The Partition of Africa

This revised 1895 second edition illuminates the nineteenth-century struggle among European powers to secure control over the African continent.

John Scott Keltie (Author)

9781108072038, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 11 December 2014

624 pages, 19 maps
21.6 x 14 x 3.5 cm, 0.78 kg

In the latter part of the nineteenth century, as technological progress enabled the exploration of hitherto neglected territory, the powers of Western Europe embarked on a process of imperial expansion into the African continent. As a journalist for The Times, geographer John Scott Keltie (1840–1927) wrote articles on the 'scramble' at the time, and in 1893 published this authoritative text on the subject, here reissued in its revised and augmented second edition of 1895. Keltie's presentation of the topic was well received and remained of lasting relevance, being described in his obituary as 'the best text-book of that exploration and division of a forgotten continent'. Early chapters address certain aspects of African history, but the bulk of the book deals with European attempts at settlement, partition and commercial exploitation. The future of Africa, as a site of ongoing European contention and competition, is also considered.

Preface
1. The Africa of the ancients
2. The Islamic invasion
3. The Portuguese circumnavigations
4. Portugal in possession
5. The beginning of rivalry
6. Stagnation and slavery
7. The position in 1815
8. Sixty years of preparation
9. Preliminaries to partition
10. France and Portugal on the Congo
11. British advances in the south and east
12. Germany enters the field
13. Germany in the Cameroons
14. The Berlin Conference and the Congo Free State
15. German East Africa
16. The struggle for the Niger
17. German progress in West Africa
18. British East Africa
19. The Italian sphere and the Egyptian Sudan
20. British Central and South Africa
21. African islands
22. The economic value of Africa
23. Conclusion
Appendices
Index.

Subject Areas: African history [HBJH]