Stanley's remarkable discovery had stirred ambition in other capitals than Brussels. France had always taken a keen interest
The struggle for the Congo.
in West Africa, and in the years 1875 to 1878 Savorgnan de Brazza had carried out a successful exploration of the Ogowe river to the south of the Gabun. De Brazza determined that the Ogowe did not offer that great waterway into the interior of which he was in search, and he returned to Europe without having heard of the discoveries of Stanley farther south. Naturally, however, Stanley's discoveries were keenly followed in France. In Portugal, too, the discovery of the Congo, with its magnificent unbroken waterway of more than a thousand miles into the heart of the continent served to revive the languid energies of the Portuguese, who promptly began to furbish up claims whose age was in inverse ratio to their validity. Claims, annexations and occupations were in the air, and when in January 1879 Stanley left Europe as the accredited agent of King Leopold and the Congo committee, the strictest secrecy was observed as to his real aims and intentions. The expedition was, it was alleged, proceeding up the Congo to assist the Belgian expedition which had entered from the east coast, and Stanley himself went first to Zanzibar. But in August 1879 Stanley found himself again at Banana Point, at the mouth of the Congo, with, as he himself has written, ``the novel mission of sowing along its banks civilized settlements to peacefully conquer and subdue it, to remould it in harmony with modern ideas into national states, within whose limits the European merchant shall go hand in hand with the dark African trader, and justice and law and order shall prevail, and murder and lawlessness and the cruel barter of slaves shall be overcome.'' The irony of human aspirations was never perhaps more plainly demonstrated than in the contrast between the ideal thus set before themselves by those who employed Stanley, and the actual results of their intervention in Africa. Stanley founded his first station at Vivi, between the mouth of the Congo and the rapids that obstruct its course where it breaks over the western edge of the central continental plateau. Above the rapids he established a station on Stanley Pool and named it Leopoldville, founding other stations on the main stream in the direction of the falls that bear his name.
Meanwhile de Brazza was far from idle. He had returned to Africa at the beginning of 1880, and while the agents of King Leopold were making treaties and founding stations along the southern bank of the river, de Brazza and other French agents were equally busy on the northern bank. De Brazza was sent out to Africa by the French committee of the International African Association, which provided him with the funds for the expedition. His avowed object was to explore the region between the Gabun and Lake Chad. But his real object was to anticipate Stanley on the Congo. The international character of the association founded by King Leopold was never more than a polite fiction, and the rivalry between the French and the Belgians on the Congo was soon open, if not avowed. In October 1880 de Brazza made a solemn treaty with a chief on the north bank of the Congo, who claimed that his authority extended over a large area, including territory on the southern bank of the river. As soon as this chief had accepted French protection, de Brazza crossed over to the south of the river, and founded a station close to the present site of Leopoldville. The discovery by Stanley of the French station annoyed King Leopold's agent, and he promptly challenged the rights of the chief who purported to have placed the country under French protection, and himself founded a Belgian station close to the site selected by de Brazza. In the result, the French station was withdrawn to the northern side of Stanley Pool, where it is now known as Brazzaville.
The activity of French and Belgian agents on the Congo had not passed unnoticed in Lisbon, and the Portuguese government saw that no time was to be lost if the claims it had never ceased to put forward on the west coast were not to go by default. At varying periods during the 19th century Portugal had put forward claims to the whole of the West African coast, between 5 deg. 12' and 8 deg. south. North of the Congo mouth she claimed the territories of Kabinda and Molemba, alleging that they had been in her possession since 1484. Great Britain had never, however, admitted this claim, and south of the Congo had declined to recognize Portuguese possessions as extending north of Ambriz. In 1856 orders were given to British cruisers to prevent by force any attempt to extend Portuguese dominion north of that place. But the Portuguese had been persistent in urging their claims, and in 1882 negotiations were again opened with the British government for recognition of Portuguese rights over both banks of the Congo on the coast, and for some distance inland. Into the details of the negotiations, which were conducted for Great Britain by the 2nd Earl Granville, who was then secretary for foreign affairs, it is unnecessary to enter; they resulted in the signing on the 26th of February 1884 of a treaty, by which Great Britain recognized the sovereignty of the king of Portugal ``over that part of the west coast of Africa, situated between 8 deg. and 5 deg. 12' south latitude,'' and inland as far as Noki, on the south bank of the Congo, below Vivi. The navigation of the Congo was to be controlled by an Anglo-Portuguese commission. The publication of this treaty evoked immediate protests, not only on the continent but in Great Britain. In face of the disapproval aroused by the treaty, Lord Granville found himself unable to ratify it. The protests had not been confined to France and the king of the Belgians. Germany had not yet acquired formal footing in Africa, but she was crouching for the spring prior to taking her part in the scramble, and Prince Bismarck had expressed, in vigorous language, the objections entertained by Germany to the Anglo-Portuguese treaty.
