[CHAPTER IV]
TOGOLAND AND KAMERUN
When the Germans entered the field of Colonial enterprise in 1884, the European Powers chiefly concerned in Africa were Great Britain, France, and Portugal—the latter's connection with the Dark Continent, indeed, dating from the earliest days of its modern history.
Portuguese power had, however, been for some time in process of decay, and her influence was on the wane.
The interests of France were centred in the north and north-west of the continent, while Great Britain was supreme in the south.
The adventure of Leopold, King of the Belgians, on the Congo was still a private venture in the hands of H. M. Stanley, and had not yet borne fruit in the shape of the Congo Free State.
British and French had been actively engaged in operations for the suppression of the slave trade, but the energies of the two countries were at this time being devoted rather to the development of the trading stations established on the Gold and Slave Coasts on the Gulf of Guinea.
"Spheres of influence" were being leisurely demarcated by France and Great Britain—the latter feeling so secure in her position that she hardly treated seriously, in fact scouted, the notion of being rivalled in her supremacy.
For some considerable time Germany had been making an effort to secure a portion of the trade of the west coast, overcoming the difficulty of introducing her cheap and inferior goods by giving them English and French trademarks, quite in keeping with the best principles of German trade.
Trading stations on the Gulf of Guinea were established by Germans, who immediately, employing the obsequiousness which has enabled the German to tread many an unaccustomed path, began to approach native chiefs for concessions.
Nearly the whole territory, known respectively as the Grain Coast, Gold Coast, Ivory Coast, and Slave Coast, was beneficially occupied by the French and British; but parts had not been formally annexed between the British Colony of the Gold Coast and French Dahomey. The French really had a prior claim, but the natives were continually petitioning the British Government to take them under their protection.