere of influence in the Nile valley with her pos sessions in Central and South Africa. On this point Germany was quite obdurate; and 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. (See UGANDA; KENYA, and TANGANYIKA.) On March 31 the union jack was raised, and on May 29 a fresh treaty was concluded with King Mwanga placing his country un der British protection. A formal protectorate was declared over Uganda proper on June 19, 1894, which was subsequently ex tended 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 administra tion was assumed by the imperial authorities. On April 1, 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 were successful in obtaining access to the Victoria Nyanza.
'At this period negotiations between Great Britain and Italy had begun but were not concluded.
Early in the 'eighties as already seen, Italy had obtained her first formal footing on the African coast at the Bay of Assab (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. In May 1889 the Italians concluded with the negus Menelek the Treaty of Uccialli which, besides settling the frontiers between Abyssinia and the Italian sphere, contained the following article :— XVII. His Majesty the King of Kings of Ethiopia consents to avail 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 em peror Menelek, and at no time did Italy succeed in establishing any very effective control over Abyssinian affairs. By May
under various agreements, the Italian and British Governments had fixed the northern limit of the Italian sphere as running from Ras Kasar on the Red Sea to the intersection of the Blue Nile with 35° E. longitude, and settled the boundary between their respective spheres on the Somali coast. 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 eventu ally, in a great battle, fought at Adowa on March 1, 1896, the Italians were disastrously defeated. By the subsequent Treaty of Addis Ababa, concluded on Oct. 26, 1896, the whole of the country to the south of the Mareb, Belesa, and Muna rivers was restored to Abyssinia, and Italy acknowledged the absolute independence of Abyssinia. By later negotiations with his European neighbours, the emperor Menelek secured boundaries on the south and west more favourable to Abyssinia than those assigned under the Anglo Italian agreement. And 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 18o to 25o miles.
In West Africa the real struggle 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 all being elements that favoured the success of French policy. Two phases may be distinguished : the first deal ing with the coast colonies, the second with the middle Niger and Lake Chad. On the coast 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. 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 Jan. 13, 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 Feb. 1906 to the colony of Southern Nigeria). In Aug. 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 de clared over the whole of the Ashanti territories and a resident was installed at Kumasi. But no northern limit had been fixed 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. A few days before the meeting of the Berlin Conference Sir George Goldie had succeeded in buy ing 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 Euro pean influence; and the German Government made efforts to se cure a footing on the lower Niger until the fall of Prince Bis marck in March 1890. 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 western Sudan and left the field to France and Great Britain. After its first great success the National African Company obtained a charter from the British Government, and on July io, 1886, it became "The Royal Niger Company." 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 189o-91, and the rapid advance of British in fluence up the river raised serious fears lest the Royal Niger Company should reach Timbuktu before France could forestall her. In 1892, however, after a troublesome war, France annexed some portion of Dahomey on the coast and declared a protector ate over the rest of the kingdom. Thus was removed the barrier which had up to that time prevented France pushing her way Nigerwards from her possessions on the Slave Coast, as well as from the upper Niger and the Ivory Coast. Henceforth her prog ress from all these directions was rapid, and in particular Tim buktu was occupied in the last days of 1893. It then 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 agreement of Aug. 5, 189o, then on the right bank, where the frontier had still to be fixed by international agreement. On Feb. 13, 1895, a French officer, Commander 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 Brit ish Government against this invasion of their territory; and eventually Toutee was ordered to withdraw, and the fort was occupied by the Royal Niger Company's troops. In 1897 the at tempt was renewed in the most determined manner. In Feb ruary 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 Nov. 1897 Nikki was occupied. The situation on the Niger had so obviously been outgrowing the capacity of a chartered company that for some time bef ore these occurrences the assumption of responsibility for the whole of the Niger region by the imperial authorities had been practically de cided on; and early in 1898 Capt. F. D. (afterwards Lord) 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. Mean while 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 pre cipitate a collision, and on June 54, 1898, a convention was signed by Sir Edmund Monson and M. G. Hanotaux which practically completed the partition of this part of the continent. (See NIGERIA.) Thus in its broad outlines the partition of Africa was begun and ended in the short space of a quarter of a century. The re sult was to divide the continent among the Powers as follows:— Square miles.
