history]
AFRICA
quent events, what were at this period the designs entertained by the different European Powers that participated in the struggle for Africa. Portugal was striving to retain as large a share as possible of her shadowy empire, and particularly to establish her claims to the Zambezi region, so as to secure a belt of territory across Africa from Mozambique to Angola. Great Britain, once aroused to the imminence of the danger, put forth vigorous efforts in East Africa and on the Niger, but her most ambitious dream was the establishment of an unbroken line of British possessions and spheres of influence from south to north of the continent, from Cape Colony to Egypt. Germany’s ambition can be easily described. It was to secure as much as possible, so as to make up for lost opportunities. French ambitions, apart from Madagascar, were confined to the northern and central portions of the continent. To extend her possessions on the Mediterranean littoral, and to connect them with her colonies in West Africa, the Western Sudan, and on the Congo, by establishing her influence over the vast intermediate regions, was France’s first ambition. But the defeat of the Italians in Abyssinia, and the impending downfall of the Khalifa’s power in the valley of the Upper Nile, suggested a still more daring project to the French Government—none other than the establishment of French influence over a broad belt of territory stretching across the continent from west to east, from Senegal on the Atlantic coast to Jibutil on the Gulf of Aden. These conflicting ambitions could not all be realized, and Germany succeeded in preventing Great Britain from realizing her ambition of a continuous band of British territory from south to north, while Great Britain, by excluding France from the Upper Nile valley, dispelled the French dream of an empire from west to east. It was in the struggle between France and Great Britain for the Upper Nile valley that the ambition of King King Leopold involved the Congo Free State. Leopold The Egyptian Sudan, after the death of Gordon and the in January 1885, was abandoned to the Mahdi. Nile. The Egyptian frontier was withdrawn to WadyHalfa, and the vast provinces of Kordofan, Darfur, and the Bahr-el-Ghazal were given over to Dervish tyranny and misrule. But it was obvious that this was not a state of things which could continue indefinitely. Under the wise guidance of Lord Cromer the finances of Egypt had been placed on a sound basis, and under British officers the despised fellaheen had developed soldierly qualities of which they had before given no sign. That Egypt would seek to recover her position in the Sudan was a foregone conclusion, as the command of the Upper Nile was recognized as essential to her continued prosperity. But the international position of the abandoned provinces was by no means clear. The British Government, by the AngloGerman agreement of July 1890, had secured the assent of Germany to the proposition that the British sphere of influence in East Africa was bounded on the west by the Congo Free State and by “the western watershed of the basin of the Upper Nile but this claim was not recognized either by France or by the Congo Free State. From her base on the Congo, France was busily engaged pushing forward along the northern tributaries of the great river. On 27th April 1887 an agreement was signed with the Congo Free State by which the right bank of the Mobangi river was secured to French influence, and the left bank to the Congo Free State, with this proviso, that the northern boundary of the Free State was not to descend below the fourth parallel of north latitude. The desire of France to secure a footing in the Upper Nile valley was partly due, as we have seen, to her anxiety to extend a French zone across Africa, but it was also and to a large extent
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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. As a step in this direction the Mobangi region was constituted a separate province, under M. Liotard as governor. 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, nor from Uganda, which was too far removed 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 foreign minister, began, and his successor, Lord Kimberley, completed, negotiations with King Leopold The Anglowhich resulted in the conclusion of the Anglo- Congolese Congolese agreement of 12th May 1894. By agreement this agreement King Leopold recognized the 0 British sphere of influence as laid down in the AngloGerman 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-elGhazal province, and to secure after His Majesty’s death a portion of that territory, 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, 151 miles 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, and later troubles as
