for this belief it can scarcely be doubted that the rest of
the unoccupied coast-line would have been promptly declared
under British protection. Still Prince Bismarck was slow to
act. In November the German ambassador again inquired if Great
Britain made any claim over this coast, and Lord Granville
replied that Her Majesty exercised sovereignty only over
certain parts of the coast, as at Walfish Bay, and suggested
that arrangements might be made by which Germany might assist
in the settlement of Angra Pequena. By this time Luderitz
had extended his acquisitions southwards to the Orange river,
which had been declared by the British government to be the
northern frontier of Cape Colony. Both at the Cape and in
England it was now realized that Germany had broken away from
her former purely continental policy, and, when too late, the
Cape parliament showed great eagerness to acquire the territory
which had lain so long at its very doors, to be had for the
taking. It is not necessary to follow the course-of the
subsequent negotiations. On the 15th of August 1884 an
official note was addressed by the German consul at Capetown
to the high commissioner, intimating that the German emperor
had by proclamation taken ``the territory belonging to Mr
A. Luderitz on the west coast of Africa under the direct
protection of His Majesty.'' This proclamation covered the
coast-line from the north bank of the Orange river to 26 deg. S.
latitude, and 20 geographical miles inland, including ``the
islands belonging thereto by the law of nations.'' On the
8th of September 1884 the German government intimated to Her
Majesty's government ``that the west coast of Africa from
26 deg. S. latitude to Cape Frio, excepting Walfish Bay, had
been placed under the protection of the German emperor.''
Thus, before the end of the year 1884, the foundations of
Germany's colonial empire had been laid in South-West Africa.
In April of that year Prince Bismarck intimated to the British
government, through the German charge d'affaires in London,
Nachtigal's mission to West Africa.
that ``the imperial consul-general, Dr Nachtigal, has been
commissioned by my government to visit the west coast of
Africa in the course of the next few months, in order to
complete the information now in the possession of the Foreign
Office at Berlin, on the state of German commerce on that
coast. With this object Dr Nachtigal will shortly embark at
Lisbon, on board the gunboat `Mowe.' He will put himself into
communication with the authorities in the British possessions
on the said coast, and is authorized to conduct, on behalf of
the imperial government, negotiations connected with certain
questions. I venture,'' the official communication proceeds,
``in accordance with my instructions, to beg your excellency
to be so good as to cause the authorities in the British
possessions in West Africa to be furnished with suitable
recommendations.'' Although at the date of this communication
it must have been apparent, from what was happening in South
Africa, that Germany was prepared to enter on a policy of
colonial expansion, and although the wording of the letter was
studiously vague, it does not seem to have occurred to the British
government that the real object of Gustav Nachtigal's journey
was to make other annexations on the west coast. Yet such was
indeed his mission. German traders and missionaries had been
particularly active of late years on the coast of the Gulf of
Guinea. German factories were dotted all along the coast in
districts under British protection, under French protection
and under the definite protection of no European power at
all. It was to these latter places that Nachtigal turned his
attention. The net result of his operations was that on
the 5th of July 1884 a treaty was signed with the king of
Togo, placing his country under German protection, and that
just one week later a German protectorate was proclaimed
over the Cameroon district. Before either of these events
had occurred Great Britain had become alive to the fact that
she could no longer dally with the subject, if she desired
to consolidate her possessions in West Africa. The British
government had again and again refused to accord native
chiefs the protection they demanded. The Cameroon chiefs
had several times asked for British protection, and always in
vain. But at last it became apparent, even to the official
mind, that rapid changes were being effected in Africa,
and on the 16th of May Edward Hyde Hewett, British consul,
received instructions to return to the west coast and to make
arrangements for extending British protection over certain
regions. He arrived too late to save either Togoland or
Cameroon, in the latter case arriving five days after King
Bell and the other chiefs on the river had signed treaties with
Nachtigal. But the British consul was in time to secure the
delta of the river Niger and the Oil Rivers District, extending
from Rio del Rey to the Lagos frontier, where for a long
period British traders had held almost a monopoly of the trade.
