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 bank, where the frontier had still to be fixed by international agreement. In the neighbourhood of Bussa there is a long stretch of the river so impeded by rapids that navigation is practically impossible, except in small boats and at considerable risk. Below these rapids France had no foothold on the river, both banks from Bussa to the sea being within the British sphere. In 1890 the Royal Niger Company had concluded a treaty with the emir and chiefs of Bussa (or Borgu); but the French declared that the real paramount chief of Borgu was not the king of Bussa, but the king of Nikki, and three expeditions were despatched in hot haste to Nikki to take the king under French protection. Sir George Goldie, however, was not to be baffled. While maintaining the validity of the earlier treaty with Bussa, he despatched Captain (afterwards General Sir) F.D. Lugard to Nikki, and Lugard was successful in distancing all his French competitors by several days, reaching Nikki on the 5th of November 1894 and concluding a treaty with the king and chiefs. The French expeditions, which were in great strength, did not hesitate on their arrival to compel the king to execute fresh treaties with France, and with these in their possession they returned to Dahomey. Shortly afterwards a fresh act of aggression was committed. On the 13th of February 1895 a French officer, Commandant Toutee, arrived on the right bank of the Niger opposite Bajibo and built a fort. His presence there was notified to the Royal Niger Company, who protested to the British government against this invasion of their territory. Lord Rosebery, who was then foreign minister, at once made inquiries in Paris, and received the assurance that Commandant Toutee was ``a private traveller.'' Eventually Commandant Toutee was ordered to withdraw, and the fort was occupied by the Royal Niger Company's troops. Commandant Toutee subsequently published the official instructions from the French government under which he had acted. It was thought that the recognition of the British claims, involved in the withdrawal of Commandant Toutee, had marked the final abandonment by France of the attempt to establish herself on the navigable portions of the Niger below Bussa, but in 1897 the attempt was renewed in the most determined manner. In February of that year a French force suddenly occupied Bussa, and this act was quickly followed by the occupation of Gomba and Illo higher up the river. In November 1897 Nikki was occupied. The situation on the Niger had so obviously been outgrowing the capacity of a chartered company that for some time before these occurrences the assumption of responsibility for the whole of the Niger region
The Franco-British settlement of 1898.
by the imperial authorities had been practically decided on; and early in 1898 Lugard was sent out to the Niger with a number of imperial officers to raise a local force in preparation for the contemplated change. The advance of the French forces from the south and west was the signal for an advance of British troops from the Niger, from Lagos and from the Gold Coast protectorate. The situation thus created was extremely serious. The British and French flags were flying in close proximity, in some cases in the same village. Meanwhile the diplomatists were busy in London and in Paris, and in the latter capital a commission sat for many months to adjust the conflicting claims. Fortunately, by the tact and forbearance of the officers on both sides, no local incident occurred to precipitate a collision, and on the 14th of June 1898 a convention was signed by Sir Edmund Monson and M. G. Hanotaux which practically completed the partition of this part of the continent.
The settlement effected was in the nature of a compromise. France withdrew from Bussa, Gomba and Illo, the frontier line west of the Niger being drawn from the 9th parallel to a point ten miles, as the crow flies, above Giri, the port of Illo. France was thus shut out from the navigable portion of the middle and lower Niger; but for purely commercial purposes Great Britain agreed to lease to France two small plots of land on the river-the one on the right bank between Leaba and the mouth of the Moshi river, the other at one of the mouths of the Niger. By accepting this line Great Britain abandoned Nikki and a great part of Borgu as well as some part of Gando to France. East of the Niger the Say-Barrua line was modified in favour of France, which gained parts of both Sokoto and Bornu where they meet the southern edge of the Sahara. In the Gold Coast hinterland the French withdrew from Wa, and Great Britain abandoned all claim to Mossi, though the capital of the latter country, together with a further extensive area in the territory assigned to both powers, was declared to be equally free, so far as trade and navigation were concerned, to the subjects and protected persons of both nationalities. The western boundary of the Gold Coast was prolonged along the Black Volta as far as latitude 11 deg. N., and this parallel was followed with slight deflexions to the Togoland frontier. In consequence of the acute crisis which shortly afterwards occurred between France and Great Britain on the upper Nile, the ratification of this agreement was delayed until after the conclusion of the Fashoda agreement of March 1899 already referred to. In 1900 the two patches on the Niger leased to France were selected by commissioners representing the two countries, and in the same year the Anglo-French frontier from Lagos to the west bank of the Niger was delimited.