For some time before 1884 there had been growing up a general conviction that it would be desirable for the powers who were interesting themselves in Africa to come to some agreement as to ``the rules of the game,'' and to define their respective interests so far as that was practicable. Lord Granville's ill-fated treaty brought this sentiment to a head, and it was agreed to hold an international conference on African affairs. But before discussing the Berlin conference of 1884-1885, it will be well to see what was the position, on the eve of the conference, in other parts of the African continent. In the southern section of Africa, south of the Zambezi, important events had been happening. In 1876 Great Britain had concluded an agreement
British influence consolidated in South Africa.
with the Orange Free State for an adjustment of frontiers, the result of which was to leave the Kimberley diamond fields in British territory, in exchange for a payment of L. 90,000 to the Orange Free State. On the 12th of April 1877 Sir Theophilus Shepstone had issued a proclamation declaring the Transvaal— the South African Republic, as it was officially designated—to be British territory (see TRANSVAAL.) In December 1880 war broke out and lasted until March 1881, when a treaty of peace was signed. This treaty of peace was followed by a convention, signed in August of the same year, under which complete self-government was guaranteed to the inhabitants of the Transvaal, subject to the suzerainty of Great Britain, upon certain terms and conditions and subject to certain reservations and limitations. No sooner was the convention signed than it became the object of the Boers to obtain a modification of the conditions and limitations imposed, and in February 1884 a fresh convention was signed, amending the convention of 1881. Article IV. of the new convention provided that ``The South African Republic will conclude no treaty or engagement with any state or nation other than the Orange Free State, nor with any native tribe to the eastward or westward of the Republic, until the same has been approved by Her Majesty the Queen.'' The precise effect of the two conventions has been the occasion for interminable discussions, but as the subject is now one of merely academic interest, it is sufficient to say that when the Berlin conference held its first meeting in 1884 the Transvaal was practically independent, so far as its internal administration was concerned, while its foreign relations were subject to the control just quoted.
But although the Transvaal had thus, between the years 1875 and 1884, become and ceased to be British territory, British influence in other parts of Africa south of the Zambezi had been steadily extended. To the west of the Orange Free State, Griqualand West was annexed to the Cape in 1880, while to the east the territories beyond the Kei river were included in Cape Colony between 1877 and 1884, so that in the latter year, with the exception of Pondoland, the whole of South-East Africa was in one form or another under British control. North of Natal, Zululand was not actually annexed until 1887, although since 1879, when the military power of the Zulus was broken up, British influence had been admittedly supreme. In December 1884 St Lucia Bay—upon which Germany was casting covetous eyes—had been taken possession of in virtue of its cession to Great Britain by the Zulu king in 1843, and three years later an agreement of non-cession to foreign powers made by Great Britain with the regent and paramount chief of Tongaland completed the chain of British possessions on the coast of South Africa, from the mouth of the Orange river on the west to Kosi Bay and the Portuguese frontier on the east. In the interior of South Africa the year 1884 witnessed the beginning of that final stage of the British advance towards the north which was to extend British influence from the Cape to the southern shores of Lake Tanganyika. The activity of the Germans on the west, and of the Boer republic on the east, had brought home to both the imperial and colonial authorities the impossibility of relying on vague traditional claims. In May 1884 treaties were made with native chiefs by which the whole of the country north of Cape Colony, west of the Transvaal, south of 22 deg. S. and east of 20 deg. E., was placed under British protection, though a protectorate was not formally declared until the following January.
