Africa in 1914 quiz

What's on this map

Africa in 1914, at the height of colonial rule. Seven European powers had split almost the whole continent between them: Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain. The map is labelled by territory, with the name used at the time. The study view shows which power ruled each one and the seat of government.

France holds the biggest share: French West Africa from Dakar to Lake Chad, French Equatorial Africa, Algeria, Tunisia, most of Morocco and Madagascar. Britain's colonies run from Egypt through the Sudan and East Africa down to the Union of South Africa. Germany has four colonies: Togoland, Kamerun, German South-West Africa and German East Africa. Belgium has the Congo, and Portugal has Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea.

Only two states are fully independent in 1914, Ethiopia and Liberia. The Sultanate of Darfur in the west of today's Sudan also stayed free until the British conquered it in 1916.

The places people miss

• German Togoland – a narrow strip next to the Gold Coast, and the first German colony to fall, in August 1914.
• German Kamerun – bigger than today's Cameroon, after France handed over strips of the Congo in 1911.
• Zanzibar – a British protectorate, separate from German East Africa on the mainland.
• Spanish Guinea and Spanish Sahara – Spain's two small colonies, easy to forget next to the French giants.
• Basutoland, Swaziland and Bechuanaland – British protectorates kept out of the Union of South Africa. Today they are Lesotho, Eswatini and Botswana.
• Egypt – still ruled through a khedive, and made a British protectorate in December 1914.

How to learn it

• Learn the big blocks first: French West and Equatorial Africa, the Belgian Congo, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, the Union of South Africa.
• Then go power by power: find Germany's four colonies, then Portugal's three, then Italy's three.
• Use the study view to link each colony to the country it became.
• Small islands get a tap circle, so do not skip Mauritius, Réunion and the Seychelles.