Talk:Pink Map

The Rose-coloured Map
The article has few references and is open to several objections.

1. Its title "Pink Map" is a possible translation of the Portuguese "Mapa Cor-de-Rosa", but so is the more literal "Rose-coloured Map". All the credible sources in English use the term "Rose-coloured Map", including the one the Stub actually cites: Nowell, Charles L. (1982), The rose-colored map: Portugal's attempt to create an African empire from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. I have counted five other reputable sources using the term "Rose-coloured Map" and none using "Pink Map", so the article title should be changed.

2. Conflict between Portugal and Britain over Africa boundaries pre-dates Cecil Rhodes: it started in the late 1870s and early 1880s over British settlements in the Shire Highlands in what is now Malawi and a British attempt to dispute its border in Delagoa Bay in 1875 failures to complete bi-lateral agreements guaranteeing Portuguese African borders in 1879 and 1884.

3. No mention is made of the General Act of the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 requiring effective occupation of areas claimed rather than historical claims based on discovery or claims based on exploration as used by Portugal. It was following the Berlin Conference that in 1885 the Portuguese Foreign Minister prepared the Rose Coloured Map. Portugal then signed treaties with France and Germany in 1886, which “noted” the Rose-coloured Map, but the act of "noting" Portuguese claims did not amount to accepting them.

4. It wasn't Cecil Rhodes who first came up with the with Cape to Cairo project Harry Johnston who in 1888 published an article in this in "The Times" and although the idea was taken over by Rhodes, his British South Africa Company did not receive its charter until 1889 nor did Rhodes' men enter what is now Zimbabwe until 1890. This is several years after the Rose-coloured Map was published.

5. By the time Rhodes' men entered Zimbabwe, an expedition led by Serpa Pinto had already had a minor battle with the Makololo people, who had some tenuous claim to British on 8th November 1889 ans subsequently occupied much of Makololo territory. Following this, the British vice-consul, John Buchanan, accused Portugal of ignoring British interests in this area and declared a British protectorate over the Shire Highlands in December 1889. These actions, not anything Rhodes did, formed the background to an Anglo-Portuguese Crisis in which a British refusal of arbitration was followed by the 1890 British Ultimatum.

I propose to make the necessary additions and alterations.