Africa

Africa

by no means clear. The British government, by the Anglo-German agreement of

July 1890, had secured the assent of Germany to the statement that the

British sphere of influence in East Africa was bounded on the west by the

Congo Free State and by ``the western 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. On the 27th of

April 1887 an agreement was signed with the Congo Free State by which the

right bank of the Ubangi river was secured to French influence, and the

left bank to the Congo Free State. The desire of France to secure a footing

in the upper Nile valley was partly due, as has been seen, to her anxiety

to extend a French zone across Africa, but it was also and to a large

The contest for the upper Nile.

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. With these strong

inducements France set steadily to work to consolidate her position on the

tributary streams of the upper Congo basin, preparatory to crossing into

the valley of the upper Nile. Meanwhile a similar advance was being made

from the Congo Free State northwards and eastwards. King Leopold had two

objects in view—-to obtain control of the rich province of the Bahr-el-

Ghazal and to secure an outlet on the Nile. Stations were established on

the Welle river, and in February 1891 Captain van Kerckhoven left

Leopoldville for the upper Welle with the most powerful expedition which

had, up to that time, been organized by the Free State. After some heavy

fighting the expedition reached the Nile in September 1892, and opened up

communications with the remains of the old Egyptian garrison at Wadelai.

Other expeditions under Belgian officers penetrated into the Bahr-el-

Ghazal, and it was apparent that King Leopold proposed to rely on effective

occupation as an answer to any claims which might be advanced by either

Great Britain or France. The news of what was happening in this remote

region Of Africa filtered through to Europe very slowly, but King Leopold

was warned on several occasions that Great Britain would not recognize any

claims by the Congo Free State on the Bahr-el-Ghazal. The difficulty was,

however, that neither from Egypt, whence the road was barred by the khalifa

(the successor of the mahdi), nor from Uganda, which was far too remote

from the coast to serve as the base of a large expedition, could a British

force be despatched to take effective occupation of the upper Nile valley.

There was, therefore, danger lest the French should succeed in establishing

themselves on the upper Nile before the preparations which were being made

in Egypt for ``smashing'' the khalifa were completed.

In these circumstances Lord Rosebery, who was then British foreign

minister, began, and his successor, the 1st earl of

The Anglo-Congolese agreement of 1894.

Kimberley, completed, negotiations with King Leopold which resulted in the

conclusion of the Anglo-Congolese agreement of 12th May 1894. By this

agreement King Leopold recognized the British sphere of influence as laid

down in the Anglo-German agreement of July 1890, and Great Britain granted

a lease to King Leopold of certain territories in the western basin of the

upper Nile, extending on the Nile from a point on Lake Albert to Fashoda,

and westwards to the Congo-Nile watershed. The practical effect of this

agreement was to give the Congo Free State a lease, during its sovereign's

lifetime, of the old Bahr-el-Ghazal province, and to secure after His

Majesty's death as much of that territory as lay west of the 30th meridian,

together with access to a port on Lake Albert, to his successor. At the

same time the Congo Free State leased to Great Britain a strip of

territory, 15 1/2 m. in breadth, between the north end of Lake Tanganyika

and the south end of Lake Albert Edward. This agreement was hailed as a

notable triumph for British diplomacy. But the triumph was short-lived. By

the agreement of July 1890 with Germany, Great Britain had been reluctantly

compelled to abandon her hopes of through communication between the British

spheres in the northern and southern parts of the continent, and to Consent

to the boundary of German East Africa marching with the eastern frontier of

the Congo Free State. Germany frankly avowed that she did not wish to have

a powerful neighbour interposed between herself and the Congo Free State.

It was obvious that the new agreement would effect precisely what Germany

had declined to agree to in 1890. Accordingly Germany protested in such

vigorous terms that, on the 22nd of June 1894, the offending article was

withdrawn by an exchange of notes between Great Britain and the Congo Free

State. Opinion in France was equally excited by the new agreement. It was

obvious that the lease to the Congo Free State was intended to exclude

France from the Nile by placing the Congo Free State as a barrier across

her path. Pressure was brought to bear on King Leopold, from Paris, to

renounce the rights acquired under the agreement, and on the 14th of August

1894 King Leopold signed an agreement with France by which, in exchange for

France's acknowledgment of the Mbomu river as his northern frontier, His

Majesty renounced all occupation and all exercise of political influence

west of 30 deg. E., and north of a line drawn from that meridian to the

Nile along 5 deg. 30' N.

This left the way still open for France to the Nile, and in June 1896

Captain J. Marchand left France with secret instructions to lead an

expedition into the Nile valley. On the 1st of March in the following year

he left Brazzaville, and began a journey which all but plunged Great

Britain and France into war. The difficulties which Captain Marchand had to

overcome were mainly those connected with transport. In October 1897 the

expedition reached the banks of the Sue, the waters of which eventually

flow into the Nile. Here a post was established and the ``Faidherbe,'' a

steamer which had been carried across the Congo-Nile watershed in sections,

was put together and launched. On the 1st of May 1898 Marchand started on

the final stage of his journey, and reached Fashoda on the 10th of July,

having established a chain of posts en route. At Fashoda the French flag

was at once raised, and a ``treaty'' made with the local chief. Meanwhile

other expeditions had been concentrating on

The French at Fashoda.

