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The 1890 British Ultimatum was an ultimatum by the British government delivered on 11 January 1890 to Portugal. The ultimatum forced the retreat of Portuguese military forces from areas which had been claimed by Portugal on the basis of historical discovery and recent exploration, but which Britain claimed on the basis of effective occupation. Portugal had attempted to claim a large area of land between its colonies of Mozambique and Angola including most of present-day Zimbabwe and Zambia and a large part of Malawi, which had been and included in Portugal's "Rose-coloured Map". It has sometimes been claimed that the British government's objections arose because the Portuguese claims clashed with its aspirations to create a Cape to Cairo Railway linking its colonies from the very south of Africa to those in the north. This seems unlikely, firstly as in 1890 Germany already controlled German East Africa, now Tanzania and Sudan was independent under the Mahdi and secondly the British government was pressed into taking action by Cecil Rhodes, whose British South Africa Company was founded in 1888 south of the Zambezi and the African Lakes Company and British missionaries to the north.〔M Newitt, (1995). A History of Mozambique, London, Hurst & Co, p. 341. ISBN 1-85065-172-8.〕 ==Background to the Ultimatum== At the start of the 19th century, the Portuguese presence in Africa south of the equator was limited in Angola to Luanda and Benguela and a few outposts, the most northerly of which was Ambriz and in Mozambique to the Island of Mozambique, several other coastal trading posts as far south as Delagoa Bay and the virtually independent Prazo estates in the Zambezi valley 〔R Oliver and A Atmore, (1986). The African Middle Ages, 1400-1800, Cambridge University Press pp. 163-4, 191, 195. ISBN 0-521-29894-6.〕 The first challenge to Portugal's wider claims came from the Transvaal Republic, which in 1868 claimed an outlet to the Indian Ocean at Delagoa Bay. Although in 1869 Portugal and the Transvaal reached agreement on a border under which all of Delagoa Bay was Portuguese, Britain then lodged an objection, claiming the southern part of that bay. This claim was rejected after arbitration by President MacMahon of France. His award made in 1875 upheld the border agreed in 1869. A second challenge came from the foundation of a German colony at Angra Pequena, now known as Lüderitz in Namibia in 1883. Although there was no Portuguese presence there, Portugal had claimed it on the basis of discovery.〔H. Livermore (1992), Consul Crawfurd and the Anglo-Portuguese Crisis of 1890 Portuguese Studies, Vol. 8, pp. 181-2.〕 A far more serious dispute arose in the area of the Zambezi valley and Lake Nyasa. Portugal occupied the coast of Mozambique from the 16th century, and from 1853 the Portuguese government embarked on a series of military campaigns to bring the Zambezi valley under its effective control.〔M Newitt, (1969). The Portuguese on the Zambezi: An Historical Interpretation of the Prazo system, Journal of African History Vol X, No 1 pp. 67-8, 80-2.〕 During the 1850s, the areas south of Lake Nyasa (now Lake Malawi) and west of the lake were explored by David Livingstone and several Church of England and Presbyterian missions were established in the Shire Highlands in the 1860s and 1870s. In 1878 the African Lakes Company was established by businessmen with links to the Presbyterian missions. Their aim was to set up a trading company that would work in close cooperation with the missions to combat the slave trade by introducing legitimate trade and develop European influence in the area. A small mission and trading settlement was established at Blantyre in 1876.〔J G Pike, (1969). Malawi: A Political and Economic History, London, Pall Mall Press pp.77-9.〕 Portugal attempted to assert its African territorial claims through three expeditions led by Alexandre de Serpa Pinto, first from Mozambique to the eastern Zambezi in 1869, then to the Congo and upper Zambezi from Angola in 1876 and lastly crossing Africa from Angola in 1877-79. These expeditions were undertaken with the intention of claiming the area between Mozambique and Angola.〔C E Nowell, (1947). Portugal and the Partition of Africa, The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 6-8.〕 Following Serpa Pinto’s explorations, the Portuguese government in 1879 made a formal claim to the area south and east of the Ruo River (the present south-eastern border of Malawi), and in 1882 occupied the lower Shire River valley as far as the Ruo. The Portuguese then asked the British government to accept this territorial claim, but the opening of the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 ended these discussions.〔J McCracken, (2012). A History of Malawi, 1859-1966, Woodbridge, James Currey, p. 51. ISBN 978-1-84701-050-6.〕 Portugal’s efforts to establish this corridor of influence between Angola and Mozambique were hampered by one of the articles in the General Act of the Berlin Conference which required effective occupation of areas claimed rather than historical claims based on discovery or those based on exploration, as Portugal had used .〔Teresa Pinto Coelho, (2006). Lord Salisbury´s 1890 Ultimatum to Portugal and Anglo-Portuguese Relations, p. 2. http://www.mod-langs.ox.ac.uk/files/windsor/6_pintocoelho.pdf〕 To validate Portuguese claims, Serpa Pinto was appointed as its consul in Zanzibar in 1884, and given the mission of exploring the region between Lake Nyasa and the coast from the Zambezi to the Rovuma River and securing the allegiance of the chiefs in that area.〔C E Nowell, (1947). Portugal and the Partition of Africa, p. 10.〕 His expedition reached Lake Nyasa and the Shire Highlands, but failed to make any treaties of protection with the chiefs in territories west of the lake.〔M Newitt, (1995). A History of Mozambique, pp. 276-7, 325-6.〕 At the northwest end of Lake Nyasa around Karonga, the African Lakes Company made, or claimed to have made, treaties with local chiefs between 1884 and 1886. Its ambition was to become a Chartered company and control the route from the Lake along the Shire River.〔J McCracken, (2012). A History of Malawi, 1859-1966, pp. 48-52〕 Despite the outcome of the Berlin Conference, the idea of a trans-African Portuguese zone was not abandoned, and to help to create this, Portugal signed treaties with France and Germany in 1886, The German treaty noted Portugal’s claim to territory along the course of the Zambezi linking Angola and Mozambique and following these treaties the Portuguese Foreign Minister prepared what became known as the Rose Coloured Map representing a claim stretching from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.〔Teresa Pinto Coelho, (2006). Lord Salisbury´s 1890 Ultimatum to Portugal and Anglo-Portuguese Relations, p. 2. http://www.mod-langs.ox.ac.uk/files/windsor/6_pintocoelho.pdf〕 North of the Zambezi, these Portuguese claims were opposed both the African Lakes company and the missionaries. The main opposition to Portuguese claims in the south came from Cecil Rhodes, whose British South Africa Company was founded in 1888.〔M Newitt, (1995). A History of Mozambique, p. 341.〕 As late as 1888, the British Foreign Office declined to offer protection to the tiny British settlements in the Shire Highlands. However, it did not accept the expansion of Portuguese influence there, and in 1889 it appointed Henry Hamilton Johnston as British consul to Mozambique and the Interior, and instructed him to report on the extent of Portuguese rule in the Zambezi and Shire valleys. He was also to make conditional treaties with local rulers outside Portuguese control. These conditional treaties did not establish a British protectorate, but prevented the rulers from accepting protection from another state.〔J G Pike, (1969). Malawi: A Political and Economic History, pp. 83-5.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1890 British Ultimatum」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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