Afrikagf (Africa), страница 14

The example set by the British company in obtaining a lease of the coast strip between the British sphere of influence and the sea was quickly followed by the German association, which, on the 28th of April 1888, concluded an agreement with the sultan Khalifa, who had succeeded his brother Bargash, by which the association leased the strip of Zanzibar territory between the German sphere and the sea. It was not,however, until August that the German officials took over the administration, and their want of tact and ignorance of native administration almost immediately provoked a rebellion of so serious a character that it was not suppressed until the imperial authorities had taken the matter in hand. Shortly after its suppression the administration was entrusted to an imperial officer, and the sultan's rights on the mainland strip were bought outright by Germany for four millions of marks.

Events of great importance had been happening, meanwhile, in the country to the west and north of the British sphere of influence. The British company had sent caravans into the interior to survey the country, to make treaties with the native chiefs and to report on the commercial and agricultural possibilities. One of these had gone up the Tana river. But another and a rival expedition was proceeding along the northern bank of this same river. Karl Peters, whose energy cannot be denied, whatever may be thought of his methods, set out with an armed caravan up the Tana on the pretext of leading an expedition to the relief of Emin Pasha, the governor of the equatorial province of the Egyptian Sudan, then reported to be hemmed in by the dervishes at Wadelai. His expedition was not sanctioned by the German government, and the British naval commander had orders to prevent his landing. But Peters succeeded in evading the British vessels and proceeded up the river, planting German flags and fighting the natives who opposed his progress. Early in 1890 he reached Kavirondo, and there found letters from Mwanga, king of Uganda, addressed to F. J. Jackson, the leader of an expedition sent out by the British East Africa

Uganda secured by Great Britain.

Company, imploring the company's representative to come to his assistance and offering to accept the British flag. To previous letters, less plainly couched. from the king, Jackson had returned the answer that his instructions were not to enter Uganda, but that he would do so in case of need. The letters that fell into Peters's hands were in reply to those from Jackson. Peters did not hesitate to open the letters, and on reading them he at once proceeded to Uganda, where, with the assistance of the French Roman Catholic priests, he succeeded in inducing Mwanga to sign a loosely worded treaty intended to place him under German protection. On hearing of this Jackson at once set out for Uganda, but Peters did not wait for his arrival, leaving for the south of Victoria Nyanza some days before Jackson arrived at Mengo, Mwanga's capital. As Mwanga would not agree to Jackson's proposals, Jackson returned to the coast, leaving a representative at Mengo to protect the company's interests. Captain (afterwards Sir) F. D. Lugard, who had recently entered the company's employment, was at once ordered to proceed to Uganda. But in the meantime an event of great importance had taken place, the conclusion of the agreement between Great Britain and Germany with reference to their different spheres of influence in various parts of Africa.

The Anglo-German agreement of the 1st of July 1890 has already been referred to and its importance insisted upon. Here we have to deal with the provisions in reference to East Africa. In return for the cession of Heligoland, Lord Salisbury obtained from Germany the recognition of a British protectorate over the dominions of the sultan of Zanzibar, including the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, but excluding the strip leased to Germany, which was subsequently ceded absolutely to Germany. Germany further agreed to withdraw the protectorate declared over Witu and the adjoining coast up to Kismayu in favour of Great Britain, and to recognize as within the British sphere of influence the vast area bounded, on the south by the frontier line laid down in the agreement of 1886, which was to be extended along the first parallel of south latitude across Victoria Nyanza to the frontiers of the Congo Free State, on the west by the Congo Free State and the western watershed of the Nile, and on the north by a line commencing on the coast at the north bank of the mouth of the river Juba, then ascending that bank of the river until it reached the territory at that time regarded as reserved to the influence of Italy13 in Gallaland and Abyssinia, when it followed the frontier of the Italian sphere to the confines of Egypt. To the south-west of the German sphere in East Africa the boundary was formed by the eastern and northern shore of Lake Nyasa, and round the western shore to the mouth of the Songwe river, from which point it crossed the Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau to the southern end of the last-named lake,

Limits of German East Africa defined.

leaving the Stevenson Road on the British side of the boundary. The effect of this treaty was to remove all serious causes of dispute about territory between Germany and Great Britain in East Africa. It rendered quite valueless Peters's treaty with Mwanga and his promenade along the Tana; it freed Great Britain from any fear of German competition to the northwards, and recognized that her influence extended to the western limits of the Nile valley. But, on the other hand, Great Britain had to relinquish the ambition of connecting her sphere of influence in the Nile valley with her possessions in Central and South Africa. On this point Germany was quite obdurate; and, as already stated, an attempt subsequently made (May 1894) to secure this object by the lease of a strip of territory from the Congo Free State was frustrated by German opposition.

