Scramble for Africa: Colonialism

• African nations are still affected by colonialism.

The Scramble for Africa

• Europeans established colonies, ignoring African claims of ethnic/political boundaries.
• Industrialization stirred ambitions and competition for resources throughout Africa.
• Colonial powers seized vast areas during the 19th and early 20th centuries, dominating weaker countries politically, economically, and socially.

Africa Before European Domination

• In the mid-1800s, African peoples were divided into hundreds of ethnic and linguistic groups, speaking over 1,000 languages.
• Politically, they ranged from large empires to independent villages.
• Europeans had contacts with sub-Saharan Africa as early as the 1450s, but were kept out for 400 years due to powerful African armies
• 1880: Europeans controlled 10% of Africa's land, mainly on the coast.
• Steam-powered riverboats allowed Europeans to explore Africa's interior in the 1800s.
• Africans controlled specialized trade networks such as ivory and beeswax in the Angolan highlands.
• Europeans who entered Africa's interior were explorers, missionaries, or abolitionists.
• Travel books and newspapers hired reporters to cover stories of adventure and excitement in Africa.

The Congo Sparks Interest

• In the late 1860s, David Livingstone (a missionary from Scotland), traveled to central Africa to promote Christianity, but was feared dead after a while.
• Henry Stanley (an American reporter), found Livingstone in 1871 near Lake Tanganyika
• Stanley explored Africa and traced the Congo River.
• King Leopold II of Belgium commissioned Stanley to obtain land in the Congo between 1879 and 1882.
• Stanley's treaties with local chiefs of the Congo River valley gave Leopold II control of these lands.
• Leopold claimed he wanted to abolish the slave trade and promote Christianity, but licensed companies exploited Africans to collect sap from rubber plants, killing at least 10 million Congolese.
• In 1908, the Belgian government took control of the colony (Belgian Congo), 80 times larger than Belgium, and alarmed France.
• In 1882, France claimed the north bank of the Congo River, followed by Britain, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain claiming parts of Africa.

Forces Driving Imperialism

• Economic, political, and social forces drove colonization in Africa and other lands.
• The Industrial Revolution motivated European countries to control Africa for raw materials and new markets.
• Racism is the belief that one race is better than others
• Social Darwinism stated those who were fittest for survival enjoyed wealth and success and were superior to others.
• Europeans believed they had the right and duty to bring their progress to other countries, as stated by Cecil Rhodes, who was a businessman and supporter of British expansion.
• Missionaries wanted to convert Asians, Africans, and Pacific Islanders to Christianity and end 'evil' practices as well as Westernize the people.

Factors Promoting Imperialism in Africa

• European countries had technological superiority, including automatic machine guns (Maxim gun, 1884).
• European countries could control their empires using steam engines for river travel and railroads, cables, and steamships for communication.
• Quinine (invented in 1829) protected Europeans from malaria.
• Africans' variety of languages and cultures discouraged unity and wars prevented a unified stand.
• Europeans played rival groups vs each other.

The Division of Africa

• The rush for African territory began in 1880.
• France expanded from the West African coast toward western Sudan.
• Discoveries of diamonds in 1867 and gold in 1886 in South Africa increased European interest.
• European countries were in competition for Africa.
• The Berlin Conference (1884-85) composed of 14 European nations established rules for dividing Africa
• Agreed that any European country could claim land by notifying others and controlling the area
• The European nations disregarded African ethnic or linguistic groups during the continent's divisions and no African ruler was invited.
• 1914: only Liberia and Ethiopia remained free from European control.
• European countries believed Africans would buy European goods but they needed raw materials from Africa.
• The Belgian Congo had copper and tin, and South Africa had gold and diamonds.
• Businesses developed cash-crop plantations that displaced food crops grown by farmers.

