Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-15
RACE FOR TERRITORY
France Has Outstripped Eng
land in Two Decades.
THE AFRICAN EMPIRE
WHAT THE OTHER GREAT WORLD
POWERS ARE DOING.
Germany Finds Her Colonies a Very
Heavy Burden-With Pike
and Carbonate.

Written for The Evening Star by William Thorp.
And some we got by treaty.
| And some we got by trade
But most we got by courtesy
OF pike and carrOnade.
| Since Kipling wrote these words abou.
| the winning of England's colonies, new
| force has been given to them by the con-
| quest Of the South African republics and
| Tibet. The pike and carronade are still as
| powerful empire builders as they were in
| the days of Give and Warren Hastings.
They are adding every year to the white
mans burden.
But England has Jagged far behind
| France in recent years in the extent of
| the territory she has appropriated. The
| Gaul has become the greatest colonizer OF
| the age.
| 1t is true that the colonial empire OF
| France is still much smaller than that OF
| England, out the great bulk of 1t has peep
| acquired since 1882, when a protectorate
was proclaimed over Tunis. In the
| ceedlng years. France has managed to
| snap up far more territory than Great Brit
ain or any other power.
England was praised even by those who
| thought her course indefensble. for the
grim resolution with which she sustained
| reverse after reverse in the Boer war and
fought on until she annexed the South Afri-
can republics. America won prestige abroad
also by her determination in suppressing the
Fipinos.
what is to be said of the restless dogged
courage which France has brought to the
building of her colonial empire?
Building an African Empire.
Scarcely recovered from her series of
eXEausting wars for the control of Algeria
staggering from the terrible blow dealt her
by Germany in II. she applied herself to
the conquest of Tun!s. That accomplished
in few brief months, she took all that
was worth taking in Indo-China, fighting
one OF the most terrible guerilla wars of
modern times. hen came the conquest of
Madagascar, and the series of desperate
adventures over thousands of miles of
jungle and swamp and desert out of which
grew the present dream of a vast African
empire. French colonization in the past
few years is what Robert Louis Stevenson
called the Indian mutiny-"an incredible I'M
sung epic
MAZDA gaScar was annexed in 1896, and dur
ing the last four or five years France has
been trying to give some effect by military
force to her paper protectorate over the
Sahara.
This region is the third largest colonial
possession Ill the world. having an area OF
over 2,O1,oO0 square miles and an estimated
population OF 2.OO.tO. 1t is considerably
larger tLan India and just about double the
size of Egypt and the Soudan put together.
The only colonies which exceed 1t in size
are Canada and Australia.
The total area of the colonies and de-
tendencies of France is about 3,9S2,0OO
square miles, with a population of about
SO, OGo 600 so that the barren Sahara makes
up more than half of the French empire
overseas. No wonder the French people
grow enthusiastic over schemes to irrigate
that vast stretch of country and make the
desert blossom as the rose. II they could
do so they would have a colony that might
hope to rival British India some day.
At present. however, the French writ
runs in the Sahara only far the rifle
of a French zouave will carry. The Sahara
protectorate has not even got capital 1t
is supposed to be governed from ST. Louis,
in French West Africa; but the Touaregs
and other predatory tribes roam about the
country at their own sweet will Nowhere
else in the world is there a dependency of
European power over which that power
has so little real control.
The Congo Territory.
Dahomey was conquered by the French
in 1892. and is now one of the lew FrenSh
colonies which is self-supporting and &c
ceives no subsidy from the home govern
ment. In 1894 the French embarked on the
great scheme of conquest which gave them
their splendid Congo territory and nearly
plunged them into a with England,
when Kitchener and Marchand met at Fa-
Shoda in 1898. The area of the colony thus
acquired in a few years is nver 10000
square miles, with a population that is
guessed at anything from five to fifteen
| millions. But it is one of the least &C.
veloped of the French West African colo
MES. and places a heavy burden on the
French colonial budget.
So does the military zone between the
Niger and Lake Chad, of which the chief
town is Timbuctoo This latter region
came under French control at the close of
1860, as the result of the forcible occupa-
ton of Say, Sinder and other native towrs
French Central Africa which includes
the vassal negro states of Bagrmi Wadai
The Anglo-F'rench agreement If 1889 which
| closed the Fashoda incident, recognized
that region as French territory; but French
sovereignty was only established after
much hard fighting with the Mabas, a war
| ike Mohammedan negro race. Soon after
| he was installed the French resident was
region, by Rabah 1.-THE black Napoleon, y
In February 1900, Rabah was defeated and
| slain; but his sons continued the fight for
| over a year.
A Heavy Burden.
In no other part of her wide dominions-
| not even Algeria and Tunis-is France ex-
! posed to such great danger of a native ris-
| ing as In French Central Africa 1t is an
| extremely heavy portion of the white mans
| burden and it Is questionable whether it
| was worth the shouldering. The population
| Is composed Of fanatical Mohammedans
| protesting adherence to the mysterious
| sect dominated by the Mahdi-es-Senussi
! whose policy is to weld Islam together, es-
| pecially in Africa, to overcome Christian
civilization France has great trouble
| ahead OF her In this region; the fight with
| Rabah and his sons was merely foretaste
| of worse to come.
| The territory of Algeria was greatly ex-
| tended in 1899 and 1900 by the conquest of
| the series of GASES known as Twat This
annexation aroused the fears of the Moors
ana Berbers and has rendered a war be-
| tween Morocco and France one of the in
| ternational dangers of the future--a danger
| somewhat mitigated by the recent agree
| ment on the subject arrived at between
England and France
In 1ndo-China France rules over % 600 900
/ of yellow men who are cross between
/ the Chinese and the Malays. Eighteen
! millions of these first came under the tri-
| color in 1884. when AMMAN and Tonquin
| were annexed. France has paid heavily
| with blood and treasure for her possessions
| along the Annamsse peninsula. They are
| being developed more Or less successfully,
| but for the benefit of the natives-not for
| that of France or Frenchmen In the col
af IT,