Scramble For Katanga
In 1890 acting for Cecil Rhodes and the British South Africa Company (BSAC), Johnston sent Alfred Sharpe (who would become his successor in Nyasaland) to obtain a treaty with Msiri, King of Garanganze in Katanga. This territory was in the sphere of influence of Belgian King Leopold II's Congo Free State, and though the Berlin Conference's Principle of Effectivity allowed such a move, it had the potential to precipitate an Anglo-Belgian crisis. Sharpe failed with Msiri, though he obtained treaties with Mwata Kazembe covering the eastern side of the Luapula River and Lake Mweru, and with other chiefs covering the southern end of Lake Tanganyika. In 1891 Leopold sent the Stairs Expedition to Katanga. Johnston dissuaded it from accessing Katanga through Nyasaland, but it went through German East Africa instead, and took Katanga after killing Msiri.
Read more about this topic: Harry Johnston
Famous quotes containing the word scramble:
“Stevenson had noble ideas—as did the young Franklin for that matter. But Stevenson felt that the way to implement them was to present himself as a thoughtful idealist and wait for the world to flock to him. He considered it below him, or wrong, to scramble out among the people and ask them what they wanted. Roosevelt grappled voters to him. Stevenson shied off from them. Some thought him too pure to desire power, though he showed ambition when it mattered.”
—Garry Wills, U.S. historian. Certain Trumpets: The Call of Leaders, ch. 9, Simon & Schuster (1994)