secure adjustments in that quarter, and agreements to which Abyssinia, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain, and Italy were parties were made in 1891, 1893, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897, and 1899. In 1900 the demarkation of British and German boundaries in West Africa was completed. By this process of absorption by agreement, the whole African continent has come into actual possession or political control of European States, with the exception of Morocco, Abyssinia, and Liberia. The Orange Free State and the Transvaal lost their independent existence in the war with Groat Britain (1899-1902).
The partition of the African continent may be summarized as follows: In the northeast, Egypt, nominally under Turkish suzerainty, is really under British control, while Egypt and Great Britain exercise a condominium over the eastern Sudan. Barca and Tripoli remain subject to the Porte. Tunis and Algeria pertain to France, whose influence reaches down across the Sahara and Sudan to the northern slope of the Congo basin. On the west coast below Jlorocco is the small Rio d'Ouro possession of Spain. Then come the French Senegal, British Gambia, Portuguese Guinea, French Guinea, the British Sierra Leone, Liberia, another block of French territory, the British Ashanti, German Togoland, French Dahomey, the extensive British Niger territories, and German Kamerun. Off the coast of Kamerun lies the Spanish island of Fernando Po, to which are attached some other small islands and a small district on the mainland cut out of the French Congo territory. Below the latter lies the Congo Free State, with but a small coast line, the wedge of the small Portuguese territory of Kabinda pushed in between it and the French Congo. South of the Congo lies the large Portuguese territory of Angola, then German South Africa, and then Cape Colony, one of the British self-governing possessions. North of the latter on the east coast is the British colony of Natal, and north of that Portuguese East Africa. Between the two latter and German West Africa and Angola, the territories of British South Africa and British Central Africa in the interior extend northward to the Congo State and to German East Africa, which occupies the east coast north of Lake Nyassa and the Ruvuma River. The Orange River and Vaal River colonies adjoin Natal and British South Africa. North of German East Africa lies British East Africa, which touches on the north the British sphere of influence in the Sudan, Abyssinia, and on the coast, Italian Somaliland. West of the latter on the Gulf of Aden is the British Somali coast protectorate, then French Somaliland, and then the Italian Eritrea, the four territories last named shutting Abyssinia off from the coast. The area and population of the African territories possessed or controlled by the European powers are approximately as follows:
| Country. | Square miles. | Population. |
| France | 4,000,000[1] | 32,635,010[1] |
| Great Britain | 2,700,000[2] | 41,773,360 |
| Germany | 1,000,000 | 14,200,000 |
| Portugal | 800,000 | 8,197,790 |
| Italy | 200,000 | 450,000 |
| Spain | 80,000 | 400,000 |
| Turkey | 400,000 | 1,300,000 |
For fuller accounts of the important phases of exploration and political division, see biographical articles relating to the leading explorers, and the historical sections of articles on Abyssinia; Cape of Good Hope; Congo Free State; Egypt; Madagascar; Orange River Colony, and Transvaal.
Bibliography. For general works, consult: Keane, “Africa,” in Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel (London, 1895), a general treatise on the geography, ethnology, etc., of the African continent; Sievers-Hahn, Afrika, eine allgemeine Landeskunde (Leipzig, 1901); Reelus, Physical Geography, translated by Keane and Ravenstein (London, 1890-95); Lanier, L'Afrique (Paris, 1895); Chavanne, Afrika im Lichte unserer Tage (Vienna, 1881); id., Afrikas Ströme und Flüsse (Vienna, 1883); Fischer, Mehr Licht im dunkeln Weltteil (Hamburg, 1885); Hartmann and others, Der Weltteil Afrika in Einzeldarstellungen (Leipzig, 1883-85); Johnston, Africa (London, 1884); Ratzel, Völkerkunde, Volume I. (Leipzig, 1885); Junker, “Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse von Reisen in Zentral Afrika,” in Petermann's Mitteilungen, Ergänzungsheft, Volume XX. (Gotha, 1888); White, The Development of Africa (London, 1892); Greswell, Geography of Africa South of the Zambesi (Oxford, 1892), with notes on the industries, wealth, and social progress of the states and people.
For history and colonization, consult: Neumann, Nord Afrika nach Herodot (Leipzig, 1892); Schülten, Das römische Afrika (Leipzig, 1899); Graham, Roman Africa (London, 1902); Kunstmann, Afrika vor der Ankunft der Portugiesen (Munich, 1853); Brown, The Story of Africa and Its Explorers (London, 1892-95); Roskoschny, Europas Kolonien, Volumes I.-IV. (Leipzig, 1885-86); Keltie, The Partition of Africa (London, 1895); Deville, Portage de l'Afrique (Paris, 1898); Johnston, History of the Colonization of Africa by Alien Races (Cambridge, 1899); Peters, Das deutsch-ostafrikanische Schutzgebiet (Munich, 1895); “British Africa,” in British Empire Series (London, 1899), a collection of papers by different authors compiled to afford trustworthy information concerning the British colonies in Africa.
Ethnology and archæology: Keane, Ethnology (Cambridge, 1896); Deniker, Races of Man (London, 1900); Edwards, A Thousand Miles up the Nile (London, 1891); Hartmann, Die Völker Afrikas (Leipzig, 1879); Natives of South Africa, Their Economic and Social Condition, edited by South African Native Races Committee (London, 1901).
On the flora of Africa, consult: Engler, Ueber die Hochgebirgs-Flora des tropischen Afrikas (Berlin, 1892); Sim, The Ferns of South Africa (Cape Town, 1892); Catalogue of African Plant Collected by Friedrich Welwitsch in 1853-61 (London, 1896-1901); Steiner, “Flechten aus British Ost-Afrika,” in Kais. Akad. d. Wissenschaften. Sitzungsbericht der mathematisch-naturwissenschaftlichen Klasse, Volume CVI., pt. 1 (Vienna, 1897); Oschatz, Anordnung der Vegetation in Afrika (Erlangen, 1900). On the fauna, consult: Smith, Illustrations of the Zoölogy of South Africa, 5 volumes (London, 1849), which includes mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes, and invertebrates; Drummond, Large Game and Natural History of South and East Africa (Edinburgh, 1875); Kolbe, Beitrag zur Zoogeographie West Afrikas (Halle, 1887);
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Including Madagascar (q.v.).
- ↑ Inclusive of Egypt and the Sudan.
