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First State of the French Societé de Géographie Map Highlighting The French Interests in the Scramble for Africa

Important separately published map of Africa designed and compiled by Jules Hansen, the official mapmaker for the newly formed Ministre des Outre-mer (French Ministry of the Colonies), at the height of Europe's scramble for control and exploitation of colonial Africa.

Published exactly ten years after the Berlin Conference, the map shows the various colonial states created during the "Scramble for Africa." At the southern end of the continent, British claims extend northwards from the "Colonie du Cap" into the Rift Valley, separated from North Africa only by German East Africa. This "Colossus of Rhodes" would be tested in 1898 when French advances in the Upper Nile region tested British hegemony in the area.

The geography is well-defined, with many features, rivers, roads, towns, and more shown. Some parts of the Sahara and the Sub-Saharan regions are still little-explored. 

Hansen was a notable late 19th Century mapmaker, who had a particular focus on Africa.  Within the framework of involvement in the Societé de Géographie, he gained unique insights into the great continent. He befriended members of the French Congo Expedition (1885), and in 1889, he was appointed the official cartographer for the French Ministry of the Colonies shortly after the ministry was formed in 1894.   Among Hansen's most remarkable cartographic achievements was mapping the Middle Niger River and the mysterious Upper Nile. He also issued a map of Madagascar, which included the routes taken by various French expeditions to explore the island.

The present map is the seminal achievement of Hansen's career, this grand map of Africa map at a scale of 1:10,000,000, first published in 1895. This map was a key document for French interests in the Scramble for Africa and was updated yearly until 1899 to incorporate the latest discoveries and political developments.

Census

The OCLC identifies examples of the 1895 edition of the map in the Bibliothèque nationale de Franc, the Boston Athenaeum, Yale, Stanford, Minnesota, and UCLA.