This is mid-16th century, so going on 60 years after Europeans first rounded the Cape of Good Hope to Asia, though the Portuguese had been exploring the western coast of Africa a good deal longer.

A French map of Africa, c. 1911 (PD). By the time World War I broke out, Britain and France collectively controlled 45% of Africa’s population. Germany, late to the show, held on to 9%.

They are: the Malagasy Republic, which occupies the 228,000-sq.-mi. island of Madagascar, off Africa’s southeast coast, and the Federation of Mali, a union of the former French West African ...