Trading stations on the Gulf of Guinea were established by Germans, who immediately, employing the obsequiousness which has enabled the German to tread many an unaccustomed path, began to approach native chiefs for concessions.
Nearly the whole territory, known respectively as the Grain Coast, Gold Coast, Ivory Coast, and Slave Coast, was beneficially occupied by the French and British; but parts had not been formally annexed between the British Colony of the Gold Coast and French Dahomey. The French really had a prior claim, but the natives were continually petitioning the British Government to take them under their protection.
In French Dahomey itself Germans had established many trading stations, and began to pay particular attention to a strip of the Slave Coast between Lome Bay and Popo, including Porto Seguro.
Great Britain had not yet awakened to Germany's real intentions, and all her policy was accompanied by procrastination and dilatoriness. The repeated petitions of the natives for British protection were ignored or put aside "for inquiry and consideration," pending which the natives received no reply to their applications.
The lesson taught at Angra Pequena, where the whole of the south-west coast from the Orange River to Portuguese Angola was lost to Great Britain in spite of the strenuous efforts of the Colonial statesmen, was ignored; though it must be conceded that there was an influential section in England strongly opposed to further increasing Great Britain's responsibilities oversea and thus hampering the Colonial and Foreign Offices.
In the month of June, 1884, an emissary of the German Government, Dr Nachtigal, was dispatched to the west coast of Africa, ostensibly as a Trade Commissioner, to inquire into and report upon the progress of German commerce.
Bismarck having decided on his policy of "Trade Colonies" under Imperial protection, pursued it vigorously and with his usual diplomacy.
He immediately acquainted the British Foreign Office with the fact of the mission, but took the opportunity of hoodwinking Lord Granville as to its object--if he did not actually disclaim any intention of territorial acquisition. Dr Nachtigal proceeded to the French settlements on the Ivory Coast, and interviewed the German traders there in preparation for his _coup_; thence he made for the thirty-two mile strip south of Lome, now known as Togoland, and on the 5th July the German flag was hoisted and the territory declared annexed by Germany.