Africa

Africa

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

of the equatorial province of the Egyptian Sudan, then reported to be

hemmed in by the dervishes at Wadelai. His expedition was not sanctioned by

the German government, and the British naval commander had orders to

prevent his landing. But Peters succeeded in evading the British vessels

and proceeded up the river, planting German flags and fighting the natives

who opposed his progress. Early in 1890 he reached Kavirondo, and there

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

leader of an expedition sent out by the British East Africa

Uganda secured by Great Britain.

Company, imploring the company's representative to come to his assistance

and offering to accept the British flag. To previous letters, less plainly

couched. from the king, Jackson had returned the answer that his

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

need. The letters that fell into Peters's hands were in reply to those from

Jackson. Peters did not hesitate to open the letters, and on reading them

he at once proceeded to Uganda, where, with the assistance of the French

Roman Catholic priests, he succeeded in inducing Mwanga to sign a loosely

worded treaty intended to place him under German protection. On hearing of

this Jackson at once set out for Uganda, but Peters did not wait for his

arrival, leaving for the south of Victoria Nyanza some days before Jackson

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

proposals, Jackson returned to the coast, leaving a representative at Mengo

to protect the company's interests. Captain (afterwards Sir) F. D. Lugard,

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

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

taken place, the conclusion of the agreement between Great Britain and

Germany with reference to their different spheres of influence in various

parts of Africa.

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

referred to and its importance insisted upon. Here we have to deal with the

provisions in reference to East Africa. In return for the cession of

Heligoland, Lord Salisbury obtained from Germany the recognition of a

British protectorate over the dominions of the sultan of Zanzibar,

including the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, but excluding the strip leased

to Germany, which was subsequently ceded absolutely to Germany. Germany

further agreed to withdraw the protectorate declared over Witu and the

adjoining coast up to Kismayu in favour of Great Britain, and to recognize

as within the British sphere of influence the vast area bounded, on the

south by the frontier line laid down in the agreement of 1886, which was to

be extended along the first parallel of south latitude across Victoria

Nyanza to the frontiers of the Congo Free State, on the west by the Congo

Free State and the western watershed of the Nile, and on the north by a

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

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

at that time regarded as reserved to the influence of Italy13 in Gallaland

and Abyssinia, when it followed the frontier of the Italian sphere to the

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

the boundary was formed by the eastern and northern shore of Lake Nyasa,

and round the western shore to the mouth of the Songwe river, from which

point it crossed the Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau to the southern end of the

last-named lake,

Limits of German East Africa defined.

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

of this treaty was to remove all serious causes of dispute about territory

between Germany and Great Britain in East Africa. It rendered quite

valueless Peters's treaty with Mwanga and his promenade along the Tana; it

freed Great Britain from any fear of German competition to the northwards,

and recognized that her influence extended to the western limits of the

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

ambition of connecting her sphere of influence in the Nile valley with her

possessions in Central and South Africa. On this point Germany was quite

obdurate; and, as already stated, an attempt subsequently made (May 1894)

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

Free State was frustrated by German opposition.

Uganda having thus been assigned to the British sphere of influence by

the only European power in a position to contest its possession with her,

the subsequent history of that region, and of the country between the

Victoria Nyanza and the coast, must be traced in the articles on BRITISH

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

following facts:—The Imperial British East Africa Company, finding the

burden of administration too heavy for its financial resources, and not

receiving the assistance it felt itself entitled to receive from the

imperial authorities, intimated that it would be compelled to withdraw at

the end of the year 1892. Funds were raised to enable the company to

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

public protest against evacuation compelled the government to determine in

favour of the retention of the country. In January 1893 Sir Gerald Portal

left the coast as a special commissioner to inquire into the ``best means

of dealing with the country, whether through Zanzibar or otherwise.'' On

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

treaty was concluded with King Mwanga placing his country under British

protection. A formal protectorate was declared over Uganda proper on the

19th of June 1894, which was subsequently extended so as to include the

countries westwards towards the Congo Free State, eastwards to the British

East Africa protectorate and Abyssinia, and northwards to the Anglo-

Egyptian Sudan. The British East Africa protectorate was constituted in

June 1895, when the Imperial British East Africa Company relinquished all

its rights in exchange for a money payment, and the administration was

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

province of the Uganda protectorate was transferred to the British East

Africa protectorate, which thus secured control of the whole length of the

so-called Uganda railway, and at the same time obtained access to the

Victoria Nyanza.

