history]
AFRICA
that country. But this German ambition conflicted both with the British and the French designs in West Africa, and eventually Germany had to be content with the 11th parallel as her northern frontier. On the west the Togoland frontier on the coast was fixed in July 1886 by British and German commissioners at 1° 10' E. longitude, and its extension towards the interior laid down for a short distance. By a further agreement in 1888 the boundary was extended so as to leave the district of Towe, Kowe, and Agotime within the German sphere, and to include the countries of Aquamoo and Crepee within the British protectorate. A neutral zone farther north was also agreed upon at the same time. The agreement of 1st July 1890, already so frequently referred to, defined the limits up to this neutral zone • but it was not until November 1899 that, as part of the Samoa Settlement, this neutral zone was partitioned between the two Powers in such a manner as to leave the important trading centre of Salaga to Great Britain and that of Yendi to Germany. At the same time the territory to the north of the neutral zone up to the 11th parallel was divided between the Gold Coast and Togoland, and the present limits of both colonies were then definitely determined. The story of the struggle between France and Great Britain in West Africa may roughly be divided into two Anglosections, the first dealing with the Coast French colonies, the second dealing with the struggle competition for the Middle Niger and Lake Chad. As re ar Africa* g ds the coast colonies, France was wholly successful in her design of isolating all Great Britain’s separate possessions in that region, and of securing for herself undisputed possession of the Upper Niger and of the countries lying within the great bend of that river. When too late, the British Government awoke to the consciousness of what was at stake; but France had obtained too great a start. French governors of the Senegal had succeeded, before the Berlin Conference, in establishing forts on the Upper Niger, and the advantage thus gained was steadily pursued. Every winter season French posts were pushed farther and farther along the river, or in the vast regions watered by the southern tributaries of the Senegal and Niger rivers. The two most formidable chiefs encountered by France were Ahmadu, a son of the famous El-Haj-Omar, and Samory, a man of humble origin who had risen by force of character to be the ruler of an immense area of country in the Upper Niger basin. Campaign after campaign was fought against this formidable chief .by Gallieni, Desbordes, Frey, Archinard, and other French officers; but it was not until September 1898 that Samory’s power was finally broken, and he himself captured. In 1887 the Almamy of Futa Jallon, who had formerly been anxious to obtain British protection, signed a treaty placing the whole of that mountainous region under French protection. Simultaneously with her military operations France undertook a series of splendid exploring expeditions in the Niger countries. In 1888-90 Captain Binger traversed the regions between the Upper Niger and the Guinea Coast, making treaties all along his route. In the campaign of 1890-91 Sego, one of Ahmadu’s principal towns, was captured by Colonel Archinard. In 1891-92 Captain Monteil traversed the Niger bend from west to east, and from Say made his way to Lake Chad, returning to Europe across the Sahara to the Mediterranean. In December 1893 Timbuktu was occupied by Colonel Bonnier, in defiance of the order of the civil authorities, and every year saw one or more fresh expeditions launched by France, regardless of cost, into the Niger basin. This ceaseless activity met with its reward. Great Britain found herself compelled to acknowledge accomplished facts
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and to conclude agreements with France, which left her colonies mere coast patches, with a very limited extension towards the interior. On the 10th August 1889 an agreement was signed by which the Gambia colony and protectorate was confined to a narrow strip of territory on both banks of the river for about 200 miles from the sea. In June 1882 and in August 1889 provisional agreements were made with France fixing the western and northern limits of Sierra Leone, and commissioners were appointed to trace the line of demarcation agreed upon by the two Governments. But the commissioners failed to agree, and on the 21st January 1895 a fresh agreement was made, the boundary being subsequently traced by a mixed commission. Sierra Leone, as now definitely constituted, has a coast-line of about 180 miles and a maximum extension towards the interior of some 200 miles. At the date of the Berlin Conference the present colonies of Lagos and the Gold Coast constituted a single colony under the title of the Gold Coast Colony, but on the 13th January 1886 the Gold Coast Settlements were erected into a separate colony. The coast limits of the new colony were declared to extend from 5° W. longitude to 2° E. longitude, but these limits were subsequently curtailed by agreements with France and Germany. We have already followed the course of the arrangements that fixed the eastern frontier of the Gold Coast Colony and its hinterland in connexion with German Togoland. On the western frontier it inarches with the French colony of the Ivory Coast, and in August 1889 the two Governments agreed that the frontier should start from the neighbourhood of the Tanoe lagoon, and river of the same name, and should be prolonged to the 9th degree of north latitude in accordance with the treaties concluded by the two Governments with the natives, Great Britain being allowed full liberty of action as regards the Ashantis. Commissioners having failed to agree as to the delimitation of the frontier, plenipotentiaries were appointed in Europe by the two Governments, and on the 12th July 1893 an agreement was signed setting out in detail the course of the frontier up to the 9th degree of north latitude. In August 1896, following the destruction of the Ashanti power and the deportation of King Prempeh, as a result of the second Ashanti campaign, a British protectorate was declared over the whole of the Ashanti territories and a Resident was installed at Kumassi. But no northern limit had been fixed by the 1893 agreement beyond the 9th parallel, and the countries to the north—Gurunsi (Grusi), Mossi, and Gurma—were entered from all sides by rival British, French, and German expeditions. The conflicting claims established by these rival expeditions may, however, best be considered in connexion with the struggle for supremacy on the Middle Niger, and in the Chad region, to which we must now turn. A few days before the meeting of the Berlin Conference Sir George Goldie had succeeded in buying up all the French interests on the Lower Niger. The British company’s influence had at that date JJ'.e MiddIe been extended by treaties with the native chiefs take Chad. up the main Niger stream to its junction with the Benue, and some distance along this latter river. But the great lulah States of the Central Sudan were still outside European influence, and this fact did not escape attention in Germany. German merchants had been settled for some years on the coast, and one of them, Herr Flegel, had displayed great interest in, and activity on, the river. He recognized that in the densely-populated States of the Middle Niger, Sokoto and Gando, and in Bornu to the west of Lake Chad, there was a magnificent field for Germany’s new-born colonizing zeal. The German African Society and the German Colonial Society listened
