Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T08:50:57.789Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Towards a History of the Partition of Africa1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

J. D. Hargreaves
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The partition of Africa is one of those historical processes which have been more discussed than studied. Everybody knows that between 1884 and 1898 the soil of Africa was very largely apportioned to the sovereignty of European powers; the results are written on the modern map, the details of the various agreements are not too difficult to check. Most writers on the subject, moreover, have clear views about the historical significance of the whole process; whether they regard it as a beneficent extension of the institutions and values of West European civilization or as an intolerable imposition of alien power, their evaluations derive from prior convictions rather than from empirical study. Despite the importance in contemporary African politics of polemical statements about Imperialism, for coherent accounts of the territorial partition of the continent it is still necessary to look to books written by public men before European archives were available, and indeed before the process itself was complete.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , January 1960 , pp. 97 - 109
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1960

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

2 Hertslet, E., The Map of Africa by Treaty, 3 vols. (London, 1909, 3rd ed.).Google Scholar

3 Keltie, J. S., The Partition of Africa (London, 1895), 1.Google Scholar

4 Lucas, C. P., A Historical Geography of the British Colonies, iii, West Africa (1894), 140.Google Scholar

5 Oliver, R., Sir Harry Johnston and the Scramble for Africa (London, 1957), 280–2.Google Scholar

6 Die Grosse Politik der Europäischen Kabinette, IV, no. 738. Bismarck to Münster, 5 May 1884.Google Scholar

7 Keltie, op. cit. 69, 169–71.Google Scholar

8 Taylor, A. J. P., The Struggle for Mastery in Europe (Oxford, 1954), 292–8.Google Scholar For a recent review of the literature, see Aydelotte, W. O., ‘Wollte Bismarck Kolonien?’ in Conze, W., ed., Deutschland und Europa (Düsseldorf, 1951).Google Scholar

9 Crowe, S. E., The Berlin West African Conference, 1884–5 (London, 1942)Google Scholar; cf. Report of All-African Peoples Conference, Accra, West Africa, 13 Dec. 1958, 1191.Google Scholar

10 Taylor, A. J. P., ‘Prelude to Fashoda’, English Historical Review (1950), LXV.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 Cambridge History of the British Empire (1959), 111, 203.Google Scholar

12 Malet to Kimberley, 7 Mar. 1894Google Scholar, printed by Bayer, T. A., England und der Neue Kurs (Tübingen, 1955), 117–20.Google Scholar

13 It will be fully treated in J. E. Flint's book (forthcoming at the date of writing), Sir George Goldie and the Making of Nigeria. See also Perham, M., Lugard, 1858–1898(London, 1956)Google Scholar; Newbury, C. W., ‘The Development of French Policy on the Lower and Upper Niger, 1884–1898’, Journal of Modern History (1959), XXXI.Google Scholar

14 F.O. 27/2418. F.O. to C.O. 22 Nov. 1879, draft by Salisbury.Google Scholar

15 C.O. 267/409. Minute by Meade, 26 June 1894.Google Scholar

16 Diké, K. O., Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta, 1830–1885 (Oxford, 1956).Google Scholar

17 Hargreaves, J. D., ‘The French Occupation of the Mellacourie, 1865–7’, Sierra Leone Studies, n.s. ix.Google Scholar

18 P. P., 1870, L., ‘Correspondence Respecting the Proposed Cession of the Gambia to France’. Kennedy to Granville Conf., 29 Mar. 1870. Archives of M[inistre de Ia] M[arine et des] C[olonies], Paris. Afrique VI/16. Maurel to Roy, 6 Oct. 1875.Google Scholar

19 Archives of M[inistère des] A[ffaires] E[trangéres], Paris. Mémoires et Documents, Afrique 76. M.M.C. to M.A.E., 18 Nov. 1879.Google Scholar

20 M.M.C. Gabon IV/3 b Régis to M.M.C., 14 Aug. 1862; Gabon I/2 b. Didelot to M.M.C., 12 Sept. 1862; cf. the very favourable account by Masson, P., Marseille et la Colonisarion française (Marseille, 1906), Ch. xi, xii.Google Scholar

21 M.A.E. Afrique 51. Régis to M.A.E. 7 July 1862 M.M.C. Gabon IV,3/'b. Fleuriot de Langle to Chasseloup-Laubat, 6 Sept. 1866.Google Scholar