East of the Niger the frontier, even as modified in 1898, failed to satisfy the French need for a practicable route to Lake Chad, and in the convention of the 8th of April 1904, to which reference has been made under Egypt and Morocco, it was
Further concessions to France.
agreed, as part of the settlement of the French shore question in Newfoundland, to deflect the frontier line more to the south. The new boundary was described at some length, but provision was made for its modification in points of detail on the return of the commissioners engaged in surveying the frontier region. In 1906 an agreement was reached on all points, and the frontier at last definitely settled, sixteen years after the Say-Barrua line had been fixed. This revision of the Niger-Chad frontier did not, however, represent the only territorial compensation received by France in West Africa in connexion with the settlement of the Newfoundland question. By the same convention of April 1904 the British government consented to modify the frontier between Senegal and the Gambia colony ``so as to give to France Yarbutenda and the lands and landing-places belonging to that locality,'' and further agreed to cede to France the tiny group of islands off the coast of French Guinea known as the Los Islands.
Meantime the conclusion of the 1898 convention had left both the British and the French governments free to devote increased attention to the subdivision and control of their West African possessions. On the 1st of January 1900 the imperial authorities assumed direct responsibility for the whole of the territories of the Royal Niger Company, which became henceforth a purely commercial undertaking. The Lagos protectorate was extended northwards; the Niger Coast protectorate, likewise with extended frontiers, became Southern Nigeria; while the greater part of the territories formerly administered by the company were constituted into the protectorate of Northern Nigeria—all three administrations being directly under the Colonial Office In February 1906 the administration of the Southern Nigerian protectorate was placed under that of Lagos at the same time as the name of the latter was changed to the Colony of Southern Nigeria, this being a step towards the eventual
Organization of the British and French protectorates.
amalgamation of all three dependencies under one governor or governor-general. In French West Africa changes in the internal frontiers have been numerous and important. The coast colonies have all been increased in size at the expense of the French Sudan, which has vanished from the maps as an administrative entity. There are carved out of the territories comprised in what is officially known as French West Africa five colonies—Senegal, French Guinea, the Ivory Coast, Dahomey and the Upper Senegal and Niger, this last being entirely cut off from the sea—and the civil territory of Mauritania. To the colony of the Upper Senegal and Niger is attached the military territory of the Niger, embracing the French Sahara up to the limit of the Algerian sphere of influence. Not only are all these divisions of French West Africa connected territorially, but administratively they are united under a governor-general. Similarly the French Congo territories have been divided into three colonies—the Gabun, the Middle Congo and the Ubangi-Shari-Chad—all united administratively under a commissioner-general.
There are, around the coast, numerous islands or groups of islands, which are regarded by geographers as outliers of the
Ownership of the African Islands.
African mainland. The majority of these African islands were occupied by one or other of the European powers long before the period of continental partition. The Madeira Islands to the west of Morocco, the Bissagos Islands, off the Guinea coast, and Prince's Island and St Thomas' Island, in the Gulf of Guinea, are Portuguese possessions of old standing; while in the Canary Islands and Fernando Po Spain possesses remnants of her ancient colonial empire which are a more valuable asset than any she has acquired in recent times on the mainland. St Helena in the Atlantic, Mauritius and some small groups north of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, are British possessions acquired long before the opening of the last quarter of the 19th century. Zanzibar, Pemba and some smaller islands which the sultan was allowed to retain were, as has already been stated, placed under British protection in 1890, and the island of Sokotra was placed under the ``gracious favour and protection'' of Great Britain on the 23rd of April 1886. France's ownership of Reunion dates back to the 17th century, but the Comoro archipelago was not placed under French protection until April 1886. None of these islands, with the exception of the Zanzibar group, have, however, materially affected the partition of the continent, and they need not be enumerated in the table which follows. But the important island of Madagascar stands in a different category, both on account of its size and because it was during the period under review that it passed through the various stages which led to its becoming a French colony. The first step was the placing of the foreign relations of the island under French control, which was effected by the treaty of the 17th of December 1885, after the Franco-Malagasy war that had broken out in 1883. In 1890 Great Britain and Germany recognized a French protectorate over the island, but the Hova government declined to acquiesce in this view, and in May 1895 France sent an expedition to enforce her claims. The capital was occupied on the 30th of September in the same year, and on the day following Queen Ranavalona signed a convention recognizing the French protectorate. In January 1896 the island was declared a French possession, and on the 6th of August was declared to be a French colony. In February 1897 the last vestige of ancient rule was swept away by the deportation of the queen.
