Africa

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 could regain the position in

Egyptian affairs which she had sacrificed in 1882. With these strong

inducements France set steadily to work to consolidate her position on the

tributary streams of the upper Congo basin, preparatory to crossing into

the valley of the upper Nile. Meanwhile a similar advance was being made

from the Congo Free State northwards and eastwards. King Leopold had two

objects in view—-to obtain control of the rich province of the Bahr-el-

Ghazal and to secure an outlet on the Nile. Stations were established on

the Welle river, and in February 1891 Captain van Kerckhoven left

Leopoldville for the upper Welle with the most powerful expedition which

had, up to that time, been organized by the Free State. After some heavy

fighting the expedition reached the Nile in September 1892, and opened up

communications with the remains of the old Egyptian garrison at Wadelai.

Other expeditions under Belgian officers penetrated into the Bahr-el-

Ghazal, and it was apparent that King Leopold proposed to rely on effective

occupation as an answer to any claims which might be advanced by either

Great Britain or France. The news of what was happening in this remote

region Of Africa filtered through to Europe very slowly, but King Leopold

was warned on several occasions that Great Britain would not recognize any

claims by the Congo Free State on the Bahr-el-Ghazal. The difficulty was,

however, that neither from Egypt, whence the road was barred by the khalifa

(the successor of the mahdi), nor from Uganda, which was far too remote

from the coast to serve as the base of a large expedition, could a British

force be despatched to take effective occupation of the upper Nile valley.

There was, therefore, danger lest the French should succeed in establishing

themselves on the upper Nile before the preparations which were being made

in Egypt for ``smashing'' the khalifa were completed.

In these circumstances Lord Rosebery, who was then British foreign

minister, began, and his successor, the 1st earl of

The Anglo-Congolese agreement of 1894.

Kimberley, completed, negotiations with King Leopold which resulted in the

conclusion of the Anglo-Congolese agreement of 12th May 1894. By this

agreement King Leopold recognized the British sphere of influence as laid

down in the Anglo-German agreement of July 1890, and Great Britain granted

a lease to King Leopold of certain territories in the western basin of the

upper Nile, extending on the Nile from a point on Lake Albert to Fashoda,

and westwards to the Congo-Nile watershed. The practical effect of this

agreement was to give the Congo Free State a lease, during its sovereign's

lifetime, of the old Bahr-el-Ghazal province, and to secure after His

Majesty's death as much of that territory as lay west of the 30th meridian,

together with access to a port on Lake Albert, to his successor. At the

same time the Congo Free State leased to Great Britain a strip of

territory, 15 1/2 m. in breadth, between the north end of Lake Tanganyika

and the south end of Lake Albert Edward. This agreement was hailed as a

notable triumph for British diplomacy. But the triumph was short-lived. By

the agreement of July 1890 with Germany, Great Britain had been reluctantly

compelled to abandon her hopes of through communication between the British

spheres in the northern and southern parts of the continent, and to Consent

to the boundary of German East Africa marching with the eastern frontier of

the Congo Free State. Germany frankly avowed that she did not wish to have

a powerful neighbour interposed between herself and the Congo Free State.

It was obvious that the new agreement would effect precisely what Germany

had declined to agree to in 1890. Accordingly Germany protested in such

vigorous terms that, on the 22nd of June 1894, the offending article was

withdrawn by an exchange of notes between Great Britain and the Congo Free

State. Opinion in France was equally excited by the new agreement. It was

obvious that the lease to the Congo Free State was intended to exclude

France from the Nile by placing the Congo Free State as a barrier across

her path. Pressure was brought to bear on King Leopold, from Paris, to

renounce the rights acquired under the agreement, and on the 14th of August

1894 King Leopold signed an agreement with France by which, in exchange for

France's acknowledgment of the Mbomu river as his northern frontier, His

Majesty renounced all occupation and all exercise of political influence

west of 30 deg. E., and north of a line drawn from that meridian to the

Nile along 5 deg. 30' N.

This left the way still open for France to the Nile, and in June 1896

Captain J. Marchand left France with secret instructions to lead an

expedition into the Nile valley. On the 1st of March in the following year

he left Brazzaville, and began a journey which all but plunged Great

Britain and France into war. The difficulties which Captain Marchand had to

overcome were mainly those connected with transport. In October 1897 the

expedition reached the banks of the Sue, the waters of which eventually

flow into the Nile. Here a post was established and the ``Faidherbe,'' a

steamer which had been carried across the Congo-Nile watershed in sections,

was put together and launched. On the 1st of May 1898 Marchand started on

the final stage of his journey, and reached Fashoda on the 10th of July,

having established a chain of posts en route. At Fashoda the French flag

was at once raised, and a ``treaty'' made with the local chief. Meanwhile

other expeditions had been concentrating on

The French at Fashoda.

Fashoda—a mud-flat situated in a swamp, round which for many months raged

the angry passions of two great peoples. French expeditions, with a certain

amount of assistance from the emperor Menelek of Abyssinia, had been

striving to reach the Nile from the east, so as to join hands with Marchand

and complete the line of posts into the Abyssinian frontier. In this,

however, they were unsuccessful. No better success attended the expedition

under Colonel (afterwards Sir) Ronald Macdonald, R.E., sent by the British

government from Uganda to anticipate the French in the occupation of the

upper Nile. It was from the north that claimants arrived to dispute with

the French their right to Fashoda, and all that the occupation of that

dismal post implied. In 1896 an Anglo-Egyptian army, under the direction of

Sir Herbert (afterwards Lord) Kitchener, had begun to advance southwards

for the reconquest of the Egyptian Sudan. On the 2nd of September 1898

Khartum was captured, and the khalifa's army dispersed. It was then that

news reached the Anglo-Egyptian commander, from native sources, that there

were white men flying a strange flag at Fashoda. The sirdar at once

proceeded in a steamer up the Nile, and courteously but firmly requested

Captain Marchand to remove the French flag. On his refusal the Egyptian

flag was raised close to the French flag, and the dispute was referred to

Europe for adjustment between the British and French governments. A

critical situation ensued. Neither government was inclined to give way, and

for a time war seemed imminent. Happily Lord Salisbury was able to

announce, on the 4th of November, that France was willing to recognize the

British claims, and the incident was finally closed on the 21st of March

1899, when an Anglo-French declaration was signed, by the terms of which

France withdrew from the Nile valley and accepted a boundary line which

satisfied her earlier ambition by uniting the whole of her territories in

North, West and Central Africa into a homogeneous whole, while effectually

preventing the realization of her dream of a transcontinental empire from

west to east. By this declaration it was agreed that the dividing line

between the British and French spheres, north of the Congo Free State,

should follow the Congo-Nile water-parting up to its intersection with the

11th parallel of north latitude, from which point it was to be ``drawn as

far as the 15th parallel in such a manner as to separate in principle the

kingdom of Wadai from what constituted in 1882 the province of Darfur,''

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