22 Economic History Review, 2nd series, VI. J. Gallagher and R. Robinson, ‘The Imperialism of Free Trade’, esp. pp. 5–6Google Scholar; cf. Schefer, C. (ed.), Instructions Générales … aux Gouverneurs…en Afrique Occidentale (Paris, 1927), 11, 450–2Google Scholar, Chasseloup-Laubat to Bosse, 7 March 1859, and passim.Google Scholar

23 M.M.C. Afrique Vl/11/a. La Rochelle Chamber of Commerce to M.M.C. 16 March 1869. Afrique VI/16. Verdier to M.M.C., 30 July, 22 Oct. 1875. Afrique. VI/17/a. Verdier to M.M.C., 30 March 1876, enclosing his pamphlet, Echange de Territoire Colonial; cf. Verdier, A., Trente-cinq Ans de Lutte aux Colonies (Paris, 1896).Google Scholar

24 M.A.E. Afrique 54. Min. of Agriculture and Commerce to M.A.E., 11, 26 Jan. 1875, encl, letters from Marseille Chamber of Commerce; Afrique 48. M.M.C. to M.A.E., 21 Aug. 1876.Google Scholar

25 M.M.C. Afrique VI/17/a. Note by Benoist d'Azy, Feb. 1876.Google Scholar

26 M.A.E. Afrique 54. Régis to Bourée, Pte., 15 July 1876.Google Scholar

27 Masson, P., Marseille et la Colonisation française (Marseille, 1906), 398, 402, 473.Google ScholarMasson, P. (Directeur), Les Bouches-du-Rhône Encyclopédie Departementale, Tome VIII (1926), 184, 264. Tome IX (1922), 365ff., 386, 398–9.Google Scholar

28 M.A.E.Afrique 57. Report by Capt. Penfentany, 28 Feb. 1882.Google Scholar

29 Zweiffel, J. and Moustier, M., Expédition C. A. Verminck: Voyage aux Sources du Niger (Marseille, 1880)Google Scholar

30 M.A.E. Afrique 56. Rouvier to M.A.E., Apr. 1879.Google Scholar

31 M.A.E. Afrique 56. Rouvier to Freycinet, 2 Feb. 1880.Google Scholar

32 M.A.E. Afrique 77. Rouvier to Freycinet, 3 Mar. 1880 and enclosures.Google Scholar

33 M.A.E. Afrique 50. Rouvier to Gambettu, 24 Jan. 1882.Google Scholar

34 M.A.E. Afrique 77. Rouvier to Gambetta, 9 Jan. 1882.Google Scholar

35 M.A.E. Afrique 50. Rouvier to Gambetta, 8, 21 Dec. 1882, 26 Jan. 1882.Google Scholar

36 M.A.E. Afrique 57. Rouvier to Gambetta, 2 Jan. 1882.Google Scholar

37 Kingsley, M., West African Studies (London, 1899), Ch. XIII.Google Scholar

38 Koebner, R., ‘The Concept of Economic Imperialism’; Economic History Review, 2nd series, II.Google Scholar

39 Robinson, R., C.H.B.E. III, 133.Google Scholar

40 cf. Catala, R., ‘La Question de l'échange de la Gambie Britannique contre les Comptoirs Français du Golfe de Guinée, de 1866 à 1876’, Revue d'histoire des colonies françaises (1948), xxv.Google Scholar

41 Journal Officiel (Documents Parlementaires; Chambre), 7 Feb. 1884. Report of Dureau de Vaulcomté.Google Scholar

42 Keltìe, , op. cit. 52.Google Scholar

43 E.g. Akindelé, A. and Aguessy, C., Contribution à l'Etude de l'Histoire de l'ancien Royaume de Porto Novo (Dakar, 1953).Google Scholar

44 Cf. Herskovits, M., Dahomey (New York, 1935), 1, 24–5; II, 26–9Google Scholar; Burton, R. F., Abeokuta (London, 1863), I, 125.Google Scholar

45 E.g. Gann, L. H., The Birth of a Plural Society (Manchester, 1958)Google Scholar; Oliver, R., op. cit.Google Scholar; Hanna, A. J., The Beginnings of Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia (Oxford 1956)Google Scholar; Mason, P., The Birth of a Dilemma (London, 1958)Google Scholar; cf. Shepperson, G., ‘The Literature of British Central Africa’, Rhodes-Livingstone Institute Journal (06 1958), XXIII.Google Scholar