Chapter 28

defined, and the negus Johannes (King John) of Abyssinia viewed with anything but a favourable eye the approach of the Italians towards the Abyssinian highlands. In January 1887 an Italian force was almost annihilated at Dogali, but the check only served to spur on the Italian government to fresh efforts.

The Italians occupied Keren and Asmara in the highlands, and eventually, in May 1889, concluded a treaty of peace and friendship with the negus Menelek, who had seized the throne on the death of Johannes, killed in battle with the dervishes in March of the same year. This agreement, known as the treaty of Uccialli, settled the frontiers between Abyssinia and the Italian sphere, and contained the following article:--

XVII. His Majesty the King of Kings of Ethiopia consents to avail himself of the Italian government for any negotiations which he may enter into with the other powers or governments.

In Italy and by other European governments this article was generally regarded as establishing an Italian protectorate over Abyssinia; but this interpretation was never accepted by the emperor Menelek, and at no time did Italy succeed in establishing any very effective control over Abyssinian affairs. North of the Italian coast sphere the Red Sea littoral was still under Egyptian rule, while immediately to the south a small stretch of coast on the Gulf of Tajura constituted the sole French possession on the East African mainland (see SOMALILAND.) Moreover, when Egyptian claims to the Somali coast were withdrawn, Great Britain took the opportunity to establish her influence on the northern Somali coast, opposite Aden. Between the 1st of May 1884 and the 15th of March 1886 ten treaties were concluded, placing under British influence the northern Somali coast from Ras Jibuti on the west to Bandar Ziada on the east. In the meantime Italy, not content with her acquisitions on the Red Sea, had been concluding treaties with the Somali chiefs on the east coast. The first treaty was made with the sultan of Obbia on the 8th of February 1889. Later in the same year the British East Africa Company transferred to Italy--the transference being subsequently approved by the sultan of Zanzibar--the ports of Brava, Marka, Mukdishu and Warsheik, leased from Zanzibar. On the 24th of March 1891 an agreement between Italy and Great Britain fixed the northern bank of the Juba up to latitude 6 deg. N. as the southern boundary of Italian influence in Somaliland, the boundary being provisionally prolonged along lines of latitude and longitude to the intersection of the Blue Nile with 35 deg. E. longitude. On the 15th of April 1891 a further agreement fixed the northern limit of the Italian sphere from Ras Kasar on the Red Sea to the point on the Blue Nile just mentioned. By this agreement Italy was to have the right temporarily to occupy Kassala, which was left in the Anglo-Egyptian sphere, in trust for Egypt--a right of which she availed herself in 1894. To complete the work of delimitation the British and Italian governments, on the 5th of May 1894, fixed the boundary of the British sphere of influence in Somaliland from the Anglo-French boundary, which had been settled in February 1888.

But while Great Britain was thus lending her sanction to Italy's ambitious schemes, the Abyssinian emperor was becoming more and more incensed at Italy's pretensions to exercise a protectorate over Ethiopia. In 1893 Menelek denounced the treaty of Uccialli, and eventually, in a great battle, fought at Adowa on the 1st of March 1896, the Italians were disastrously defeated. By the subsequent treaty of Adis Ababa, concluded on the 26th of October 1896, the whole of the country to the

The independence of Abyssinia recognized.

south of the Mareb, Belesa and Muna rivers was restored to Abyssinia, and Italy acknowledged the absolute independence of Abyssinia. The effect of this was practically to destroy the value of the Anglo-Italian agreement as to the boundaries to the south and west of Abyssinia; and negotiations were afterwards set on foot between the emperor Menelek and his European neighbours with the object of determining the Abyssinian frontiers. Italian Somaliland, bordering on the south-eastern frontier of Abyssinia, became limited to a belt of territory with a depth inland from the Indian Ocean of from 180 to 250