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 [history A F R I C A than the political partition of Africa; but, so far as they Berlin Act. Thus was finally constituted the Congo Free concern our present purpose, the results effected by the State, under the sovereignty of King Leopold, though the Berlin Act may be summed up as follows. The signatory boundaries claimed for it at that time were considerably Powers undertook that any fresh act of taking possession modified by subsequent agreements. From 1885 the scramble among the Powers went on on any portion of the African coast must be notified by with renewed vigour, and in the fifteen years that remained the Power taking possession, or assuming a protectorate, to the other signatory Powers. It was further provided of the century the work of partition, so far as Deveiop. that any such occupation to be valid must be effective. international agreements were concerned, was ments It is also noteworthy that the first reference in an inter- practically completed. To attempt to follow since 1885. national Act of the obligations attaching to “ spheres of the process of acquisition year by year would involve a constant shifting of attention from one part of the continent influence ” is contained in the Berlin Act. The basin of the Congo was defined as “bounded by the to another, inasmuch as the scramble was proceeding watersheds (or mountain ridges) of the adjacent basins, simultaneously all over Africa. It will therefore be the namely, in particular those of the Niari, the most convenient plan to deal with the continent in sections, The Congo Qgowe, the Shari, and the Nile on the north; roughly corresponding to the quarters of the compass, with Free state, eastern watershed line of the affluents of the Congo Free State as a sort of central state, the growth Lake Tanganyika on the east; and by the watersheds of of which may serve as the starting-point for the story of the basins of the Zambezi and the Loge on the south. It the partition after the Berlin Conference. In the notificatherefore comprises all the regions watered by the Congo tion to the Powers of 1st August 1885, the boundaries of and its affluents, including Lake Tanganyika, with its the Free State were set out in considerable detail. The eastern tributaries.” In this conventional basin of the limits thus determined resulted partly from agreements Congo the trade of all nations was to enjoy complete free- made with France and Portugal, and partly from treaties dom. But the free-trade zone was extended considerably with native chiefs, and left the northern bank of the Congo beyond the Congo basin. It comprised on the east coast to a point a little above Manyanga to the Free State, and the maritime zone, extended from 2° 30' of S. lat. to the the southern bank as far as Nokki to Portugal. The mouth of the Loge. The northern boundary of the free- southern frontier was continued along the parallel of Nokki trade zone followed the parallel of 2° 30' to the geo- till it intersected the river Kwango, which it followed in a graphical basin of the Congo, and thence to the east coast southernly direction. The northern frontier from Manyanga at 5° N. lat., the eastern boundary following the coast followed the Congo as far as Stanley Pool, then the median southwards to the mouth of the Zambezi; from this latter line of that pool, leaving the Congo at a point above the point the southern boundary followed the Zambezi to 5 Likona-Nkunja river, following its watershed to the 17th miles above its confluence with the Shire, and thence along degree of longitude east of Greenwich, which degree it the Nyasa-Zambezi watershed to the Congo-Zambezi water- followed until its intersection with the 4th parallel of shed and the source of the Loge, which it followed to the N. latitude, following that latitude until it met the 30th coast. The approval of independent sovereign states in degree of longitude east of Greenwich, which formed the the eastern zone, which were not parties to the convention, eastern boundary of the Free State. The south-eastern was, however, to be obtained as a condition precedent to frontier claimed by King Leopold extended to Lakes the extension of free trade to the eastern zone. The Act Tanganyika, Mweru, and Bangweulu, but it was not until contained provisions limiting the dues to be levied within some years later that it was recognized and defined by the the prescribed area to such as “may be levied as fair agreement of May 1894 with Great Britain. The intercompensation for expenditure in the interests of trade,” national character of King Leopold’s enterprise had not prohibiting the imposition of preferential duties, and long been maintained, and his recognition as sovereign of declaring the river free to the trading flags of all nations. the Free State confirmed the distinctively Belgian character The conventional basin of the Congo was to remain neutral which the Association had assumed, even before that event. in all circumstances, and an international navigation com- The king was naturally anxious that the right of premission of the Congo was to be instituted to supervise the emption which he had given to France should not operate carrying out of the principles proclaimed in the General Act against Belgium, and in April 1887 the French Governon that river and its affluents. No such commission was, ment, in return for territorial concessions on the Mobangi, however, in fact appointed. The navigation of the Niger and formally declared that France’s right of pre-emption all its affluents was declared free to the merchant vessels could not be opposed to Belgium’s preferential rights; of all nations, and Great Britain and France severally and by his will, dated 2nd August 1889, His Majesty undertook to extend protection to traders of other nation- made Belgium heir to the sovereign rights of the alities in those portions of the river which were under their Congo Free State. In July 1890 the Free State concluded an agreement with Belgium, by which the sovereignty or protection. It will be remembered that when the conference Belgian Government agreed to make a loan to the Free assembled the International Association of the Congo had State of twenty-five millions of francs, spread over ten years, only been recognized as a sovereign state by the United Belgium acquiring the right within six months after the States and Germany. But King Leopold and his agents expiry of that period to annex the Free State. To comhad taken full advantage of the opportunity which the plete this section of the subject, it may be stated that an conference afforded, and before the General Act was signed annexation Bill, introduced into the Belgian parliament the Association had been recognized by all the signatory in 1895, was withdrawn, and up to June 1901 Belgium Powers, with the not very important exception of Turkey, had still taken no formal steps to assume direct responsiand the fact communicated to the conference by Colonel bility for the Free State as a Belgian colony. The area of the Free State, vast as it was, did not Strauch. It was not, however, until two months later, in April 1885, that King Leopold, with the sanction of the suffice to satisfy the ambition of its sovereign. King Belgian legislature, formally assumed the headship of the Leopold maintained that the Free State enjoyed, the new state ; and on the 1st August in the same year His equally with any other state, the right to extend Majesty notified the Powers that from that date the “In- its frontiers. As this ambition brought the dependent State of the Congo ” declared that “ it shall be Free State into sharp conflict with its various European perpetually neutral ” in conformity with Article X. of the neighbours, it may be well to consider, in the light of subse148