Africa

point of its intersection by the 20th degree of east longitude was made the

southern boundary of the German sphere of influence. The eastern boundary

followed the 20th degree of east longitude to its intersection by the 22nd

parallelof south latitude, then ran eastwards along that parallel to the

point of its intersection by the 21st degree of east longitude. From that

point it ran northwards along the last-named meridian to the point of its

intersection by the 18th parallel of south latitude, thence eastwards along

that parallel to the river Chobe or Kwando, and along the main channel of

that river to its junction with the Zambezi, where it terminated. The

northern frontier marched with the southern boundary of Portuguese West

Africa. The object of deflecting the eastern boundary near its northern

termination was to give Germany access by her own territory to the upper

waters of the Zambezi, and it was declared that this strip of territory was

at no part to be less than 20 English miles in width.

To complete the survey of the political partition of Africa south of the

Zambezi, it is necessary briefly to refer to the events

Fate of the Dutch Republics.

connected with the South African Republic and the Orange Free State. In

October 1885 the British government made an agreement with the New

Republic, a small community of Boer farmers who had in 1884-85 seized part

of Zululand and set up a government of their own, defining the frontier

between the New Republic and Zululand; but in July 1888 the New Republic

was incorporated in the South African Republic. In a convention of July-

August 1890 the British government and the government of the South African

Republic confirmed the independence of Swaziland, and on the 8th of

November 1893 another convention was signed with the same object; but on

the 19th of December 1894 the British government agreed to the South

African Republic exercising ``all rights and powers of protection,

legislation, jurisdiction and administration over Swaziland and the

inhabitants thereof,'' subject to certain conditions and provisions, and to

the non-incorporation of Swaziland in the Republic. In the previous

September Pondoland had been annexed to Cape Colony; on the 23rd of April

1895 Tongaland was declared by proclamation to be added to the dominions of

Queen Victoria, and in December 1897 Zululand and Tongaland, or

Amatongaland, were incorporated with the colony of Natal. The history of

the events that led up to the Boer War of 1899-1902 cannot be recounted

here (see TRANSVAAL, History), but in October 1899 the South African

Republic and the Orange Free State addressed an ultimatum to Great Britain

and invaded Natal and Cape Colony. As a result of the military operations

that followed, the Orange Free State was, on the 28th of May 1900,

proclaimed by Lord Roberts a British colony under the name ``Orange River

Colony,'' and the South African Republic was on the 25th of October 1900

incorporated in the British empire as the ``Transvaal Colony.'' In January

1903 the districts of Vryheid (formerly the New Republic), Utrecht and part

of the Wakkerstroom district, a tract of territory comprising in all about

7000 sq. m., were transferred from the Transvaal colony to Natal. In 1907

both the Transvaal and Orange River Colony were granted responsible

government.

On the east coast the two great rivals were Germany and Great Britain.

Germany on the 30th of December 1886, and Great

Anglo-German rivalry in East Africa.

Britain on the 11th of June 1891, formally recognized the Rovuma river as

the northern boundary of the Portuguese sphere of influence on that coast;

but it was to the north of that river, over the vast area of East or East

Central Africa in which the sultan of Zanzibar claimed to exercise

suzerainty, that the struggle between the two rival powers was most acute.

The independence of the sultans of Zanzibar had been recognized by the

governments of Great Britain and France in 1862, and the sultan's authority

extended almost uninterruptedly along the coast of the mainland, from Cape

Delgado in the south to Warsheik on the north—a stretch of coast more than

a thousand miles long—though to the north the sultan's authority was

confined to certain ports. In Zanzibar itself, where Sir John Kirk,

Livingstone's companion in his second expedition, was British consul-

general, British influence was, when the Berlin conference met, practically

supreme, though German traders had established themselves on the island and

created considerable commercial interests. Away from the coasts the limits

and extent of the sultan's authority were far from being clearly defined.

The sultanhimself claimed that it extended as far as Lake Tanganyika, but

the claim did not rest on any very solid ground of effective occupation.

The little-known region of the Great Lakes had for some time attracted the

attention of the men who were directing the colonial movement in Germany;

and, as has been stated, a small band of pioneers actually landed on the

mainland opposite Zanzibar in November 1884, and made their first

``treaty'' with the chief of Mbuzini on the 19th of that month Pushing up

the Wami river the three adventurers reached the Usagara country, and

concluded more ``treaties,'' the net result being that when, in the middle

of December, Karl Peters returned to the coast he brought back with him

documents which were claimed to concede some 60,000 sq. m. of country to

the German Colonization Society. Peters hurried back to Berlin, and on the

17th of February 1885 the German emperor issued a ``Charter of Protection''

by which His Majesty accepted the suzerainty of the newly-acquired

territory, and ``placed under our Imperial protection the territories in

question.'' The conclusion of these treaties was, on the 6th of March,

notified to the British government and to the sultan of Zanzibar.

Immediately on receipt of the notification the sultan telegraphed an

energetic protest to Berlin, alleging that the places placed under German

protection had belonged to the sultanate of Zanzibar from the time of his

fathers. The German consul-general refused to admit the sultan's claims,

and meanwhile agents of the German society were energetically pursuing the

task of treaty-making. The sultan (Seyyid Bargash) despatched a small force

to the disputed territory, which was subsequently withdrawn, and in May

sent a more imposing expedition under the command of General Lloyd Mathews,

the commander-in-chief of the Zanzibar army, to the Kilimanjaro district,

in order to anticipate the action of German agents. Meanwhile Lord

Granville, then at the British Foreign Office, had

Lord Granville's complaisance towards Germany.

taken up an extremely friendly attitude towards the German claims. Before

these events the sultan of Zanzibar had, on more than one occasion,

practically invited Great Britain to assume a protectorate over his

dominions. But the invitations had been declined. Egyptian affairs were, in

the year 1885, causing considerable anxiety to the British government, and

the fact was not without influence on the attitude of the British foreign

secretary. On the 25th of May 1885, in a despatch to the British ambassador

at Berlin, Lord Granville instructed Sir E. Malet to communicate the views

of the British cabinet to Prince Bismarck:—

I have to request your Excellency to state that the supposition that Her

Majesty's Government have no intention of opposing the German scheme of

colonization in the neighbourhood of Zanzibar is absolutely correct. Her

Majesty's Government, on the contrary, view with favour these schemes, the

realization of which will entail the civilization of large tracts over

which hitherto no European influence has been exercised, the co-operation

of Germany with Great Britain in the work of the suppression of the slave

gangs, and the encouragement of the efforts of the Sultan both in the

extinction of the slave trade and in the commercial development of his

dominions.

In the same despatch Lord Granville instructed Sir E. Malet to intimate

to the German government that some prominent capitalists had originated a

plan for a British settlement in the country between the coast and the

lakes, which are the sources of the White Nile, ``and for its connexion

with the coast by a railway.'' But Her Majesty's government would not

accord to these prominent capitalists the support they had called for,

``unless they were fully satisfied that every precaution was taken to

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