Original Antique
1923
Hammond Map
of
Africa
From the "Scramble" to colonize Africa (1833-1914) to the "Shuffle" after World War"
as Allied Powers divided up the German Empire's African colonies (1915-1923).
and on reverse
Europe
(scarce and historically significant map)
showing the changing of borders and the emergence and/or the reemergence
of new nations and regions
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The Scramble for Africa
The Scramble for Africa was the invasion, annexation, division, and colonization of most of Africa by seven Western European powers during an era known as "New Imperialism" (between 1833 and 1914). The 10 per cent of Africa that was under formal European control in 1870 increased to almost 90 per cent by 1914, with only Liberia and Ethiopia remaining independent.
The Berlin Conference of 1884 was convened regulated European colonization and trade in Africa.
The conference, proposed by Portugal in pursuance of its special claim to control of the Congo estuary, was necessitated by the jealousy and suspicion with which the great European powers viewed one another’s attempts at colonial expansion in Africa. The general act of the Conference of Berlin declared the Congo River basin to be neutral (a fact that in no way deterred the Allies from extending the war into that area in World War I); guaranteed freedom for trade and shipping for all states in the basin; forbade slave trading; and rejected Portugal’s claims to the Congo River estuary—thereby making possible the founding of the independent Congo Free State, to which Great Britain, France, and Germany had already agreed in principle.
The Congo Free State was a large state and absolute monarchy in Central Africa from 1885 to 1908. It was privately owned by King Leopold II, King of Belgium. In legal terms, the two separate nations were in a personal union.
The Congo Free State was not a part of, nor did it belong to Belgium.
Following reports of mistreatment of native peoples that provoked international outrage, the Congo Free State was annexed as a colony by Belgium on November 15, 1908, which ended its existence as an independent sovereign state.
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German Colonies Before World War I
On 3 March 1885, the German government announced that it had granted an imperial charter, which was signed by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck on 27 February 1885. The charter was granted to Peters' company and was intended to establish a protectorate in the African Great Lakes region.
German rule over this territory was punctuated by numerous rebellions by its native African peoples, which culminated in a campaign of German reprisals from 1904 to 1908 known as the Herero and Namaqua genocide.
German South West Africa
was a colony of the German Empire from 1884 until 1915, though Germany did not officially recognize its loss of this territory until the 1919 Treaty of Versailles.
After World War I
Germany loss its African colonies as they became controlled by Great Britain and France.
France controlled Kamerun and Togo; Britain controlled Tanganyika Territory and South West Africa.
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French colonial territories in Africa included French Kongo (French Equatorial Africa) and Military Territories(French West Africa: Algeria, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Dahomey). It existed from 1910 to 1958 and its administration was based in Brazzaville.
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The British Colonies consisted of: Sierra Leone, Gold Coast, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda Protectorate, Anglo Egyptian Sudan, Somaliland Protectorate, Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia, Bechuanaland Protectorate and the Union of South Africa.
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The Ottoman Empire formally ceded (Tripoli)Libya to Italy under the Treaty of Ouchy on October 18,1912. Libya formally remained an Italian colony until 1947, when Italy relinquished its claims upon Libya, which had been under joint Franco-British occupation since 1943.
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Mozambique (Portuguese East Africa) was only recognized as a Portuguese colony by the other European powers in 1885. The Portuguese destroyed the Arab trade routes in the Indian Ocean between Africa, Arabia and India. The Portuguese replaced Arab control of the trade in ivory, gold and slaves with their own
It was only towards the end of the 19th century that Portuguese Angolan settlements widened away from the coastal strip (only about 150 km or 93 miles wide) to occupy the area more or less covered by the modern state today. Following the independence of Brazil (1822), 497 Portuguese immigrants arrived in Angola from South America between 1849 and 1851. For a while, the Portuguese had entertained hopes of moving east and linking up with Portuguese Mozambique on the other side of the continent, but the British, moving up from South Africa, ended that particular ambition.
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During the “Scramble for Africa”, in 1884 Spain claimed the coastal stretch between Cape Bojador and Cape Blanc, calling the region Rio de Oro (gold river). The Spanish established Villa Cisnneros as the seat of administration. In 1924, Rio de Oro became part of the Spanish Sahara. In 1948, the Cape Juby region (a stretch of land Spain gained in the partition of Morocco in 1911) was also incorporated into the Spanish Sahara.
The Spanish protectorate in Morocco was established in 1912 by a treaty between France and Spain that converted the Spanish sphere of influence in Morocco into a formal protectorate.
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Italian government troops invaded Libya on October 4, 1911, and captured Tripoli from Turkish troops on October 5, 1911. Italy formally annexed Tripoli on November 5, 1911.
The Ottoman Empire formally ceded Libya to Italy under the Treaty of Ouchy on October 18, 1912. Libya formally remained an Italian colony until 1947, when Italy relinquished its claims upon Libya, which had been under joint Franco-British occupation since 1943.
In October 1935 Italian troops invaded Ethiopia – then also known as Abyssinia – forcing the country's Emperor, Haile Selassie, into exile. Ignoring protests from the League of Nations, the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini proclaimed a new Italian empire in East Africa, comprising Ethiopia and the pre-existing territories of Italian Somaliland and Eritrea.
and on reverse
Europe
showing the changing of borders and the emergence and/or the reemergence
of new nations and regions such the Baltic and Balkan States, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine etc.
after World War I
Not only did Germany lose it colonies in Africa but its territory in Europe was greatly diminished.
Interestingly the Baltic States are shown as
Esthonia (Estonia), Livonia (Grand Duchy of Lithuania), LITH (Lithuania) and Courland
(Courland is one of the Historical Latvian Lands in western Latvia.
Courland's largest city is Liepaja, which is the third largest city in Latvia.
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Two Great Historical Maps
Showing a snapshot of the events that would shape the 20th Century.