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

formal footing on the African coast at the Bay of Assab

Italy in East Africa.

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

involved compelled the khedive and his advisers to loosen their hold on the

Red Sea littoral, and, with the tacit approval of Great Britain, Italy took

possession of Massawa and other ports on that coast. By 1888 Italian

influence had been extended from Ras Kasar on the north to the northern

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

m. The interior limits of Italian influence were but ill defined, and the

negus Johannes (King John) of Abyssinia viewed with anything but a

favourable eye the approach of the Italians towards the Abyssinian

highlands. In January 1887 an Italian force was almost annihilated at

Dogali, but the check only served to spur on the Italian government to

fresh efforts.

The Italians occupied Keren and Asmara in the highlands, and eventually,

in May 1889, concluded a treaty of peace and friendship with the negus

Menelek, who had seized the throne on the death of Johannes, killed in

battle with the dervishes in March of the same year. This agreement, known

as the treaty of Uccialli, settled the frontiers between Abyssinia and the

Italian sphere, and contained the following article:—

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

of the Italian government for any negotiations which he may enter into with

the other powers or governments.

In Italy and by other European governments this article was generally

regarded as establishing an Italian protectorate over Abyssinia; but this

interpretation was never accepted by the emperor Menelek, and at no time

did Italy succeed in establishing any very effective control over

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

was still under Egyptian rule, while immediately to the south a small

stretch of coast on the Gulf of Tajura constituted the sole French

possession on the East African mainland (see SOMALILAND.) Moreover, when

Egyptian claims to the Somali coast were withdrawn, Great Britain took the

opportunity to establish her influence on the northern Somali coast,

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

treaties were concluded, placing under British influence the northern

Somali coast from Ras Jibuti on the west to Bandar Ziada on the east. In

the meantime Italy, not content with her acquisitions on the Red Sea, had

been concluding treaties with the Somali chiefs on the east coast. The

first treaty was made with the sultan of Obbia on the 8th of February 1889.

Later in the same year the British East Africa Company transferred to

Italy—the transference being subsequently approved by the sultan of

Zanzibar—the ports of Brava, Marka, Mukdishu and Warsheik, leased from

Zanzibar. On the 24th of March 1891 an agreement between Italy and Great

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

southern boundary of Italian influence in Somaliland, the boundary being

provisionally prolonged along lines of latitude and longitude to the

intersection of the Blue Nile with 35 deg. E. longitude. On the 15th of

April 1891 a further agreement fixed the northern limit of the Italian

sphere from Ras Kasar on the Red Sea to the point on the Blue Nile just

mentioned. By this agreement Italy was to have the right temporarily to

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

Egypt—a right of which she availed herself in 1894. To complete the work of

delimitation the British and Italian governments, on the 5th of May 1894,

fixed the boundary of the British sphere of influence in Somaliland from

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

But while Great Britain was thus lending her sanction to Italy's

ambitious schemes, the Abyssinian emperor was becoming more and more

incensed at Italy's pretensions to exercise a protectorate over Ethiopia.

In 1893 Menelek denounced the treaty of Uccialli, and eventually, in a

great battle, fought at Adowa on the 1st of March 1896, the Italians were

disastrously defeated. By the subsequent treaty of Adis Ababa, concluded on

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

The independence of Abyssinia recognized.

