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 Moreover, when Egyptian claims to the Somali coast were withdrawn, Great Britain took the opportunity to establish her influence on the northern Somali coast, opposite Aden.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.