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CHAPTER XXVIII: Stanley
The Russian government took the opportunity of the war between Germany and France to declare in 1871 that it would no longer observe the provision of the treaty of Paris that prohibited Russia from having a fleet in the Black Sea; and a conference held in London sanctioned this stroke of policy. Henry W. Stanley, having been commissioned by the proprietor of the New York Herald to find Dr. Livingstone the African explorer, left Bagomayo on the east coast of Africa, March 21, 1871. After 236 days travel the expedition reached Ujiji, where Livingstone was found.
On November 17, 1874, Stanley left the east coast of Africa, on a second expedition for the purpose of finishing Livingstone's incompleted work of African exploration. This time he was commissioned by the London Telegraph and the New York Herald. The result of this expedition was the exploration of Lake Victoria, and Lake Tanganyika, and the practical settlement of the centuried question as to the sources of the Nile. Stanley followed the Lualaha to prove the correctness of Livingstone's opinion that it flowed into the Nile; it brought him to the Congo, which he followed, encountering perils and surmounting obstacles, until he reached the Atlantic ocean, more than two years after he started on his journey. Subsequently Stanley assisted in organizing the Congo Free State, under the direction of Leopold II. king of the Belgians, and in 1890, he rescued Emin Pasha from equatorial Africa.
Other explorations have been since conducted in various parts of Africa by parties under the direction of the principal European nations. The greater part of the Dark Continent has been partitioned among the various European governments. England has taken Zanzibar, a large portion of the eastern coast, the Niger country, and has pushed her frontier on the South as far as the Zambezi river. France controls the island of Madagascar, the French Congo region and extends her influence over the Sahara region from Algeria to Senegal, and Lake Tchad. Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Belgium have likewise received their share, and the Dark Continent is now practically open to the transforming influences of civilization.
In 1874, an insurrection broke out in Herzegovina, and smouldered on until 1876, and excited all the surrounding Slavonic peoples. A threatened revolt in Bulgaria in May 1875, was suppressed by the Bashi-Bazouks, Turkish irregular troops, with such revolting brutality as to shock all civilized nations. Ahdul-Aziz was deposed, and succeeded by Murad V., who was in turn succeeded by his brother Abdul- Hamid II. Servia and Montenegro rose in rebellion, but Servia was soon defeated. A conference of the great powers was held at Constantinople where proposals for the better government of the Christian provinces of Turkey were made. These proposals were rejected by Turkey, whereupon Russia undertook to enforce their performance, and declared war April 24, 1877. During the early part of the war the Russians were successful both in Armenia and Bulgaria, but later on the Turks offered an energetic resistance. The Russians after a prolonged and bloody campaign, compelled the surrender of Osman Pascha at Plevna, captured the Turkish army in the Shipka Pass, and occupied Adrianaple, January 1878. In March the treaty of San Stefano was signed, but the incompatibility of the British and Russian interests resulted in a conference of the powers at Berlin. The Congress decreed that the vassal states, Roumania, Servia and Montenegro should be independent; and each obtained an extension in a change of territory. Russia recovered Bessarabia, in Europe, and acquired an extension of territory in Asia, embracing Kars, and Batum. Bulgaria was erected into a vassal state, with a Christian governor; the boundaries of Greece were rectified, giving that kingdom additional territory; Cyprus was transferred to England, and Khotour, east of Lake Van, was ceded to Persia.