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

Italy acknowledged the absolute independence of Abyssinia. The effect of

this was practically to destroy the value of the Anglo-Italian agreement as

to the boundaries to the south and west of Abyssinia; and negotiations were

afterwards set on foot between the emperor Menelek and his European

neighbours with the object of determining the Abyssinian frontiers. Italian

Somaliland, bordering on the south-eastern frontier of Abyssinia, became

limited to a belt of territory with a depth inland from the Indian Ocean of

from 180 to 250 m. The negotiations concerning the frontier lasted until

1908, being protracted over the question as to the possession of Lugh, a

town on the Juba, which eventually fell to Italy. After the battle of Adowa

the Italian government handed over he administration of the southern part

of the country to the enadir Company, but in January 1905 the government

resumed control and at the same time transformed the leasehold rights it

held from the sultan of Zanzibar into sovereign rights by the payment to

the sultan of L. 144,000. To facilitate her communications with the

interior, Italy also secured from the British government the lease of a

small area of land immediately to the north of Kismayu. In British

Somaliland the frontier fixed by agreement with Italy in 1894 was modified,

in so far as it marched with Abyssinian territory, by an agreement which

Sir Rennell Rodd concluded with the emperor Menelek in 1897. The effect of

this agreement was to reduce the area of British Somaliland from 75,000 to

68,000 sq. m. In the same year France concluded an agreement with the

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

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

The determination of the northern, western and southern limits of Abyssinia

proved a more difficult matter. A treaty of July 1900 followed by an

agreement of November 1901 defined the boundaries of Eritrea on the side of

Abyssinia and the Sudan respectively. In certain details the boundaries

thus laid down were modified by an Anglo-Italian-Abyssinian treaty signed

at Adis Ababa on the 15th of May 1902. On the same day another treaty was

signed at the Abyssinian capital by Sir John Harrington, the British

minister plenipotentiary, and the emperor Menelek, whereby the western, or

Sudan-Abyssinian, frontier was defined as far south as the intersection of

6 deg. N. and 35 deg. E. Within the British sphere were left the Atbara up

to Gallabat, the Blue Nile up to Famaka and the Sobat up to the junction of

the Baro and Pibor. While not satisfying Abyssinian claims to their full

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

Abyssinia than was the line fixed in the Anglo-Italian agreement of 1891.

On the other hand, Menelek gave important economic guarantees and

concessions to the Sudan government.

In Egypt the result of the abolition of the Dual Control was to make

British influence virtually predominant, though theoretically Turkey

remained the suzerain power; and after the reconquest of the Sudan by the

Anglo-Egyptian army a convention between the British and Egyptian

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

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

territories south of the 22nd parallel of north latitude. From the

international point of view the British position in Egypt was strengthened

by the Anglo-French declaration of the 8th of April 1904. For some time

previously there had been

The Anglo-French agreements of April 1904.

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

number of important questions in which British and French interests were

involved. The movement was no doubt strengthened by the desire to reduce to

their least dimensions the possible causes of trouble between the two

countries at a time when the outbreak of hostilities between Russia (the

ally of France) and Japan (the ally of Great Britain) rendered the European

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

London by the British foreign secretary, the marquess of Lansdowne, and the

French ambassador, M. Paul Cambon, a series of agreements relating to

several parts of the globe. Here we are concerned only with the joint

declaration respecting Egypt and Morocco and a convention relating, in

part, to British and French frontiers in West Africa. The latter we shall

have occasion to refer to later. The former, notwithstanding the

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

political status'' either of Egypt or of Morocco, cannot be ignored in any

account of the partition in Africa. With regard to Egypt the French

government declared ``that they will not obstruct the action of Great

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

British occupation or in any other manner.'' France also assented—as did

subsequently the other powers interested—to a khedivial decree simplifying

the international control exercised by the Caisse de la Dette over the

finances of Egypt.

