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
