Any estimate of the area of African territory held by European
nations in 1875 is necessarily but approximate, and varies chiefly
as the compiler of statistics rejects or accepts the
vague claims of Portugal to sovereignty over the
hinterland of her coast possessions. At that periodThe division of the continent
in 1875.
other European nations—with the occasional exception
of Great Britain—were indifferent to Portugal’s pretensions,
and her estimate of her African empire as covering
over 700,000 sq. m. was not challenged.[1]
But the area under effective control of Portugal at that time
did not exceed 40,000 sq. m. Great Britain then held some
250,000 sq. m., France about 170,000 sq. m. and Spain 1000 sq.
m. The area of the independent Dutch republics (the Transvaal
and Orange Free State) was some 150,000 sq. m., so that the
total area of Africa ruled by Europeans did not exceed 1,271,000 sq. m.;
roughly one-tenth of the continent. This estimate,
as it admits the full extent of Portuguese claims and does not
include Madagascar, in reality considerably overstates the case.
Egypt and the Egyptian Sudan, Tunisia and Tripoli were subject in differing ways to the overlordship of the sultan of Turkey, and with these may be ranked, in the scale of organized governments, the three principal independent states, Morocco, Abyssinia and Zanzibar, as also the negro republic of Liberia. There remained, apart from the Sahara, roughly one half of Africa, lying mostly within the tropics, inhabited by a multitude of tribes and peoples living under various forms of government and subject to frequent changes in respect of political organization. In this region were the negro states of Ashanti, Dahomey and Benin on the west coast, the Mahommedan sultanates of the central Sudan, and a number of negro kingdoms in the east central and south central regions. Of these Uganda on the north-west shores of Victoria Nyanza, Cazembe and Muata Hianvo (or Yanvo) may be mentioned. The two last-named kingdoms occupied respectively the south-eastern and south-western parts of the Congo basin. In all this vast region the Negro and Negro-Bantu races predominated, for the most part untouched by Mahommedanism or Christian influences. They lacked political cohesion, and possessed neither the means nor the inclination to extend their influence beyond their own borders. The exploitation of Africa continued to be entirely the work of alien races.
The causes which led to the partition of Africa may now be
considered. They are to be found in the economic and political
state of western Europe at the time. Germany,
strong and united as the result of the Franco-Prussian
War of 1870, was seeking new outlets for her energies—new
Causes which led
to partition.
markets for her growing industries, and with the markets, colonies.
Yet the idea of colonial expansion was of slow growth in
Germany, and when Prince Bismarck at length acted Africa was
the only field left to exploit, South America being protected
from interference by the known determination of the United
States to enforce the Monroe Doctrine, while Great Britain,
France, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain already held
most of the other regions of the world where colonization was
possible. For different reasons the war of 1870 was also the
starting-point for France in the building up of a new colonial
empire. In her endeavour to regain the position lost in
that war France had to look beyond Europe. To the two causes
mentioned must be added others. Great Britain and Portugal,
when they found their interests threatened, bestirred themselves,
while Italy also conceived it necessary to become an African
power. Great Britain awoke to the need for action too late to
secure predominance in all the regions where formerly hers was
the only European influence. She had to contend not only with
the economic forces which urged her rivals to action, but had
also to combat the jealous opposition of almost every European
nation to the further growth of British power. Italy alone
acted throughout in cordial co-operation with Great Britain.
It was not, however, the action of any of the great powers of Europe which precipitated the struggle. This was brought about by the ambitious projects of Leopold II, king of the Belgians. The discoveries of Livingstone, Stanley and others had aroused especial interest among two classes of men in western Europe, one the manufacturing and trading class, which saw in Central Africa possibilities of commercial development, the other the philanthropic and missionary class, which beheld in the newly discovered lands millions of savages to Christianize and civilize. The possibility of utilizing both these classes in the creation of a vast state, of which he should be the chief, formed itself in the mind of Leopold II. even before Stanley had navigated the Congo. The king’s action was immediate; it proved successful; but no sooner was the nature of his project understood in Europe than it provoked the rivalry of France and Germany, and thus the international struggle was begun.
At this point it is expedient, in the light of subsequent events, to set forth the designs then entertained by the 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 Conflicting ambitions
of the
European powers.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 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. Italy coveted Tripoli, but that province could not be seized without risking war. For the rest Italy’s territorial ambitions were confined to North-East Africa, where she hoped to acquire a dominating, influence over Abyssinia. 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
- ↑ See the tables in Behm and Wagner’s Bevölkerung der Erde (Gotha, 1872).