In order to appreciate aright that portion of the declaration relating to

Morocco it is necessary to say a few words about the course of French

policy in North-West Africa. In Tunisia the work of strengthening the

protectorate established in 1881 had gone steadily forward; but it was in

Algeria that the extension of French influence had been most marked. The

movement of expansion southwards was inevitable. With the progress of

exploration it became increasingly evident that the Sahara constituted no

insurmountable barrier between the French possessions in North and West

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

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

North-West Africa she desired to make French influence supreme in Morocco.

The relations between the two countries did not favour the realization of

that ambition. The advance southwards of the French forces of occupation

evoked loud protests from the Moorish government, particularly with regard

to the occupation in 1900-1901 of the Tuat Oases. Under the Franco-Moorish

treaty of 1845 the frontier between Algeria and Morocco was defined from

the Mediterranean coast as far south as the pass of Teniet el Sassi, in

about 34 deg. N.; beyond that came a zone in which no frontier was defined,

but in which the tribes and desert villages (ksurs) belonging to the

respective spheres of influence were named; while south of the desert

villages the treaty stated that in view of the character of the country

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

thus left undefined, the sultan maintained that in her advance southwards

France had trespassed on territories that unmistakably belonged to Morocco.

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

France's privileged position in Morocco.

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

the co-operation of the French and Moorish authorities in the maintenance

of peaceful conditions in the frontier region. It was reported that in

April 1902 the commissioners signed an agreement whereby the Sharifan

government undertook to consolidate its authority on the Moorish side of

the frontier as far south as Figig. The agreement continued: ``Le

Gouvernement francais, en raison de son voisinage, lui pretera son appui,

en cas de besoin. Le Gouvernement francais etablira son autorite et la paix

dans les regions du Sahara, et le Gouvernement marocain, son voisin, lui

aidera de tout son pouvoir.'' Meanwhile in the northern districts of

Morocco the conditions of unrest under the rule of the young sultan, Abd el

Aziz IV., were attracting an increasing amount of attention in Europe and

were calling forth demands for their suppression. It was in these

circumstances that in the Anglo-French declaration of April 1904 the

British government recognized ``that it appertains to France, more

particularly as a power whose dominions are conterminous for a great

distance with those of Morocco, to preserve order in that country, and to

provide assistance for the purpose of all administrative, economic,

financial and military reforms which it may require.'' Both parties to the

declaration, ``inspired by their feeling of sincere friendship for Spain,

take into special consideration the interests which that country derives

from her geographical position and from her territorial possessions on the

Moorish coast of the Mediterranean. In regard to these interests the French

government will come to an understanding with the Spanish government.'' The

understanding thus foreshadowed was reached later in the same year, Spain

securing a sphere of interest on the Mediterranean coast. In pursuance of

the policy marked out in the Anglo-French declaration, France was seeking

to strengthen her influence in Morocco when in 1905 the attitude of Germany

seriously affected her position. On the 8th of July France secured from the

German government formal ``recognition of the situation created for France

in Morocco by the contiguity of a vast extent of territory of Algeria and

the Sharifan empire, and by the special relations resulting therefrom

between the two adjacent countries, as well as by the special interest for

France, due to this fact, that order should reign in the Sharifan Empire.''

Finally, in January-April 1906, a conference of the powers was held at

Algeciras to devise, by invitation of the sultan, a scheme of reforms to be

introduced into Morocco (q.v..) French capital was allotted a larger share

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

to institute, and French and Spanish officers were entrusted with the

organization of a police force for the maintenance of order in the

principal coast towns. The new regime had not been fully inaugurated,

however, when a series of outrages led, in 1907, to the military occupation

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

Casablanca on the Atlantic coast of Morocco.

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

activity in North-West Africa, that with such energy was the penetration of

the Sahara pursued that in April 1904 flying columns from Insalah and

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

deemed advisable to indicate on the maps the boundary between the Algerian

and French West African territories.

