of German flags and a supply of blank treaty forms. They proposed to land on the mainland opposite Zanzibar, and to conclude treaties in the back country with native chiefs placing their territories under German protection. The
The German flag raised in East Africa.
enterprise was frowned upon by the German government; but, encouraged by German residents at Zanzibar, the three young pioneers crossed to the mainland, and on the 19th of November, while the diplomatists assembled at Berlin were solemnly discussing the rules which were to govern the game of partition, the first “treaty” was signed at Mbuzini, and the German flag raised for the first time in East Africa.
Italy had also obtained a footing on the African continent before the meeting of the Berlin conference. The Rubattino Steamship Company as far back as 1870 had bought the port of Assab as a coaling station, but it was not until 1882 that it was declared an Italian colony. This was followed by the conclusion of a treaty with the sultan of Assab, chief of the Danakil, signed on the 15th of March 1883, and subsequently approved by the king of Shoa, whereby Italy obtained the cession of part of Ablis (Aussa) on the Red Sea, Italy undertaking to protect with her fleet the Danakil littoral.
One other event must be recorded as happening before the meeting of the Berlin conference. The king of the Belgians had been driven to the conclusion that, if his African enterprise was to obtain any measure of permanent success, its international status must be recognized. To this end negotiations were opened Recognition of the International Association.with various governments. The first government to “recognize the flag of the International Association of the Congo as the flag of a friendly government” was that of the United States, its declaration to that effect bearing date the 22nd of April 1884. There were, however, difficulties in the way of obtaining the recognition of the European powers, and in order to obtain that of France, King Leopold, on the 23rd of April 1884, while labouring under the feelings of annoyance which had been aroused by the Anglo-Portuguese treaty concluded by Lord Granville in February, authorized Colonel Strauch, president of the International Association, to engage to give France “the right of preference if, through unforeseen circumstances, the Association were compelled to sell its possessions.” France’s formal recognition of the Association as a government was, however, delayed by the discussion of boundary questions until the following February, and in the meantime Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Holland and Spain had all recognized the Association; though Germany alone had done so—on the 8th of November—before the assembling of the conference.
The conference assembled at Berlin on the 15th of November 1884, and after protracted deliberations the “General Act of the Berlin Conference” was signed by the representatives of all the powers attending the conference, on the 26th of February 1885. The powers represented were Germany, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, The Berlin Conference of 1884–85.Denmark, Spain, the United States, France, Great Britain, Italy, Holland, Portugal, Russia, Sweden and Norway, and Turkey, to name them in the alphabetical order adopted in the preamble to the French text of the General Act. Ratifications were deposited by all the signatory powers with the exception of the United States. It is unnecessary to examine in detail the results of the labours of the conference. The General Act dealt with six specific subjects: (1) freedom of trade in the basin of the Congo, (2) the slave trade, (3) neutrality of territories in the basin of the Congo, (4) navigation of the Congo, (5) navigation of the Niger, (6) rules for future occupation on the coasts of the African continent. It will be seen that the act dealt with other matters than the political partition of Africa; but, so far as they concern the present purpose, the results effected by the Berlin Act may be summed up as follows. The signatory powers undertook that any fresh act of taking possession on any portion of the African coast must be notified by the power taking possession, or assuming a protectorate, to the other signatory powers. It was further provided that any such occupation to be valid must be effective. It is also noteworthy that the first reference in an international act to the obligations attaching to “spheres of influence” is contained in the Berlin Act.
It will be remembered that when the conference assembled, the International Association of the Congo had only been recognized as a sovereign state by the United States and Germany. But King Leopold and his agents had taken full advantage of the opportunity which the conference afforded, and before the General Constitution of the Congo State.Act was signed the Association had been recognized by all the signatory powers, with the not very important exception of Turkey, and the fact communicated to the conference by Colonel Strauch. It was not, however, until two months later, in April 1885, that King Leopold, with the sanction of the Belgian legislature, formally assumed the headship of the new state; and on the 1st of August in the same year His Majesty notified the powers that from that date the “Independent State of the Congo” declared that “it shall be perpetually neutral” in conformity with the provisions of the Berlin Act. Thus was finally constituted the Congo Free State, under the sovereignty of King Leopold, though the boundaries claimed for it at that time were considerably modified by subsequent agreements.
From 1885 the scramble among the powers went on with renewed vigour, and in the fifteen years that remained of the century the work of partition, so far as international agreements were concerned, was practically completed. To attempt to follow the process of acquisition year by year would involve a constant shifting of The chief partition treaties.attention from one part of the continent to another, inasmuch as the scramble was proceeding simultaneously all over Africa. It will therefore be the most convenient plan to deal with the continent in sections. Before doing so, however, the international agreements which determined in the main the limits of the possessions of the various powers may be set forth. They are :—
I. The agreement of the 1st of July 1890 between Great Britain and Germany defining their spheres of influence in East, West and South-West Africa. This agreement was the most comprehensive of all the “deals” in African territory, and included in return for the recognition of a British protectorate over Zanzibar the cession of Heligoland to Germany.
II. The Anglo-French declaration of the 5th of August 1890, which recognized a French protectorate over Madagascar, French influence in the Sahara, and British influence between the Niger and Lake Chad.
III. The Anglo-Portuguese treaty of the 11th of June 1891, whereby the Portuguese possessions on the west and east coasts were separated by a broad belt of British territory, extending north to Lake Tanganyika.
IV. The Franco-German convention of the 15th of March 1894, by which the Central Sudan was left to France (this region by an Anglo-German agreement of the 15th of November 1893 having been recognized as in the German sphere). By this convention France was able to effect a territorial junction of her possessions in North and West Africa with those in the Congo region.
V. Protocols of the 24th of March and the 15th of April 1891, for the demarcation of the Anglo-Italian spheres in East Africa.
VI. The Anglo-French convention of the 14th of June 1898, for the delimitation of the possessions of the two countries west of Lake Chad, with the supplementary declaration of the 21st of March 1899 whereby France recognized the upper Nile valley as in the British sphere of influence.
Coming now to a more detailed consideration of the operations of the powers, the growth of the Congo Free State, which occupied, geographically, a central position, may serve as the starting-point for the story of the partition after the Berlin conference. In the notification to the powers of the 1st of August 1885, the The growth of the Congo State.boundaries of the Free State were set out in considerable detail. The limits thus determined resulted partly from agreements made with France, Germany and Portugal, and partly from treaties with native chiefs. The state acquired the north bank of the Congo from
