The Development of the European Nations, 1870-1914 (5th ed.) eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 780 pages of information about The Development of the European Nations, 1870-1914 (5th ed.).

The Development of the European Nations, 1870-1914 (5th ed.) eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 780 pages of information about The Development of the European Nations, 1870-1914 (5th ed.).
Probably the authorities at Lisbon were aroused to a sense of the potential value of their Laurenco Marquez domain by the scramble for Africa which began early in the eighties; and it must be regretted that the British Government, with the lack of foresight which has so often characterised it, let slip the opportunity of securing Delagoa Bay until its value was greatly enhanced.  It then agreed to refer the questions in dispute to the arbitration of General MacMahon, President of the French Republic (1875).  As has generally happened when foreign potentates have adjudicated on British interests, his verdict was wholly hostile to us.  It even assigned to Portugal a large district to the south of Delagoa Bay which the Portuguese had never thought of claiming from its native inhabitants, the Tongas[441].  In fact, a narrative of all the gains which have accrued to Portugal in Delagoa Bay, and thereafter to the people who controlled its railway to Pretoria, would throw a sinister light on the connection that has too often subsisted between the noble theory of arbitration and the profitable practice of peacefully willing away, or appropriating, the rights and possessions of others.  Portugal soon proved to be unable to avail herself of the opportunities opened up by the gift unexpectedly awarded her by MacMahon.  She was unable to control either the Tongas or the Boers.

[Footnote 441:  Sir C. Dilke, Problems of Greater Britain, vol. i. pp. 553-556.]

England having been ruled out, there was the chance for some other Power to step in and acquire St. Lucia Bay, one of the natural outlets of the southern part of the Transvaal Republic.  It is an open secret that the forerunners of the “colonial party” in Germany had already sought to open up closer relations with the Boer Republics.  In 1876 the President of the Transvaal, accompanied by a Dutch member of the Cape Parliament, visited Berlin, probably with the view of reciprocating those advances.  They had an interview with Bismarck, the details of which are not fully known.  Nothing, however, came of it at the time, owing to Bismarck’s preoccupation in European affairs.  Early in the “eighties,” the German colonial party, then beginning its campaign, called attention repeatedly to the advantages of gaining a foothold in or near Delagoa Bay; but the rise of colonial feeling in Germany led to a similar development in the public sentiment of Portugal, and indeed of all lands; so that, by the time that Bismarck was won over to the cause of Teutonic Expansion, the Portuguese refused to barter away any of their ancient possessions.  This probably accounts for the concentration of German energies on other parts of the South African coast, which, though less valuable in themselves, might serve as points d’appui for German political agents and merchants in their future dealings with the Boers, who were then striving to gain control over Bechuanaland.  The points selected by the Germans for their action were on the coast of Damaraland, as already stated, and St. Lucia Bay in Zululand, a position which President Burgers had striven to secure for the Transvaal in 1878.

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