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Anglo-Portuguese disputes in Central Africa. of centuries by hastily organized expeditions and the hoisting of flags. In
1888 an attempt to close the Zambezi to British vessels was frustrated by the firmness of Lord Salisbury. In a despatch to the British minister at
Lisbon, dated the 25th of June 1888, Lord Salisbury, after brushing aside the Portuguese claims founded on doubtful discoveries three centuries old, stated the British case in a few sentences:—
It is (he wrote) an undisputed point that the recent discoveries of the
English traveller, Livingstone, were followed by organized attempts on the part of English religious and commercial bodies to open up and civilize the districts surrounding and adjoining the lake. Many British settlements have been established, the access to which from the sea is by the rivers Zambezi and Shire. Her Majesty's government and the British public are much interested in the welfare of these settlements. Portugal does not occupy, and has never occupied, any portion of the lake, nor of the Shire; she has neither authority nor influence beyond the confluence of the Shire and
Zambezi, where her interior custom-house, now withdrawn, was placed by the terms of the Mozambique Tariff of 1877.
In 1889 it became known to the British government that a considerable
Portuguese expedition was being organized under the command of Major Serpa
Pinto, for operating in the Zambezi region. In answer to inquiries addressed to the Portuguese government, the foreign minister stated that the object of the expedition was to visit the Portuguese settlements on the upper Zambezi. The British government was, even so late as 1889, averse from declaring a formal protectorate over the Nyasa region; but early in that year H. H. (afterwards Sir Harry) Johnston was sent out to Mozambique as British consul, with instructions to travel in the interior and report on the troubles that had arisen with the Arabs on Lake Nyasa and with the
Portuguese. The discovery by D. J. Rankin in 1889 of a navigable mouth of the Zambezi—the Chinde—and the offer by Cecil Rhodes of a subsidy of L.
10,000 a year from the British South Africa Company, removed some of the objections to a protectorate entertained by the British government; but
Johnston's instructions were not to proclaim a protectorate unless circumstances compelled him to take that course. To his surprise Johnston learnt on his arrival at the Zambezi that Major Serpa Pinto's expedition had been suddenly deflected to the north. Hurrying forward, Johnston overtook the Portuguese expedition and warned its leader that any attempt to establish political influence north of the Ruo river would compel him to take steps to protect British interests. On arrival at the Ruo, Major Serpa
Pinto returned to Mozambique for instructions, and in his absence
Lieutenant Coutinho crossed the river, attacked the Makololo chiefs and sought to obtain possession of the Shire highlands by a coup de main. John
Buchanan, the British vice-consul, lost no time in declaring the country under British protection, and his action was subsequently confirmed by
Johnston on his return from a treaty-making expedition on Lake Nyasa. On the news of these events reaching Europe the British government addressed an ultimatum to Portugal, as the result of which Lieutenant Coutinho's action was disavowed, and he was ordered to withdraw the Portuguese forces south of the Ruo. After prolonged negotiations, a convention was signed between Great Britain and Portugal on the 20th of August 1890, by which
Great Britain obtained a broad belt of territory north of the Zambezi, stretching from Lake Nyasa on the east, the southern end of Tanganyika on the north, and the Kabompo tributary of the Zambezi on the west; while south of the Zambezi Portugal retained the right bank of the river from a point ten miles above Zumbo, and the western boundary of her territory south of the river was made to coincide roughly with the 33rd degree of east longitude. The publication of the convention aroused deep resentment in Portugal, and the government, unable to obtain its ratification by the chamber of deputies, resigned. In October the abandonment of the convention was accepted by the new Portuguese ministry as a fait accompli; but on the
14th of November the two governments signed an agreement for a modus vivendi, by which they engaged to recognize the territorial limits indicated in the convention of 20th August ``in so far that from the date of the present agreement

British and Portuguese spheres defined.