Brief reference must be made to the position of Tripoli. While Egypt was

brought under British control and Tunisia became a French protectorate,

Tripoli remained a province of the Turkish empire with undefined frontiers

in the hinterland, a state of affairs which more than once threatened to

lead to trouble with France during the expansion of the latter's influence

in the Sahara. As already stated, Italy early gave evidence that it was her

ambition to succeed to the province, and, not only by the sultan of Turkey

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

the limits of the British and French spheres of influence in north Central

Africa, was viewed with some concern. By means of a series of public

utterances on the part of French and Italian statesmen in the winter 1901-

1902 it

Italy's interest in Tripoli.

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

to their interests in North Africa, and in May 1902 Signor Prinetti, then

Italian minister for foreign affairs, speaking in parliament in reply to an

interpellation on the subject of Tripoli, declared that if ``the status quo

in the Mediterranean were ever disturbed, Italy would be sure of finding no

one to bar the way to her legitimate aspirations.''

At the opening of the Berlin conference Spain had established no formal

claim to any part of the coast to the south of Morocco; but while the

conference was sitting, on the 9th of January 1885, the Spanish government

intimated that in view of the importance of the Spanish settlements on the

Rio de Oro, at Angra de Cintra,

Spanish colonies.

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

independent tribes on that coast, the king of Spain had taken under his

protection ``the territories of the western coast of Africa comprised

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

limits of the Spanish sphere were defined by an agreement concluded in 1900

with France. By this document some 70,000 sq. m. of the western Sahara were

recognized as Spanish.

The same agreement settled a long-standing dispute between Spain and

France as to the ownership of the district around the Muni river to be

south of Cameroon, Spain securing a block of territory with a coast-line

from the Campo river on the north to the Muni river on the south. The

northern frontier is formed by the German Cameroon colony, the eastern by

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

its point of intersection with the Muni river.

Apart from this small block of Spanish territory south of Cameroon, the

stretch of coast between Cape Blanco and the

Division of the Guinea coast.

mouth of the Congo is partitioned among four European powers—Great Britain,

France, Germany and Portugal —and the negro republic of Liberia. Following

the coast southwards from Cape Blanco is first the French colony of

Senegal, which is indented, along the Gambia river, by the small British

colony of that name, and then the comparatively small territory of

Portuguese Guinea, all that remains on this Coast to represent Portugal's

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

part. To the south of Portuguese Guinea is the French Guinea colony, and

still going south and east are the British colony of Sierra Leone, the

republic of Liberia, the French colony of the Ivory coast, the British Gold

Coast, German Togoland, French Dahomey, the British colony (formerly known

as the Lagos colony) and protectorate of Southern Nigeria, the German

colony of Cameroon, the Spanish settlements on the Muni river, the French

Congo colony, and the small Portuguese enclave north of the Congo to which

reference has already been made, which is administratively part of the

Angola colony. When the General Act of the Berlin conference was signed the

whole of this coast-line had not been formally claimed; but no time was

lost by the powers interested in notifying claims to the unappropriated

sections, and the conflicting claims put forward necessitated frequent

adjustments by international agreements. By a Franco-Portuguese agreement

of the 12th of May 1886 the limits of Portuguese Guinea—surrounded

landwards by French territory—were defined, and by agreements with Great

Britain in 1885 and France in 1892 and 1907 the Liberian republic was

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

The real struggle in West Africa was between France and Great Britain,

and France played the dominant part, the exhaustion of Portugal, the apathy

of the British government and the late appearance of Germany in the field

being all elements that favoured the success of French policy. Before

tracing the steps in the historic contest between France and Great Britain

it is necessary, however, to deal briefly with the part played by Germany.

