Cecil Rhodes's
British South Africa Company (BSAC) approached Katanga from the south, and the
Belgian King Leopold II's
Congo Free State (CFS) approached from the northwest. Southeast Katanga was controlled by the Yeke or
Garanganze kingdom of
Msiri based at
Bunkeya (see map), and the BSAC and CFS competed to sign treaties with him while he tried to play one off against the other. After Msiri's death the CFS was quicker to consolidate their claim to Msiri's territory called 'Garanganza', and later Katanga, west up to the
Luapula. Since 1885 they already had claimed land north of the
Congo-
Zambezi watershed. The BSAC was left with the land south of the watershed and east of the Luapula. The 1884–85
Berlin Conference was organised by
Germany to resolve the outcome of the
Scramble for Africa. It did not set the actual boundaries, but agreed areas of influence, including the CFS's control over the Congo. Detailed borders were left to bilateral negotiations. But the Belgians hoped for access to the rich game areas of the
Bangweulu Wetlands and pressed for the borders to stick to the river and watershed. In negotiations for a treaty some 'trading' of territories was involved in northeast Congo,
Sudan and
Uganda. There was also the question of how far east into the Bangweulu swamps and
floodplain the Pedicle should extend. The king of Italy was called in to adjudicate, and he drew a north–south line (a line of longitude) through a point on the map where the Luapula was thought to exit from the Lake Bangweulu swamps, which gave birth to the Pedicle: wide and about long.
Anglo-Belgian Agreement of 12 May 1894 The agreement was incorporated into this larger treaty between Great Britain and
King Leopold II, which dealt mainly with
Equatoria.
Anglo-Belgian Boundary Commission, 1911–1914 It became apparent as the region was more closely surveyed that on the ground there were a number of problems. The Luapula does not always flow in a single channel; there are islands, swamps, multiple channels; and the main channel may change according to the river height. It is particularly confusing south of Bangweulu, where there is not one single clear channel exiting the swamps but a tangled mass of channels in swamps and floodplains tens of kilometres wide, and the Italian king's line of longitude crossed them at multiple points. An Anglo-Belgian Boundary Commission was established in 1911 to survey the boundaries on the ground, resolve the problems and mark the border with posts and timber towers used for
triangulation. The Italian king's ruler was moved west to a point where it did cut a clearly defined channel in one place. Finally, the work was complete in 1914. ==Consequences for Northern Rhodesia/Zambia==