Thus in its broad outlines the partition of Africa was begun and ended in the short space of a quarter of a century. There are still many finishing touches to be put to the structure. The southern frontiers of Morocco and Tripoli remain undefined, while the mathematical lines by which the spheres of influence of the powers were separated one from the other are being variously modified on the do ut des principle as they come to be surveyed and as the effective occupation of the continent progresses. Much labour is necessary before the actual area of Africa and its subdivisions can be accurately determined, but in the following table the figures are at least approximately correct. Large areas of the spheres assigned to different European powers have still to be brought under European control; but this work is advancing by rapid strides.
BRITISH— Sq. m.
Cape Colony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276,995
Natal and Zululand . . . . . . . . . . . 35,371
Basutoland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,293
Bechuanaland Protectorate . . . . . . . 225,000
Transvaal and Swaziland . . . . . . . . 117,732
Orange River Colony . . . . . . . . . . 50,392
Rhodesia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450,000
Nyasaland Protectorate . . . . . . . . . 43,608
British East Africa Protectorate . . . . 240,000
Uganda Protectorate . . . . . . . . . . 125,000
Zanzibar Protectorate . . . . . . . . . 1,020
Somaliland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68,000
Northern Nigeria . . . . . . . . . . . 258,000
Southern Nigeria (colony and protectorate) 80,000
Gold Coast and hinterland . . . . . 82,000
Sierre Leone (colony and protectorate) . 34,000
Gambia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,000
Total British Africa . . . . . . . 2,101,411
Egypt and Libyan Desert . . . . . . . . 650,000
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan . . . . . . . . . . 950,000
1,600,000
FRENCH—
Algeria and Algerian Sahara . . . . . . 945,000
Tunisia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51,000
French West Africa—
Senegal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74,000
French Guinea . . . . . . . . . . . . 107,000
Ivory Coast . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129,000
Dahomey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40,000
Upper Senegal and Niger, and
Mauritania (including French West
African Sahara) . . . . 1,581,000 1,931,000
French Congo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700,000
French Somaliland . . . . . . . . . . . 12,000
Madagascar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227,950
Total French Africa . . . . . . . 3,866,950
GERMAN—
East Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364,000
South.West Africa . . . . . . . . . . . 322,450
Cameroon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190,000
Togoland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33,700
Total German Africa . . . . . . . . 910,150
ITALIAN—
Eritrea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60,000
Somaliland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140,000
Total Italian Africa . . . . . . . . 200,000
PORTUGUESE—
Guinea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14,000
West Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480,000
East Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293,500
Total Portuguese Africa . . . . . . 787,500
SPANISH—
Rio de Oro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70,000
Muni River Settlements . . . . . . . . . . 9,800
Total Spanish Africa . . . . . . . . 79,800
BELGIAN—
Congo State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 900,000
TURKISH—
Tripoli and Benghazi . . . . . . . . . . 400,000
SEPARATE STATES—
Liberia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43,000
Morocco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220,000
Abyssinia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350,000
Total Independent Africa . . . . . . 613,000
Thus, collecting the totals, the result of the ``scramble'' has been to divide Africa among the powers as follows:—
Sq. m.
British Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,101,411
Egyptian Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,600,000
French Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,866,950
German Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 910,150
Italian Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200,000
Portuguese Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . 787,500
Spanish Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79,800
Belgian Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . 900,000
Turkish Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400,000
Independent Africa . . . . . . . . . . . 613,000
11,458,811
(J. S. K.)
Commercial treaties between Carthage and Rome were made in the 6th and 5th centuries B.C.. The first armed conflict between the rival powers, begun in 264 B.C., was a contest for the possession of Sicily.