ABSTRACT
As late as the year 1880 a map of Africa shows only very limited European settlements and colonies, with the exception of the south, where the Dutch had been established since 1652 and the British since 1806. Throughout the whole of tropical Africa European settlement was confined to the coastlands. The only settlement with non-European connections was Liberia. In the two decades between 1880 and the close of the century the greater part of the continent of Africa was divided up among six European powers. Overseas colonies served to raise the prestige of the country possessing them, and there were already several successful examples of colonies in Africa. In 1830 a French military force entered North Africa, ostensibly with the motive of suppressing the Barbary corsairs, who for long had exacted dues from shipping passing through the Straits of Gibraltar.