British Africa 2,101,411 Egyptian Africa 1,600,000 French Africa 3,866,95o German Africa 910,150 Italian Africa 200,000 Portuguese Africa 787,500 Spanish Africa 79,800 Belgian Africa 900,00o Turkish Africa 400,000 Independent Africa 613,000 Anglo-French Declaration, 1904.—There were still many finishing touches to be put to the structure, but a large contribu tion to the process was made by the Anglo-French declaration of April 8, 1904, when a series of agreements relating to several parts of the globe were signed in London by Lord Lansdowne, the foreign secretary, and M. Paul Cambon, the French ambassa dor, on behalf of their respective Governments. With regard to Egypt the French Government declared "that they [would] 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." To understand the equivalent engagement taken by Britain, it must be recalled that to consolidate her position in north-west Africa France desired to make her influence supreme in Morocco. In April, 1902, it had been agreed between the French and Shereefian Governments to co-operate in establishing order in the frontier districts of Morocco and Algeria. Mean while in the northern districts of Morocco the unrest under the rule of the young sultan, Abd-el-Aziz IV., was attracting attention in Europe and evoking demands for its suppression. It was in these circumstances that in the declaration of April 1904 the British Government recognized "that it [appertained] to France, more particularly as a Power whose dominions [were] conter minous 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, however, "inspired by their feeling of sincere friendship for Spain, [took] into special con sideration the interests which that country [derived] from her geographical position and from her territorial possessions on the Moorish coast of the Mediterranean"; and in these interests the French Government undertook "to come to an understanding with the Spanish Government." The understanding was reached later in the same year, and thus Spain secured a sphere of inter est on the Moroccan coast immediately facing the Spanish penin sula. Here it may be added that the protectorate of Spain over certain territories on the west coast of Africa, south of Morocco, had been notified to the Berlin Conference, and that by an agree ment made with France in 1goo some 7o,000sq.m. of the western Sahara were recognized as Spanish ; while at the same time France admitted the claim of Spain to the ownership of the district around the Muni river to the south of Cameroons. The action taken by France in Morocco in accordance with the policy marked out in the Anglo-French declaration aroused the resentment of Ger many, but on July 8, 1905, the republic secured from the German Government formal "recognition of the situation created for France in Morocco by the contiguity of a vast extent of terri tory of Algeria and the Shereefian empire, and by the special re lations 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 Shereefian empire." Finally, in Jan.–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 inaugurated fully, however, when a series of outrages led, in 1907, to the military occupation by France of Oudjda, a town near the Algerian frontier, and of the port of Casablanca on the Atlantic coast of Morocco.
The political map of Africa changed very considerably between 1950 and 1925. In 1910 the British self-governing colonies of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal, and Orange River were formed into the Union of South Africa, with a single government and one legislature. In 1911 a considerable area of French Equatorial Africa was transferred to German Cameroons and in return Ger many acknowledged a French protectorate over the greater part of Morocco. On March 3o, 1912, a protectorate treaty between, France and the sultan was signed at Fez; and by a Franco-Span ish convention of Nov. 27 the Spanish zones in Morocco were de fined. In 1912, also, Italy annexed the Turkish vilayets of Tripoli and Bengasi (Cyrenaica), to which the common name of Libya was given. In Dec. 1914 a British protectorate over Egypt was proclaimed, but by a declaration of Feb. 1922 Great Britain ac knowledged the independence of Egypt. The status of the Anglo Egyptian Sudan remained unchanged.
In June 1919, by the Treaty of Versailles, Germany renounced possession of all her oversea protectorates in favour of the principal Allied and Associated Powers. These territories, which had all been conquered by the Allies during the World War, were placed under mandatories. The Union of South Africa be came mandatory for German South-West Africa ; Togoland was divided between France and Great Britain; and France be came mandatory for Cameroons, except for a small portion which was placed under the administra tion of British Nigeria. Britain became mandatory for German East Africa, renamed the Tan ganyika Territory, but by subse quent Anglo-Belgian agreements Belgium became mandatory for the provinces of Ruanda and Urundi. In 1920-25 Italy gained additions to Tripoli and Cyrenaica by arrangements with France and Egypt and to Italian Somaliland by arrangement with Great Britain. In 1936, Italy annexed Abyssinia.