Meanwhile some very interesting events had been taking place or: the west coast, north of the Orange river and south of the Portuguese province of Mossamaede. It must be sufficient here to touch very briefly on the events that preceded the foundation of the colony of German South-West Africa. For many years before 1884 German missionaries had settled among the Damaras (Herero) and Namaquas, often combining small trading operations with their missionary work. From time to time trouble arose between the missionaries and the native chiefs, and appeals
Germany enters the field.
were made to the German government for protection. The German government in its turn begged the British government to say whether it assumed responsibility for the protection of Europeans in Damaraland and Namaqualand. The position of the British government was intelligible, if not very intelligent. It did not desire to see any other European power in these countries, and it did not want to assume the responsibility and incur the expense of protecting the few Europeans settled there. Sir Bartle Frere, when governor of the Cape (1877-1880), had foreseen that this attitude portended trouble, and had urged that the whole of the unoccupied coastline, up to the Portuguese frontier, should be declared under British protection. But he preached to deaf ears, and it was as something of a concession to him that in March 1878 the British flag was hoisted at Walfish Bay, and a small part of the adjacent land declared to be British. The fact appears to be that British statesmen failed to understand the change that had come over Germany. They believed that Prince Bismarck would never give his sanction to the creation of a colonial empire, and, to the German inquiries as to what rights Great Britain claimed in Damaraland and Namaqualand, procrastinating replies were sent. Meanwhile the various colonial societies established in Germany had effected a revolution in public opinion, and, more important still, they had convinced the great chancellor. Accordingly when, in November 1882, F. A. E. Luderitz, a Bremen merchant, informed the German government of his intention to establish a factory on the coast between the Orange river and the Little Fish river, and asked if he might rely on the protection of his government in case of need, he met with no discouragement from Prince Bismarck. In February 1883 the German ambassador in London informed Lord Granville of Luderitz's design, and asked ``whether Her Majesty's government exercise any authority in that locality.'' It was intimated that if Her Majesty's government did not, the German government would extend to Luderitz's factory ``the same measure of protection which they give to their subjects in remote parts of the world, but without having the least design to establish any footing in South Africa.'' An inconclusive reply was sent, and on the 9th of April Luderitz's agent landed at Angra Pequena, and after a short delay concluded a treaty with the local chief, by which some 215 square miles around Angra Pequena were ceded to Luderitz. In England and at the Cape irritation at the news was mingled with incredulity, and it was fully anticipated that Luderitz would be disavowed by his government. But for this belief it can scarcely be doubted that the rest of the unoccupied coast-line would have been promptly declared under British protection. Still Prince Bismarck was slow to act. In November the German ambassador again inquired if Great Britain made any claim over this coast, and Lord Granville replied that Her Majesty exercised sovereignty only over certain parts of the coast, as at Walfish Bay, and suggested that arrangements might be made by which Germany might assist in the settlement of Angra Pequena. By this time Luderitz had extended his acquisitions southwards to the Orange river, which had been declared by the British government to be the northern frontier of Cape Colony. Both at the Cape and in England it was now realized that Germany had broken away from her former purely continental policy, and, when too late, the Cape parliament showed great eagerness to acquire the territory which had lain so long at its very doors, to be had for the taking. It is not necessary to follow the course-of the subsequent negotiations. On the 15th of August 1884 an official note was addressed by the German consul at Capetown to the high commissioner, intimating that the German emperor had by proclamation taken ``the territory belonging to Mr A. Luderitz on the west coast of Africa under the direct protection of His Majesty.'' This proclamation covered the coast-line from the north bank of the Orange river to 26 deg. S. latitude, and 20 geographical miles inland, including ``the islands belonging thereto by the law of nations.'' On the 8th of September 1884 the German government intimated to Her Majesty's government ``that the west coast of Africa from 26 deg. S. latitude to Cape Frio, excepting Walfish Bay, had been placed under the protection of the German emperor.'' Thus, before the end of the year 1884, the foundations of Germany's colonial empire had been laid in South-West Africa.