Omaha daily bee., 1894-01-14
NEW DOMAINS OF AFRICA.


oI " jar ,oltintH's
In 1876, as far as the European powers
were concerned, Africa was still African
in government, save along its seaboard
here and there. France, Spain, Portu-
gal and England were the only countries
with flag over territory, and, when
shaded. their possessions were mere
black specks in contrast with a vast
u~nappropriated area. Now, says the
San Francisco Call, it is quite the other
way. The shaded portions appropriated
by foreigners in seventeen years leave
very little of the continent African, and
very soon there may be none. France
has vastly extended her domain, so that
it extends from Tripoli to Morocco, and
from the Mediterranean to the Gulf of
Guinea. 1t may go eastward to the
Egyptian frontier or sphere of influence,
but on this point it must come to some
arrangement with Germany, which
seems to claim jurisdiction indefinitely
northward from the Cameroons, with
England sandwiched between Il portion
of the way. France has another large
slice to the south of German equatorial
Africa, and bounded on the south by the
Congo Free State.
Then IN Portugal, with the Congo
State and British Africa for eastern
boundary, and another great tract 8
German territory on the south. Britain
rounds off the continent at the cape and
right up for thousands of miles 10 the
southern border of the Congo State and
Portuguese and German possessions in
East Africa. Within, but with no UNI
trammeled access to the sea-, lie the
Orange Free State and the Transvaal
republic. Then to the northeast of the
Congo Free State and north of German
East Africa lies another vast British
area, in equatorial k.frica, contiguous
on the west with the Congo State and
the French and German possessions.
Italy claims Somali Land, Abyssinia and
the land of the Gallias, and England
again creeDs in with a tract of the Red
Sea Iittoral opposite Alden, as we'll as
the island of Socotra. Egypt may also
good of the natives, as the English say.
This is pretty good land grabbing IN a
continental scale during seventeen
years. What is left is hardly worth
naming-only Morocco and Tripoli
(which will fall to either Italy or
France), a bit of country behind Asian
iceland and the SOudan. Still, in spite
of geographical ap preparation and
changing of the maps, Africa is much
what it was, and without the natives
the Europeans can do nothing to reudcr
their occupation effectively useful.
Some of this excessive colonization will
come to grief, but who knows what
Africa will become in fifty years? 1t
will nave railroads from north to south
and from east to west. Much of the
interior, ever in the tropics, is habituble
by the white man, owing to high plateau
attitudes, and it is SO rich i'll resources
that it is bound to tempt adventure and
enterprise. The scramble for the earth
will have we'll nigh ceased when its var
ious divisions are governed on some per-
manent basis by the Europeans, but it
will be no surprise if in the future there
are quarrels among the European
countries as to their claims in Africa.
A great Africander empire will pro-
baby be the outcome of the Cape settle
ments, in which British, Beers and
Germans will assert the right to govern
themselves. The necessities OF trade
and a free hand on tariff questions sup
port this policy, but as far as England
is concerned, South Africa is virtually
n republic at present from Cape Town to
Zambesi, and Premier Rhodes influence
extends much farther. He has big pro-
jects of telegraph and railway extern
sions in view, and he is one of the very
energetic and astute men who succeed
in the wilderness and overcome all
obstacles. The dark continent may yet
be Of more value to the world than Asia
in its present state, for there are none
of the old civilizations to combat, such
as those of India, China, Japan and
Persia. Egypt is a cradle of c~iviliza-
tion, yet today it scarcely Ounts in its
own influence except as a ground of
contention between France and Eng
land. t..l