As a result of these changes Africa was divided among the fol lowing Powers. The territories governed under mandate are reckoned in the possession of the Power named:— France . . . 4,200,00o Italy . . . . 1,030,000 Great Britain . . 3,984,000* Egypt . . . 350,00o Belgium . . . 930,00o Spain . . . 140,000 Portugal . . . 788,000 Liberia . . . 40,000 *Including Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. tIncluding the Spanish zones in Morocco.
These figures give a total of 11,462,000sq.m. as the area of Africa. In the absence of definite surveys of large areas of the continent this may be regarded as a close approximation to accuracy.
The extinction of Turkish rule in North Africa had long been foreseen and was no matter for regret. It ended a connection which had lasted five centuries and had been almost wholly evil in its effects. German sovereignty in Africa had only dated from 1884 and had been rapidly enlarged. En deavours to extend it further had been a prominent factor in German policy for a decade before the World War. Germany desired a footing on the African coast of the Mediterranean and a port on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. These desires conflicted with Italian and French ambitions, and in 19ii the issue on both points was decided against Germany. As to Morocco, a Franco German convention of Feb. 9, 1909, had recognized the privileged position of France in Morocco, but not a French protectorate over that country, and the sending of the German gunboat, "Panther," to Agadir, in July, 1911, was a protest against what Germany considered an unwarranted extension of French in fluence in Morocco, and an intimation that if German treaty rights in Morocco were to be renounced, France must make com pensation. The intervention of Great Britain on the side of France put an end to a dangerous situation; Germany, by a con vention concluded Nov. 4, 1911, accepted compensation in Cen tral Africa and withdrew opposition to the establishment of a French protectorate in Morocco.
While the Franco-German negotiations were in progress Italy abruptly declared war on Turkey and invaded, and held, Cyrena ica and Tripoli. Thus Germany, who had designed to exploit those vilayets through the medium of an Austro-Hungarian chartered company, was deprived of her last opportunity—short of war— of gaining a foothold in the Mediterranean. She turned her at tention to the development of a Mittel Afrika policy. This policy aimed at securing Germany's supremacy, primarily economic and ultimately political, in central equatorial Africa. The aim was to reserve the Belgian Congo, Angola and Mozambique, north of the Zambezi, as a German sphere, and thus to link up Cam eroons with the South-West and East Africa protectorates. Ger man industries had need of the raw material tropical Africa pro duces, and, moreover, southern Angola was a good field for Euro pean settlement.
British statesmen were not unfavourable to German expansion in equatorial Africa, so long as it was confined to the economic sphere. In 1898 an agreement, signed by Mr. A. J. (afterwards Lord) Balfour and Count Hatzfeldt, had divided Angola and Mozambique into spheres in which Great Britain and Germany re spectively were to give financial and economic help to the Portu guese. This was followed in 1899 by the Treaty of Windsor, the object being to reassure Portugal that the Balfour-Hatzfeldt agreement was not in derogation of her sovereign rights in Africa. Neither the agreement with Germany nor the treaty with Portu gal was published.
After the settlement of the Morocco crisis, Germany reopened negotiations with Great Britain in respect of Portugal's African colonies, and Prince Lichnowsky (the German ambassador) and Sir Edward (afterwards Lord) Grey reached a new agreement, which was ready for signature in 1913. Nearly all Angola was recognized as a German economic sphere, as well as the northern part of Mozambique. The rest of Mozambique, including Delagoa Bay and the Zambezi valley, was to be a British economic sphere. Sir Edward Grey made it a condition of signing that the 1898 and 1899 documents should be published. The German foreign office raised objections, Herr von Jagow (then foreign minister) stating that the German Press would regard the terms of the Treaty of Windsor and the Lichnowsky agreement as contradictory. In July 1914, however, German consent to publication had been given, but before the new agreement could be signed the World War had broken out.
During the progress of the campaigns in Africa the whole of the continent, except Abyssinia and the Span ish protectorates, became involved in the struggle. The conquest of the German colonies was foreseen in the negotiation which preceded Italy's entry into the war, and Article 13 of the agree ment signed in London on April 26, 1915, between France, Rus sia, Great Britain, and Italy, laid down that : In the event of France and Britain increasing their colonial territories in Africa at the expense of Germany, those two Powers agree in principle that Italy may claim some equitable compen sation, particularly as regards the settlement in her favour of the questions relative to the frontiers of the Italian colonies of Eritrea, Somaliland and Libya, and the neighbouring colonies be longing to France and Great Britain.
