ABSTRACT
During the immediate aftermath of the scramble for the African continent, the British colonial empire expanded its African acquisitions in fierce competition with the French. At the zenith of its imperial power, its dominion had extended over large territorial stretches across the East and North African regions situated in the Nile basin. By 1890, Great Britain had already declared the whole Nile valley as its exclusive sphere of influence, 1 and the British Foreign Office had transformed itself into protector of the Nile and heir of anxieties over the Nile's sources. 2 In the negotiations relating to east and north-eastern Africa, which Lord Salisbury had conducted with a series of European counterparts in 1890–91, the desire to safeguard waters of the upper and middle Nile occupied a predominant position. 3