Meanwhile France, too, had been busy treaty-making. While
the British government still remained under the spell of the
French and British rivalry in West Africa.
fatal resolution of 1865, the French government was strenuously
endeavouring to extend France's influence in West Africa, in
the countries lying behind the coastline. During the year
1884 no fewer than forty-two treaties were concluded with
native chiefs, an even larger number having been concluded
in the previous twelve months. In this fashion France was
pushing on towards Timbuktu, in steady pursuance of the
policy which resulted in surrounding all the old British
possessions in West Africa with a continuous band of French
territory. There was, however, one region on the west coast
where, notwithstanding the lethargy of the British government,
British interests were being vigorously pushed, protected and
consolidated. This was on the lower Niger, and the leading
spirit in the enterprise was Mr Goldie Taubman (afterwards
Sir George Taubman Goldie). In 1877 Sir George Goldie visited
the Niger and conceived the idea of establishing a settled
government in that region. Through his efforts the various
trading firms on the lower Niger formed themselves in 1879
into the ``United African Company,'' and the foundations
were laid of something like settled administration. An
application was made to the British government for a charter in
1881, and the capital of the company increased to a million
sterling. Henceforth the company was known as the ``National
African Company,'' and it was acknowledged that its object
was not only to develop the trade of the lower Niger,
but to extend its operations to the middle reaches of the
river, and to open up direct relations with the great Fula
empire of Sokoto and the smaller states associated with
Sokoto under a somewhat loosely defined suzerainty. The
great development of trade which followed the combination
of British interests carried out under Goldie's skilful
guidance did not pass unnoticed in France, and, encouraged by
Gambetta, French traders made a bold bid for a position on the
river. Two French companies, with ample capital, were
formed, and various stations were established on the lower
Niger. Goldie realized at once the seriousness of the
situation, and lost no time in declaring commercial war on the
newcomers. His bold tactics were entirely successful, and a
few days before the meeting of the Berlin conference he had
the satisfaction of announcing that he had bought out the
whole of the French interests on the river, and that Great
Britain alone possessed any interests on the lower Niger.
To complete the survey of the political situation in Africa at
the time the plenipotentiaries met at Berlin, it is necessary to
The position in Tunisia and Egypt.
refer briefly to the course of events in North and East
Africa since 1875. In 1881 a French army entered Tunisia,
and compelled the bey to sign a treaty placing that country
under French protection. The sultan of Turkey formally
protested against this invasion of Ottoman rights, but the
great powers took no action, and France was left in undisturbed
possession of her newly acquired territory. In Egypt the
extravagance of Ismail Pasha had led to the establishment in
1879, in the interests of European bondholders, of a Dual
Control exercised by France and Great Britain. France had,
however, in 1882 refused to take part in the suppression
of a revolt under Arabi Pasha, which England accomplished
unaided. As a consequence the Dual Control had been abolished
in January 1883, since when Great Britain, with an army
quartered in the country, had assumed a predominant position
in Egyptian affairs (see EGYPT.) In East Africa, north of
the Portuguese possessions, where the sultan of Zanzibar was
the most considerable native potentate, Germany was secretly
preparing the foundations of her present colony of German East
Africa. But no overt act had warned Europe of what was
impending. The story of the foundation of German East Africa
is one of the romances of the continent. Early in 1884 the
Society for German Colonization was founded, with the avowed
object of furthering the newly awakened colonial aspirations
of the German people.12 It was a society inspired and
controlled by young men, and on the 4th of November 1884,
eleven days before the conference assembled at Berlin, three
young Germans arrived as deck passengers at Zanzibar. They
were disguised as mechanics, but were in fact Dr Karl Peters,
the president of the Colonization Society, Joachim Count
Pfeil, and Dr Juhlke, and their stock-in-trade consisted of
a number of German flags and a supply of blank treaty forms.
They proposed to land on the mainland opposite Zanzibar, and
The German flag raised in East Africa.
to conclude treaties in the back country with native chiefs
placing their territories under German protection. The
enterprise was frowned upon by the German government;
but, encouraged by German residents at Zanzibar, the three
young pioneers crossed to the mainland, and on the 19th of
November, while the diplomatists assembled at Berlin were
solemnly discussing the rules which were to govern the game of
partition, the first ``treaty'' was signed at Mbuzini, and
the German flag raised for the first time in East Africa.
Italy had also obtained a footing on the African continent
before the meeting of the Berlin conference. The Rubattino
Steamship Company as far back as 1870 had bought the port of
Assab as a coaling station, but it was not until 1882 that
it was declared an Italian colony. This was followed by the
conclusion of a treaty with the sultan of Assab, chief of the
Danakil, signed on the 15th of March 1883, and subsequently
approved by the king of Shoa, whereby Italy obtained the
cession of part of Ablis (Aussa) on the Red Sea, Italy
undertaking to protect with her fleet the Danakil littoral.
One other event must be recorded as happening before the
meeting of the Berlin conference. The king of the Belgians had
Recognition of the International Association.
been driven to the conclusion that, if his African enterprise
was to obtain any measure of permanent success, its international
status must be recognized. To this end negotiations were
opened with various governments. The first government to
``recognize the flag of the International Association of the
Congo as the flag of a friendly government'' was that of the
United States, its declaration to that effect bearing date
