At the present time Africa seems to be the storm-centre for all the warring foreign powers.
It has long been the policy of the various European rulers to conquer and hold portions of the lesser known quarters of the globe, and plant colonies there to employ their surplus population, and to increase their trade and importance.
The West Indies, the East Indies, and Australasia have all been settled in this way. Africa was the last country to excite the ambition of Europe, but its turn has come, and it is now being forced to yield up its secrets to the explorer and its riches to the trader.
Sixty years ago the map of Africa was almost a blank. Egypt and Morocco were marked out at the north and east, Cape Colony at the extreme south, and here and there a little outline of territory on the gold coast. All the rest was vaguely marked as Sahara or the Great Desert and the Soudan.
To-day the English, the French, the Germans, the Italians, the Dutch, the Belgians, and the Spanish have all planted colonies on it, and the map of Africa looks as business-like as the map of Europe.
It is not to be supposed that these various nations have taken their slices of Africa without much contention and disagreement. We have told you about the troubles with the Boers in the Transvaal, and of Germany's determination to stop the British advance in that direction.
We have also mentioned the check given by Menelik of Abyssinia to the Italians, and of the fight of the Mahdists to keep the Soudan out of the hands of Egypt and England.
Fresh trouble is now arising between the English and the French.
You must not get the idea that the English are doing dreadful things in Africa, because they are concerned in most of the troubles that are disturbing the "Dark Continent."
The fact of the matter is simply that England and France are the largest landholders in Africa, and are therefore interested in most of the quarrels. The British colonies are also much more scattered than the possessions of any of the other powers, and consequently England has more neighbors to dispute with than the others, and from this fact appears to be more quarrelsome than she really is.