Europe divided Africa into colonial territories

 What parts of Africa were originally claimed by which European countries during the colonial era?

During the late 19th-century Scramble for Africa, seven European nations claimed roughly 90% of the African continent. Grounded by the 1884–1885 Berlin Conference, European powers drew artificial borders that divided the land based on strategic and resource-heavy interests. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

The original colonial claims made by each European nation covered specific subheadings of the continent: [1, 2]

🇬🇧 Great Britain

Britain aimed for a continuous "Cape-to-Cairo" vertical axis of control through eastern and southern Africa, alongside lucrative West African trading hubs: [1, 2]

• North & East Africa: Egypt, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Uganda, and British East Africa (Kenya).
• Southern Africa: South Africa (Cape Colony and Natal), Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Nyasaland (Malawi), and Bechuanaland (Botswana).
• West Africa: Nigeria, the Gold Coast (Ghana), Sierra Leone, and The Gambia.
• Horn of Africa: British Somaliland. [1, 2, 3, 4]

🇫🇷 France

France laid claim to the single largest continuous land mass, dominating North, West, and Central Africa: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

• French West Africa: A massive federation spanning modern Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Guinea, Ivory Coast, and Benin.
• French Equatorial Africa: Territories covering Chad, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon.
• North Africa: Algeria (administered directly as an extension of France), Tunisia, and a protectorate over most of Morocco.
• East Africa & Indian Ocean: Madagascar and Djibouti (French Somaliland). [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

🇩🇪 German Empire

Germany entered the colonial race late and claimed scattered territories across multiple regions before losing them all following World War I: [1, 2, 3, 4]

• East Africa: German East Africa (spanning modern Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi).
• Southwest Africa: German South West Africa (Namibia).
• West Africa: Kamerun (Cameroon) and Togoland (Togo). [1, 2, 3, 4]

🇧🇪 Belgium

• Central Africa: King Leopold II personally claimed and violently exploited the Congo Free State (modern Democratic Republic of the Congo). It was later officially transferred to the Belgian government as the Belgian Congo in 1908. [1]

🇵🇹 Portugal

Portugal leveraged some of the oldest coastal trading outposts on the continent to secure large interior domains: [1, 2]

• Southern Africa: Angola and Mozambique.
• West Africa: Portuguese Guinea (Guinea-Bissau), Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Príncipe. [1, 2, 3, 4]

🇮🇹 Italy

Italy targeted the Mediterranean coast and the Horn of Africa, though its efforts were famously checked by indigenous resistance: [1, 2, 3]

• North Africa: Libya.
• Horn of Africa: Eritrea and Italian Somaliland.
• Note: Italy attempted to conquer the Ethiopian Empire but was decisively defeated at the Battle of Adwa in 1896, making Ethiopia one of only two African nations to remain independent during the era (alongside Liberia). Italy did briefly occupy Ethiopia later from 1936 to 1941. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

🇪🇸 Spain

Spain claimed the smallest footprint on the continent, primarily restricted to northwestern and equatorial outposts: [1, 2, 3]

• North & West Africa: Western Sahara (Río de Oro) and a small northern strip of Morocco.
• Central Africa: Equatorial Guinea (Río Muni and Bioko). [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]