Three Groups Clash over South Africa

• South African history involves the clash between Africans, Dutch, and British.
• Various ethnic groups had competing claims over the land.
• Series of local wars shook southern Africa from the late 1700s to the late 1800s.
• Shaka (Zulu chief), used warriors and military organization to create a centralized state around 1816.
• 1879: Zulu king Cetshwayo refused to dismiss his army which caused a British invasion.
• Zulus used spears and shields but lost the Battle of Ulundi to the British in July 1879 and their kingdom fell to British control in 1887.
• The Dutch (Boers) settled the Cape of Good Hope in 1652 as a way station for ships sailing between the Dutch East Indies and the Netherlands.
• Boers gradually took Africans' land to establish farms
• Early 1800s: the British took over the Cape Colony and clashed with the Boers over land and slaves.
• In the 1830s, several thousand Boers moved north in an event called the Great Trek, and fought with Zulus and other African groups.
• Diamonds and gold were discovered in southern Africa in the 1860s and 1880s.
• The Boers tried to keep "outsiders" from gaining political rights.
• 1899: The Boers blamed the British and took up arms, which started the Boer War (South African War) between the British and the Boers.
• Boers launched commando raids and used guerrilla tactics; The British burned Boer farms and imprisoned women and children in concentration camps.
• Black South Africans were involved as soldiers, scouts, guards, drivers, and workers.
• The British captured and placed Black South Africans (over 14,000) in concentration camps.
• 1910: Britain won the war and the Boer republics were joined into a self-governing Union of South Africa controlled by the British.
• Establishing colonies signaled a change in the Africans' way of life. The Europeans made an effort to change the lives of conquered people.

Imperialism: Case Study: Nigeria

• Europeans embarked on empire-building that affected Africa and the rest of the world.
• Former colonies have political problems from colonial rule.
• The Berlin Conference (1884-85) ignored historical political divisions, ethnic, and language groupings in Africa.
• Europeans wanted control of Africa's land, people, and resources.
• Imperialism of the 18th and 19th centuries was different from the explorations of the 15th and 16th centuries.
• Europeans wanted influence over the economic, political, and social lives of people and wanted to shape the economies to benefit European economies as well as have the people adopt European customs.
• Various goals for establishing colonies: colony, protectorate, sphere of influence, and economic imperialism.
• Britain preferred indirect control while France preferred direct control.
• Indirect control relied on existing political rulers; the British asked a local ruler to accept British authority to rule and councils would train local leaders
• The French policy of paternalism governed people in a parental way by providing for their needs but not giving them rights.
• The French policy of assimilation supported local populations adopting French culture. The French settled for a policy of "association" which was similar to indirect control and recognized inferior African institutions/culture.
• Britain gained control of southern Nigeria through diplomatic and military means.
• The British Royal Niger Company gained control of the palm-oil trade after the Berlin Conference gave Britain a protectorate over the Niger River delta.
• 1914: the British claimed Nigeria as a colony.
• Nigeria: 250 different ethnic groups lived there.
• The Hausa-Fulani people were Muslim and had a strong central government. The Igbo and Yoruba peoples followed traditional religions and relied on local chiefs for control.
• The British turned to indirect rule of the land because they did not have enough troops and it worked well with the Hausa-Fulani, but not with the Igbo and Yoruba peoples who resented their power being limited.

African Resistance

• African states and European powers were never equal because the Europeans had superior arms.
• All attempts at resistance failed except for Ethiopia.
• Edward Morel said there was no violent physical abuse African's chances reduced due to killings.
• Resistance included military resistance and religious movements.
• Algeria resisted French rule for 50 years and Samori Touré in West Africa resisted the French for 16 years.
• 1905: The magic water sprinled on their bodies would turn the Germans' bullets into water causing The Maji Maji rebellion.
• More than twice the 75000 resisters that had been marked died in famine. The Germans were shaken by the rebellion and it's outcome.

Ethiopia: A Successful Resistance

• Ethiopia was the only African nation that resisted the Europeans successfully due to Menelik II (emperor of Ethiopia, 1889).
• He played Italians, French, and British against each other and built up a large arsenal of weapons purchased from France and Russia.
• 1889: Menelik discovered differences between the wording of the treaty in the Ethiopian language and in Italian.
• Italy claimed all of Ethiopia as a protectorate.
• In 1896 the Ethiopian forces defeated the Italians at the Battle of Adowa due to their independence
• He continued to stockpile rifles and other modern weapons.

The Legacy of Colonial Rule

• European colonial rule altered Africans' lives forever.
• Africans lost control of their land and independence, died of diseases (smallpox), and resisted the Europeans and were subjected to famines from cash crops.
• Traditional authority figures were replaced, property was transferred and men were forced and resulted to a breakdown in traditional culture because of the Europeans admiriation .
• Caused problems in divided African territories of kinship and long term rivalries.
• Colonialism reduced local warfare, improved sanitation, provided hospitals and schools (lifespans/literacy rates increased), and it benefited European business interests (railroads, dams, and telephone/telegraph lines).
• Dealing with local traditions and peoples continued to cause problems in other areas of the world dominated by Europeans.