the 22nd of April 1884. There were, however, difficulties
in the way of obtaining the recognition of the European
powers, and in order to obtain that of France, King Leopold,
on the 23rd of April 1884, while labouring under the feelings
of annoyance which had been aroused by the Anglo-Portuguese
treaty concluded by Lord Granville in February, authorized
Colonel Strauch, president of the International Association,
to engage to give France ``the right of preference if, through
unforeseen circumstances, the Association were compelled
to sell its possessions.'' France's formal recognition of
the Association as a government was, however, delayed by
the discussion of boundary questions until the following
February, and in the meantime Germany, Great Britain,
Italy, Austria-Hungary, Holland and Spain had all recognized
the Association; though Germany alone had done so--on the
8th of November--before the assembling of the conference.
The conference assembled at Berlin on the 15th of November
1884, and after protracted deliberations the ``General Act of
The Berlin Conference of 1884-85.
the Berlin Conference'' was signed by the representatives of
all the powers attending the conference, on the 26th of February
1885. The powers represented were Germany, Austria-Hungary,
Belgium, Denmark, Spain, the United States, France, Great
Britain, Italy, Holland, Portugal, Russia, Sweden and
Norway, and Turkey, to name them in the alphabetical order
adopted in the preamble to the French text of the General
Act. Ratifications were deposited by all the signatory powers
with the exception of the United States. It is unnecessary
to examine in detail the results of the labours of the
conference. The General Act dealt with six specific subjects:
(1) freedom of trade in the basin of the Congo, (2) the slave
trade, (3) neutrality of territories in the basin of the Congo,
(4) navigation of the Congo, (5) navigation of the Niger,
(6) rules for future occupation on the coasts of the African
continent. It will be seen that the act dealt with other
matters than the political partition of Africa; but, so far as
they concern the present purpose, the results effected by the
Berlin Act may be summed up as follows. The signatory powers
undertook that any fresh act of taking possession on any portion
of the African coast must be notified by the power taking
possession, or assuming a protectorate, to the other signatory
powers. It was further provided that any such occupation to be
valid must be effective. It is also noteworthy that the first
reference in an international act to the obligations attaching
to ``spheres of influence'' is contained in the Berlin Act.
It will be remembered that when the conference assembled,
the International Association of the Congo had only been
Constitution of the Congo State.
recognized as a sovereign state by the United States and
Germany. But King Leopold and his agents had taken full
advantage of the opportunity which the conference afforded,
and before the General Act was signed the Association had
been recognized by all the signatory powers, with the not
very important exception of Turkey, and the fact communicated
to the conference by Colonel Strauch. It was not, however,
until two months later, in April 1885, that King Leopold,
with the sanction of the Belgian legislature, formally assumed
the headship of the new state; and on the 1st of August
in the same year His Majesty notified the powers that from
that date the ``Independent State of the Congo'' declared
that ``it shall be perpetually neutral'' in conformity
with the provisions of the Berlin Act. Thus was finally
constituted the Congo Free State, under the sovereignty of
King Leopold, though the boundaries claimed for it at that
time were considerably modified by subsequent agreements.
From 1885 the scramble among the powers went on with renewed
vigour, and in the fifteen years that remained of the
The chief partition treaties.
century the work of partition, so far as international
agreements were concerned, was practically completed. To
attempt to follow the process of acquisition year by year
would involve a constant shifting of attention from one part
of the continent to another, inasmuch as the scramble was
proceeding simultaneously all over Africa. It will therefore
be the most convenient plan to deal with the continent in
sections. Before doing so, however, the international
agreements which determined in the main the limits of the
possessions of the various powers may be set forth. They
are:-- I. The agreement of the 1st of July 1890 between Great
Britain and Germany defining their spheres of influence in
East, West and South-West Africa. This agreement was the
most comprehensive of all the ``deals'' in African territory,
and included in return for the recognition of a British
protectorate over Zanzibar the cession of Heligoland to Germany.
II. The Anglo-French declaration of the 5th of August 1890, which
recognized a French protectorate over Madagascar, French influence
in the Sahara, and British influence between the Niger and Lake Chad.
III. The Anglo-Portuguese treaty of the 11th of June
1891, whereby the Portuguese possessions on the west
and east coasts were separated by a broad belt of
British territory, extending north to Lake Tanganyika.
IV. The Franco-German convention of the 15th of March 1894, by
which the Central Sudan was left to France (this region by an
Anglo-German agreement of the 15th of November 1893 having been
recognized as in the German sphere). By this convention France
was able to effect a territorial )unction of her possessions
in North and West Africa with those in the Congo region.
V. Protocols of the 24th of March and the 15th of April 1891,
for the demarcation of the Anglo-Italian spheres in East Africa.
