FRANCE

• France had already established its control over Algeria in the time of Louis Philippe. But the province was developed in the time of Napoleon III.
• In 1881, France established her protectorate over Tunisia.
• Both France and Great Britain had dual control over Egypt, but in 1882 France refused to cooperate with Great Britain to put down the revolt of Arabi Pasha and as a result France was ousted from Egypt and from 1892 Great Britain came to have sole control over Egypt.
• France had a big colonial empire in North and West Africa and she desired to add East of Africa to the colonial Empire.
• In 1896, France acquired the island of Madagascar.
• The 1899 Anglo-French agreement demarcated the spheres of influence of France and Great Britain.
• The watershed of the Nile and the Congo was made the dividing line between British and French spheres of influence.
• Though France was excluded from the Nile River valley, she secured all her gains west of the watershed.
• France consolidated the hinterland of erstwhile French West Africa.
• The Entente Cordiale of 1904 provided that England was to have a free hand in Egypt and was to support France in Morocco.
• When France tried to establish her control over Morocco three crises took place in 1905, 1908 and 1911. France was able to establish her Protectorate over Morocco.
• France also had her control over Senegal, the Ivory Coast and the Congo.

GERMANY

• Initially the German Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck was against any colonial enterprise.
• After its Industrial Revolution, Germany began to feel the need of raw materials and foreign markets and suitable settlements for her increasing population.
• Bismarck then followed a forward colonial policy and turned his attention to Africa.
• In 1882, German Colonial Union was formed and within two years 1884-85, Germany established her protectorate over German South West Africa, Togoland, Cameroon and Tanganyika.
• When France tried to establish herself in Morocco after the Entente Cordiale of 1904, Germany resisted it.
• The dispute was referred to the Algeciras Conference in 1906. Britain supported France over Germany and Germany had to withdraw. Britain again supported France in 1908.
• In 1911, during the Agadir Crisis, Britain again supported France against Germany and later on a Franco-German agreement provided for German consent to the occupation of Morocco by France and Spain in return for a section of the French Congo.

ITALY

• Italy secured Eritrea in 1885 and also Italian Somali land.
• Italy tried to acquire Abyssinia but she was defeated in the battle of Adowa.
• Italy was also intended to acquire Tunisia, but as she delayed matters, France established her protectorate over it in 1881.
• Italy fought against Turkey in 1911-12 and secured Tripoli and Cyrenaica.

BRITAIN 

• Britain had considerable presence in Africa. The Cape Colony in South Africa was occupied by the British during the Napoleonic wars and was formally annexed in 1814.
• British occupied Natal from 1824 to 1843. In 1843 Basutoland was placed under British protection and in 1868 British Sovereignty was established over Basutoland.
• Transvaal was annexed by Britain in 1877 as a way of resolving the border dispute between the Boers and the Zulus.
• In the beginning both France and Great Britain had dual control over Egypt, but soon France was ousted and Great Britain established her sole protectorate over Egypt.
• Sudan was politically a part of Egypt but in 1883 the people of Sudan revolted.
• In 1896, Britain decided to reconquer Sudan and assembled a strong Anglo-Egyptian force in Egypt.
• In 1898 British forces destroyed Sudanese rebels and an agreement was reached with French Government to demarcate respectively spheres of influence.
• The nucleus of what was Nigeria was formed in 1861 when the British signed treaties with native chiefs.
• Britain also occupied Somali land which faces the entrance to the Red Sea.