|
||
|
|
|
|
This detailed pocket map of Central and East Africa, published in 1922, offers a comprehensive overview of the region’s topography, political boundaries, and colonial infrastructure in the early interwar period.
Issued during the height of European imperial control over the African continent, the map reflects the geopolitical landscape as defined by colonial powers following the formal end of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles. Territories formerly held by Germany, such as German East Africa, are here depicted under British and Belgian administration, with labels indicating Tanganyika Territory and Ruanda-Urundi, respectively. The map also delineates British East Africa (Kenya Colony and Protectorate), Uganda Protectorate, the Belgian Congo, Angola (Portuguese West Africa), and Northern Rhodesia (administered by the British South Africa Company).
The geography is rendered with a high degree of precision for its scale (1:4,000,000), with elevation indicated by hypsometric tints ranging from green lowlands to purple-brown highlands, particularly visible in the Ethiopian Highlands, the Rift Valley escarpments, and around Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya. Major river systems such as the Congo, Nile, and Zambezi are prominently traced, while the great lakes of the region—Victoria, Tanganyika, Albert, and Nyasa (Malawi)—are clearly defined and labeled. Cities and administrative centers such as Leopoldville (Kinshasa), Nairobi, Kampala, Dar es Salaam, and Lusaka are marked in red, and an overlay of railways, roads, and telegraph lines reveals the logistical skeleton of imperial control and extraction.
![[ West Africa ] Zaara](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/92253.jpg)