Fashoda—a mud-flat situated in a swamp, round which for many months raged

the angry passions of two great peoples. French expeditions, with a certain

amount of assistance from the emperor Menelek of Abyssinia, had been

striving to reach the Nile from the east, so as to join hands with Marchand

and complete the line of posts into the Abyssinian frontier. In this,

however, they were unsuccessful. No better success attended the expedition

under Colonel (afterwards Sir) Ronald Macdonald, R.E., sent by the British

government from Uganda to anticipate the French in the occupation of the

upper Nile. It was from the north that claimants arrived to dispute with

the French their right to Fashoda, and all that the occupation of that

dismal post implied. In 1896 an Anglo-Egyptian army, under the direction of

Sir Herbert (afterwards Lord) Kitchener, had begun to advance southwards

for the reconquest of the Egyptian Sudan. On the 2nd of September 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 the Nile, and courteously but firmly requested

Captain 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 adjustment 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 the 4th of November, that France was willing to recognize the

British claims, and the incident was finally closed on the 21st of March

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. By this declaration it was agreed that the dividing line

between the British and French spheres, north of the Congo Free State,

should follow the Congo-Nile water-parting up to its intersection with the

11th parallel of north latitude, from which point it was to be ``drawn as

far as the 15th parallel in such a manner as to separate in principle the

kingdom of Wadai from what constituted in 1882 the province of Darfur,''

but in no case was it to be drawn west of the 21st degree of east

longitude, or east of the 23rd degree. From the 15th parallel the line was

continued north and north-west to the intersection of the Tropic of Cancer

with 16 deg. E. French influence was to prevail west of this line, British

influence to the east. Wadai was thus definitely assigned to France.

When, by the declaration of the 21st of March 1899, France renounced all

territorial ambitions in the upper Nile basin, King

Fate of the Bar-el-Ghazal.

Leopold revived his claims to the Bahr-el-Ghazal province under the terms

of the lease granted by Article 2 of the Anglo-Congolese agreement of 1894.

This step he was encouraged to take by the assertion of Lord Salisbury, in

his capacity as secretary of state for foreign affairs during the

negotiations with France concerning Fashoda, that the lease to King Leopold

was still in full force. But the assertion was made simply as a declaration

of British right to dispose of the territory, and the sovereign of the

Congo State found that there was no disposition in Great Britain to allow

the Bahr-el-Ghazal to fall into his hands. Long and fruitless negotiations

ensued. The king at length (1904) sought to force a settlement by sending

armed forces into the province. Diplomatic representations having failed to

secure the withdrawal of these forces, the Sudan government issued a

proclamation which had the effect of cutting off the Congo stations from

communication with the Nile, and finally King Leopold consented to an

agreement, signed in London on the 9th of May 1906, whereby the 1894 lease

was formally annulled. The Bahr-el-Ghazal thenceforth became undisputedly

an integral part of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. King Leopold had, however, by

virtue of the 1894 agreement administered the comparatively small portion

of the leased area in which his presence was not resented by France. This

territory, including part of the west bank of the Nile and known as the

Lado Enclave, the 1906 agreement allowed King Leopold to ``continue during

his reign to occupy.'' Provision was made that within six months of the

termination of His Majesty's reign the enclave should be handed over to the

Sudan government (see CONGO FREE STATE.) In this manner ended the long

struggle for supremacy on the upper Nile, Great Britain securing the

withdrawal of all European rivals.

The course of events in the southern half of the continent may now be

traced. By the convention of the 14th of February

Portugal's trans-African schemes.

1885, in which Portugal recognized the sovereignty of the Congo Free State,

and by a further convention concluded with France in 1886, Portugal secured

recognition of her claim to the territory known as the Kabinda enclave,

lying north of the Congo, but not to the northern bank of the river. By the

same convention of 1885 Portugal's claim to the southern bank of the river

as far as Noki (the limit of navigation from the sea) had been admitted.

Thus Portuguese possessions on the west coast extended from the Congo to

the mouth of the Kunene river. In the interior the boundary with the Free

State was settled as far as the Kwango river, but disputes arose as to the

right to the country of Lunda, otherwise known as the territory of the

Muato Yanvo. On the 25th of May 1891 a treaty was signed at Lisbon, by

which this large territory was divided between Portugal and the Free State.

