Africa

ensure that it should in no way conflict with the interests of the

territory that has been taken under German protectorate,'' and Prince

Bismarck was practically invited to say whether British capitalists were or

were not to receive the protection of the British government. The reference

in Lord Granville's despatch was to a proposal made by a number of British

merchants and others who had long been interested in Zanzibar, and who saw

in the rapid advance of Germany a menace to the interests which had

hitherto been regarded as paramount in the sultanate. In 1884 H. H.

Johnston had concluded treaties with the chief of Taveta in the Kilimanjaro

district, and had transferred these treaties to John Hutton of Manchester.

Hutton, with Mr (afterwards Sir William) Mackinnon, was one of the founders

of what subsequently became the Imperial British East Africa Company. But

in the early stages the champions of British interests in East Africa

received no support from their own government, while Germany was pushing

her advantage with the energy of a recent convert to colonial expansion,

and had even, on the coast, opened negotiations with the sultan of Witu, a

small territory situated north of the Tana river, whose ruler claimed to be

independent of Zanzibar. On the 5th of May 1885 the sultan of Witu executed

a deed of sale and cession to a German subject of certain tracts of land on

the coast, and later in the same year other treaties or sales of territory

were effected, by which German subjects acquired rights on the coast-line

claimed by the sultan. Inland, treaties had been concluded on behalf of

Germany with the chiefs of the Kilimanjaro region, and an intimation to

that effect made to the British government. But before this occurred the

German government had succeeded in extracting an acknowledgment of the

validity of the earlier treaties from the sultan of Zanzibar. Early in

August a powerful German squadron appeared off Zanzibar, and on the 14th of

that month the sultan yielded to the inevitable, acknowledged the German

protectorate over Usagara and Witu, and undertook to withdraw his soldiers.

Meanwhile negotiations had been opened for the appointment of an

international commission, ``for the purpose of inquiring

Partition of the sultanate of Zanzibar.

into the claims of the sultans of Zanzibar to sovereignty over certain

territories on the east coast of Africa, and of ascertaining their precise

limits.'' The governments to be represented were Great Britain, France and

Germany, and towards the end of 1885 commissioners were appointed. The

commissioners reported on the 9th of June 1886, and assigned to the sultan

the islands of Zanzibar, Pemba, Lamu, Mafia and a number of other small

islands. On the mainland they recognized as belonging to the sultan a

continuous strip of territory, 10 sea-miles in depth, from the south bank

of the Minengani river, a stream a short distance south of the Rovuma, to

Kipini, at the mouth of the Tana river, some 600 m. in length. North of

Kipini the commissioners recognized as belonging to the sultan the stations

of Kismayu, Brava, Marka and Mukdishu, with radii landwards of 10 sea-

miles, and of Warsheik with a radius of 5 sea-miles. By an exchange of

notes in October—November 1886 the governments of Great Britain and Germany

accepted the reports of the delimitation commissioners, to which the sultan

adhered on the 4th of the following December. But the British and German

governments did more than determine what territories were to be assigned to

the sultanate of Zanzibar. They agreed to a delimitation of their

respective spheres of influence in East Africa. The territory to be

affected by this arrangement was to be bounded on the south by the Rovuma

river, ``and on the north by a line which, starting from the mouth of the

Tana river, follows the course of that river or its affluents to the point

of intersection of the equator and the 38th degree of east longitude,

thence strikes direct to the point of intersection of the 1st degree of

north latitude with the 37th degree of east longitude, where the line

terminates.'' The line of demarcation between the British and the German

spheres of influence was to start from the mouth of the river Wanga or Umba

(which enters the ocean opposite Pemba Island to the north of Zanzibar),

and running north-west was to skirt the northern base of the Kilimanjaro

range, and thence to be drawn direct to the point on the eastern side of

Victoria Nyanza intersected by the 1st degree of south latitude. South of

this line German influence was to prevail; north of the line was the

British sphere. The sultan's dominions having been thus truncated, Germany

associated herself with the recognition of the ``independence'' of Zanzibar

in which France and Great Britain had joined in 1862. The effect of this

agreement was to define the spheres of influence of the two countries as

far as Victoria Nyanza, but it provided no limit westwards, and left the

country north of the Tana river, in which Germany had already acquired some

interests near the coast, open for fresh annexations. The conclusion of the

agreement immediately stimulated the enterprise both of the German East

African Company, to which Peters's earlier treaties had been transferred,

and of the British capitalists to whom reference had been made in Lord

Granville's despatch. The German East African Company was incorporated by

imperial charter in March 1887, and the British capitalists formed

themselves into the British East Africa Association, and on the 24th of May

1887 obtained, through the good offices of Sir William Mackinnon, a

concession of the 10-miles strip of coast from the Umba river in the south

to Kipini in the north. The British association further sought to extend

its rights in the sphere reserved to British influence by making treaties

with the native chiefs behind the coast strip, and for this purpose various

expeditions were sent into the interior. When they had obtained concessions

over the country for some 200 m. inland the associated

Formation of British East Africa.

capitalists applied to the British government for a charter, which was

granted on the 3rd of September 1888, and the association became the

Imperial British East Africa Company (see BRITISH EAST AFRICA).

The example set by the British company in obtaining a lease of the coast

strip between the British sphere of influence and the sea was quickly

followed by the German association, which, on the 28th of April 1888,

concluded an agreement with the sultan Khalifa, who had succeeded his

brother Bargash, by which the association leased the strip of Zanzibar

territory between the German sphere and the sea. It was not,however, until

August that the German officials took over the administration, and their

want of tact and ignorance of native administration almost immediately

provoked a rebellion of so serious a character that it was not suppressed

until the imperial authorities had taken the matter in hand. Shortly after

its suppression the administration was entrusted to an imperial officer,

and the sultan's rights on the mainland strip were bought outright by

Germany for four millions of marks.

Events of great importance had been happening, meanwhile, in the country

to the west and north of the British sphere of influence. The British

company had sent caravans into the interior to survey the country, to make

treaties with the native chiefs and to report on the commercial and

agricultural possibilities. One of these had gone up the Tana river. But

another and a rival expedition was proceeding along the northern bank of

this same river. Karl Peters, whose energy cannot be denied, whatever may

be thought of his methods, set out with an armed caravan up the Tana on the

pretext of leading an expedition to the relief of Emin Pasha, the governor

of the equatorial province of the Egyptian Sudan, then reported to be

hemmed in by the dervishes at Wadelai. His expedition was not sanctioned by

the German government, and the British naval commander had orders to

prevent his landing. But Peters succeeded in evading the British vessels

and proceeded up the river, planting German flags and fighting the natives

who opposed his progress. Early in 1890 he reached Kavirondo, and there

found letters from Mwanga, king of Uganda, addressed to F. J. Jackson, the

leader of an expedition sent out by the British East Africa

Uganda secured by Great Britain.

Company, imploring the company's representative to come to his assistance

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