ABSTRACT
By 1898 the greater part of the continent of Africa was divided between the European Powers. Liberia remained independent under the patronage of the United States. The Italians had failed spectacularly at the battle of Adowa in 1896 to make good their bid for Abyssinia. But these were the exceptions. The French had spread steadily over West and North West Africa. Morocco remained independent, but French influence was rapidly increasing there, displacing in some spheres old-established British influence. French colonialists increasingly saw Morocco as the ‘missing piece’ of their empire, for which they might eventually be prepared to trade even Egypt. [ Doc. 23, p. 127]