She naturally could not be disposed of by the chief rivals as easily as

were Portugal and Liberia. It will be remembered that Dr Nachtigal, while

the proposals for the Berlin conference were under discussion, had planted

the German flag on the coast of Togo and in Cameroon in the month of July

1884. In Cameroon Germany found herself with Great Britain for a neighbour

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

The utmost activity was displayed in making treaties with native chiefs,

and in securing as wide a range of coast for German enterprise as was

possible. After various provisional agreements had been concluded between

Great Britain and Germany, a ``provisional line of demarcation'' was

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

head of the Rio del Rey creek and going to the point, about 9 deg. 8' E.,

marked ``rapids'' on the British Admiralty chart. By a further agreement of

the 14th of April 1893, the right bank of the Rio del Rey was made the

boundary between the Oil Rivers Protectorate (now Southern Nigeria) and

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

the ``rapids'' before mentioned, on the Calabar or Cross river, in a

straight line towards the centre of the town of Yola, on the Benue river.

Yola itself, with a radius

Germany in West Central Africa.

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

followed the circle eastwards from the point of intersection as it neared

Yola until it met the Benue river. From that point it crossed the river to

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

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

Lake Chad ``situated 35 minutes east of the meridian of Kuka.'' By this

agreement the British government withdrew from a considerable section of

the upper waters of the Benue with which the Royal Niger Company had

entered into relations. The limit of Germany's possible extension eastwards

was fixed at the basin of the river Shari, and Darfur, Kordofan and the

Bahr-el-Ghazal were to be excluded from her sphere of influence. The object

of Great Britain in making the sacrifice she did was two-fold. By

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

French designs on the Benue region, while by recognizing the central Sudan

(Wadai, &c.) in the German sphere, a barrier was interposed to the advance

of France from the Congo to the Nile. This last object was not attained,

inasmuch as Germany in coming to terms with France as to the southern and

eastern limits of Cameroon abandoned her claims to the central Sudan. She

had already, on the 24th of December 1885, signed a protocol with France

fixing her southern frontier, where it was coterminous with the French

Congo colony. But to the east German explorers were crossing the track of

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

agreement was obvious. Accordingly, on the 4th of February 1894, a

protocol—which, some weeks later, was confirmed by a convention— was signed

at Berlin, by which France accepted the presence of Germany on Lake Chad as

a fait accompli and effected the best bargain she could by making the left

bank of the Shari river, from its outlet into Lake Chad to the 10th

parallel of north latitude, the eastern limit of German extension. From

this point the boundary line went due west some 230 m., then turned south,

and with various indentations joined the south-eastern frontier, which had

been slightly extended so as to give Germany access to the Sanga river— a

tributary of the Congo. Thus, early in 1894, the German Cameroon colony had

reached fairly definite limits. In 1908 another convention, modifying the

frontier, gave Germany a larger share of the Sanga, while France, among

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

The German Togoland settlements occupy a narrow strip of the Guinea

coast, some 35 m. only in length, wedged in between the British Gold Coast

and French Dahomey. At first France was inclined to dispute Germany's

claims to Little Popo and Porto Seguro; but in December 1885 the French

government acknowledged the German protectorate over these

Exclusion of Germany from the Niger.

places, and the boundary between French and German territory, which runs

north from the coast to the 11th decree of latitude, was laid down by the

Franco-German convention of the 12th of July 1897. The fixing of the 11th

parallel as the northern boundary of German expansion towards the interior

was not accomplished without some sacrifice of German ambitions. Having

secured an opening on Lake Chad for her Cameroon colony, Germany was

anxious to obtain a footing on the middle Niger for Togoland. German

expeditions reached Gando, one of the tributary states of the Sokoto empire

on the middle Niger, and, notwithstanding the existence of prior treaties

with Great Britain, sought to conclude agreements with the sultan of that

country. But this German ambition conflicted both with the British and the

French designs in West Africa, and eventually Germany had to be content

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

frontier on the coast was fixed in July 1886 by British and German

commissioners at 1 deg. 10' E. longitude, and its extension towards the

interior laid down for a short distance. A curious feature in the history

of its prolongation was the establishment in 1888 of a neutral zone wherein

neither power was to seek to acquire protectorates nor exclusive influence.