The interior limits of the Portuguese possessions in Africa south of the

equator gave rise, however, to much more serious discussions than were

involved in the dispute as to the Muato Yanvo's kingdom. Portugal, as has

been stated, claimed all the territories between Angola and Mozambique, and

she succeeded in inducing both France and Germany, in 1886, to recognize

the king of Portugal's ``right to exercise his sovereign and civilizing

influence in the territories which separate the Portuguese possessions or

Angola and Mozambique.'' The publication of the treaties containing this

declaration, together with a map showing Portuguese claims extending over

the whole of the Zambezi valley, and over Matabeleland to the south and the

greater part of Lake Nyasa to the north, immediately provoked a formal

protest from the British government. On the 13th of August 1887 the British

charge d'affaires at Lisbon transmitted to the Portuguese minister for

foreign affairs a memorandum from Lord Salisbury, in which the latter

formally protested ``against any claims not founded on occupation,'' and

contended that the doctrine of effective occupation had been admitted in

principle by all the parties to the Act of Berlin. Lord Salisbury further

stated that ``Her Majesty's government cannot recognize Portuguese

sovereignty in territory not occupied by her in sufficient strength to

enable her to maintain order, protect foreigners and control the natives.''

To this Portugal replied that the doctrine of effective occupation was

expressly confined by the Berlin Act to the African coast, but at the same

time expeditions were hastily despatched up the Zambezi and some of its

tributaries to discover traces of former Portuguese occupation.

Matabeleland and the districts of Lake Nyasa werespecially mentioned in the

British protest as countries in which Her Majesty's government took a

special interest. As a matter of fact the extension of British influence

northwards to the Zambezi had engaged the attention of the British

authorities ever since the appearance of Germany in South-West Africa and

the declaration of a British protectorate over Bechuanaland. There were

rumours of German activity in Matabeleland, and

Rhodesia secured for Great Britain.

of a Boer trek north of the Limpopo. Hunters and explorers had reported in

eulogistic terms on the rich goldfields and healthy plateau lands of

Matabeleland and Mashonaland, over both of which countries a powerful

chief, Lobengula, claimed authority. There were many suitors for

Lobengula's favours; but on the 11th of February 1888 he signed a treaty

with J. S. Moffat, the assistant commissioner in Bechuanaland, the effect

of which was to place all his territory under British protection. Both the

Portuguese and the Transvaal Boers were chagrined at this extension of

British influence. A number of Boers attempted unsuccessfully to trek into

the country, and Portugal opposed her ancient claims to the new treaty. She

contended that Lobengula's authority did not extend over Mashonaland, which

she claimed as part of the Portuguese province of Sofala.

Meanwhile preparations were being actively made by British capitalists

for the exploitation of the mineral and other resources of Lobengula's

territories. Two rival syndicates obtained, or claimed to have obtained,

concessions from Lobengula; but in the summer of 1889 Cecil Rhodes

succeeded in amalgamating the conflicting interests, and on the 29th of

October of that year the British government granted a charter to the

British South Africa Company (see RHODESIA.) The first article of the

charter declared that ``the principal field of the operations'' of the

company ``shall be the region of South Africa lying immediately to the

north of British Bechuanaland, and to the north and west of the South

African Republic, and to the west of the Portuguese dominions.'' No time

was lost in making preparations for effective occupation. On the advice of

F. C. Selous it was determined to despatch an expedition to eastern

Mashonaland by a new route, which would avoid the Matabele country. This

plan was carried out in the summer of 1890, and, thanks to the rapidity

with which the column moved and Selous's intimate knowledge of the country,

the British flag was, on the 11th of September, hoisted at a spot on the

Makubusi river, where the town of Salisbury now stands, and the country

taken possession of in the name of Queen Victoria. Disputes with the

Portuguese ensued, and there were several frontier incidents which for a

time embittered the relations between the two countries.

Meanwhile, north of the Zambezi, the Portuguese were making desperate but

futile attempts to repair the neglect

Anglo-Portuguese disputes in Central Africa.

of centuries by hastily organized expeditions and the hoisting of flags. In

1888 an attempt to close the Zambezi to British vessels was frustrated by

the firmness of Lord Salisbury. In a despatch to the British minister at

Lisbon, dated the 25th of June 1888, Lord Salisbury, after brushing aside

the Portuguese claims founded on doubtful discoveries three centuries old,

stated the British case in a few sentences:—

It is (he wrote) an undisputed point that the recent discoveries of the

English traveller, Livingstone, were followed by organized attempts on the

part of English religious and commercial bodies to open up and civilize the

districts surrounding and adjoining the lake. Many British settlements have

been established, the access to which from the sea is by the rivers Zambezi

and Shire. Her Majesty's government and the British public are much

interested in the welfare of these settlements. Portugal does not occupy,

and has never occupied, any portion of the lake, nor of the Shire; she has

neither authority nor influence beyond the confluence of the Shire and

Zambezi, where her interior custom-house, now withdrawn, was placed by the

terms of the Mozambique Tariff of 1877.

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

parallelof 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 sultanhimself 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

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