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Highly detailed map of Southern Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi, centered on Lake Nyasa.

The map was published by the British War Office, Geographical Section and is one of the most detailed and up to date maps of the region published prior to World War II.

Mozambique

By the early 20th century the Portuguese had shifted the administration of much of Mozambique to large private companies, like the Mozambique Company, the Zambezia Company and the Niassa Company, controlled and financed mostly by the British, which established railroad lines to their neighboring colonies (South Africa and Rhodesia).

The Zambezia Company, the most profitable chartered company, took over a number of smaller prazeiro holdings, and established military outposts to protect its property. The chartered companies built roads and ports to bring their goods to market including a railroad linking present day Zimbabwe with the Mozambican port of Beira.

Due to their unsatisfactory performance and the shift, under the corporatist Estado Novo regime of Oliveira Salazar, towards a stronger Portuguese control of Portuguese Empire's economy, the companies' concessions were not renewed when they ran out. This was what happened in 1942 with the Mozambique Company, which however, continued to operate in the agricultural and commercial sectors as a corporation, and had already happened in 1929 with the termination of the Niassa Company's concession. In 1951, the Portuguese overseas colonies in Africa were rebranded as Overseas Provinces of Portugal.

Tanzania

Prior to World War II, Tanzania was a German Colony. The first British civilian administrator after the end of World War I was Sir Horace Archer Byatt CMG. The colony was renamed the "The Tanganyika Territory" in January 1920. In September 1920 by the Tanganyika Order in Council, the initial boundaries of the territory, the Executive Council, and the offices of governor and commander-in-chief were established. The governor legislated by proclamation or ordinance until 1926.

Britain and Belgium signed an agreement regarding the border between Tanganyika and Ruanda-Urundi in 1924.

The administration of the Territory continued to be carried out under the terms of the mandate until its transfer to the Trusteeship System under the Charter of the United Nations by the Trusteeship Agreement in December 1946.

Malawai

In 1883, a consul of the British Government was accredited to the "Kings and Chiefs of Central Africa" and in 1891, the British established the British Central Africa Protectorate.

In 1907 the name was changed to Nyasaland or the Nyasaland Protectorate (Nyasa is the Chiyao word for "lake"). Nyasaland was joined with Northern and Southern Rhodesia in 1953, to form the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The Federation was dissolved in December 1963.