Uganda having thus been assigned to the British sphere of influence by the only European power in a position to contest its possession with her, the subsequent history of that region, and of the country between the Victoria Nyanza and the coast, must be traced in the articles on BRITISH EAST AFRICA and UGANDA, but it may be well briefly to record here the following facts:—The Imperial British East Africa Company, finding the burden of administration too heavy for its financial resources, and not receiving the assistance it felt itself entitled to receive from the imperial authorities, intimated that it would be compelled to withdraw at the end of the year 1892. Funds were raised to enable the company to continue its administration until the end of March 1893, and a strong public protest against evacuation compelled the government to determine in favour of the retention of the country. In January 1893 Sir Gerald Portal left the coast as a special commissioner to inquire into the ``best means of dealing with the country, whether through Zanzibar or otherwise.'' On the 31st of March the union jack was raised, and on the 29th of May a fresh treaty was concluded with King Mwanga placing his country under British protection. A formal protectorate was declared over Uganda proper on the 19th of June 1894, which was subsequently extended so as to include the countries westwards towards the Congo Free State, eastwards to the British East Africa protectorate and Abyssinia, and northwards to the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The British East Africa protectorate was constituted in June 1895, when the Imperial British East Africa Company relinquished all its rights in exchange for a money payment, and the administration was assumed by the imperial authorities. On the 1st of April 1902 the eastern province of the Uganda protectorate was transferred to the British East Africa protectorate, which thus secured control of the whole length of the so-called Uganda railway, and at the same time obtained access to the Victoria Nyanza.

Early in the 'eighties, as already seen, Italy had obtained her first formal footing on the African coast at the Bay of Assab

Italy in East Africa.

(Aussa) on the Red Sea. In 1885 the troubles in which Egypt found herself involved compelled the khedive and his advisers to loosen their hold on the Red Sea littoral, and, with the tacit approval of Great Britain, Italy took possession of Massawa and other ports on that coast. By 1888 Italian influence had been extended from Ras Kasar on the north to the northern frontier of the French colony of Obok on the south, a distance of some 650 m. The interior limits of Italian influence were but ill defined, and the negus Johannes (King John) of Abyssinia viewed with anything but a favourable eye the approach of the Italians towards the Abyssinian highlands. In January 1887 an Italian force was almost annihilated at Dogali, but the check only served to spur on the Italian government to fresh efforts.

The Italians occupied Keren and Asmara in the highlands, and eventually, in May 1889, concluded a treaty of peace and friendship with the negus Menelek, who had seized the throne on the death of Johannes, killed in battle with the dervishes in March of the same year. This agreement, known as the treaty of Uccialli, settled the frontiers between Abyssinia and the Italian sphere, and contained the following article:—

XVII. His Majesty the King of Kings of Ethiopia consents to avail himself of the Italian government for any negotiations which he may enter into with the other powers or governments.

In Italy and by other European governments this article was generally regarded as establishing an Italian protectorate over Abyssinia; but this interpretation was never accepted by the emperor Menelek, and at no time did Italy succeed in establishing any very effective control over Abyssinian affairs. North of the Italian coast sphere the Red Sea littoral was still under Egyptian rule, while immediately to the south a small stretch of coast on the Gulf of Tajura constituted the sole French possession on the East African mainland (see SOMALILAND.) Moreover, when Egyptian claims to the Somali coast were withdrawn, Great Britain took the opportunity to establish her influence on the northern Somali coast, opposite Aden. Between the 1st of May 1884 and the 15th of March 1886 ten treaties were concluded, placing under British influence the northern Somali coast from Ras Jibuti on the west to Bandar Ziada on the east. In the meantime Italy, not content with her acquisitions on the Red Sea, had been concluding treaties with the Somali chiefs on the east coast. The first treaty was made with the sultan of Obbia on the 8th of February 1889. 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 24^th 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.