HINTERLAND, the region lying behind a littoral country dependent for trade or commerce upon it. As a political term the word first came into prominence during 1883-85, when Germany insisted on her right to exercise jurisdiction in the territory behind those parts of the African coast that she had occupied, The "doc trine of the hinterland" was that the possessor of the littoral was entitled to as much of the back country as geographically, econom ically or politically was dependent upon the coast lands, a doctrine which, in the space of ten years, led to the partition of Africa between various European Powers.