THE SOCIETY'S NEW MAP OF AFRICA 



WITH this number of the Na- 

 tional Geographic Magazine; 

 the National Geographic Society 

 issues the fourth of its series of continen- 

 tal maps, compiled and published since the 

 World War. This New Map of Africa 

 supersedes the smaller map issued by The 

 Society several years ago. 



The areas on that continent affected by 

 the Treaty of Versailles are even more 

 extensive than those so affected in Europe, 

 so that the student of geography finds it 

 necessary to reconstruct completely his 

 ideas concerning African colonial posses- 

 sions. 



More than a million square miles of 

 territory in Africa — one-eleventh of the 

 entire continent — belonged to Germany 

 in 1914. To-day, these vast regions are 

 being administered under mandates exer- 

 cised by Great Britain, France, and Bel- 

 gium. 



The new map shows that, as a result 

 of the World War, the French have 

 added to their control mandated areas 

 considerably larger than all of France in 

 Europe. The Tricolor now flies over 

 more territory in Africa than does that 

 of any other nation, French colonies, pro- 

 tectorates, and mandates having an ag- 

 gregate area which exceeds by nearly 

 80,000 square miles that of the entire 

 United States, including Alaska and all 

 our insular possessions. 



The map shows more than 735,000 

 square miles of territory transferred from 

 German sovereignty to British mandates 

 (413,000 square miles to Great Britain 

 proper, and 322,000 square miles to the 

 Union of South Africa). From the Em- 

 pire's territorial accretions, however, must 

 be deducted the 350,000 square miles 

 which until recently constituted the British 

 protectorate in Egypt. 



It is interesting to note that only three 

 countries in Africa — Liberia, Egypt, and 

 Abyssinia, with a bare 741,000 square 

 miles of territory — are independent. The 

 remaining millions of square miles of the 

 second largest continent, comprising more 

 than one-fifth of the earth's land surface, 

 are ruled by European nations. 



The acquisition of colonial territory in 

 Africa took place, in the main, during the 



last quarter of the nineteenth century. 

 At the beginning of that century, France 

 had a foothold on the west coast near the 

 Senegal River ; Portugal was established 

 in lower Guinea, on the west coast, and in 

 a small district opposite the island of 

 Madagascar, on the east; while Great 

 Britain's chief interest lay in Cape Colony, 

 which had been taken from the Dutch 

 during the Napoleonic wars. 



The explorations of such men as Liv- 

 ingstone and Stanley, Rohlfs and Du 

 Chaillu, during the last half of the nine- 

 teenth century, fired the popular imagina- 

 tion and brought about that awakening 

 of public interest in the Dark Continent 

 which caused a "scramble" for colonies 

 between 1875 and 1900. 



Germany did not embark upon a colony- 

 acquiring policy until 1882, when a Colo- 

 nial Society was formed to promote lec- 

 tures and to establish a colonial museum 

 in Berlin. Bismarck was won over to the 

 scheme and German traders began to es- 

 tablish stations along the west coast of 

 Africa. 



One of the most active agents in Ger- 

 many's colonial enterprise was a Bremen 

 citizen, Herr Liideritz, who acquired, by 

 treaties with natives, a small area around 

 Angra Pequena on the west coast, north 

 of the Cape Colony settlement. He de- 

 manded German protection; Bismarck 

 granted it, and in 1884 the German flag 

 was for the first time authorized to fly 

 over colonial property in Africa. Lu- 

 deritz's name is perpetuated in that of a 

 small town on the coast (see H-15). 



Next came acquisitions in Togoland 

 and the Cameroons. In 1885 Germans 

 were active on the east coast, making 

 treaties with tribal chiefs for an enor- 

 mous tract of land embracing 200,000 

 square miles, known subsequently as the 

 protectorate of German East Africa. 



HOW THE) GERMAN HOLDINGS HAVE BEEN 

 CONVERTED 



To the Union of South Africa has been 

 entrusted the mandate over German 

 Southwest Africa; Great Britain has 

 fallen mandatory heir to German East 

 Africa, now known as Tanganyika Ter- 

 ritory, to a strip of Togoland (i3,5 I 4 



447 



