Africa

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

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

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