Excerpt from Africa: In the Nineteenth Century Nineteenth century had passed away before earth-hunger and keen commercial competition, and their attendant passion for conquest and colonisation, brought the re markable historical event, or series of events, known as the Partition of Africa, ' the diplomatic recognition, in the interests of peace, of the rush of Europeans on a long neglected prey. The political and diplomatic vocabulary was enriched by a new word and phrase in Hinterlands and Spheres of Influence, ' or, as the Germans prefer to style the latter Spheres of Interest, ' and the aboriginal natives, Mohammedan or Pagan, were brought face to face with new conditions of existence, in which breech loaders, Maxims, rocket-tubes, rifled cannon, steam launches and gunboats - with still more deadly cheap alcohol - not unknown to them before, were to play an effective and conspicuous part. It is the purpose of this work to deal with the events in every part of the African continent which, in the course of the nineteenth century, directly led up to, or were more or less remotely connected with, this embarkation on a new career. The story is one of great interest, with many stirring episodes, and many achievements due to the courage, endurance, resolution and ability of distinguished soldiers, adventurers, pioneers and administrators in an age which is assuredly not the least romantic and heroic period in the history of the world. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.