ABSTRACT
The drawing of the map had very little immediate effect on the people whose nationality was ultimately to be determined by it. In essentials, by 1901 the political map of Africa had been drawn. Even deserts have significance on political maps, and the 'Chad plan' embraced much more than a desert. Most of the partition of Africa took place in Europe, on the basis of maps which provided detailed information about the coastal regions, but very little about the interior. During the decade following the Berlin conference, therefore, the partition of Africa proceeded first by the enlargement of coastal enclaves until their boundaries touched, and secondly by the projection inland of spheres of interest based upon the extended coastal enclaves. A more frequent cause of violence during the early stages of partition was the kind of resistance which emanated from existing elites who saw their positions being undermined.
