Africa

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

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