Italian ambitions had gone beyond the readjustment of frontiers ; in particular Italy wished to acquire Jibuti, the port of French Somaliland and the starting place of a railway to Abyssinia. As Jibuti was the only French port on the Suez canal route to the East and to Madagascar, as welL as the only approach to Abyssinia that France possessed, she de clined to entertain proposals for its surrender.
Italy, however, obtained from France a welcome rectification of the Tripoli-Tunisia frontier, as well as valuable concessions in Tunisia.
In regard to the Cyrenaica-Egyptian frontier, the British Gov ernment, in 1919, offered Italy a readjustment of territory in the Libyan desert. The negotiations had not been concluded when Egypt was granted independence and after that time they were conducted directly between Italy and Egypt. They turned largely on the possession of the oasis of Jaghbub, a place of some strategic importance, where is also the tomb-mosque of the founder of the Senussi sect. On Dec. 6, 1925, an Italo-Egyptian agreement was signed, by which Jaghbub was included in Cyrenaica. The wells to the west of El Sollum were included in Egyptian territory, thus giving El Sollum a needed water supply. South of Siwa the frontier was drawn along longitude 25° E. to the boundary of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in latitude 22° North. Meanwhile Mussolini pressed again for a sphere of influence in Ethiopia. Notes were exchanged with England in 1925 undertak ing to support the latter's request for the right to build a dam at Lake Tana in return for support for Italy's demand for a sphere in western Ethiopia. When England, seeing an opportunity to get the dam built by Egyptian and American interests, dropped the Italian cause, Mussolini turned first to France and then in 1935 to direct aggression upon Abyssinia (q.v.). The war of conquest by Italy stirred the entire world. It was a direct assertion of white supremacy over a native and independent sovereignty which, in Sept. 1923, had been admitted to the League of Nations. In May 1936 Abyssinia was subdued and annexed. With Eritrea and Italian Somaliland, this ancient kingdom is included in an East African dependency over which the King of Italy has been de clared Emperor.
In the same year (1912) that France obtained her protectorate in Morocco she concluded an arrange ment with Spain whereby a Spanish protectorate was set up in the northern part of the sultanate, the port of Tangier and a small area around it being made, however, an international zone. In the French protectorate Marshal Lyautey, the resident-general, adopted a bold and conciliatory policy and won the confidence and respect of the Moors. He was succeeded in 1925 by M. Theodore Steeg, the governor-general of Algeria. In their zone the Spaniards met with determined opposition, largely owing to the uprise of a Moor, styled Abdel-Krim. In the territory known, somewhat vaguely, as Er-Rif, there seems to have been, as in the coastward portions of Algeria and Tunisia, a much more marked Iberian element in the population than there is in the south of Morocco, and this part of northern Morocco had shown a great hatred of European interference. The Spaniards suffered a severe reverse in 1921 and there was again heavy fighting in 1924 and 1925. In the last-named year the Rifs invaded the French zone, but were defeated and driven back. In the next year the insurrection was successfully quelled; and in 1927 the king and queen of Spain were cordially received. In Southern Rhodesia the growth of a vigorous white community led to that country being made, in 1923, a self-governing colony of the Brit ish Empire, and with the assumption of direct imperial control of Northern Rhodesia in 1924 chartered-company rule in Brit ish Africa came to an end. In East Africa another vigorous and vocal white community made its influence felt, namely the settlers in the British East Africa Protectorate, which pro tectorate was annexed to the British Crown in 192o and re na med Kenya Colony.
A subject which raised large issues was the position of Indians in South and East Africa, but it was of less importance than the growth of race consciousness among the Bantu and the negroes. Increase of education and of Christianity, the employment of large numbers of Africans in industries, and the lessons taught by the World War were among the factors which intensified the feeling of racial unity and led to manifestations of a new anti white movement. This movement was 'different from the simple objection to interference by Europeans, or Arabs, previously dis played, and had a consciousness of the need of self-development.