It was not until November 1899 that, as part of the Samoa settlement, this

neutral zone was partitioned between the two powers and the frontier

extended to the 11th parallel.

The story of the struggle between France and Great Britain in West Africa

may roughly be divided into two sections, the

Anglo-French rivalry in West Africa.

first dealing with the Coast colonies, the second dealing with the struggle

for the middle Niger and Lake Chad. As regards the Coast colonies, France

was wholly successful in her design of isolating all Great Britain's

separate possessions in that region, and of securing for herself undisputed

possession of the upper Niger and of the countries lying within the great

bend of that river. When the British government awoke to the consciousness

of what was at stake France had obtained too great a start. French

governors of the Senegal had succeeded, before the Berlin Conference, in

establishing forts on the upper Niger, and the advantage thus gained was

steadily pursued. Every winter season French posts were pushed farther and

farther along the river, or in the vast regions watered by the southern

tributaries of the Senegal and Niger rivers. This ceaseless activity met

with its reward. Great Britain found herself compelled to acknowledge

accomplished facts and to conclude agreements with France, which left her

colonies mere coast patches, with a very limited extension towards the

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

Gambia colony and protectorate was confined to a narrow strip of territory

on both banks of the river for about 200 m. from the sea. In June 1882 and

in August 1889 provisional agreements were made with France fixing the

western and northern limits of Sierra Leone, and commissioners were

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

governments. But the commissioners failed to agree, and on the 21st of

January 1895 a fresh agreement was made, the boundary being subsequently

traced by a mixed commission. Sierra Leone, as now definitely constituted,

has a coast-line of about 180 m. and a maximum extension towards the

interior of some 200 m.

At the date of the Berlin conference the present colonies of Southern

Nigeria and the Gold Coast constituted a single colony under the title of

the Gold Coast colony, but on the 13th of January 1886 the territory

comprised under that title was erected into two separate colonies—Lagos and

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

the colony of Southern Nigeria). The coast limits of the new Gold Coast

colony were declared to extend from 5 deg. W. to 2 deg. E., but these

limits were subsequently curtailed by agreements with France and Germany.

The arrangements that fixed the eastern frontier of the Gold Coast colony

and its hinterland have already been stated in connexion with German

Togoland. On the western frontier it marches with the French colony of the

Ivory Coast, and in July 1893, after an unsuccessful attempt to achieve the

same end by an agreement concluded in 1889, the frontier was defined from

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

degree of north latitude. In August 1896, following the destruction of the

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

second Ashanti campaign, a British protectorate was declared over the whole

of the Ashanti territories and a resident was installed at Kumasi. But no

northern limit had been fixed by the 1893 agreement beyond the 9th

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

were entered from all sides by rival British, French and German

expeditions. The conflicting claims established by these rival expeditions

may, however, best be considered in connexion with the struggle for

supremacy on the middle Niger and in the Chad region, to which it is now

necessary to turn.

A few days before the meeting of the Berlin conference Sir George Goldie

had succeeded in buying up all the French interests on the lower Niger. The

British company's influence had at that date been extended by treaties with

the native chiefs up the main Niger stream to its junction with the Benue,

and some distance along this latter river But the great Fula states of the

central Sudan were still outside European influence, and this fact did not

escape attention in Germany. German merchants had been settled for some

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

interest in, and activity on, the river. He recognized that in the densely

populated states of the middle Niger, Sokoto and Gando, and in Bornu to the

west of Lake Chad, there was a magnificent field for Germany's new-born

colonizing zeal. The German African Company14 and the German Colonial

Society listened eagerly to Flegel's proposals, and in April 1885 he left

Berlin on a mission to the Fula states of Sokoto and Gando. But it was

impossible to keep his intentions entirely secret, and the (British)

