Africa

Later in the same year the British East Africa Company transferred to

Italy—the transference being subsequently approved by the sultan of

Zanzibar—the ports of Brava, Marka, Mukdishu and Warsheik, leased from

Zanzibar. On the 24th of March 1891 an agreement between Italy and Great

Britain fixed the northern bank of the Juba up to latitude 6 deg. N. as the

southern boundary of Italian influence in Somaliland, the boundary being

provisionally prolonged along lines of latitude and longitude to the

intersection of the Blue Nile with 35 deg. E. longitude. On the 15th of

April 1891 a further agreement fixed the northern limit of the Italian

sphere from Ras Kasar on the Red Sea to the point on the Blue Nile just

mentioned. By this agreement Italy was to have the right temporarily to

occupy Kassala, which was left in the Anglo-Egyptian sphere, in trust for

Egypt—a right of which she availed herself in 1894. To complete the work of

delimitation the British and Italian governments, on the 5th of May 1894,

fixed the boundary of the British sphere of influence in Somaliland from

the Anglo-French boundary, which had been settled in February 1888.

But while Great Britain was thus lending her sanction to Italy's

ambitious schemes, the Abyssinian emperor was becoming more and more

incensed at Italy's pretensions to exercise a protectorate over Ethiopia.

In 1893 Menelek denounced the treaty of Uccialli, and eventually, in a

great battle, fought at Adowa on the 1st of March 1896, the Italians were

disastrously defeated. By the subsequent treaty of Adis Ababa, concluded on

the 26th of October 1896, the whole of the country to the

The independence of Abyssinia recognized.

south of the Mareb, Belesa and Muna rivers was restored to Abyssinia, and

Italy acknowledged the absolute independence of Abyssinia. The effect of

this was practically to destroy the value of the Anglo-Italian agreement as

to the boundaries to the south and west of Abyssinia; and negotiations were

afterwards set on foot between the emperor Menelek and his European

neighbours with the object of determining the Abyssinian frontiers. Italian

Somaliland, bordering on the south-eastern frontier of Abyssinia, became

limited to a belt of territory with a depth inland from the Indian Ocean of

from 180 to 250 m. The negotiations concerning the frontier lasted until

1908, being protracted over the question as to the possession of Lugh, a

town on the Juba, which eventually fell to Italy. After the battle of Adowa

the Italian government handed over he administration of the southern part

of the country to the enadir Company, but in January 1905 the government

resumed control and at the same time transformed the leasehold rights it

held from the sultan of Zanzibar into sovereign rights by the payment to

the sultan of L. 144,000. To facilitate her communications with the

interior, Italy also secured from the British government the lease of a

small area of land immediately to the north of Kismayu. In British

Somaliland the frontier fixed by agreement with Italy in 1894 was modified,

in so far as it marched with Abyssinian territory, by an agreement which

Sir Rennell Rodd concluded with the emperor Menelek in 1897. The effect of

this agreement was to reduce the area of British Somaliland from 75,000 to

68,000 sq. m. In the same year France concluded an agreement with the

emperor, which is known to have fixed the frontier of the French Somali

Coast protectorate at a distance of 90 kilometres (56 m.) from the coast.

The determination of the northern, western and southern limits of Abyssinia

proved a more difficult matter. A treaty of July 1900 followed by an

agreement of November 1901 defined the boundaries of Eritrea on the side of

Abyssinia and the Sudan respectively. In certain details the boundaries

thus laid down were modified by an Anglo-Italian-Abyssinian treaty signed

at Adis Ababa on the 15th of May 1902. On the same day another treaty was

signed at the Abyssinian capital by Sir John Harrington, the British

minister plenipotentiary, and the emperor Menelek, whereby the western, or

Sudan-Abyssinian, frontier was defined as far south as the intersection of

6 deg. N. and 35 deg. E. Within the British sphere were left the Atbara up

to Gallabat, the Blue Nile up to Famaka and the Sobat up to the junction of

the Baro and Pibor. While not satisfying Abyssinian claims to their full

extent, the frontier laid down was on the whole more favourable to

Abyssinia than was the line fixed in the Anglo-Italian agreement of 1891.

On the other hand, Menelek gave important economic guarantees and

concessions to the Sudan government.

In Egypt the result of the abolition of the Dual Control was to make

British influence virtually predominant, though theoretically Turkey

remained the suzerain power; and after the reconquest of the Sudan by the

Anglo-Egyptian army a convention between the British and Egyptian

governments was signed at Cairo on the 19th of January 1899, which, inter

alia, provided for the joint use of the British and Egyptian flags in the

territories south of the 22nd parallel of north latitude. From the

international point of view the British position in Egypt was strengthened

by the Anglo-French declaration of the 8th of April 1904. For some time

previously there had been

The Anglo-French agreements of April 1904.

a movement on both sides of the Channel in favour of the settlement of a

number of important questions in which British and French interests were

involved. The movement was no doubt strengthened by the desire to reduce to

their least dimensions the possible causes of trouble between the two

countries at a time when the outbreak of hostilities between Russia (the

ally of France) and Japan (the ally of Great Britain) rendered the European

situation peculiarly delicate. On the 8th of April 1904 there was signed in

London by the British foreign secretary, the marquess of Lansdowne, and the

French ambassador, M. Paul Cambon, a series of agreements relating to

several parts of the globe. Here we are concerned only with the joint

declaration respecting Egypt and Morocco and a convention relating, in

part, to British and French frontiers in West Africa. The latter we shall

have occasion to refer to later. The former, notwithstanding the

declarations embodied in it that there was ``no intention of altering the

political status'' either of Egypt or of Morocco, cannot be ignored in any

account of the partition in Africa. With regard to Egypt the French

government declared ``that they will not obstruct the action of Great

Britain in that country by asking that a limit of time be fixed for the

British occupation or in any other manner.'' France also assented—as did

subsequently the other powers interested—to a khedivial decree simplifying

the international control exercised by the Caisse de la Dette over the

finances of Egypt.

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

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