Apart from the awakening of the African peoples to race-consciousness; two recent developments in the European occupation of the continent are noticeable. France has shown definite progress in the task of restoring north west Africa to the place in Mediterranean civilization which it held from the 6th century B.C. to the 7th century of the Christian era, when the Mohammedan conquest began. Under British ad ministration the peoples of East Africa have emerged rapidly since the World War to industrial and political advancement. Since 1912, when she acquired the protectorate of Morocco, the authority of France has become increasingly effective in the fertile littoral and high plateaux of the western half of North Africa. The political and economic development of this Mediter ranean area upon European lines has been assured by the expan sion of Algeria southward and the subsequent linking up of Sa haran Algeria with the western Sudan, the French west coast colonies, and French Congo in a vast and coherent African em pire. Barely a century ago the French expeditionary force landed at Sidi Ferruch on June 14, 183o. The declared purpose of the French cabinet was "to abolish slavery and piracy, to re-establish the security of navigation in the Mediterranean and open up its southern coasts anew to agriculture, civilization, commerce, and the free access of all nations." In the interval the "restricted oc cupation" of the coast towns has become the "total occupation" of Algeria, and the conquest of "the South"; while the incor poration of Northern Algeria into France has been followed by the protectorates of Tunis (1881) and Morocco (1912). Within these hundred years the European element in North Africa has risen from a handful of consular officials and merchants to well over a million residents, or approximately to one-tenth of the total population. Great European towns have been built. Agri culture and stock-raising have become infinitely more productive, minerals have been found and worked and new industries intro duced. Order and public security have been established in re gions to which Rome never sought to penetrate and over peoples that the legionaries strove in vain to subdue. The increasing throng of tourists who yearly traverse North Africa by rail and car from Algiers to the Saharan oases and from Carthage to Marra kesh, and the frequency and regularity of the steamship services which maintain intercourse between the European and African shores of the Mediterranean, are evidence of the success with which France has fulfilled her primary task of re-opening to Europe this lost province of the Graeco-Roman world.
After the World War appreciable progress was made in the construction of development works and in production in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanganyika (formerly German East Africa) ; and with a view of increasing further the economic capacity of these and the neighbouring territories of Zanzibar, Nyasaland, and Northern Rhodesia, the possibility of administra tive co-operation between the several governments concerned came under consideration. As the result of conferences on this subject held in 1927 the colonial office appointed the Hilton. Young Commission to inquire into the question of the feder ation, or other union, of the British territories from Northern Rhodesia to Uganda. And, by the desire of its ministry, Southern Rhodesia (which became self-governing in 1923) was included in the scope of the commission. The project of an administrative union, of which this official enquiry into the views of the several governments and populations concerned was the first step, ac quires a special interest from the character and geographical po sition of the colonies affected. Both the East, and the South African colonies are mixed African and European states, in which, although the mass of the inhabitants are African, the European minority is politically dominant. But while, broadly speaking, in the former the numerical predominance and economic importance of the African population are such that the interests of this population have priority in the eyes of the administration over those of the European, in the latter, with the exception of the native territories of the high commission, the European popu lation and its economic importance are so relatively great that European interests stand first. In the East Coast colonies, how ever, African interests are not so predominant as they are in the (British) West Coast colonies; and in this respect these East Coast colonies hold a position midway between the frankly Afri can West Coast colonies and the frankly European Union of South Africa and Southern Rhodesia. The federation, if effected, of a group of colonies of this intermediate type, by showing whether a central administration is a more effective medium for arriving at a due balance between African and European interests, may be expected to provide data germane to the whole subject of the European tutelage of African peoples. And in particular, as the result of the inclusion of Southern Rhodesia in the pur view of the commission and the consequent possibility of Northern Rhodesia or its western portion being incorporated into Southern Rhodesia, it is probable that the question whether Northern Rhodesia, with its large area of 30o,000sq.m., is to be administered as a "plantation" colony or to become a new centre of British population will be at length determined.
The status of the Tangier International Zone was regulated by the Act of Algeciras (April 7, 1906), until modified by the conference which formulated the Tangier Statute in 1923. Although certain Powers signatory of the Algeciras Act, notably Italy, withheld their adhesion, this protocol came into force on June I, 1925. But Spain continued to maintain that the only satisfactory arrangement was the incorporation of Tangier in the Spanish Zone by which it was encircled : while France in sisted that her position in Morocco required that Tangier and its communications should be under her control. The visit of a division of the Italian navy to Tangier in Oct. 1927, emphasized Italy's refusal to recognize the statute. On March 3, 1928, agree ment was reached between France and Spain. At a second confer ence (March 20) of France, Spain, Italy and Great Britain the Franco-Spanish Agreement of March 3, was adopted, the statute was modified, and the claims of Italy to participate in the gov ernment of Tangier were satisfied (July 17).
