of the French Sudan, which has vanished from the maps as
an administrative entity. There are carved out of the
territories comprised in what is officially known as French
West Africa five colonies--Senegal, French Guinea, the Ivory
Coast, Dahomey and the Upper Senegal and Niger, this last
being entirely cut off from the sea--and the civil territory of
Mauritania. To the colony of the Upper Senegal and Niger
is attached the military territory of the Niger, embracing
the French Sahara up to the limit of the Algerian sphere of
influence. Not only are all these divisions of French West
Africa connected territorially, but administratively they
are united under a governor-general. Similarly the French
Congo territories have been divided into three colonies--the
Gabun, the Middle Congo and the Ubangi-Shari-Chad--all
united administratively under a commissioner-general.
There are, around the coast, numerous islands or groups of
islands, which are regarded by geographers as outliers of the
Ownership of the African Islands.
African mainland. The majority of these African islands were
occupied by one or other of the European powers long before
the period of continental partition. The Madeira Islands
to the west of Morocco, the Bissagos Islands, off the Guinea
coast, and Prince's Island and St Thomas' Island, in the
Gulf of Guinea, are Portuguese possessions of old standing;
while in the Canary Islands and Fernando Po Spain possesses
remnants of her ancient colonial empire which are a more
valuable asset than any she has acquired in recent times on the
mainland. St Helena in the Atlantic, Mauritius and some
small groups north of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, are
British possessions acquired long before the opening of the
last quarter of the 19th century. Zanzibar, Pemba and some
smaller islands which the sultan was allowed to retain were,
as has already been stated, placed under British protection in
1890, and the island of Sokotra was placed under the ``gracious
favour and protection'' of Great Britain on the 23rd of April
1886. France's ownership of Reunion dates back to the 17th
century, but the Comoro archipelago was not placed under French
protection until April 1886. None of these islands, with the
exception of the Zanzibar group, have, however, materially
affected the partition of the continent, and they need not
be enumerated in the table which follows. But the important
island of Madagascar stands in a different category, both on
account of its size and because it was during the period under
review that it passed through the various stages which led to
its becoming a French colony. The first step was the placing
of the foreign relations of the island under French control,
which was effected by the treaty of the 17th of December
1885, after the Franco-Malagasy war that had broken out in
1883. In 1890 Great Britain and Germany recognized a French
protectorate over the island, but the Hova government declined
to acquiesce in this view, and in May 1895 France sent an
expedition to enforce her claims. The capital was occupied on
the 30th of September in the same year, and on the day following
Queen Ranavalona signed a convention recognizing the French
protectorate. In January 1896 the island was declared a
French possession, and on the 6th of August was declared to
be a French colony. In February 1897 the last vestige of
ancient rule was swept away by the deportation of the queen.
Thus in its broad outlines the partition of Africa was begun
and ended in the short space of a quarter of a century.
There are still many finishing touches to be put to the
structure. The southern frontiers of Morocco and Tripoli remain
undefined, while the mathematical lines by which the spheres
of influence of the powers were separated one from the other
are being variously modified on the do ut des principle as
they come to be surveyed and as the effective occupation of
the continent progresses. Much labour is necessary before the
actual area of Africa and its subdivisions can be accurately
determined, but in the following table the figures are at least
approximately correct. Large areas of the spheres assigned
to different European powers have still to be brought under
European control; but this work is advancing by rapid strides.
BRITISH-- Sq. m.