to the termination thereof neither Power will make treaties, accept protectorates, nor exercise any act of sovereignty within the spheres of influence assigned to the other party by the said convention.'' The breathing-space thus gained enabled feeling in Portugal to cool down, and on the 11th of June 1891 another treaty was signed, the ratifications being exchanged on the 3rd of July, As already stated, this is the main treaty defining the British and Portuguese spheres both south and north of the
Zambezi. It contained many other provisions relating to trade and navigation, providing, inter alia, a maximum transit duty of 3% on imports and exports crossing Portuguese territories on the east coast to the
British sphere, freedom of navigation of the Zambezi and Shire for the ships of all nations, and stipulations as to the making of railways, roads and telegraphs. The territorial readjustment effected was slightly more favourable to Portugal than that agreed upon by the 1890 convention.
Portugal was given both banks of the Zambezi to a point ten miles west of
Zumbo—the farthest settlement of the Portuguese on the river. South of the
Zambezi the frontier takes a south and then an east course till it reaches the edge of the continental plateau, thence running, roughly, along the line of 33 deg. E. southward to the north-eastern frontier of the
Transvaal. Thus by this treaty Portugal was left in the possession of the coast-lands, while Great Britain maintained her right to Matabele and
Mashona lands. The boundary between the Portuguese sphere of influence on the west coast and the British sphere of influence north of the Zambezi was only vaguely indicated; but it was to be drawn in such a manner as to leave the Barotse country within the British sphere, Lewanika, the paramount chief of the Marotse, claiming that his territory extended much farther to the west than was admitted by the Portuguese. In August 1903 the question what were the limits of the Barotse kingdom was referred to the arbitration of the king of Italy. By his award, delivered in June 1905, the western limit of the British sphere runs from the northern frontier of German South-
West Africa up the Kwando river to 22 deg. E., follows that meridian north to 13 deg. S., then runs due east to 24 deg. E., and then north again to the frontier of the Congo State.
Before the conclusion of the treaty of June 1891 with Portugal, the
British government had made certain arrangements for the administration of the large area north of the Zambezi reserved to British influence. On the
1st of February Sir Harry Johnston was appointed imperial commissioner in
Nyasaland, and a fortnight later the British South Africa Company intimated a desire to extend its operations north of the Zambezi. Negotiations followed, and the field of operations of the Chartered Company was, on the
2nd of April 1891, extended so as to cover (with the exception of
Nyasaland) the whole of the British sphere of influence north of the
Zambezi (now known as Northern Rhodesia). On the 14th of May a formal protectorate was declared over Nyasaland, including the Shire highlands and a belt of territory extending along the whole of the western shore of Lake
Nyasa. The name was changed in 1893 to that of the British Central Africa
Protectorate, for which designation was substituted in 1907 the more appropriate title of Nyasaland Protectorate.
At the date of the assembling of the Berlin conference the German government had notified that the coast-line on the

Germany's share of South Africa. south-west of the continent, from the Orange river to Cape Frio, had been placed under German protection. On the 13th of April 1885 the German South-
West Africa Company was constituted under an order of the imperial cabinet with the rights of state sovereignty, including mining royalties and rights, and a railway and telegraph monopoly. In that and the following years the Germans vigorously pursued the business of treaty-making with the native chiefs in the interior; and when, in July 1890, the British and
German governments came to an agreement as to the limits of their respective spheres of influence in various parts of Africa, the boundaries of German South-West Africa were fixed in their present position. By
Article III. of this agreement the north bank of the Orange river up to the point of its intersection by the 20th degree of east longitude was made the southern boundary of the German sphere of influence. The eastern boundary followed the 20th degree of east longitude to its intersection by the 22nd parallelof south latitude, then ran eastwards along that parallel to the point of its intersection by the 21st degree of east longitude. From that point it ran northwards along the last-named meridian to the point of its intersection by the 18th parallel of south latitude, thence eastwards along that parallel to the river Chobe or Kwando, and along the main channel of that river to its junction with the Zambezi, where it terminated. The northern frontier marched with the southern boundary of Portuguese West
Africa. The object of deflecting the eastern boundary near its northern termination was to give Germany access by her own territory to the upper waters of the Zambezi, and it was declared that this strip of territory was at no part to be less than 20 English miles in width.
To complete the survey of the political partition of Africa south of the
Zambezi, it is necessary briefly to refer to the events

Fate of the Dutch Republics. connected with the South African Republic and the Orange Free State. In
October 1885 the British government made an agreement with the New
Republic, a small community of Boer farmers who had in 1884-85 seized part of Zululand and set up a government of their own, defining the frontier between the New Republic and Zululand; but in July 1888 the New Republic was incorporated in the South African Republic. In a convention of July-
August 1890 the British government and the government of the South African
Republic confirmed the independence of Swaziland, and on the 8th of
November 1893 another convention was signed with the same object; but on the 19th of December 1894 the British government agreed to the South
African Republic exercising ``all rights and powers of protection, legislation, jurisdiction and administration over Swaziland and the inhabitants thereof,'' subject to certain conditions and provisions, and to the non-incorporation of Swaziland in the Republic. In the previous
September Pondoland had been annexed to Cape Colony; on the 23rd of April
1895 Tongaland was declared by proclamation to be added to the dominions of
Queen Victoria, and in December 1897 Zululand and Tongaland, or
Amatongaland, were incorporated with the colony of Natal. The history of the events that led up to the Boer War of 1899-1902 cannot be recounted here (see TRANSVAAL, History), but in October 1899 the South African
Republic and the Orange Free State addressed an ultimatum to Great Britain and invaded Natal and Cape Colony. As a result of the military operations that followed, the Orange Free State was, on the 28th of May 1900, proclaimed by Lord Roberts a British colony under the name ``Orange River
Colony,'' and the South African Republic was on the 25th of October 1900 incorporated in the British empire as the ``Transvaal Colony.'' In January
1903 the districts of Vryheid (formerly the New Republic), Utrecht and part of the Wakkerstroom district, a tract of territory comprising in all about
7000 sq. m., were transferred from the Transvaal colony to Natal. In 1907 both the Transvaal and Orange River Colony were granted responsible government.
On the east coast the two great rivals were Germany and Great Britain.
Germany on the 30th of December 1886, and Great