National African Company had no desire to see the French rivals, whom they

had with so much difficulty dislodged from the river, replaced by the even

more troublesome German. Accordingly Joseph Thomson, the young Scottish

explorer, was sent out to the Niger, and had the satisfaction of concluding

on the 1st of June 1885 a treaty with ``Umoru, King of the Mussulmans of

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

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

British company. Thomson concluded a similar treaty with the sultan of

Gando, so as to provide against the possibility of its being alleged that

Gando was an independent state and not subject to the suzerainty of the

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

Flegel going up the river, with bundles of German flags and presents for

the chiefs. The German government continued its efforts to secure a footing

on the lower Niger until the fall of Prince Bismarck from power in March

1890, when opposition ceased, and on the failure of the half-hearted

attempt made later to establish relations with Gando from Togoland, Germany

dropped out of the competition for the

The Niger Company granted a charter.

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

first great success the National African Company renewed its efforts to

obtain a charter from the British government, and on the 10th of July 1886

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

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

protectorate had been proclaimed Over the whole of the coast from the Rio

del Rey to the Lagos frontier, and as already stated, on the 13th of

January 1886 the Lagos settlements had been separated from the Gold Coast

and erected into a separate colony. It may be convenient to state here that

the western boundary of Lagos with French territory (Dahomey) was

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

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

in the Gold Coast hinterland and in the Lagos hinterland a door was left

wide open to the north of the 9th parallel.

Notwithstanding her strenuous efforts, France, in her advance down the

Niger from Senegal, did not succeed in reaching Sego on the upper Niger, a

considerable distance above Timbuktu, until the winter of 1890-1891, and

the rapid advance of British influence up the river raised serious fears

lest the Royal Niger Company should reach Timbuktu before France could

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

government to consent to the insertion in the agreement of the 5th of

August 1890, by which Great Britain recognized France's protectorate over

Madagascar, of the following article:

The Government of Her Britannic Majesty recognizes the sphere of

influence of France to the south of her Mediterranean possessions up to a

line from Say on the Niger to Barrua on Lake Chad, drawn m such a manner as

to comprise in the sphere of action of the Niger Company all that fairly

belongs to the kingdom of Sokoto; the line to be determined by the

commissioners to be appointed.

The commissioners never were in fact appointed, and the proper meaning to

be attached to this article subsequently became a subject of bitter

controversy between the two countries. An examination of the map of West

Africa will show what possibilities of trouble were left open at the end of

1890 by the various agreements concluded up to that date. From Say on the

Niger to where the Lagos frontier came to an abrupt stop in 9 deg. N. there

was no boundary line between the French and British spheres of influence.

To the north of the Gold Coast and of the French Ivory Coast colony the way

was equally open to Great Britain and to France, while the vagueness of the

Say-Barrua line left an opening of which France was quick to avail herself.

Captain P. L. Monteil, who was despatched by the French government to West

Africa in 1890, immediately after the conclusion of the August agreement,

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

attempt to conclude treaties with chiefs who were, beyond all question,

within the British sphere. Still farther south, on the Benue river, the two

expeditions of Lieutenant Mizon—in 1890 and 1892—failed to do any real harm

to British interests. In 1892 an event happened which had an important

bearing on the future course of the dispute.

French advance Timbuktu.

After a troublesome war with Behanzin king of to the native state of

Dahomey, France annexed some portion of Dahomeyan territory on the coast,

and declared a protectorate over the rest of the kingdom. Thus was removed

the barrier which had up to that time prevented France from pushing her way

Nigerwards from her possessions on the Slave Coast, as well as from the

upper Niger and the Ivory Coast. Henceforth her progress from all these

directions was rapid, and in particular Timbuktu was occupied in the last

days of 1893.

In 1894 it appears to have been suddenly realized in France that, for the

development of the vast regions which she was placing under her protection

in West Africa, it was extremely desirable that she should obtain free

access to the navigable portions of the Niger, if not on the left bank,

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

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