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Ethio-British negotiations concerning the western border with Sudan, 1896–1902*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Harold G. Marcus
Harold G. Marcus
Affiliation:
The author wishes to thank the United States Government for a Smith-Mundt Grant which supported his research in the diplomatic history of Ethiopia. He also wishes to thank Mesfin Waldemariam, Lectuter in Geography at the University College of Addis Ababa, for his invaluable aid in identifying obscure geographic locations. Archival materials used in this article were drawn from the microfilmed archival library of Professor Sven Rubenson of Haile Sellassie I University.
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The Journal of African History , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , March 1963 , pp. 81 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1963

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References

1 Robinson, , Gallagher, , and Denny, , Africa and the Victorians, London; Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1961, 283–4.Google Scholar

2 Ernest Work, Ethiopia, a Pawn in European Diplomacy, New Concord, Ohio, published by the author, 1935, II.Google Scholar

3 Robinson, Gallagher, and Denny, op. cit. 331.Google Scholar

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5 Silberman, Leo, ‘Why the Haud was Ceded’, Cahier d'Etudes Africaines, II: 5, 1963, 38.Google Scholar

6 For a brief description of earlier French thrusts into the Nile region and their aims see Michel, Charles, Vers Fachoda, Paris; Librairie Plon, N.D., Chapter One.Google Scholar

7 Sir Rodd, James Rennell, Social and Diplomatic Memories, 1884–1901, London; Edward Arnold and Co., 1923, II, 112.Google Scholar

8 Robinson, Gallagher, and Denny, op. cit. 349.Google Scholar

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11 Langer, op. cit. 537. Robinson, Gallagher, and Denny claim, however, that British policy-makers had no real thought of aiding Italy and only used the Italian defeat as a ‘pretext’ to occupy the Nile Basin to gain advantage in the crisis that was certain to come.Google Scholar See Robinson, Gallagher, and Denny, op. cit. 346–51.Google Scholar

12 F.O. 403/255, Rodd to Salisbury, 4 May 1897. Actually the letter had been received by the Foreign Office;Google Scholarsee F.O. 403/155, April 1891.Google Scholar

13 Ibid.Google Scholar

14 F.O. 403/255, Menelek to Rodd, 13 May 1897.Google Scholar

15 Ibid.Google Scholar

16 F.O. 403/255, Rodd to Salisbury, 4 May. 1897.Google Scholar

17 F.O. 1/32, Rodd's instructions.Google Scholar

18 F.O. 403/255, Rodd to Salisbury, 14 May 1897.Google Scholar

19 F.O. 403/255, Memo by Wingate, 7 May 1897.Google Scholar

20 Ibid.Google Scholar

21 Author's italics.Google Scholar

22 F.O. 403/255, Rodd to Salisbury, 18 May 1897.Google Scholar

23 F.O. 403/255, Memo of Wingate, 9 May 1897.Google Scholar

24 Ibid.Google Scholar

25 F.O. 403/255, Rodd to Menelek, 14 May 1897.Google Scholar

26 Ibid.Google Scholar

27 F.O. 403/255, Menelek to Rodd, 14 May 1897.Google Scholar

28 F.O. 1/32, Rodd to Salisbury, June 1897.Google Scholar

29 F.O. 403/255, Salisbury to Cromer, 27 Nov. 1897.Google Scholar

30 F.O. 1/35, Cromer to Harrington, 5 Mar. 1898.Google Scholar

31 F.O. 2/34, Harrington to Col. T. Walker, 11 May 1898.Google Scholar

32 F.O. 403/274, Cromer to Salisbury, 5 Mar. 1898.Google Scholar

33 Ibid.Google Scholar

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35 Ibid. passim.Google Scholar

36 F.O. 403/274, Harrington to Salisbury, 30 April 1898;Google ScholarF.O. 403/275, Cromer to Salisbury, 5 July 1898.Google Scholar

37 Sanderson, op. cit. 85.Google Scholar

38 For an analysis of the military might of Menelek's Ethiopia see Pankhurst, Richard, ‘The Independence of Ethiopia and Her Import of Arms in the Nineteenth Century’, Présence Africaine, 4 & 5: 32 & 33;Google Scholar also see Rubenson, Sven, ‘Some Aspects of the Survival of Ethiopian Independence in the Period of the Scramble for Africa’, University College (of Addis Ababa) Review, I, 1961, 21–2.Google Scholar

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40 Collins, Robert O., The Southern Sudan, 1883–1898, New Haven; Yale University Press, 1962, Chapter, passim, and p. 181.Google Scholar

41 For example, F.O. 403/275, Rodd to Salisbury, 15 May 1898: ‘I am convinced of the fact that Menelek is straining every effort to bring under his sway all the countries he lays claim to in his Proclamation of 1891.’ Or in a lester of the same date,Google ScholarF.O. 403/275, Harrington to Salisbury, 35 May 1898: ‘There is no doubt that Menelek is playing the game of effective occupation, and it is with this object that Ethiopian expeditions are being sent out both west and south-west…. Moreover, he seems to be fully cognizant of the fact that effective occupation constitutes ownership according to International law.’Google Scholar

42 F.O. 3/35, Harrington to Rodd, 29 Sept 1898.Google Scholar

43 F.O. 403/275, Cromer to Salisbury, 20 Nov. 1898: The Abyssinians had moved into Gallabat, and had the intention of moving into Karkoj. F.O. 403/275,Google ScholarWingate to Kitchener, 23 Nov. 1898: This letter informs the Sirdar that a small body of Abyssinian troops hoisted a flag at Matamma.Google ScholarF.O. 403/275, Harrington to Salisbury, 6 Nov. 1898: This communication relays information concerning the British occupation of Gedaref and Rosaires.Google ScholarF.O. 1/37, Menelek to Harrington, 22 Nov. 1898: This letter complains about the British raising their flag at Matamma and Gallabat. F.O. 403/289, Menelek to Harrington, N.D.: More complaints about British encroachment in the area of Gallabat.Google Scholar

44 F.O. 403/275, Salisbury to Harrington, 6 Oct. 1898.Google Scholar

45 F.O. 403/275, Harrington to Salisbury, 7 Nov. 1898.Google Scholar

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47 F.O. 1/35, Harrington to Rodd, 23 Nov. 1898.Google Scholar

48 F.O. 403/275, Harrington's instructions: Cromer to Creagh, 24 Nov. 1898.Google ScholarHarrington reported these in a letter to Menelek (F.O. 403/289, Harrington to Menelek, 17 Dec. 1898) in which he requested Menelek to make his proposals and promised that they would be handled in a conciliatory way.Google Scholar

49 F.O. 1/36, Harrington to Rodd, 15 Apr. 1899.Google Scholar

50 F.O. 403/289, Harrington to Cromer, 15 Apr. 1899.Google Scholar

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52 F.O. 403/255, Notes on Abyssinia, N.D.Google Scholar

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56 Ibid.Google Scholar

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76 F.O. 403/3 13, Lansdowne to Buchanan, 29 Aug. 1901.Google Scholar

77 F.O. 403/313, Privetti to Currie, 15 Dec. 1901.Google Scholar

78 F.O. 403/322, Ilg to Harrington, 18 Mar. 1902.Google Scholar

79 F.O. 1/40, Harrington to Boyle, 27 Mar. 1902.Google Scholar

80 F.O. 1/40, Harrington to Boyle, 3 May. 1902.Google Scholar

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83 F.O. 403/313, Currie to Lansdowne, 20 Nov. 1901.Google Scholar

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85 F.O. 1/47, Sudan Intelligence Report 101, 1–31 Dec. 1902.Google Scholar