VI. The Anglo-French convention of the 14th of June 1898,
for the delimitation of the possessions of the two countries
west of Lake Chad, with the supplementary declaration
of the 21st of March 1899 whereby France recognized the
upper Nile valley as in the British sphere of influence.
Coming now to a more detailed consideration of the operations
of the powers, the growth of the Congo Free State, which
The growth of the Congo State.
occupied, geographically, a central position, may serve as the
starting-point for the story of the partition after the Berlin
conference. In the notification to the powers of the 1st of
August 1885, the boundaries of the Free State were set out in
considerable detail. The limits thus determined resulted partly
from agreements made with France, Germany and Portugal, and
partly from treaties with native chiefs. The state acquired
the north bank of the Congo from its mouth to a point in the
unnavigable reaches, and in the interior the major part of
the Congo basin. In the north-east the northern limit was 4 deg.
N. up to 30 deg. E., which formed the eastern boundary of, the
state. The south-eastern frontier claimed by King Leopold
extended to Lakes Tanganyika, Mweru and Bangweulu, but it
was not until some years later that it was recognized and
defined by the agreement of May 1894 with Great Britain.
The international character of King Leopold's enterprise had
not long been maintained, and his recognition as sovereign
of the Free State confirmed the distinctive character
which the Association had assumed, even before that event.
In April 1887 France was informed that the right of pre-emption
accorded to her in 1884 had not been intended by King Leopold
to prejudice Belgium's right to acquire the Congo State,
and in reply the French minister at Brussels took note of
the explanation, ``in so far as this interpretation is not
contrary to pre-existing international engagements.'' By his
will, dated the 2nd of August 1889, King Leopold made Belgium
formally heir to the sovereign rights of the Congo Free
State. In 1895 an annexation bill was introduced into the
Belgian parliament, but at that time Belgium had no desire to
assume responsibility for the Congo State, and the bill was
withdrawn. In 1901, by the terms of a loan granted in
1890, Belgium had again an opportunity of annexing the Congo
State, but a bill in favour of annexation was opposed by the
government and was withdrawn after King Leopold had declared
that the time was not ripe for the transfer. Concessionaire
companies and a Domaine de la Couronne had been created
in the state, from which the sovereign derived considerable
revenues--facts which helped to explain the altered attitude
of Leopold II. The agitation in Great Britain and America
against the Congo system of government, and the admissions of an
official commission of inquiry concerning its maladministration,
strengthened, however, the movement in favour of transfer.
Nevertheless in June 1906 the king again declared himself
opposed to immediate annexation. But under pressure of public
opinion the Congo government concluded, 28th of November
1907, a new annexation treaty. As it stipulated for the
continued existence of the crown domain the treaty provoked
vehement opposition. Leopold II. was forced to yield, and
an additional act was signed, 5th of March 1908, providing
for the suppression of the domain in return for financial
subsidies. The treaty, as amended, was approved by the
Belgian parliament in the session of 1908. Thus the Congo
state, after an existence of 24 years as an independent
power, became a Belgian colony. (See CONGO FREE STATE.)
The area of the Free State, vast as it was, did not suffice to
satisfy the ambition of its sovereign. King Leopold maintained
that the Free State enjoyed equally with any other state the
right to extend its frontiers. His ambition involved the
state in the struggle between Great Britain and France for
the upper Nile. To understand the situation it is necessary
to remember the condition of the Egyptian Sudan at that
time. The mahdi, Mahommed Ahmed, had preached a holy war
against the Egyptians, and, after the capture of Khartum and
the death of General C. G. Gordon, the Sudan was abandoned
to the dervishes. The Egyptian frontier was withdrawn to
Wadi Haifa, and the vast provinces of Kordofan, Darfur and
the Bahr-el-Ghazal were given over to dervish tyranny and
misrule. It was obvious that Egypt would sooner or later
seek to recover her position in the Sudan, as the command of
the upper Nile was recognized as essential to her continued
prosperity. But the international position of the abandoned
provinces was by no means clear. The British government,
by the Anglo-German agreement of July 1890, had secured the
assent of Germany to the statement that the British sphere
of influence in East Africa was bounded on the west by the
Congo Free State and by ``the western watershed of the basin
of the upper Nile''; but this claim was not recognized either
by France or by the Congo Free State. From her base on the
Congo, France was busily engaged pushing forward along the
northern tributaries of the great river. On the 27th of April
1887 an agreement was signed with the Congo Free State by
which the right bank of the Ubangi river was secured to French
influence, and the left bank to the Congo Free State. The
desire of France to secure a footing in the upper Nile valley
was partly due, as has been seen, to her anxiety to extend
a French zone across Africa, but it was also and to a large
The contest for the upper Nile.
extent attributable to the belief, widely entertained in
France, that by establishing herself on the upper Nile France