Anglo-German rivalry in East Africa.
Britain on the 11th of June 1891, formally recognized the Rovuma river as the northern boundary of the Portuguese sphere of influence on that coast; but it was to the north of that river, over the vast area of East or East
Central Africa in which the sultan of Zanzibar claimed to exercise suzerainty, that the struggle between the two rival powers was most acute.
The independence of the sultans of Zanzibar had been recognized by the governments of Great Britain and France in 1862, and the sultan's authority extended almost uninterruptedly along the coast of the mainland, from Cape
Delgado in the south to Warsheik on the north—a stretch of coast more than a thousand miles long—though to the north the sultan's authority was confined to certain ports. In Zanzibar itself, where Sir John Kirk,
Livingstone's companion in his second expedition, was British consul- general, British influence was, when the Berlin conference met, practically supreme, though German traders had established themselves on the island and created considerable commercial interests. Away from the coasts the limits and extent of the sultan's authority were far from being clearly defined.
The sultanhimself claimed that it extended as far as Lake Tanganyika, but the claim did not rest on any very solid ground of effective occupation.
The little-known region of the Great Lakes had for some time attracted the attention of the men who were directing the colonial movement in Germany; and, as has been stated, a small band of pioneers actually landed on the mainland opposite Zanzibar in November 1884, and made their first
``treaty'' with the chief of Mbuzini on the 19th of that month Pushing up the Wami river the three adventurers reached the Usagara country, and concluded more ``treaties,'' the net result being that when, in the middle of December, Karl Peters returned to the coast he brought back with him documents which were claimed to concede some 60,000 sq. m. of country to the German Colonization Society. Peters hurried back to Berlin, and on the
17th of February 1885 the German emperor issued a ``Charter of Protection'' by which His Majesty accepted the suzerainty of the newly-acquired territory, and ``placed under our Imperial protection the territories in question.'' The conclusion of these treaties was, on the 6th of March, notified to the British government and to the sultan of Zanzibar.
Immediately on receipt of the notification the sultan telegraphed an energetic protest to Berlin, alleging that the places placed under German protection had belonged to the sultanate of Zanzibar from the time of his fathers. The German consul-general refused to admit the sultan's claims, and meanwhile agents of the German society were energetically pursuing the task of treaty-making. The sultan (Seyyid Bargash) despatched a small force to the disputed territory, which was subsequently withdrawn, and in May sent a more imposing expedition under the command of General Lloyd Mathews, the commander-in-chief of the Zanzibar army, to the Kilimanjaro district, in order to anticipate the action of German agents. Meanwhile Lord
Granville, then at the British Foreign Office, had

Lord Granville's complaisance towards Germany. taken up an extremely friendly attitude towards the German claims. Before these events the sultan of Zanzibar had, on more than one occasion, practically invited Great Britain to assume a protectorate over his dominions. But the invitations had been declined. Egyptian affairs were, in the year 1885, causing considerable anxiety to the British government, and the fact was not without influence on the attitude of the British foreign secretary. On the 25th of May 1885, in a despatch to the British ambassador at Berlin, Lord Granville instructed Sir E. Malet to communicate the views of the British cabinet to Prince Bismarck:—
I have to request your Excellency to state that the supposition that Her
Majesty's Government have no intention of opposing the German scheme of colonization in the neighbourhood of Zanzibar is absolutely correct. Her
Majesty's Government, on the contrary, view with favour these schemes, the realization of which will entail the civilization of large tracts over which hitherto no European influence has been exercised, the co-operation of Germany with Great Britain in the work of the suppression of the slave gangs, and the encouragement of the efforts of the Sultan both in the extinction of the slave trade and in the commercial development of his dominions.
In the same despatch Lord Granville instructed Sir E. Malet to intimate to the German government that some prominent capitalists had originated a plan for a British settlement in the country between the coast and the lakes, which are the sources of the White Nile, ``and for its connexion with the coast by a railway.'' But Her Majesty's government would not accord to these prominent capitalists the support they had called for,
``unless they were fully satisfied that every precaution was taken to ensure that it should in no way conflict with the interests of the territory that has been taken under German protectorate,'' and Prince
Bismarck was practically invited to say whether British capitalists were or were not to receive the protection of the British government. The reference in Lord Granville's despatch was to a proposal made by a number of British merchants and others who had long been interested in Zanzibar, and who saw in the rapid advance of Germany a menace to the interests which had hitherto been regarded as paramount in the sultanate. In 1884 H. H.
Johnston had concluded treaties with the chief of Taveta in the Kilimanjaro district, and had transferred these treaties to John Hutton of Manchester.
Hutton, with Mr (afterwards Sir William) Mackinnon, was one of the founders of what subsequently became the Imperial British East Africa Company. But in the early stages the champions of British interests in East Africa received no support from their own government, while Germany was pushing her advantage with the energy of a recent convert to colonial expansion, and had even, on the coast, opened negotiations with the sultan of Witu, a small territory situated north of the Tana river, whose ruler claimed to be independent of Zanzibar. On the 5th of May 1885 the sultan of Witu executed 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
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 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

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