THE T':c•rrrmx AFRICA. The Berlin Con ference is important in the history of Africa as marking the transition from a period of explo rations undertaken in a spirit of scientific curi osity or gain to a period in which the play of international polities is the most prominent feature. The crucial question before the eon ference was that of the Congo Free State (q.v.) and its relations with neighboring territories. Ultimately it was recognized as an independent, neutral State, under the personal sovereignty of the King of Belgium. The title of France to the territory of the French Congo and the Upper Ubanghi was acknowledged, with a right of pre emption in ease of the transfer of the Congo State from Belgium to another power. The con ference also determined the spheres of the sev eral interested powers in Africa, so that the numerous boundary treaties and agreements that have been arranged since 1885 have virtually been executory provisinlis added to the Berlin convention. Three tin ell treaties were concluded by Great Britain in MO. The A»glo-Ge•inan agreement, signed at Berlin July 1, gave Ge• many the island of Heligoland in the North Sea in return for certain concessions •hich harmo nized the relations of the two powers in Eastern Africa; the Anglo-Freneh agreement, signed at London, August 5, reeogni•ed an English protec torate over Zanzibar and Pemba and a French protectorate over Madagascar. and determined the French sphere of influence as from Algeria southward to a line from Say on the Niger to Lake C11;1(1 ; A nglo- Port uguese agree nient, August 20 and November 11, established the respective territorial rights of Portugal and the 1;ritish South Africa Company. Subsequent agreements between England, France. and Ger many (1899) defined their respective territories and protectorates in West Africa. The question of the control of the Nile region and of South Africa gave rise to numerous attempts to secure adjustments in that quarter, and agree ments to which Abyssinia, Egypt, France, Ger man•, Great Britain, and Italy were parties were made in 1891. 1893, 1894, )895, 1896. 1897, and 1899. In 1900 the demarkation of British and German boundaries in \Vest Africa was complet ed. By this process of absorption by agreement, the whole African continent has come into actual possession or political control of Enropean States, with the exception of Morocco, Abyssinia. and Liberia. The Orange Free State and the Trans vaal lost their independent existence in the war with Great Britain 11899-1902).
The partition of the African continent may be summarized as follows: In the northeast. Egypt, nominally under Turkish suzerainty, is really under British control, while Egypt and Great Britain exercise a eondominium over the eastern Sudan. Barea, and Tripoli remain subject to the Porte. Tunis and Algeria pertain to France, whose influence reaches down across the Sahara and Sudan to the northern slope of the Congo basin. (In the west coast below co is the small Rio d'Ouro possession of Spain. Then come the French Senegal, British Gambia, Por tuguese Guinea, French Guinea, the British Sierra Leone, Liberia, another block of French territory, the British Ashanti, German Togoland, French Dahomey, the extensive British Niger territories, and German Kamerun. Off the coast of Kamerun lies the Spanish island of Fernando Po, to which are attached some other small islands and a small district on the mainland cut out of the French Congo territory. Below the latter lies the Congo Free State, with but a small coast line, the wedge of the small Portu guese territory of Kabinda pushed in between it and the French Congo. South of the Congo lies
the large Portuguese territory of Angola, then German South Africa, and then Cape Colony, one of the British self-governing possessions. North of the latter on the east coast is the British colony of Natal, and north of that Portuguese East Africa. Between the two latter and Ger man West Africa and Angola, the territories of British South Africa and British Central Africa in the interior extend northward to the Congo State and to German East Africa, which occupies the east coast north of Lake Nyassa and the Ruvuma River. The Orange River and Vaal River colonies adjoin Natal and British South Africa. North of German East Africa lies Brit ish East Africa, which touches on the north the British sphere of influence in the Sudan, Abys sinia, and on the coast, Italian. Somaliland. West of the latter on the Gulf of Aden is the British Somali coast protectorate, then French Somali land. and then the Italian Eritrea. the four ter ritories last named shutting, Abyssinia off from the coast. The area and population of the Afri can territories possessed or controlled by the European powers are approximately as follows: Country. Square miles. Population.
France 4,000.000* 32,635,010* Great Britain 41,773.360 Germany 1,000.000 14.•00.000 Portugal 50(1.000 8.197.790 Italy 200,000 450,000 Spain 80,000 136.000 Turkey 400,000 1.300,000 For fuller accounts of the important phases of exploration and political division, see biographi cal articles relating, to the leading explorers, and the historical sections of articles on ARTS SINIA CAPE OF GOOD HOPE; CONGO FREE STATE; EGYPT; :MADAGASCAR; ORANGE EIVER COLONY, and TRANSVAAL.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. For general works, consult: Bibliography. For general works, consult: Keane, "Africa." in Stanford's Compendia in of Geography Ind Travel ( London. 18951. a general treatise on the geography, ethnology, etc., of the African continent; Sievers-Hahn, Africa. eine allgemcine Londeskunde (Leipzig, 1901) ; Reclus, Physical Geography. translated by Keane and Ravensteinf London, 1890-95); Lanier, L'Afrique (Paris, 1895) Chavanne, Afrika int Lichte MIR( Tag' (Vienna. 1881 ) ; . id., .1 frikas Strome und Pliisse (Vienna, 1883) ; Fischer, .11chr Licht im dunkeln Weltteil (Hamburg, 1SS:)); Hartmann and others, Der Weltteil Afrika in Einzeldarst(Ilungen(Leipzig.1883-831; Johnston, .1frica (London. 1884) : Ratzel Folk erkunde, Volnine I. I Leipzig, 1885) : thinker, "Wissenschaftliche von Reisen in Zentral A frika," in Petermann's ilitteilungen, E•giinzungshrft, Volume XX. (Gotha, 1888); White, The Development of Africa (London, 18921 : Greswell. Geography of Africa South of the Zambesi /Oxford, 18921, with notes on the industries, wealth, and social progress of the states and people.
For history and colonization, consult: Neu mann, Nord A frika naeim 1lcrodot(Leipzig,18921 ; &billion, Das romischc Africa (Leipzig, 1899) ; Graham. Roman Africa (London. 1902) ; Kunst mann. Afrika nor dcr Ankunft der Portugics•n (Munich, 1853) ; Brown, The Story of Africa and Its Explorers (London. 1892-95) ; Roskosch ny. Europas Kolonien. Volumes I.-1V. (Leipzig, 1885-86): Keltie, The Partition of Africa (Lon don, 1895) ; Deville, Portage de l'Afrigur (Paris. 1898 ) ; Johnston, History of the Colonization of Africa by Alien Races (Cambridge, 1899) : Peters, Das dentsch-ostafrikanische Sehntzycbiet 0111 111eb. : "British Africa." in British Empire Series (London. 18991, a collection of papers by different authors compiled to afford trustworthy information concerning the British colonies in Africa.