Thelargest unknown area of Africa in 1910 was in the Sahara desert ; the greatest gaps on the map were in the Libyan desert. In 192o-21 Mrs. Rosita Forbes took an expedition across the Libyan Desert to Kufra, the headquar ters of the Senussi Tariq. In 1922-23 Ah med Bey Hassanein, who had accompanied her, led an expedition through Kufra and the southern oases to Darfur. Mrs. Forbes has made further journeys through Abys sinia, the western Mauretanian desert and western Arabia. Hassanein Bey in 1923 journeyed through the Libyan desert into Darfur and Kordofan. Previous explora tions by the French (1912-17) had in creased knowledge of the eastern limits of the Chad basin, and had definitely proved its distinction from the western basin of the Nile. Col. Tilho's expedi tions had revealed altitudes in Tibesti of II,2ooft. and the height of Mt. Tu side as io,7ooft.; lesser altitudes of 9,800ft. were determined at Jebal Marra, in Darfur, and of 4,000 to 5,000ft. on the western borders of the Sudan. The Tibesti belt of highland probably played a great part in southward spreads of fauna and flora in Miocene and Pliocene times. In the Nilotic Sudan, east of the main Nile, altitudes of 1 o,000ft. were discovered in 1911-12 by Col. H. D. Pearson. In 1916 Maj. Cuthbert Christy made an interesting journey along the south-western limits of the Nile basin, traversing the ironstone region where adjoining head-streams flow either southwards into the Mbomu and its affluents (Congo basin) or north-east into the Nile basin.
French officers, notably Capt. Augieras, have conducted (from 1904) a scientific survey of the western Sahara, from southern Morocco to the Senegal river and the northern Niger. Augieras has shown how the intense "desert" conditions of the western Sahara with few oases except on the periphery, accompany the extreme temperatures of the low-lying dunes, which quickly lose heat. The great Juf depression remained unexplored up to 1922; but since then the Citroen expedition from the latitudes of Insalah and Ahaggar in southern Algeria has increased our knowledge of this area. Portuguese Guinea, with its large rivers, has been partly explored, and since 1921 the vast southern part of the Niger basin, and the Black and White branches of the mighty Volta river, have become better known. Northern Togoland, Dahomey, south= ern Nigeria and the basin of the great Benue river have been mapped in detail.
Muchintensive work has been done in East and Central Africa. I. N. Dracopoli in 1912-1913 explored part of Jubaland ; he reached the Lorian swamp, which receives the waters of the Uaso Nyiro, and showed its connection with the Juba river in Italian Somaliland. In April 1912 G. F. Archer (later Sir) completed surveys connecting the triangula tion of British East Africa with the Abyssinian boundary sur vey. A survey by Capt. E. M. Jack, in 191r, of the region between Lakes Kivu and Victoria added to the knowledge of the Mufum biro range of active volcanoes; Karisimbi was found to be 14,78oft. high. Since that time the Mufumbiro region and western Uganda have been surveyed in considerable detail. In 1927 geologists of the Swedish Institute found three series of sloping beaches along the Rift valley between Menengai and Longonot, and also col lected much data relative to the glaciation of Mt. Elgon and Kili manjaro, and to the glacial geology of East Africa in general.
The first survey along its whole length of the Congo-Zambezi watershed was made in 1911-14 by Anglo-Belgian and Anglo Portuguese boundary commissions. Many rivers run for consid erable distances parallel to the divide, which is largely bush covered. Maj. Reginald Walker, one of the British commissioners, discovered that the Luapula, a main headstream of the Congo, did not issue from Lake Bangweulu, but was a continuation of the Chambezi, which passes through the great swamp south of Bang weulu.
During the World War, needs of cam paigning led to many additions to the knowledge of the topography of inter-tropical Africa, partly through use of aircraft for survey purposes. Thus very useful maps were made of the north ern part of Portuguese East Africa. In 192o Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchell, who flew over the Nile basin proved the value of air reconnaissance to geology by the discovery in the Bayuda desert, north of Khartoum, of the volcanic character of a range of hills. A little later the French began to use aeroplanes for survey pur poses in the Sahara. (X.)
