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 (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 Italy in
East Africa.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 Moreover, when Egyptian claims to the Somali coast were withdrawn, Great Britain took the opportunity to establish her influence on the northern Somali coast, opposite Aden.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 24th of March 1891 an agreement between Italy and Great Britain fixed the northern bank of the Juba up to latitude 6° 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° 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 theThe independence of Abyssinia recognized. south of the Mareb, Belesa and Muna rivers was restored to Abyssinia, and Italy acknowledged the absolute independence of Abyssinia. The effect of this was practically to destroy the value of the Anglo-Italian agreement as to the boundaries to the south and west of Abyssinia; and negotiations were afterwards set on foot between the emperor Menelek and his European neighbours with the object of determining the Abyssinian frontiers. Italian Somaliland, bordering on the south-eastern frontier of Abyssinia, became limited to a belt of territory with a depth inland from the Indian Ocean of from 180 to 250 m. The negotiations concerning the frontier lasted until 1908, being protracted over the question as to the possession of Lugh, a town on the Juba, which eventually fell to Italy. After the battle of Adowa the Italian government handed over the administration of the southern part of the country to the Benadir Company, but in January 1905 the government resumed control and at the same time transformed the leasehold rights it held from the sultan of Zanzibar into sovereign rights by the payment to the sultan of £144,000. To facilitate her communications with the interior, Italy also secured from the British government the lease of a small area of land immediately to the north of Kismayu. In British Somaliland the frontier fixed by agreement with Italy in 1894 was modified, in so far as it marched with Abyssinian territory, by an agreement which Sir Rennell Rodd concluded with the emperor Menelek in 1897. The effect of this agreement was to reduce the area of British Somaliland from 75,000 to 68,000 sq. m. In the same year France concluded an agreement with the emperor, which is known to have fixed the frontier of the French Somali Coast protectorate at a distance of 90 kilometres (56 m.) from the coast. The determination of the northern, western and southern limits of Abyssinia proved a more difficult matter. A treaty of July 1900 followed by an agreement of November 1901 defined the boundaries of Eritrea on the side of Abyssinia and the Sudan respectively. In certain details the boundaries thus laid down were modified by an Anglo-Italian-Abyssinian treaty signed at Adis Ababa on the 15th of May 1902. On the same day another treaty was signed at the Abyssinian capital by Sir John Harrington, the British minister plenipotentiary, and the emperor Menelek, whereby the western, or Sudan-Abyssinian, frontier was defined as far south as the intersection of 6° N. and 35° E. Within the British sphere were left the Atbara up to Gallabat, the Blue Nile up to Famaka and the Sobat up to the junction of the Baro and Pibor. While not satisfying Abyssinian claims to their full extent, the frontier laid down was on the whole more favourable to Abyssinia than was the line fixed in the Anglo-Italian agreement of 1891. On the other hand, Menelek gave important economic guarantees and concessions to the Sudan government.
In Egypt the result of the abolition of the Dual Control was to make British influence virtually predominant, though theoretically Turkey remained the suzerain power; and after the reconquest of the Sudan by the Anglo-Egyptian army a convention between the British and Egyptian governments was signed at Cairo on the 19th of January 1899, which, inter alia, provided for the joint use of the British and Egyptian flags in the territories south of the 22nd parallel of north latitude. From the international point of view the British position in Egypt was strengthened by the Anglo-French declaration of the 8th of April 1904. For some time previously there had beenThe Anglo-French agreements of April 1904. a movement on both sides of the Channel in favour of the settlement of a number of important questions in which British and French interests were involved. The movement was no doubt strengthened by the desire to reduce to their least dimensions the possible causes of trouble between the two countries at a time when the outbreak of hostilities between Russia (the ally of France) and Japan (the ally of Great Britain) rendered the European situation peculiarly delicate. On the 8th of April