Cape Colony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276,995
Natal and Zululand . . . . . . . . . . . 35,371
Basutoland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,293
Bechuanaland Protectorate . . . . . . . 225,000
Transvaal and Swaziland . . . . . . . . 117,732
Orange River Colony . . . . . . . . . . 50,392
Rhodesia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450,000
Nyasaland Protectorate . . . . . . . . . 43,608
British East Africa Protectorate . . . . 240,000
Uganda Protectorate . . . . . . . . . . 125,000
Zanzibar Protectorate . . . . . . . . . 1,020
Somaliland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68,000
Northern Nigeria . . . . . . . . . . . 258,000
Southern Nigeria (colony and protectorate) 80,000
Gold Coast and hinterland . . . . . 82,000
Sierre Leone (colony and protectorate) . 34,000
Gambia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,000
Total British Africa . . . . . . . 2,101,411
Egypt and Libyan Desert . . . . . . . . 650,000
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan . . . . . . . . . . 950,000
1,600,000
FRENCH--
Algeria and Algerian Sahara . . . . . . 945,000
Tunisia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51,000
French West Africa--
Senegal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74,000
French Guinea . . . . . . . . . . . . 107,000
Ivory Coast . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129,000
Dahomey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40,000
Upper Senegal and Niger, and
Mauritania (including French West
African Sahara) . . . . 1,581,000 1,931,000
French Congo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700,000
French Somaliland . . . . . . . . . . . 12,000
Madagascar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227,950
Total French Africa . . . . . . . 3,866,950
GERMAN--
East Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364,000
South.West Africa . . . . . . . . . . . 322,450
Cameroon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190,000
Togoland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33,700
Total German Africa . . . . . . . . 910,150
ITALIAN--
Eritrea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60,000
Somaliland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140,000
Total Italian Africa . . . . . . . . 200,000
PORTUGUESE--
Guinea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14,000
West Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480,000
East Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293,500
Total Portuguese Africa . . . . . . 787,500
SPANISH--
Rio de Oro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70,000
Muni River Settlements . . . . . . . . . . 9,800
Total Spanish Africa . . . . . . . . 79,800
BELGIAN--
Congo State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 900,000
TURKISH--
Tripoli and Benghazi . . . . . . . . . . 400,000
SEPARATE STATES--
Liberia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43,000
Morocco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220,000
Abyssinia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350,000
Total Independent Africa . . . . . . 613,000
Thus, collecting the totals, the result of the ``scramble''
has been to divide Africa among the powers as follows:--
Sq. m.
British Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,101,411
Egyptian Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,600,000
French Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,866,950
German Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 910,150
Italian Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200,000
Portuguese Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . 787,500
Spanish Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79,800
Belgian Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . 900,000
Turkish Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400,000
Independent Africa . . . . . . . . . . . 613,000
11,458,811
(J. S. K.)
1 Commercial treaties between Carthage and Rome were
made in the 6th and 5th centuries B.C.. The first
armed conflict between the rival powers, begun in 264
B.C., was a contest for the possession of Sicily.
2 This river was called by the Portuguese the Zaire.
They appear to have made no attempt to trace its course
beyond the rapids which stop navigation from the sea.
3 France acquired, as stations for her ships on the
voyage to and from India, settlements in Madagascar and the
neighbouring islands. The first settlement was made in 1642.
4 The Association, in 1831, was merged in the Royal Geographical Society.
5 The Mamelukes, whom the Turks had overthrown in the
16th century, had regained practically independent power.
6 In imitation of the British example, an American society
founded in 1822 the negro colony (now republic) of Liberia.
7 The first territorial acquisition made by Great Britain
in this region was in 1851, when Lagos Island was annexed.
8 As early as 1848 an Arab from Zanzibar journeying
across the continent had arrived at Benguella.
9 Another great traveller of this stamp was Wilhelm Junker, who spent
the greater part of the period 1875-1886 in the east central Sudan.
10 Specially appointed to consider West African affairs.
11 See the tables in Behm and Wagner's
Bevolkerung der Erde (Gotha, 1872).
12 in 1887 this society united with the German Colonial
Society, an organization founded in 1882. The united
society took the title of the German Colonial Company.
13 At this period negotiations between Great
Britain and Italy had begun but were not concluded.
14 This association, formed in 1878 by a union of associations
primarily intended for the exploration of Africa, ceased to exist in 1891.
VI. EXPLORATION AND SURVEY SINCE 1875
In giving the history of the partition of the continent,
the later work of exploration, except where, as in the
case of de Brazza's expeditions, it had direct political
consequences, has of necessity not been told. The results
achieved during and after the period of partition may now be
indicated. Stanley's great journey down the Congo in
1875-1876 initiated a new era in African exploration. The
numbers of travellers soon became so great that the once
marvellous feat of crossing the continent from sea to sea
became common. With increased knowledge and much ampler
means of communication trans-African travel now presents few
difficulties. While d'Anville and other cartographers of
the 18th century, by omitting all that was uncertain, had
left a great blank on the map, the work accomplished since
1875 has filled it with authentic topographical details.
Moreover surveys of high accuracy have been made at several
points. As the work of exploration and survey progressed
journeys of startling novelty became impossible--save in
the eastern Sahara, where the absence of water and boundless
wastes of sand render exploration more difficult, perhaps,
than in any other region of the globe. Within their
respective spheres of influence each power undertook detailed
surveys, and the most solid of the latest accessions to
knowledge have resulted from the labours of hard-working
colonial officials toiling individually in obscurity. Their
work it is impossible here to recognize adequately; the
following lines record only the more obvious achievements.
The relation of the Congo basin to the neighbouring river
systems was brought out by the journeys of many travellers.
