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
the administration of the southern part of the country to the
Benadir 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.
